21. Eternal Security
ETERNAL SECURITY Is it possible for a truly born-again one to be lost?
It is by no means possible for a truly born-again one to be lost (John 10:27-30). A Bible teacher in one of his talks said that a man once saved was always saved. He proved it by Bible verses entirely to my satisfaction. I am a college student and am trying to get some of my close college friends to see the thing as clearly as I do. Will you please send me some verses and reasons to prove this point? In connection with this subject it is well to remember that: Salvation is a gift.
It is received through faithalone. A man can do nothing either to save himself or to keep himself saved; if he could, then salvation would be at least in part by works which the Word of God emphatically denies.
It is by grace, absolutely independent of any merit on the part of the recipient. It cannot be merited in any slightest degree, otherwise it would not be by grace. When a man receives Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, he is born of God, he becomes a child of God. This is not a figure of speech, but an actuality, and having been born he cannot be unborn. The life which the believer receives is eternal life. In God’s reckoning the believer is already seated with Christ in Heaven.
See Romans 6:23; Romans 8:29-39; John 1:12-13; John 3:15-16; John 3:18; John 3:36; John 5:24; John 6:39-40; John 10:27-30; Acts 10:43; Acts 16:31; Romans 1:16; Romans 3:21-26; chapter 4; 10:8-10; Galatians chapter 3; Ephesians 2:1-10; Colossians 3:1-4; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 1 John 5:1-13, etc. These passages could be added to almost indefinitely. In your teaching of the Parable of the Prodigal Son you said that both the prodigal and his elder brother were saved but out of fellowship. If saved, they must be safe also. Do you mean that if the prodigal had died during his wanderings he would have gone to Heaven? What is the spiritual state of a backslider?Hebrews 10:29seems to be a contradiction of your statement. I always supposed that the lesson to be drawn from the story of the prodigal son is the forgiveness of God. Your supposition is right. But “the forgiveness of God” has many aspects. For example, a sinner who turns to God receives forgiveness of sin, but so also does a sinning saint who turns to God from his sinning and is thus restored to fellowship. In your question concerning the Parable of the Father and His Two Sons, you are confusing symbols with the things symbolized. The statement to which you refer was that “the men symbolized are both saved, and both are backsliders. That is, they are children of the Father, but out of fellowship.” You now ask whether we “mean that if the prodigal had died during his wanderings he would have gone to Heaven.” If you mean to ask whether the backslidden Christian (who is symbolized by the prodigal), if he should die during the period of his backsliding, would yet go to Heaven, the answer is Yes. For a backslidden Christian is still a Christian and is still a child of God, though he be out of fellowship. A case in point is furnished by the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians. In the latter part of that chapter there is a discussion of the disorderly conduct of the Lord’s Supper by the Corinthian Church. This had become so grievous that God had been compelled to exercise discipline by visiting His people with sickness and even death, for many of them had actually died under His hand. That is to say, they were backslidden and they died during their backsliding. And yet they went to Heaven, as is shown by verses 30-32: “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” Backsliding is attended by immeasurable loss. But salvation is a gift whose keeping is not committed to those who are saved. The same God who saves them keeps them.
Hebrews 10:29 has no application to a saved man. The 26th verse speaks of those who “sin wilfully” after having received (not salvation, but) “the knowledge of the truth.” Many a man has the knowledge of the truth but refuses to walk in the truth. He knows that Jesus is a Savior, and yet he rejects Him. Now, in the 29th verse he is described as one “who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” This is not a backslidden Christian, but a rebellious and blasphemous unbeliever.
All confusion on this question would disappear if we once learned that salvation is by grace. Grace is favor, and is independent of merit, of deservings, or of works; it is “the gift of God.”
InJames 5:19-20is the one erring from the truth a believer who is backslidden, and is his salvation from the death of backsliding? The Epistle of James like that to the Hebrews is addressed “to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,” and it has the Jews particularly in mind. Whether the “brethren” of James 5:19 are the writer’s brethren in the racial sense or in an evangelical sense is difficult to determine. And whether he is here speaking of a backslidden Christian or a lost sinner is a question concerning which equally devout and godly writers differ. In either case the passage is somewhat obscure, and the rule may be well applied here, “Never use an if to contradict a Verily, verily I say unto you.” It is clear from Scripture elsewhere that a backslidden saint may be chastened even unto physical death (1 Corinthians 11:30-32). And on the other hand it is clear from Scripture that the unsaved sinner, unless he gets saved, will finally be cast into the Lake of Fire which is the second death (Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8).
