If you have ever taken a public speaking course, you were probably told to craft the introduction of a speech in such a way as to grab your audience’s attention and pique their interest in the subject that you are about to discuss. I was told the same thing in my preaching classes, so I am going to attempt to do just that today. But given the subject matter that we’re about to discuss, I imagine that I need to do little more than say the words, “eternal security.”
The question of whether salvation can be lost or forfeited seems to be of perpetual interest among Christians. Some Christians have a definite academic interest in this question. They want to dissect every verse and pull every statement together into an airtight system that answers every question. That’s not a bad desire, but most Christians have a much more personal interest in this question. Most of us just want to know where we stand with God, and if our standing with God could possibly change.
If you ever have doubts about your salvation, you’re not alone. I suspect that most of us have those doubts from time to time, even if they alone last a split-second. But these doubts can have a major effect in our lives. They can rob us of the joy and peace that are available to us in Jesus Christ, and they can have a chilling effect on our relationship with God. After all, what kind of intimacy can you have with someone if you’re never sure where you stand with them? If I woke up every day with doubts about my wife’s love for me, what kind of intimacy could I have with her? If we cannot get doubts about our salvation settled in our minds, we will always have a rift in our relationship with God.
So, we’re going to begin taking a look today at the question of eternal security—is it possible for me to lose or forfeit my salvation? This sermon is the first of a series covering several more weeks, and today we’ll begin this series by taking a look at the nature of salvation. Basically, we’ll answer the question, “How does the Bible describe the transaction that takes place when a person accepts Christ?” I believe the answer to this question will assure us that our salvation is eternally secure and therefore cannot be lost.
So how does the Bible describe this transaction?
1. Salvation is not a wage
This is to say that salvation is not something that we earn from God; it is not a payment that we receive for a job well done. I think we all understand that when we receive wages, our boss is not just giving us money out of the kindness of his heart. He is giving us what we have rightfully earned, because that’s what a wage is.
But the Bible could not be clearer in telling us that salvation is not a wage that we earn from God. This is very clear in Romans 4:1–4 [READ Rom. 4:1–4]. In other words, forgiveness from God comes not by trying to earn it like some kind of wage, but by recognizing our ungodliness and turning to Him in faith.
We do not want our relationship with God to be based on what we could earn from Him, because Romans 6:23 tells us what our paycheck would look like when it says, “the wages of sin is death.” There is no possible way that we could earn salvation like a wage, because before we are saved, even the “good” things we do are tainted by evil motives and desires. Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” That translation is kind of politically correct, because when it says “polluted garment,” the Hebrew term actually speaks of the cloth that a woman would use for personal hygiene during menstruation.
That’s not a pretty picture, but that’s what our so-called “good” deeds are like in the eyes of God before we are saved, so its no wonder that we could never earn salvation by offering Him something like that.
So salvation is clearly not a wage, but we must also realize that…
2. Salvation is not a loan
This statement means that salvation is not something that God pays for initially and then offers to give to us as long as we pay him back. This concept is actually the Mormon idea of salvation. Mormons will tell you all day long that they believe Jesus is their Savior, but what they mean is that Jesus has basically re-financed our salvation. In their doctrine, salvation used to be available to us at terms that we couldn’t meet, but Jesus purchased salvation for us and now offers it to us at terms that we can meet. So in other words, salvation to them is like a loan that we have to pay back.
This notion is expressed clearly in a parable that was told by one of the leaders of the LDS Church. In this parable, he describes a man who unwisely took on a massive debt in order to live the high life. But when the payment for the debt finally came due, the debtor could not pay, and so his lender was preparing to have him thrown in jail when another man, a mediator, stepped in and offered to pay the debt. The mediator made the offer to the lender and then turned to the debtor and said, “If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?” The debtor agreed, and so the mediator said, “Then you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison.”1
Now you can probably tell that the mediator in that parable is meant to represent Jesus, and in that character’s own words, he calls himself a creditor. So according to Mormon doctrine, when you accept Jesus, you are accepting Him as a creditor, and in order to receive salvation you must pay off your debt by doing good works.
