Keep You from Falling Away

Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. (Jude 1:24 NLT)

On what basis can we make it all the way to the glory of the next life and everything it includes? Does it all depend on us? Does it all depend on our ability to do what is right and avoid doing what is wrong? Not according to the Bible. The truth is, when a person is genuinely saved, he is saved for ever.

It all depends on God. It all depends on God's strength, not on ours. We will make it through to the end because God is strong. The awesome and Almighty Lord of heaven and earth who controls the destiny of all things can make sure that we stand firm to the end. He can make sure that we receive the three things promised in the above verse. If a person truly understands the Gospel of the grace of God, he will readily see that the one who is genuinely saved, is saved forever. That a believer is eternally secure is what the Bible teaches, according to the following verses.

Primarily, God is the only one who is powerful enough to keep us from falling away from faith and going astray, forgetting God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The pull of the evil of the world is far too strong for us to make it on our own. He had predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son  and He can keep us from failing Him (Romans 8:29). Writing to Ephesians, St. Paul affirms this: He predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will (Ephesians 1:5). I don’t know what those who don’t believe in eternal security would have to say about predestination. As believers we are still likely to sin, the old man in us is still capable of raising his head, but  we, the genuinely saved, will not abandon the faith. We  may stumble, but we will not fall, for the Lord upholds us with His hand (Psalm 37:24). If you have stumbled, don't forget that God is strong enough to keep you from falling all the way down.

This is because our salvation depends, not on what we do for God; it depends on what He has done for us in His grace through Jesus Christ. It depends on the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. That was a perfect and complete work (Hebrews 10:12). It cannot be added to or improved upon (Hebrews 10:18). To doubt eternal security is to dishonour the sufficiency of the Lord’s atoning work. The believer’s assurance is in Christ, not in himself. Therefore it is a perfect and complete acceptance (Hebrews 10:14). It is as eternal as Christ Himself. God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2Corinth 12:9).

God knew all about us before He saved us. He is aware of our weaknesses. He knew all the sins we would ever commit. He saved us, all the same. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). When the Lord Jesus died, He died for all our sins–past, present and future. Therefore the penalty for these sins has been paid once and for all. God will not demand payments twice – first at the hands of Christ, and then at the hands of the believer. Christ paid the price just for this purpose, so that we won’t have to pay, we just can not afford to pay. Salvation is a gift. God does not give one day and take back the next. “for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable’’ (Romans 11:29). The anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you….says 1 John 2:17. The believer is said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).

Salvation is considered a new birth. Jesus told Nicodemus “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” A birth cannot be reversed. Once it has taken place, it can never be undone.  A child may grieve or even disgrace his father, but the relationship still remains. A Christian may sin and grieve the heart of God, but God is still His Father. This clearly stated in 1 John 2:1, “And if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father.” He is still our Father, even if we sin. Sin breaks the fellowship with God, but not the relationship.

Secondly, God can bring us before His glory without any wrong in us. That is, God's glory will be revealed on Judgement Day and He can make sure that at that time we are "blameless and holy" (I Thessalonians 3:13) and "without blemish and free from accusation" (Colossians 1:22). This is because righteousness before Him will not be due to anything we have done, but because He has sustained our faith in Jesus Christ.

Just as a sinner is not able to save Himself, a believer is not able to keep himself free from sinning. When the Galatians attempted to do this, Paul rebuked them: “How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”  (Galatians 3:3). Salvation is an act God which God undertakes to accomplish for the believer. He not only guarantees to save them in the first place, but to keep them that way, also. “He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6)

Christ redeemed us from the grip of sin by paying the price in His blood. After paying such a terrible price for us, how will He let Satan claim us?  “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,”(John 10:28). He saved us when we were His enemies, will He abandon us now when we are His children? “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10).

God promises eternal life to the believer. Is there any limit to eternity? He will never go back on His promise. “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” (John 3:36). The saved Christian has this enduring promise from the Lord: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out…This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day’’ (John 6:37,39)

The irrational reluctance among Christian leaders to teach that a believer is secure for life only goes to show there is an inappropriate lack of appreciation of the meaning of grace. Pastors are afraid that whenever a person is saved, he will rush back to commit fornication, murder and other vile sins, and he has to be restrained by fear of punishment. But the truth is, instead of encouraging men to sin, the doctrine of eternal security presents the strongest reason why men should not sin. The knowledge that God has provided a full, free and eternal salvation makes the believer want to serve Him forever.  “It is not necessary that men should be kept in continual dread of damnation to render them circumspect. Love is the noblest and stronger principle of obedience; a sense of God’s love to us will increase our desire to please Him” notes the renowned theologian Robinson.

Of course there is always the possibility that a man may profess to be saved, and then go out and live in sin. It is not that he commits occasional acts of sin, but he practices sin. It is the habit of his life. By his behaviour he has proven that he never was genuinely saved.  He is not a case of a person’s having been saved and then lost.  He is merely a false professor who has never truly experienced the grace of God.

Finally, does anyone have an excuse for not believing in God? The Bible answers an emphatic no. God has revealed what he is like in and through his creation. “For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:19, 20) Every person, therefore, either accepts or rejects God. Don't be fooled. When the day comes for God to judge your response to him, no excuses will be accepted. Begin today to give your devotion and worship to him.

According Romans 8:30, all who were justified will be glorified. To be glorified means to be taken to heaven, given a new body and removed forever from the presence of sin. The glorification of the believer is so certain that the Bible uses the past tense: “those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified”.

From what we have read thus far, it should be evident that the Christian  who is genuinely saved, is “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).  “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

For those who have genuinely trusted the living, loving Saviour, there is the unfailing promise of God that He will take them safely home to heaven.  On Judgement Day we will have great joy because we will be found acceptable in the sight of God. As a result, we will inherit all the blessings of the next life. We will have great knowing that we have been rescued from sin, sorrow, and an eternity in hell. Amen.

><><><><><><><><><