Once Saved, Always Saved?

Once Saved, Always Saved?

“Once saved, always saved” is a widely accepted teaching or belief among Christians, especially evangelical brothers and sisters. But many accept it without understanding the true meaning of the term “saved.” Some related teachings and understandings are even carnal, self-centered fallacies that damage life.

Before delving into the discernment of truth (see below), we first need to acknowledge a stark reality: the teaching and belief of “once saved, always saved” has degenerated into the theoretical foundation of hyper-grace, becoming one reason for hindering spiritual growth and even stifling life among mainstream Christians. The original motivation and effect of this saying might have been good, but the spiritual state we face today is alarming: this teaching has been twisted and exploited by the enemy, causing destruction.

Let us strictly seek and follow God’s Word, lest we suffer loss in life. We need to break free from preconceived notions about familiar words and concepts, avoid biases and human-made narrowness, and strive to understand their precise definitions and meanings according to God’s Word to avoid and eliminate misleading interpretations and misunderstandings.

Spirit Saved, Soul Saved, Body Saved

What God has promised and prepared for people in Jesus Christ is complete salvation—the full salvation of spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

However, in the common understanding of many Christians, especially in sayings like “once saved,” it refers to the salvation of the human spirit, not, and cannot be, the entirety of salvation.

The salvation of the spirit begins with regeneration in the spirit. This concerns a person’s position in life, the position of justification in Christ. This relates to God’s election, and God does not regret His choices (see below “Assurance of Spirit Regeneration”).

However, the regeneration of the human spirit is the beginning of salvation, not the end. Note this is a plus, not a minus. God wants to give us all. Let’s not mistake his generosity for stinginess. God saves us through our faith in Christ. He not only saves our spirit through our initial acceptance of Christ, but he also saves our soul through our lifelong experiences through our faith in Christ (1 Peter 1:9).

The soul encompasses our thoughts, will, and emotions. The soul is the primary content of a person’s life because the soul defines human personality. The soul is also the garment of the human spirit. Just as a soul without a body is a naked soul, a spirit without a soul is a naked spirit. Therefore, the salvation of the human soul is the core purpose of the Holy Spirit’s work in a person and the hope for which we willingly endure all hardships, tribulations, and trials on earth.

The salvation of the human soul is a gradual process of change, not a sudden spark. Soul salvation is also a cumulative result; ultimately, there will be distinctions of richness and poverty, with various degrees of richness, like a continuous spectrum, not merely a simple binary notion of saved or unsaved.

Regarding the salvation of our thoughts, will, and emotions (soul), if influenced by erroneous concepts leading either to hopelessness (thinking my thoughts, will, and emotions cannot change) or indifference (thinking a mere acknowledgment of Jesus Christ is all that is, and my own thoughts, intentions, and emotions don’t matter), it will become confusion and bondage on our earthly pilgrimage, ultimately resulting in life loss.

Furthermore, when Jesus Christ finally returns, our bodies will also be saved, no longer this perishable body but an imperishable spiritual body, entering into glory (1 Corinthians 15:35-54; Philippians 3:21). This matter is a mystery that will be revealed in the future, not something we need to focus on today on earth. But this does not mean our current physical condition is irrelevant. Today on earth, it is our responsibility and opportunity for our bodies to be submissive, presented as living sacrifices, and become useful vessels.

Saved by Faith

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.

First, we must acknowledge and adhere to a premise in truth. Whether it is the salvation of the spirit, soul, or body, it is all through faith; this is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. This is a fundamental truth that everyone who believes in and follows the Lord must acknowledge and accept, and gradually understand more deeply through experiences on earth.

Some worry that if salvation is truly by faith, then Christians don’t need to do anything. This kind of thinking and practice is actually a manifestation of being deceived in the flesh, because people with such thoughts do not know what true faith is.

