Security and assurance

Believers are not only redeemed by Christ and renewed by the Spirit; they are also kept in faith by the almighty power of God. All those who are spiritually united to Christ through regeneration are eternally secure in Him. Nothing can separate them from the eternal and unchangeable love of God.

The teaching of the security of believers does not maintain that all who profess the Christian faith are certain of heaven. It is saints – those who are set apart by the Spirit – who persevere to the end. It is believers – those who are given true, living faith in Christ – who are secure and safe in Him. Many who profess to believe fall away, but they do not fall from grace for they were never in grace. True believers do fall into temptations, and do commit grievous sins, but these sins do not cause them to lose their salvation or separate them from Christ.

God's people are given eternal life the moment they believe. If it were conditional or temporary, it would not be eternal. They are kept by God's power through faith, and nothing can separate them from His love. They have been sealed with the Holy Spirit who has been given as the guarantee of their salvation, and are thus assured of an eternal inheritance.

Matthew 18:12-14 – What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

John 1:12-13 – But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:36 – He who believes in the Son has eternal life.

John 5:24 – Truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 6:37-40 – All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that every one who beholds the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.

John 10:28 – …and I give eternal life to them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.

Rom. 8:30 – …and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Rom. 8:38-39 – For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I Cor. 1:7-9 – …so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by who you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

II Cor. 1:9 – …indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

II Cor. 1:21 – Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

II Cor. 9:8 – And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.

II Cor. 13:4(b) – For we also are weak in Him, yet we shall live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.

Eph. 1:13 – In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.

Eph. 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Eph. 4:30 – And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Phil. 2:13 – …for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

I Thess. 5:24 – Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

Heb. 7:15-16, 22, 25 – …if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life…so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant…Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Heb. 10:14 – For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

II Peter 2:9 – …the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. (Contrast with II Peter 2:2-8, which deals with the jeopardy of false prophets)

Jude 1 – To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

Then I met with a people who said there is no assurance of salvation this side of the grave. I agreed with them that they had no assurance of salvation. But the church of God hath assurance of salvation because God hath established their hearts in Christ. – George Fox