My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved. -Charles Spurgeon

If you are a born again Christian, you cannot lose salvation. Christ has made you into a new creation. Jesus describes salvation as being born a second time. If you are a genuine Christian, you have had two births. A physical and a Spiritual. You were not able to influence your first birth, nor were you able to create your second birth. Salvation is something given to us when we didn’t earn it. For us to believe salvation can be taken away is faulty thinking. That would involve thinking that at some point in salvation, we deserved our salvation. We have never deserved our salvation, it was an act of grace and it continues to be an act of grace that we have it. One pastor said that if it was up to him to keep his salvation, he would last possibly three minutes.

Scripture says that God chose us before He even made the world. Before we had the ability and desire to choose Jesus, God had already chosen us. In His plans He had chosen us to turn to Him before we were created. While this may seem worrisome to our free will, it is ultimately a comfort. It shows that God has already ordained that at the moment of salvation, you are in His arms for the rest of eternity.

This may lead us to wonder and question about those who were once strong in their faith, and have walked away. From all appearances, they were once Christians, and now they are clearly not. They did not lose salvation, the key is that they only appeared saved. The apostle John explains this when he wrote, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they are all not of us.” The Apostle John tells us that they only appeared to be Christian. These wolves wore the cloak of a sheep, but it lasted only so long. Time revealed that they were never truly part of God’s flock. John said that if they were Christians, they would have stayed. If you are a Christian, God will keep you. You may be tried, and maybe you will fail some trials, but God will keep you from completely wandering away, John Piper explains it this way, “A lot of people think eternal security is like a vaccination. They think, “When I was 6 years old, I prayed, and God vaccinated my arm. Therefore, I can’t get the disease of damnation.” That is not the way it is. Rather, it is more like entering lifetime therapy with a doctor who says, “You are my patient. You will do what I say, and I will get you to the end, whole in the last day.²⁸”” Part of God’s grace is keeping us with him. God does not save us, and then leaves us to do the rest. He saves us and keeps saving us. When someone walks away, it is for your benefit that you are not led by a false convert. In my case as the one who once wandered away, it was a mercy to me. God brought me to realize that in the middle of my wanderings I was at best saved and disobeying my father, or at worst, I had had a religious experience with no actual work from God. If my younger years in the church were simply skin deep religious experiences, it was mercy I was sent away. I realized the falseness and lies of my life, and so when I returned to the church, I came truly saved and no longer lost.

It is the possession of faith, not the profession of faith that transfers us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God.

- R.C.Sproul