Are The Saved Always Saved?

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To “save” means “to preserve alive.” The Bible clearly shows death faces all human beings because we consist today of corruptible physical matter (Heb. 9:27; I Cor. 15:50). Inasmuch as human bodies run down and decay, it is simply not possible for humans to live forever in the fleshly state.

However, a loving God has provided a method by which we might be granted eternal life. This is salvation. Like most English words ending with “tion,” salvation is a process. And as a process salvation is analagous to birth (John 3:1-8). Before a baby is born, it must be begotten or conceived. I Peter 1:3 shows we are begotten to a hope, the hope of being resurrected, just as a baby is begotten in hope it will be born.

At the resurrection, those to whom God will grant salvation will be given incorruptible spirit bodies that can never be destroyed (I Cor. 15:42-54). At that time, it will be impossible for those saved to become “lost.”

In this age a truly converted person is still flesh and blood and can die. Being converted, he has the begettal agent, God’s Holy Spirit, in him. In II Cor. 1:22, 5:5 and Eph. 1:14, the Holy Spirit, is described as an “earnest.” This is a legal term meaning a guarantee or surety. If we have God’s Spirit within us today and continue to have it, it is our guarantee that we will be saved. However, if we lose it, we no longer have the guarantee.

And we can lose it! God warns, “Quench not the Spirit” (I Thes. 5:19). He further warns, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance” (Heb. 6:4-6). So it is possible for one begotten of God’s Spirit to “fall away.” That, is called the UNPARDONABLE SIN.