Recently I found out that I am one of those OSAS people. What is an OSAS person? It is a person who believes that Once they are Saved, they are Always Saved. The termed was used quite derogatorily and I was surprised that it was. Religious people can be so condescending.
It was back in November 1971, that I said the salvation prayer and asked Jesus into my heart. I felt as if I had finally come home and found the truth. One of the first classes I attended at the Institute for Evangelism was called “Eternal Salvation.” The professor explained that if eternal salvation could be lost, then it was not eternal. Something that is eternal does not get lost. If my sins could cause me to lose my salvation, then I was not saved in the first place. What kind of eternal salvation could be lost so easily?
I want to spend a few minutes looking at the Bible with you at passages and verses that seem to indicate that our salvation is indeed eternal and Once Saved Always Saved applies. Here we go.
“Truly I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”[1]
“He that believes on the Son has everlasting life.”[2] It seems to me that Jesus and John are saying eternal salvation is something we possess the minute we believe.
Later Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”[3] Further on he says, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”[4] Again it seems to indicate that our salvation cannot be lost once we come unto Jesus, once we hear His voice and follow Him. If no man can pluck us out of his hand, then not even our own sins can cause us to lose our salvation.
Let’s look at some other examples. Did David lose his salvation when he fell for Bathsheba, committed adultery and murdered her husband in order to be able to marry her? He certainly lost the blessing of God, but I contend that his salvation was never lost. God even called him a man after his own heart. When David prays his prayer of repentance in the Psalm, he asks God to “restore unto me the joy of my salvation.”[5] He may have lost his joy, but not his salvation. 
Did Jonah lose his salvation when he disobeyed God and goes the other way? No, again he loses the blessing of God and finally gets into a situation where he needs to renew his relationship with the Lord. In desperation he cries out to the Lord making an affirmation of faith, “Salvation is of the Lord.”[7]He was not getting re-saved, but casting off the condemnation that the enemy was using to get him down and defeated. The devil tempts us to sin and then condemns us for sinning. Jonah had been observing lying vanities by listening to the devil’s lies and thus forsaking God’s mercy. “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”[8] He finally realizes he needs to give thanks unto God even for the horrible situation he finds himself in. Once he makes his declaration of faith the Lord has the whale spit Jonah up on dry land?
Did Samson lose his salvation when he fell for Delilah and ended up losing his sight and being captured by his enemies? In Judges we read that Delilah “pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; that he told her all his heart.”[9] She in turn reveals Samson’s secret to the Philistines who capture him and put out his eyes. But Paul tells us, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”[10] In another letter he writes, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”[11]
Did God actually let Samson go through those hardships for our learning? When Samson does finally call upon the Lord to judge his enemies, the Lord hears him and answers. “And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”[12] I contend that Samson had not lost his salvation. He may have gotten his eyes off the Lord. He may have lost the blessing of God, but even then, when he cried unto the Lord with all his heart, the Lord heard and answered.
Did Peter lose his salvation when he denied the Lord three times in one night even cursing to save his own neck? He may have fallen into condemnation because of it. But he didn’t lose his salvation. In fact, an angel tells Mary at the time of Jesus’ resurrection to explicitly tell Peter. We read, “But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he (Jesus) goes before you into Galilee.”[13] Jesus is concerned that Peter is suffering condemnation for the denials he had spoken, so the angel says, “and Peter.” The enemy of our soul tempts us to sin and then tries to condemn us for sinning. He knows that once we accept Christ we are his forever, so he tries to condemn us for our errors in order to stop our usefulness.
But Paul tells us it should not be the case with us. He says, “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”[14] He goes to say, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”[15]
In the New Testament we read, “Let your conversation be without covetousness,” or as another translation puts it, “Keep your lives free from the love of money;”[17] “and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”[18] God has promised to never leave us, nor forsake us. Paul tells us, “If we believe not, yet he abides faithful: he cannot deny himself.”[19] In other words, even if we fall into condemnation and lack of faith, he will abide faithful, because his word says he will. He cannot lie and deny or go back on what he has promised. He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.”[20]
God is drawing you to him. He asks for you to draw nigh to him and he will draw nigh to you.[24]Call upon him and he will answer you.[25] He loves you no matter what wrong you have done or how far from him you have gone astray. Like the old song says, The Love of God is Greater Far:
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
2
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
3
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.[26]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6B_jYtjvME
Notes:
[1] John 5:24
[2] John 3:36a
[3] John 6:37
[4] John 10:28, 29
[5] Psalm 51:12
[6] 1Chronicles 10:13,14
[7] Jonah 2:9
[8] Jonah 2:8
[9] Judges 16:16,17
[10] 1Corinthians 10:11
[11] Romans 15:4
[12] Judges 16:28
[13] Mark 16:7
[14] Romans 8:1
[15] Romans 8:33-35
[16] Romans 8:37-39
[17] Hebrews 13:5 ESV
[18] Hebrews 13:5 KJV
[19] 2Timothy 2:13
[20] Hebrews 13:8
[21] John 6:37
[22] John 12:32
[23] Revealtion 21:4,5
[24] James 4:8a
[25] Jeremiah 33:3
[26] Words & Music © 1923, Ren. 1951 by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188.
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