What about once saved forever saved? It is true ONLY if you stay saved.
It is true that when we believe in Jesus we are saved (Acts 16:31), so that we do not have to come to Jesus to be saved all over again each time we sin. Rather we have to come to Him in repentance and receive His forgiveness (1 John 1:9; Proverbs 28:13). This by no means implies or validates a doctrine of “once saved forever saved”, which teaches or suggests that once a person is saved they get to go to heaven no matter what. In fact, such a doctrine could lead you straight into hell. We will have to tear out many pages from the Bible to forcibly make room for such a doctrine”. We don’t get to choose how we enter heaven by our own opinions or teachings that tickle our ears; the Bible has already shown us how. We only do ourselves an eternal disservice to reject Jesus’ teachings on how to make heaven our home, and rather follow doctrines that sharply contradict what the Scriptures teach.
If this doctrine of once saved forever saved were true, then the Scriptures would have had no business admonishing us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). What salvation would be there to work out if our eternal fate were already sealed in such a way that it does not matter how we choose to live after we are saved? Rather, Jesus gives us this solemn warning: “I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Revelations 3:15-16). To be spewed out of the mouth is to be rejected. Here, Jesus warned that He will reject the lukewarm among His people who refuse to repent, how much more those Christians who choose to make a practise of sin? Again the Scriptures admonishes Christians to be holy, i.e. to be separated from the world and be given wholly to God (1 Peter 1:16), because without holiness no one shall see (optanomia in Greek, which also talks about actually seeing, and not only perceiving) God (Hebrews 12:14)”.
Even Paul, the great apostle, knew that despite his many exploits for the Lord, he had to keep his body in check lest he missed out on inheriting the kingdom of God. He said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified”. What would Paul have been disqualified from if he did not discipline his body? He, by the Holy Spirit, taught that: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21). This was a warning written to Christians not unbelievers. The end result of following after the dictates of the flesh/body, instead of keeping it under subjection, is to be disqualified from inheriting the kingdom of God.
Jesus made it clear that it is not just professing Him as Lord that makes us enter heaven but doing the will of God : “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter (Matthew 7:21). How could anyone read this Scripture and ever think that once they made a public or private confession of Jesus as their Lord, they can live as they please, neglecting to do the will of God, and still enter heaven? Brethren, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap (Galatians 6:7).
There are two realms of sowing the Bible talks about: sowing to the flesh, i.e. living after the dictates of the flesh and sowing to the Spirit i.e. continuing in well doing or doing good (see Galatians 6:8-10). “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption (i.e. “phthora” in Greek, which also means ruin or destruction) but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:8).
Kwadwo Omari
© 2016