If Sin Separates From God, Why Cannot A Christian Lose Salvation?

Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Once saved, always saved (OSAS) is 100% biblical. Eternal life and Eternal Security are NOT two separate doctrines in the Bible. They are one and the same. The Bible teaches that Jesus is eternal life. 1st John 5:20, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” If you have the Spirit of Christ in you, you have eternal life (Romans 8:9).

Jesus Christ died on a cross 2,000 years ago to pay everyone's debt of sin (1st John 2:2; Romans 5:6-9; John 3:16). We as sinners contribute nothing to our own salvation except the sin that made it necessary. Salvation is of the LORD (Jonah 2:9).

It is biblically true that sin separates the sinner from God (Isaiah 59:2), which is exactly why Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago to bring peace between God and man (1st Timothy 2:5), to those who trust Him (1st Corinthians 1:21). Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Once a sinner comes to God by faith, accepting Jesus' sacrifice on the cross as full payment for his or her sins, believing that Christ was buried but is risen from the dead, God the Father declares that individual 'JUSTIFIED' (just if I'd never sinned).

Once saved, a believer's POSITION is eternally settled in Heaven. They are sealed with the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:15; Romans 8:9; 1st John 3:24). Once saved, always saved. We can know this because eternal life is the free gift of God, which has nothing to do with our performance.

Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty.

Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.

Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.

If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?

The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.

The damnable heresy of misunderstood repentance has sadly crept into nearly every Baptist church today. Biblically, you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved. Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do. A born again Christian should repent (change their mind) about their sins. But regarding the new birth (regeneration), faith is the only righteous thing that I can do (Galatians 3:26).

Pilgrim's Progress author John Bunyan (1628-1688) said it best, I humbly think...

“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —John Bunyan

In other words, we must always keep service (discipleship) separate from salvation (sonship), lest we pervert God's simple plan of salvation. Since unbelief is the only sin that can keep us out of Heaven, then unbelief is the only sin from which we must turn to be saved.

If sin were to separate the redeemed Christian from God, resulting in loss of salvation, then no one would be saved. Remember, we are saved by God's grace, not our works. Romans 6:1-2, “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” I love this Scripture passage. When we sin as believers (and we all continually do), God's grace reaches lower than our sins so that we can never risk losing God's free gift of eternal life, which is by faith alone. Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

As humans we all have have a free will. When a Christian sins we have broken fellowship with God (1st John 1:6-9), and in this respect we are separated from God. But nothing could ever separate the worst sinful Christian from the saving grace of the Gospel that redeemed them. Our walk with God as saints is our CONDITION in Christ; our salvation is our POSITION in Christ. These are not the same thing.

Dear reader, I encourage you to read chapter 4 from Pastor Jack Hyles' (1926-2001) helpful book titled, 'Enemies Of Soul-Winning.' The chapter is called, 'Misunderstood Repentance: An Enemy Of Soul-Winning.'

According to Romans 5:15-18, Romans 6:23 and Ephesians 2:8-9, eternal life is the free gift of God, obtained without works. The spiritual new birth is as irreversible as the first physical birth. Getting saved is not a process, it is a supernatural miracle of God in response to a man's faith in the only begotten Son of God.

Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) said it very well...

"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, “Hebrews”; Zondervan Publishing House; 1959 (p. 117)