Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son:
Col 1:13
When one becomes a Christian
they become a child of God and are born again and receive the Holy Spirit as a
down payment or earnest of their heavenly future.
Who hath also
sealed us, and given the earnest of
the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Cor 1:22
who also hath given
unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 2 Cor 5:5
In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of
promise, Which is the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise
of his glory. Eph 1:13,14
The word earnest means; “Its general meaning is that of a pledge or token given
as the assurance of the fulfillment of a bargain or promise.
Once someone is truly saved
they are always saved, they are sealed unto the day of redemption. They cannot lose their salvation.
For I am persuaded,
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, 39.
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:38,39
Salvation involves an
irreversible change; once someone is born again they cannot be unborn. Salvation is an eternal change that cannot be
reversed; we cannot be saved and then lost.
Jesus will not allow any of His sheep to perish or be stolen.
My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28.
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Jn
10:27-29
Mr. Coombes in his book America The Babylon expounds upon
Ephesians 2:8,9 and shows from that verse how the Greek indicates that those
who are truly saved cannot lose their salvation.
Your reliance on the facts of God’s actions
on your behalf as a gift to you is what activates the relationship and gets
your account credited as paid in full.
Now, what God did for each of us in the past was an action that had
eternal results. So that when we activate
God’s gift to us, it pays for all the past errors, all the ones occurring at
the moment you accepted the terms in your mind, plus it also pays for all the
future errors you will commit, because, God’s gift includes a future state of
perfection, and until that occurs our gift covers everything we do. We know this because in the New Testament
book/letter to the Ephesian church, God through the Apostle Paul tells us
…[Ephesians 2:8,9]
“For by a gift,
are you saved (“forever being continually saved” in both the past, present and
future tense. The verb, ‘saved’ is a
perfect tense verb which means an action with results reaching into the past,
affecting the present and the future also).
So, let’s restart that verse again. “For by a gift are you forever being
continually saved, (from the past sins all way through all of your future sins)
on the basis of reliance upon God’s actions, and not of your own actions. It is
a gift of God; not of anything you’ve earned, otherwise man could boast…[and
the boasting would nullify everything anyway]
Now to be honest with you, the above
rendering is a paraphrase of the original Greek language of verse 8, and 9. It
conveys however the full in-tent of the original words, including the verb
tensing. This verse means you and I can do NOTHING to earn favor with God, but
that God’s gift cannot be earned. There are two large and heavy books that deal
with this issue…Romans and Galatians. Also, the book of Hebrews deals with how
reliance…(also known as ‘faith’) is all that ‘saves’ us.
God’s gift is a once and for all action,
the verb tensing proves it! The apostle Paul and Peter also go to great lengths
to affirm that the gift cannot be earned, and we can do nothing to lose it…IF
we indeed are relying upon the sole actions of God and not of ourselves.
Coombes, p.154,5.
So I believe that the
scriptures are clear that once saved you are always saved. If you are truly born again you cannot get
unborn.