Once saved always saved is false

                        "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter

                            into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will

                                of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

I like to present lessons in a venue that's referred to as a "type vs. antitype" lesson. That's where we can take something from the Old Testament, the Old Law and apply it to a teaching in the New Testament or the New Law. Sort of like looking at a physical event in the Old and seeing the spiritual relevance in the New. I'm going to use that lesson type today as we discuss a couple of "worldly religious beliefs" and the first one goes like this: "God is love, He won't send people to hell."

The second one is very closely related to the first and it's the old denominational doctrine of "Once saved, always saved." One of the arguments you hear by the proponents of this doctrine is that "we can't limit God's grace." My first thought on that is - why not? We don't limit it, He does. We're just reporting it. Allow me to offer scriptural proof of this.

The Scriptures tell us that God's grace is given for "obedience to the faith." (Rom. 1:5) Further scriptural reading tells us that "faith" is in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 1:7, 3:24, 5:1-2, 5:17, 1Cor. 1:4 and many others, but this should suffice for our point)

And, here's an interesting scriptural statement: the Apostle Paul says in Gal. 5:4 that those who wanted to bring the Old Law into the New were making Christ "of none effect." And, in so doing, have "fallen from grace." WAIT JUST A MINUTE! You can "fall from grace?" Looks like that's what God says to me. It's even repeated in Heb. 12:14-15 where we see that if we're not "diligent" to stay "holy (righteous)" we can "fall from grace."

Now I'm just a simple Christian, Bible class teacher and amateur editorialist, but it seems pretty evident to me that God certainly puts limits to His grace. To whom He bestows it on. Clear back in Exodus 33:19 He tells Moses that He "will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." Aren't we looking at the same principle that we saw in Galatians & Hebrews? That it's His grace and that He will limit it to whom He limits it.

Let's journey back into the Old Testament for a few moments and look at a couple of situations there that also serve to refute the two "worldly religious beliefs" that some hold. First is a simple one - Gen. 6:8 says that "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Hebrews 11:7 tells us that he "found" God's grace because of his "faith" so we're back to "grace" being connected to "Faith."

Our second "worldly religious belief" refutation comes from some words spoken by God through His prophet Jeremiah in the 8^th chapter of his book. These words refer to the time just prior to Israel's being taken into captivity and speak to the reasons why it happened. The reason I've selected these passages is because they show a direct relationship to what a lot of people today think as evidenced by our "worldly religious beliefs." We'll see that the Jews also harbored the same beliefs.

Jeremiah presents this scene to us in the form of rhetorical questions and I'll take the liberty of paraphrasing his words here for brevity sake, but please check these passages for correctness. The rhetorical questions: Why do people continue to err when they've been told it's wrong? Why do they persist in being deceived? How can they claim to be wise and that they know God's law when they reject it? What kind of wisdom is seen by this? How can they believe the false priests who tell them there's peace, when there's no peace? (Verses 4-11)

Of particular interest in these verses is a couple of things said by Jeremiah. In verse 7 He laments this situation His People are in by saying, "My people know not the judgment of the Lord." And, in their belief that "peace" is with them, he seems to be lamenting their attitude that they think they're safe at the same time they're rejecting God's Word.

In the latter portion of the 8^th chapter we find our specific tie-in to Israel of Jeremiah's day and our "worldly religious beliefs" of today. The Jews entertained a belief similar to those of today in that they thought they were forever safe from harm, that they had no worries because they were "God's Chosen People" no matter what! This is evidenced by a couple of their sayings that, according to Biblical historians, they used to bolster themselves whenever some sort of danger appeared. And, they uttered them on this occasion.

The two sayings were: "Is not the Lord in Zion?" (This is where His house is, His Temple). And, "Is not her King in her?" (Isn't this where our King resides? - Vs 19.) The idea being that, God will not let "real harm" come to them because He chose them and His Temple is there with them. Plus, He's their King, their Ruler. BUT, don't they have a real problem here? They've continually rejected their King's law.

In the last verse of this chapter Jeremiah seems to say, again in a rhetorical way, there's no "balm in Gilead." There's no "physician" there. In other words, because of their "holding fast to a deceit" and not "returning to being obedient" to God's law, there is no healing available for them. They were going to be punished, taken away, no matter how many mantras they chant. And they were.

Closing thoughts: it's not what you say, it's what you do. (Matt. 7:21) We have the same God and the same principles today. People can claim they have God (Isn't the Lord in Zion?) but, like Israel found out, His grace is only with them if His law is followed. If it's not followed, then also like Israel, punishment will be meted out. There is a slight difference this time though. With Israel, it was for a period of time. In the coming punishment, time is not a factor - it's forever.

Ron Covey