If a Christian backslides or commits some sin, must he go before the church to make confession, or may he go to God in secret and confess to Him and have forgiveness? I recently heard a minister say that if public confession was not made, God would send severe chastisement.
It depends much upon the character of the sin and backsliding. If the sin was against the church, then confession ought to be made to the church as well as to God. If it was against an individual or individuals, confession should be made to him or them. The confession of 1 John 1:9 is confession to God; but in James 5:16 it is written, “Confess your faults one to another.” Does the doctrine or theory of eternal security imply that Christians cannot become backsliders ?
No; there is no such implication. Christians (meaning truly born-again persons) may backslide, and, alas, most of us do so more or less frequently. But there is a vast difference between the backsliding of a believer and the apostasy of a mere professor. The apostate is described in 1 John 2:18-19. He goes out from us, but in doing so he proves that he was never of us. Will you please explain the clause, “for in them ye think ye have eternal life” inJohn 5:39? It is the word “think” which is not clear to me.
If you will read the passage in the Revised Version your difficulty will clear up. Our Lord was speaking to His enemies among the Jews who sought to kill Him for blasphemy (verse 18). It is to these enemies He said, “Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life” (39,40). There is no uncertainty about the believer’s possession of eternal life. Please turn to John 6 and read verses 37 to 40, and let your heart rejoice in the certainty of eternal life: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (37). Now notice what follows: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” Nothing could be more satisfying than these words of our precious Lord, assuring His people who believe in Him that they are already in possession of that life which cannot end.
Please tell me what you think of eternal security. I believe in eternal security myself, but I have met so many who do not. The question as to whether a truly saved man may ever be lost is the question raised here. Great controversies have resulted from the wide divergence of opinion among God’s people regarding it. But for one who really understands the Gospel of the grace of God there is no possibility of doubt as to the eternal safety of the Christian. No man can convince another by arguing over isolated passages of Scripture. Taken in their proper connection, all the statements of Scripture dealing with the subject are in perfect harmony. They all teach that since the saved man has been saved by the grace, that is the unmerited favor, of God; since salvation is a gift which he has received by faith; since he never began to deserve it and therefore he cannot keep it by deserving it; and since, even to the end of his earthly life, he must go on coming short of the glory of God which would forfeit his salvation if it were forfeitable; therefore, if any man is ever finally saved at all, it must be by God’s power and not by any of his own meritorious works or deservings.
If we could see the Lord Jesus here, in the flesh and visible to our mortal sight; and we were given the privilege of putting the question to Him; and we should ask Him, saying, “O thou blessed Lord Jesus, who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in thine own precious blood, wilt thou not tell us, once and for all, whether we are always in danger of losing our salvation, as some of our teachers insist? Is it possible that one who is really born anew and becomes God’s child, may after all be lost?” And suppose He should reply, saying: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life,” would that be enough? And suppose He should continue, saying, “And they shall never perish,” would that be sufficient? And suppose He should still go on, and say, “Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” Would that be satisfactory?
Well, He has been here, and said all that, and it is on record in John 10:27-30, and there is nothing in all Scripture that, rightly understood in the light of the context, disputes His statement here in the least particular. The writer has a dear friend who said to another while they were arguing about this doctrine: “You remind me very much of my son who, while a very small boy, went with me for his first ride in a boat. He had never seen a boat before, and he was greatly interested in it and in the big water in which we were floating. He saw no such danger in that water as I saw, and during the whole trip I was carefully and firmly holding onto him with my hand lest he should fall or jump overboard and be drowned.”
“Well,” replied his friend, “that’s all right, and I see that no one can get us out of God’s hand, but we can jump out of His hand if we will, just as your boy could have wriggled out of his coat and jumped into the water.”
“But,” was the reply, “I was not holding the coat; I was holding the boy, and I saw to it that he could not get out of my hand even if he wanted to. Supposing you should succeed in getting out of God’s hand, and staying out, then what would be the result? Would you perish?’
“Certainly.”