Christian faith is a living faith, not just an idea, nor merely a subjective psychological activity. Living faith is the concrete manifestation of the new life, the heavenly life. It is both the information of life and the energy of life, its source entirely in Christ, not in our old life. Its characteristic is acting faith. The more people strive to follow the Lord by faith in action, the more they understand that our salvation is truly by grace, through faith, not of ourselves, but God’s gift, and not by works. This seems like a paradox, but it is real. This is by no means just a religious saying for Christians. It is the real experience of life. On that day, when we have faithfully walked this life on earth and see our Lord in glory, we will fully understand in our hearts that everything is His grace, including our faith, faithfulness, following, and all labors and deeds done in love—it was all His grace.

However, due to a lack of true knowledge and experience of living faith, many Christians remain confused about the fundamental truth of “justification by faith, salvation by faith.” Some mistakenly think this truth is somewhat extreme because when faced with reality, they find many things still depend on their own efforts. Others think that since it is “salvation by faith,” Christians need not make any effort, as the outcome will be perfect anyway. Some even believe that it doesn’t matter how much a person sins; as long as they nominally admit fault, everything remains intact. The source of these erroneous thoughts is Satan planting them in people’s hearts through the flesh. Those trapped in such fallacies will be cast into darkness, weeping and gnashing their teeth, when they see the Lord one day.

Regarding this aspect, see: Justification by Faith – Is Romans Contradictory to James?

Assurance of Spirit Regeneration

The regeneration of the human spirit is a mysterious event we cannot fathom. Human inquiries into this matter from the flesh and soul are presumptuous and inappropriate. But in eternity, if we are surprised by the final answer, we might all find we underestimated God’s guarantee for the regenerated spirit. 1 Corinthians 5:5, where Paul mentions the man whose body was destroyed but whose spirit was saved, is a clue.

The regeneration of the human spirit is being born of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5), and sealed by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee, which no one can change.

“He has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 1:22.

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 1:13.

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30.

Apostasy

“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” Hebrews 6:4-8.

When faced with the words of Hebrews Chapter 6, many acknowledge a special case of “apostasy” as an exception to “once saved, always saved.” However, this acknowledgment is not necessarily based on a correct understanding.

The problem is that the term “apostasy” is usually not clearly defined or understood.

Imagine someone who shows faith but later leaves it. We might call this “apostasy.” If Hebrews 6:4-8 is applied mechanically, one would naturally conclude this person has no more chance for repentance. However, this conclusion is likely wrong.

The key is not the literal words but the inner state of this person’s soul, usually manifested in the heart. Everyone is different. The Lord knows a person’s spirit and heart.

There is a son who leaves his father’s house because he doesn’t know the poverty of his old life or the goodness and wealth of his father. This son can one day come to his senses and return to his father, like the prodigal son. The father is waiting for him. (See: The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Lost Son)

There is another son who leaves the father’s house out of resentment from failure in the struggle against sin, becoming a captive of the enemy hiding behind. He leaves out of disappointment, even rebellion. If this son comes to his senses in his distress, cries out for help, he can still return. But how can he come to his senses? Due to his severely damaged state of life, he might not awaken as easily as the first son mentioned above. He needs the strong intercession of the body of Christ and angels sent by the Father to save him. God has special grace for such people, the depth of which others cannot comprehend.

But there is another “son,” whose spirit is the spirit of Judas. He never knew the Father or the Savior Jesus Christ. He initially chose to follow Jesus Christ due to some enlightenment and hope, just like Judas did. When temptation and enticement come, and Satan calls, his heart fully responds and accepts the call. He makes a conscious and deliberate decision to betray. He once witnessed the work of the Holy Spirit but now explicitly slanders and blasphemes. This person is not a true son, never was. He once tasted the heavenly gift, but now he returns to his true father, the devil Satan. This is the son of perdition. This is true apostasy. The unforgivable sin applies precisely to him. His end is worse than those who never tasted the heavenly gift.

So, different people are different.

