By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist
I’ve written several articles for CP on eternal security, and I’ve never been reluctant to say where I stand: I believe a genuine Christian cannot lose his or her salvation.
Whether it’s called the perseverance of the saints, the preservation of the saints, or more colloquially once saved, always saved, the doctrine is well summarized by the Westminster Confession of Faith: “They whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.”
I’ve held this conviction for many years. I’ve studied it extensively, prayed over it, written about it, and defended it. You’d think that would make me immune to anyone shaking my confidence about it.
Nope.
Just the other day, while working out at the gym, I was listening to a message on 1 Corinthians 13 — the famous chapter on love. The pastor carefully walked through Paul’s description of Christian love but then took a hard right turn.
“Is this you?” he asked.
“Do you always love everyone around you? Are you perfectly patient? Never irritable? Never selfish? Do you endure every hardship with joy?” Then came the implication: “If not … are you really saved?”
I stood there, knowing full well how far I fall short of Paul’s description, and for a brief moment I caught myself wondering: “What if he’s right?”
It was remarkable.
After years of study, countless hours of research, prayer, and writing about eternal security, just a few minutes of someone questioning my spiritual standing had momentarily unsettled me.
Have you ever experienced that? Has someone ever left you wondering whether you’re in right standing with God? Have you ever walked away from a sermon or conversation with an unexpected sense of fear about your salvation being legit?
If so, you’re not alone.
A balanced approach
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that even excellent Bible teachers who believe in eternal security can unintentionally plant seeds of doubt in sincere believers. With one hand, they faithfully teach the biblical promises that God’s people are secure forever in Christ. But with the other, they slowly begin taking that assurance back by presenting lists of characteristics that supposedly distinguish the “real” Christian from everyone else.
The result is that many tender-hearted believers begin asking themselves, What if I’m not one of the real ones?
Perhaps the most striking example I’ve encountered is the Puritan Matthew Mead’s little book The Almost Christian. If you’ve never read it, I’d describe it as a checklist that excludes every human being ever born from being a Christian, including Matthew Mead. No one’s going to walk away from it feeling secure in the arms of Christ. Think of it as the “no true Scotsman“ fallacy on steroids.
Now, to be fair, this is a difficult balance to maintain because Scripture speaks with equal force on both sides.
On the one hand, believers are repeatedly commanded to ensure the legitimacy of their faith. Paul writes: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5). Likewise, Peter exhorts us: “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you” (2 Pet. 1:10).
Those warnings matter. They exist to prevent us from hearing the most terrifying words anyone could ever hear — the words Jesus spoke at the close of the Sermon on the Mount: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven … And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matt. 7:21–23).
But there is another side that deserves equal emphasis.
Christians should never lose confidence in God’s commitment to finish the work He began in them. As Paul assures believers: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).
Holding those two truths together isn’t always easy.
One ditch is antinomianism, the idea that because salvation is secure, Christians are free to live however they please. Clearly, this is a false teaching as Paul makes clear: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:1–2).
The opposite ditch is perfectionism, which is the belief that Christians should eventually reach a state of sinless living in this life. John MacArthur rightly rejects this view when he says: “All perfectionism is essentially a disastrous misunderstanding of how God works in sanctification … The transformation is gradual — not instantaneous and never complete in this lifetime.” Paul himself confirms this reality when he admits: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect” (Phil. 3:12).
So how do we avoid both extremes? How can we honestly examine ourselves while also resting confidently in God’s preserving grace?
A good place to begin is with Jonathan Edwards and his classic work, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. Edwards set out to answer one of the most important questions a person can ask: How can we distinguish genuine conversion from a merely outward profession of faith? He opens his treatise by writing: “There is no question whatsoever, that is of greater importance to mankind, and what more concerns every individual person to be well resolved in, than this: What are the distinguishing qualifications of those that are in favor with God, and entitled to His eternal rewards?”
Edwards’ answer is remarkably balanced.
The false convert may make a profession of faith but experiences no real transformation and has no genuine longing for holiness. The true believer also makes a profession of faith, but although he continues to struggle with sin, he possesses something fundamentally different: a growing love for God, a desire for righteousness, and a heartfelt longing to be free from sin altogether.
As Edwards famously put it: “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” He then adds: “If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart.”
That’s an important distinction.
The evidence of salvation isn’t sinless perfection. It’s the presence of a new heart that increasingly loves what God loves and hates what God hates, even while the believer continues to wage war against remaining sin.
Next, when it comes to maintaining confidence in our salvation, there’s another truth that Christians should never lose sight of. Every one of your sins, and every one of mine, was still in the future when Christ went to the cross.
That means Jesus didn’t merely die for our past sins. He died for all of them. This helps explain why John writes: “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).
Notice the word John uses.
He doesn’t say God is merciful to forgive us, although He certainly is. He says God is just to forgive us. Why is forgiveness an act of justice? Because Christ has already borne the punishment our sins deserved.
As one writer memorably observed: “I am Christ’s punishment.”
God poured out His wrath on Christ for all our sins, not merely some of them. And because the penalty has already been fully paid, divine justice itself guarantees that those sins cannot be charged against us again.
Human courts recognize a similar principle in the doctrine of double jeopardy: once the penalty for a crime has been fully satisfied, a person cannot be tried and punished for that same offense a second time.
The analogy is not perfect, but it illustrates an important biblical truth. God’s justice prevents Him from condemning believers for sins that Christ has already paid for on the cross. That is why our assurance ultimately rests not in the strength of our grip on Christ, but in the perfection of His finished work.
This is the foundation of eternal security.
Our confidence is not that we continually return to God hoping to receive fresh mercy because we have sinned again. Rather, our confidence is that Christ has already satisfied God’s justice once for all, and God Himself has promised: “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:17).
So, if you possess genuine saving faith today and worry that you might someday cross an invisible line, commit one sin too many, or somehow sin your way out of God’s Kingdom, take comfort. You can’t.
The God who justified you is the same God who preserves you. His justice is now for you, not against you, because Christ has already borne the judgment you deserved. That is why the writer of Hebrews can say: “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10).
Rest there. Not in your performance. Not in your consistency. Not in your ability to perfectly measure up to every test someone else invents.
Rest in Christ’s finished work, God’s unchanging promise, and the justice that forever secures everyone who truly belongs to Him.
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.