“But, brother, don’t you see that the Lord has covered just that point? He says, ‘and they shall never perish.’”
“Why,” exclaimed the other, “so He did. I never thought of it that way. O, how wonderful that is! The Lord has said I shall never perish! That lifts a tremendous burden from my heart which I have been bearing for twenty years.”
Please explain the teaching called “once in grace always in grace.” Just how far can Christian people indulge in worldly things and feel safe on this statement? Or, in other words, is there any limit to what Christian people may do so long as they are willing to confess their wrong doing and ask for forgiveness? Kindly make this plain, as I am afraid some have a mistaken idea of this saying.
All confusion on the subject of eternal security would disappear from your mind if only you could become clear on the meaning of grace. Salvation is by grace through faith and not by works. We are not saved because we are good, nor are we lost because we are bad. A man who is truly born again is safe forever, and is as sure of Heaven as if he had already been there ten thousand years. He may fall into sin, and, since the flesh in the believer has not been changed a bit and is as corrupt as ever, he may do very evil things. David, for example, was guilty of adultery and murder after he became saved. But David was forgiven and restored to God’s fellowship even after doing such terrible things. He suffered greatly, however, as a result of his sins, and every child of God will suffer as the result of the sins he commits.
If a sinning saint refuses to confess his sin then God must deal with him. In 1 Corinthians 5 there is an instance of this kind. Here was a man who was living in openly sinful relation with “his father’s wife” (verse 1)—evidently his stepmother. By apostolic authority this man was excluded from the fellowship of the Corinthian church, “to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (verse 5). The apostolic command was, ‘Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (verse 13). It is evident from 2 Corinthians 2 that by this drastic method the sinning Christian was brought to repentance and confession, for in that chapter Paul says: “Ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.... To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ: lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:7-11). The question is often raised as to what would happen to a sinning Christian if he should die before being brought to repentance and confession. Happily we have an answer for that also in the New Testament Scriptures. The Corinthian Christians had fallen into sin in connection with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This is discussed in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. These sinning Christians had not been brought to repentance as yet, and some of them on this account had become weak and sickly, and some had died under the chastening hand of God. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. But if we discerned ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:26-32, R.V.). You see, it is when we refuse to judge ourselves that we bring the chastening hand of our God upon us in judgment, and then we are chastened, “that we may not be condemned with the world.” There is no possibility of a child of God coming under the condemnation of God though he may be so chastened as even to be visited with physical death.
How do you reconcile1 Corinthians 9:27andHebrews 6:4-6with the doctrine of the eternal security of the saints 0ohn 10:28,29)?
There is no need to “reconcile” Scripture, for it is always harmonious in all its parts. The passages you cite have no bearing upon the doctrine of eternal security. The word “castaway” in 1 Corinthians 9:27 is translated “rejected” in the Revised Version. The Greek word is adokimos. The same word is used in 2 Timothy 2:15 without the negative prefix and is there translated “approved.” Its meaning in 1 Corinthians 9:27, therefore, is disapproved. What Paul feared was that he might fail in securing his Lord’s approval upon his services. His salvation is not in question at all. Compare 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 1 Corinthians 11:31-32. In order to understand the teaching of Hebrews 6:4-6 it is necessary to study the context. Beginning at the 10th verse of the 5th chapter the Lord Jesus is referred to as “called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye (the Hebrews) are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye (the Hebrews) ought to be teachers, ye (Hebrews) have need that one teach you (Hebrews) again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (full growth, R.V.), even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
Then comes the exhortation of the opening verses of the sixth chapter, in which the writer calls upon his Hebrew brethren, who have not yet received Christ although they have come to a knowledge of Him, beseeching them to declare themselves openly for Christ. The Old Testament was their elementary school, their kindergarten, the place of first things or principles. The time had now come for graduation from the primer grade. The law was their schoolmaster unto Christ that they might be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24). He writes now to them saying, ‘Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto full growth (the same Greek word as in the preceding verse is translated “full age”); not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” All these are Old Testament doctrines even including “the doctrine of baptisms” (compare Mark 7:3-4 in the Greek). The apostle is exhorting the Hebrews to go on unto Christ to whom all these doctrines pointed. “And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened (as the Hebrews had been) and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of (literally, companions, those who go along with) the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God (this had come to them through the ages by the prophets), and the powers of the coming age (these were the miracles they had witnessed), if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
There is nothing here which speaks of a born-again person losing his salvation. If it referred to such, then it would prove that one who had thus lost his salvation could never again be saved. “It is impossible (not difficult, not improbable, but impossible) ... to renew them again unto repentance.” This proves too much for those who would use it to set aside the doctrine of the believer s security, but when it is applied to Hebrews, and especially to those Hebrews living at the time the Episde was written, it all becomes perfectly clear. It teaches that there is no salvation for any unless they receive the Lord Jesus Christ and put themselves under the shelter of His shed blood. This, of course, is true for all time.