We can theoretically distinguish various situations, even discern them spiritually, but we cannot judge people. Only the Lord Himself can judge people, not only because the Lord uniquely has this authority, but also because only He knows the reality of a person’s soul and heart. We can only be warned and hope others are also vigilant.

The End of Life

However, behind both the accumulation of soul salvation mentioned above and the repentance after abandoning the truth, there is a deeper and harder-to-understand question: In the end of a person’s life, how is this final account calculated?

Specifically, regarding our soul (thoughts, will, emotions), because we as individuals always have ups and downs—good today, perhaps down tomorrow; doing well now, but in the final stage of life, the love for the Lord might not be as fervent as before, etc.—when we finally arrive before the Lord, which day or part of our life does the Lord actually look at? Even in extreme cases, if someone first has a salvation experience but later fails or falls, and subsequently has no opportunity to recover, what is this person’s end in eternity? Is it based on their final failure, or their previous salvation experience?

We must admit that such questions belong to “looking back,” and are not the best questions, because God’s Word always emphasizes “looking forward.” Therefore, we should not let doubts about these questions cause us to lose confidence in the Holy Spirit leading us forward.

However, if we are willing to truly understand God’s heart, God can also prevent us from being troubled by these questions.

First, we need to know that our life does not exist in our own memory, but is written in God’s book of life.

We humans always have a misconception, thinking our life is just in our own feelings and memories. If something’s final state in our memory is bad, we assume the final outcome is also bad, and vice versa.

But in reality, our physical feelings and memories are just an opportunity and process God measured out for us to experience true life. Our feelings and memories are not life itself. Our life is recorded in the eternal Book of Life. The final value of our life is not in our own memory and feeling at the moment we leave the world, but in how God records the entire process of our life in the book of life.

Know that everything that happens in the entire universe, including our lives, unless God Himself deliberately erases it, will never disappear. This applies to both our good deeds and evil deeds. This point alone should be enough to make us vigilant about life. However, God’s Book of Life is not a mechanical recorder. All this is arranged in God’s love and wisdom.

This is precisely why two things are important for us: redemption through the precious blood of Christ, and forgiveness through the precious blood of Christ. Redemption and forgiveness have different functions and values. Redemption is to reclaim valuable experiences and opportunities in our lives that were lost due to our sin, recording them in God’s Book of Life. Forgiveness is so that those things in our lives that make us ashamed, afraid to see or hear again, are not remembered by God, disappear from God’s memory, and can never be found again in eternity. But whether redemption or forgiveness, both rely on the precious blood of Christ.

Imagine if a person’s life value depended on their final state and memory, someone with dementia in old age, no matter how spiritual and godly his life was, would end in failure and blankness. But anyone with spiritual insight into life knows this is definitely not the end for someone who knows and follows the Lord. That person’s end is in God’s memory.

If an experience in a person’s life has eternal value, God will let the value of that life exist in eternity. He will not erase the previous experience because of some subsequent shortcomings or deviations.

What Has Eternal Value?

But the core question is, what truly has eternal value?

The answer is simple: what is in Christ has eternal value; what is not in Christ has no eternal value.

However, we must ask again, what does it mean to be “in Christ”?

This is a meaningful question. If we ask this way, we begin to understand why God continually tests us through our life circumstances and experiences, makes us walk the way of the cross, experience resurrection life, and requires us to pursue relentlessly throughout life: reading the Bible, praying, fellowshipping, living, witnessing, bearing fruit.

Is God a mechanical recorder, recording and marking everyone and everything bearing a Christian label as “having eternal value in Christ”? God will not be mocked. God has His holy way of doing things. God’s ways are higher than human ways. All things must be tested, passed through the cross, proven whether they originate from true faith in Jesus Christ, and bear the fruit of resurrection life.

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7.

God will absolutely not allow falsehood to be mixed in. When the Lord Jesus returns, He will say to those who merely did things under the banner of Christianity (even preaching, casting out demons, performing miracles) but did not know Him in faith and life, “I never knew you.” Matthew 7:21-23.

