Several years ago, I
sat through an “interesting” Sunday morning sermon in a very fundamentalist
evangelical church. The preacher for the day introduced his subject somewhat
tentatively as being different from the usual line of thinking in that church,
but he re-assured the congregation that he had the go-ahead from one of the
elders.
He then proceeded to
tell us that his recent Bible studies were leading him to the possibility that
true believers could still be lost. He had several verses lined up, but his
main “proof” was Hebrews 6:4-6. This was, of course, the “falling-away” doctrine,
and that church had always repudiated it.
When the service ended,
there were a few tense moments, but one faithful elder rebuked him (semi-privately)
for his teaching.
There was little
reference to his sermon in the following days and weeks. Eventually it was
dropped and the church carried on with its teaching of “once saved, forever
saved”.
What should have
happened? From a Scriptural outlook, he was utterly wrong! The Reformers of the
15th century based their faith on five things “alone”: Scripture,
Faith, Grace, Christ, and the Glory of God.
These five “solas” lead
to one conclusion: men and women have no input of merit in their own salvation—it
is all faith, and grace, through Christ. “Works” do not figure in their
redemption. This means, in contrast, that nothing a believer can do can “un-merit”
him or her for salvation.
To put it another way, once a person
is “in Christ” (used 76 times by Paul, for example in Romans 12:5) he or she
becomes a ”finger” or a “hand”—they are part of His body—nothing can “amputate”
them!
So, again, what should have happened
in that church? The elders knew and later re-newed their commitment to “eternal
security”. Ideally, the sermon should have been rebuked as false doctrine, but
nobody wanted to make a fuss.
Jesus saves us so securely that
nothing we do can ever undo it! It is very much to God’s glory—the Church
should do everything to praise Him for such a great salvation!