Kindly explain what Paul meant by his fear that he might become a castaway (1 Corinthians 9:27). The word for “castaway” is adokimos and means “disapproved.” Paul was speaking of his service and not of his salvation (compare 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 1 Corinthians 11:31-32).
Kindly explainMatthew 10:22;Matthew 24:13andMark 13:13. In each of these verses our Lord is quoted as saying, “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” The “end” to which He was referring in each case was the same end, that is, the end of the Great Tribulation period just preceding His coming to judgment. This is true even in Matthew 10:22; for, as Dr. Scofield well says on that chapter, ‘The scope of verses 16-23 reaches beyond the personal ministry of the twelve, covering in a general sense the sphere of service during the present age. Verse 23 has in view the preaching of the remnant in the Tribulation, and immediately preceding the return of Christ in glory. The remnant then will not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Lord comes” (Scofield Reference Bible). The word about enduring to the end is a note of encouragement for His suffering witnesses in that awful day of trial.
What is meant by “think” inJohn 5:39? May not we who believe KNOW whether we are saved?
Indeed we may, and we should. The Revised Version makes a much needed correction here. Verses 37-40 read as follows: “And the Father that sent me, he hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he sent, him ye believe not. Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.” The First Epistle of John was written expressly “that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God” (5:13, R.V.). When convenient, would you please give an explanation ofEzekiel 3:17-21, especially the latter part of the 19th, 20th and 21st verses? Should they be applied to the Church? This passage has been used to prove that a believer may become a lost soul by failing to warn the unsaved. This passage and other similar ones in the Old and New Testaments refer to discipline rather than to eternal life. The death referred to is not spiritual death but physical which is sometimes visited by God upon His people as chastening and discipline for their sins. This doctrine is clearly set forth in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32. Here were people who had sinned against God in relation to the Lord’s Supper, and they were chastened, some with sickness and others with death. But all this was that they “should not be condemned with the world” (verse 32). The word rendered “damnation” in verse 29 has been properly changed by the Revisers to “judgment.” It is not possible for believers to come under condemnation, though it is possible for them to come under the chastening hand of God, sometimes even to the extent of physical death.
Please explainPhp 2:12. How can we work out our own salvation? Does not this passage conflict with the thought of the sixth verse of the first chapter? In Php 1:6 the apostle writes: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Your confusion is natural if you think of “salvation” in 2:12 as referring to the believer’s eternal welfare. That it does not refer to this is evident when we remember that the Epistle is addressed to those who are already saved, to “the saints in Christ Jesus” (1:1). The word “salvation” in 1:19 evidently relates to Paul’s hope of being delivered from prison and being permitted to visit his Philippian friends (compare the context, particularly 1:25,26). “Deliverance” is a perfectly good translation of the Greek word for “salvation,” and it may denote temporary as well as eternal deliverance. I am convinced that in Php 2:12 it signifies temporary deliverance. The Philippian church was depending too much upon Paul, and felt helpless in his absence to conduct its affairs or to solve its problems. In its perplexity Paul is appealed to through Epaphroditus’ visit to the apostle in Rome. In writing to them in reply, the apostle directs the attention of the Philippian believers to the presence of God with them, who was as able to deliver them from difficulty in Paul’s absence as in his presence. Therefore let them work out their own deliverance with fear and trembling, for though Paul was not with them, God was there, even dwelling in and with them, and working among them, both to will and to do that which would please Him. The preposition translated “in” is frequently rendered “among” in the New Testament. This interpretation is in keeping with the context which cannot be said of the interpretation usually given.