But according to the Bible, nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible does describe our sins like a debt, but when Jesus paid our debt of sin, He didn’t purchase it to offer us forgiveness at easier terms—He got rid of it completely! Look with me at Colossians 2:13–14 [READ Col. 2:13–14].
We must make sure that we don’t think of salvation as a debt that we have to pay back. When we sing songs like, “Jesus paid it all/all to Him I owe,” we must make sure that we don’t get the wrong idea. Jesus deserves our gratitude and our allegiance, but we don’t have to pay back the price that He paid for our sins. That’s not what salvation is!
3. Salvation is not a contract
This is to say that salvation is not an agreement that we strike with God in which He agrees to do certain things for us as long as we agree to do certain things for Him. This is the idea that we normally have in our minds when we doubt our salvation. We look at our sins and feel like we haven’t kept up our end of the deal, and so we begin to wonder if God will declare our salvation null and void.
But my friends, we must remember that there is no deal for you to keep. This is not the nature of salvation. The idea of salvation as a contract is ruled out by the biblical concepts of grace and mercy. Grace means that you receive a blessing that you don’t deserve, and mercy means that you don’t receive a punishment that you do deserve.
These ideas rule out the concept of salvation as a contract. Think through this with me—if you enter into a contract with someone, and if you keep your side of the deal, then you deserve to have the other person keep their side of the deal. In fact, you have a legal right to it. So if the other person keeps their side of the deal, they’re not showing you grace because you deserve what they have done for you, and they’re certainly not showing you mercy because you have no punishment to escape.
So God extends grace and mercy to us not in any contractual sense in which we are worthy of it, but in spite of what we truly deserve. The Bible makes it clear that salvation is based on God’s grace and mercy. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” and Titus 3:5 says, “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.”
So what is this transaction called “salvation,” then, if its not a wage, a loan, or a contract?
4. Salvation is a gift
The Bible clearly states that salvation is a gift, which means that it is a token of God’s grace and mercy which He gives to us without cost. Notice the various verses that describe salvation in this way:
• Isaiah 55:1—“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
• Romans 3:22b–24—“For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
• Romans 6:23—“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
• Ephesians 2:8–9—“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.”
• Revelation 22:17—“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”
Now we all know what a gift is, but just by way of reminder, the dictionary defines a gift as “something given voluntarily without payment in return.” If you receive a gift, you are not required to pay for it either before or after you receive it. A gift has no strings attached, and it is given based on the love of the giver—not the worthiness of the recipient.
This observation has tremendous implications for the idea of eternal security. We’re going to talk more next week about the fact that salvation is a gift and what that means for the security of our salvation, but for now, ponder this thought with me—if God gives us the gift of salvation despite the fact that we are unworthy to receive it, what could make us unworthy of keeping it down the road? If we are unworthy to receive salvation in the first place, how could we become unworthy of keeping it? God gives us the gift of salvation when we don’t deserve it, so if we still don’t deserve it later on, why would that move Him to take it away from us? God already knew we didn’t deserve it when He gave it to us.
The fact is that God’s grace and mercy are not based on what we deserve. No one deserves the gift of salvation at any point, ever! We don’t deserve it before we get it, we don’t deserve it at the moment we get it, and we don’t deserve it after we’ve received it. I don’t care how long you have walked with the Lord or how much spiritual growth you’ve had in your life—you don’t deserve salvation anymore today than when you first received it.
But that’s the whole point of salvation! It is a gift that God gives to those who recognize their unworthiness and ask God for mercy. And since it is a gift, there is no price that we have to pay for it. There is no contract that we have to live up to, there is no loan that we have to pay back, and there is no wage that we have to earn.
I believe the recognition that salvation is a gift is foundational to everything else that we could ask about the matter of eternal security. This idea is the anchor that will keep us from going adrift on the sea of questions that surround this subject. With the gift of salvation as our anchor, we can rejoice today that God does not deal with us according to what we deserve, but in His grace and mercy He is willing to give us something that truly is—PRICELESS!
Notes:
1. Boyd Packer, as recorded in Gospel Principles, Missionary Reference Library edition (Deseret Book: 1990), pp. 69-71.
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