Imagine, if the Lord might not even know those who did those things, how much less those who merely call themselves believers in Jesus nominally but have no desire at all to know Him and follow Him!

But what kind of people does the Lord Jesus actually know?

The Lord said, “Only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21.

The Father’s Will

Who does the will of the Father? And what is the Father’s will?

The Father’s will is God’s will. But many mistakenly think God’s will is the rules of Christianity. This misunderstanding is a tragedy in Christian life. The Father’s will is to call those He foreknew, those He predestined, to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be led by the Holy Spirit, to be children of God (Romans 8:28-30). They love Jesus Christ and do the Father’s will, not because of Christian movements or rules, but because there is a new life within them, the life of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

These are the ones who do the Father’s will. In the end, the Lord Jesus will testify, “I know you!”

However, let us not misunderstand God. Our God is not a harsh examiner, extremely reluctant to give us good grades, happy to see us make mistakes and fail. The Father’s heart desires that every child receives the richness of Christ in everything. Whatever has been tested and proven true, God hides it in Christ. New opportunities and new tests will arise, but what has already been proven true is hidden in Christ; He will not regret and erase it. When we do wrong, He desires us to repent quickly, using the precious blood of Jesus Christ to wash away the stain, so that our person is not affected and can continue walking the heavenly path.

In our past experiences, which ones have been eternally hidden in Christ, which are still undergoing testing, and which have been rejected—God often intentionally hides the conclusions of these matters because He wants to reveal them to us only at the end. Although we may have discernment about these things in the spirit, the conclusions should not be the focus of our pursuit today. God’s will is to press forward, forgetting what lies behind. When the Lord returns, everything will be revealed.

Trust Him.

When we pursue this way, the Holy Spirit not only leads us to follow and walk in Christ but also helps us understand the value in Christ, so we won’t be disturbed by the questions raised above.

The Heavenly Construction

This is God’s way of establishing the new creation in Christ. This is true not only for individual lives but also for the construction of Christ’s church, the New Jerusalem, as a whole.

Many Christians become disheartened seeing the many weaknesses and failures in church history, especially the desolate state of the church today, feeling that God’s work of building the New Jerusalem cannot be completed. But don’t they know that the church’s history on earth is merely a process in time? What God intends to build in Christ has already been extracted from the lives of saints throughout the ages and built in heaven. The workshop for the building materials is on earth, but the product is in heaven.

The New Jerusalem is invisible to the naked eye but is now nearing completion. Her state of construction is not the state of the church we can see on earth today. On that day when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, those of us who were disappointed by the state of the church on earth will surely be greatly surprised, and also ashamed that we did not trust the Lord more while on earth.

Wrong Motives

“Once saved, always saved” is not necessarily a wrong teaching, but in many hearts, it is a wrong belief stemming from wrong motives, leading to loss in the understanding and growth of spiritual life. (Yes, teaching and belief are often different, and motive is an important reason for the difference.)

The problem is that the motive for many people accepting this teaching is self-centered, not born of true faith. Although they fear God and respect Him, they lack the heart of loving the Father. This is not the spirit of sonship, even though they may, in fact, be saved children of God. The attitude they hold towards God is that of a stranger (how sad for God’s children to act like strangers), only hoping to strike a favorable deal with God. Their distorted understanding of “once saved, always saved” satisfies their self-centered desires. They accept it without knowing the true meaning of the phrase and thus cannot generate deep gratitude for God’s grace. They merely use it as a license for their worldly life and a way to somehow soothe their conscience.

Tragically, those who seek the most favorable deal for themselves end up with a poor outcome because they miss the richness of God’s grace and fall short of the glory of the Son of God.

Those who love God are not like this. They know the Father’s predestination, election, and calling. They know they are justified by the grace of the Lord Jesus, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and enter glory through the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. All this is not a self-centered transaction but a Father-son relationship that satisfies the Father’s heart. They know this relationship is entirely based on Christ’s love, and nothing and no one can separate them from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35-39).

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28.