If a saved man cannot get lost, what doLuke 9:62;Hebrews 3:12-14;Hebrews 6:4-6;Hebrews 10:26-39;Hebrews 12:15;1 Peter 5:8;2 Peter 2:20-21;2 Peter 3:17andRevelation 22:19, mean?
Luke 9:62 has no bearing on the doctrine. There is no indication that the man addressed was a born-again man. Hebrews 3:12-14 is a warning against unbelief (see verse 19). Like all these hortatory passages in Hebrews it had in mind Hebrews particularly who still supposed they could be saved through Judaism without believing God’s testimony concerning His Son. The things mentioned in Hebrews 6:4-6 are not the “things that accompany salvation” (see verse 9). In Hebrews 10:26 read “sin-offering” for “sacrifice for sins.” The Hebrews were warned against supposing that the temple sin-offering could avail for them now that the Son of God had offered Himself in their behalf; if they sinned willfully in rejecting Him they must be lost. Hebrews 12:15 is along the same line: let no man suppose that there is salvation any other way than by “the grace of God.” 1 Peter 5:8 is a warning against yielding to Satan; it does not apply to the question we are considering. 2 Peter 2:20-21 should be read with verse 22. These professors may look like sheep but in reality they are only dogs and swine needing to be born again before they could have the sheep nature. To know the way of righteousness is not enough: salvation is only for those who do not “turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them,” namely, to believe on God’s Son Jesus Christ (John 3:18). 2 Peter 3:17 is an exhortation to steadfastness; it has no hint that any child of God is in danger of being lost. Revelation 22:19 has no suggestion that a child of God would or could do the thing forbidden. If you want to know the truth about the believer’s security, go to some Scripture where the doctrine is really taken up and discussed, as, for example, John 10:27-30. The saved man is forever safe.
Please explainJohn 15:2;John 15:6: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. ... If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” The Scripture you quote has long presented a very real difficulty to students of the Word, and is a favorite passage with the Arminian commentators, for they insist that it proves the possibility of a truly saved man being lost. On the other hand, the Calvinists are much troubled by it, and among them there is no consensus of opinion.
Suppose we say that these words teach the possibility of a truly regenerate man being lost after all, what shall we then do with the great body of Scripture which teaches the exact opposite? No prophecy of Scripture is of any by-itself interpretation (2 Peter 1:10). We must not interpret any single passage so as to make it flatly contradict all that Scripture elsewhere says upon the subject.
There is, for example, no room for doubt as to the meaning of our Lord Jesus’ words in John 10:27-30. He declared that His sheep have eternal life, and that “they shall never perish.”
Then, too, the whole fabric of the Gospel rests upon the doctrine of grace, and grace is unmerited favor; by it the whole thought of salvation by works is excluded. If a believer sins—and what believer does not sin?—his fellowship is suspended, his communion with God is interrupted, but his salvation is not jeopardized, nor is his restoration to God’s fellowship by means of being “saved again,” but it is through confession. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). But what if the sinning believer refuses to confess his sins, what then? The answer is in 1 Corinthians 11:31-32 : “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” This chastening may take the form of weakness, or sickness, or even death, as shown by the context, but it is chastening, and not condemnation. “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,” but condemnation is impossible for the believer (John 5:24; Romans 8:1, R.V.; Hebrews 12:6). On the other hand, what shall we say to the words, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away”? Some writers tell us that this taking away is the result of chastening, as in 1 Corinthians 11:30 “many sleep”; that is, many in the Corinthian church had died on account of unconfessed sin. ‘They are taken away as branches, though not lost” (Malachi Taylor). This might be an acceptable explanation were it not for the terrible words of verse 6 of this chapter, “Men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Others, and this is a large class of writers, tell us that these severed branches were never really in the vine at all, except by outward appearance; that they are professing Christians. Dean Alford, for example, says that they “are made members of Christ by baptism,” the vine being “the visible church here, of which Christ is the inclusive Head: the vine contains the branches; hence the unfruitful, as the fruitful, are ‘in me,’” that is, in Christ. This is hardly satisfactory when one remembers that the words we are studying are words from the mouth of the Lord Himself, who spake as other men never spake, and all of whose words are pure words.
