Secure Forever! God’s Promise or Our Perseverance?

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Secure Forever! God’s Promise or Our Perseverance?. By Thomas M. Cucuzza. St. Cloud, MN: Xulon Press, 2007. 175 pp. Paper, $13.99.

I love the title. Is being secure forever contingent merely on God being faithful to His promise, or on us faithfully persevering to the end of our lives?

Cucuzza, a Free Grace Pastor in St. Cloud, Minnesota, shows in this book that eternal security is true and is based solely on a person trusting in Christ as one’s Savior (see, for example, pp. 24-41, and my comments below).

After laying out the difference in the two positions in the first chapter, the book essentially covers two issues: the eternality of salvation once received by faith alone apart from works (Chapter 2) and the dangers associated with teaching salvation by perseverance (Chapters 3-6).

Chapter 2 is excellent. Covering thirty pages, it is also one of the longest chapters in the book.

Cucuzza mentions Lordship Salvation on a number of occasions and shows why it is unbiblical and dangerous. He quotes from some of the leaders of that movement including MacArthur, Sproul, and Piper.

I wish the author had been a bit clearer on one point. Cucuzza’s favorite statement for the condition of eternal life is trusting in Jesus as Savior (e.g., pp. 22, 26, 27, 31, 33, 40, 49). What he means by this is not clearly developed, though this statement suggests an answer: “When we believe in what Christ die for us on the cross, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ” (p. 38). Yet a page later he says something different, “We need to trust Him and believe what He says about our eternal home” (p. 40, italics added). In light of the title of the book, and the discussion on pages 40-41 (“Is it [the promise of everlasting life that can’t be lost] true or not?”), Cucuzza seems to be saying that if we trust that Jesus dealt with our sin problem at Calvary, then we are eternally saved since such trust necessarily includes believe Jesus’ promise of a secure eternal home.

I recommend this book.

Robert N. Wilkin
Editor
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Irving, TX

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Bob Wilkin (ThM, PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary) is the Founder and Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society and co-host of Grace in Focus Radio. He lives in Highland Village, TX with his wife, Sharon. His latest books are Faith Alone in One Hundred Verses and Turn and Live: The Power of Repentance.