Still other writers insist that the unfruitful branches are the people of Israel, who indeed are described in Romans 11 as natural branches cut off from the good olive tree. But this interpretation also fails, for the dispensational cutting off is really national rather than individual. Israel as a nation is cut off; “blindness in part is happened to Israel” for the time being, “until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25-27). Yet whenever an individual Jew believes in the Lord Jesus Christ he is received on the same footing as other believers. “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew” (Romans 11:2). By still other writers we are taught that what we have here is a parable of service, and that it is not to be interpreted as applying to salvation. These writers emphasize the words “as a branch” in the 6th verse, and they tell us that a man might be cast forth as a branch, that is, that he might be a rejected servant, without having his salvation endangered. But there is nothing said in the parable about service; the whole theme is fruit-bearing; and there is a vast difference between service and fruit-bearing, though no one will deny the real connection between them. Believers are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10), and this is service; but fruit is not works. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,” etc. (Galatians 5:22-23). These are not things that a Christian is called upon to do, nor are they things that he can do. They are the effect of yielding, rather than of working.
Great light is shed upon our problem when we consider the comprehensive scope of our Lord’s atoning work. There is a sense in which Christ, by His work on the cross, displaced Adam as the federal head of the race. In God’s reckoning Christ died for all, and in Him all died. The purpose of His death was “that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15, R.V.). This is the true meaning of our Lord’s mysterious words in John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.” Lifted up on the cross, He drew all men unto Him and died in their room and stead. In this federal sense, the race is reckoned as in Him. In 1 Corinthians 15:22 it is written, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” And this includes not only the saved, who are to “be raised incorruptible” (verse 52), but also “the rest of the dead,” who must be raised to receive their final doom (Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:12-15). Through Adam’s sin “judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness (that is, by the righteous act of Christ on the cross) the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous” (Romans 5:18-19, R.V.). Not all men are saved, and yet the sacrificial death of Jesus cannot be limited in its effects to believers. While the Scriptures do not teach universal salvation, they surely do teach universal redemption. Christ was “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). When He died on the cross, it was in the divine purpose “that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). He “is the Savior of all men, specially of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). ‘Those that believe” are saved, while those that reject are lost; but it remains true that even those who are lost have a Savior, for He “is the Savior of all men.” He is truly “the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).
Mr. Spurgeon, preaching on this 2nd verse of John 15, says: “Both the persons described in the text were in Christ: in Christ in different senses it is plain, because the first persons were not so in Christ as to bring forth fruit. Consequently, as fruit is that by which we are to judge a man, they were not in Christ effectually, graciously, influentially, or so as to receive the fruit-creating sap. If they had brought forth fruit, their fruitfulness would have been a sign that they were in Christ savingly. Who will venture to say that a man who yields no fruit of righteousness can be really a Christian? Yet they were in Christ in some sense or other.” He then goes on to express the opinion that the rejected branch had been in Christ only as a matter of outward profession. He is quite right in saying that they were “in Christ in some sense or other,” but he is not clear as to their exact position. Hengstenberg well remarks that “what is spoken of is the unfruitful Dranches actually being in Christ the vine, and not their thinking themselves or others thinking them, to be so.”
Take the case of little children. We all believe that little children, until “the age of accountability,” whenever that may be—and God knows when it comes—are saved; but why are they saved? Surely it is not because they are good, for they are not good. They are sinners and “by nature the children of wrath”; and yet they are saved because they are included in the redemptive work of Christ on the cross of Calvary. He died for them, because He died for all, and they are safe under the blood until they have reached the place where they are morally responsible before God. When “the age of accountability” arrives, then the individual must personally believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or be lost. If he believes, he abides in Christ, is born again, and becomes the possessor of eternal life; and he shall never perish. If, on the other hand, he rejects the Savior, “he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.” If he goes on rejecting and finally rejects, he will be cast into the fire and burned.
There are those who insist that a believer always retains freedom of the will to depart from the faith just as he was free to accept or reject salvation in the beginning. But this is false reasoning. A child of God has no more “freedom of the will” to cease to be God’s child than has the child of any other father to set aside such a relationship. A child of God may be a disobedient child, but he remains a child, and for his disobedience he must reckon with a faithful Father who will deal with him as with a son and not a bastard (Hebrews 12:8).
‘Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!”