Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Can a believer’s eternal salvation ever be revoked because they don’t maintain holy living? Is the believer on probation so to speak until the end of this life? Let’s think about these questions today here on Grace in Focus. Glad you’re joining us today, friend. Grace in Focus is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. We have a website, lots to learn about us there. It is faithalone.org. On that website, you can find hundreds of articles that we’ve published about our Free Grace position, as well as our daily blog. We hope that you will subscribe to our blog and receive it daily in your email. We also have a bookstore, there you can find Bob Wilkins’ latest book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege. All this at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkins and Leon Adkins. 

LEON: Bob, we have a good question from Al.  And he asks, does a believer have to maintain a level of holy living to enter heaven? 

BOB: Does a believer have to maintain a level of holy living in order to enter heaven? LEON: That’s the question, yes.

BOB: Okay, the answer is no, so let’s move on to our next question. No, I guess maybe Al wants more than that, right? 

LEON: I think so. 

BOB: And by the way, I think he says earlier in the question that he’s part of a church that teaches that. 

LEON: Yes, Al says, “I attend the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee. My pastor said that God told him that 70% of the congregation would stay behind if Jesus would come that day.” Wow. What about that teaching, Bob? 

BOB: Yeah, he actually went on to say, but if you follow that teaching, the pastor himself couldn’t be sure. Now, of course, pastors tend to talk that way. I know I’m okay, but you’re not. And yeah, Al’s right, that is works-based salvation. But we have so many scripture that contradict that. For example, what does John 3:16 say? 

LEON: Whoever believes in him would have everlasting life.

BOB: And what do we know John 3:16 says will not happen to that person? 

LEON: They will not perish. 

BOB: They will not perish. And in verse 17, he says, for the Son of Man didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So the salvation refers back to the eternal life and the condemnation refers back to the perishing. So the believer is never going to be condemned. The believer will never appear at the Great White Throne Judgment in terms of being judged. Remember John 5:24, “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me, has everlasting life shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” There is no judgment for the destiny of the believer because the believer has already passed from death into life. 

If you’ve ever seen Star Trek, they have a force field that protects the Enterprise and it’s around it and it can’t get hit unless its shields are knocked down. Well, in God’s case, His shields can’t be knocked down. In God’s case, we’re secure forever. We are secure forever. In fact, in John’s Gospel, we have a lot of nevers, right? Can you think of any of the nevers, Leon? Not only won’t we perish, but what are some of the nevers? The believer will never—

LEON: Thirst. 

BOB: Thirst. That’s right. The living water. What about the bread of life? If you eat at the bread of life, you will never hunger. And what about if we’re in Jesus’ hand? Well, then we’ll never—

LEON: No one can take us out of His hand. 

BOB: No one can take us out. We’re never going to be cast out, John 6:37. He’ll never cast us out. No one can cast us out. And in John 11:26, he says, “He who lives and believes in me shall never die.” There is no spiritual death for the believer. So,Al, once we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we later decided that we wanted to go to hell, too bad, we can’t do it, right? We’re stuck. 

In fact, if your friends, I’ve heard people say, well, you know what? My friends aren’t going to heaven, so I want to give my salvation back. Why are you laughing, man? Because we can’t give it back, right? So, if you’re concerned about your friends, you better evangelize them because you can’t go where they’re going, but they can go where you’re going, right? 

LEON: That is true. 

BOB: They can believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and they can have eternal life. How about Ephesians 2:8-9? What does it say about Al’s question? 

LEON: For by grace, are we saved and not by works—

BOB: Lest anyone should boast. There’s no grounds for boasting. So,”For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Paul calls salvation, or everlasting life, as Ephesians 2:5 makes clear. The gift of God, the Lord Jesus does, too. Remember in John 4:10, if you knew the gift of God, and then in verse 14, he says, that’s everlasting life. 

So, everlasting life is a gift and gifts, by the way, you don’t buy them. You don’t, but you you can buy a gift for somebody else. But if you buy it for yourself, it’s not really a gift. That’s why we talked in an earlier show about the fact that if someone says, buy one, get one free, that second thing isn’t free. They’re both 50% off. 

LEON: You have to buy one in order to get that quote free one. 

BOB: Yeah, you know, I want to go into the store and say, I’ll just skip the first but I just want the free gift. They’re like, no, you don’t get it. You got to buy it to get it. So, in other words, it’s deceptive advertising. 

ANNOUNCER: You are invited to subscribe to the Grace Evangelical Society’s YouTube channel. You will find our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday videos there, enlightening and encouraging, and even probably humorous at times if you like Bob Wilkin’s humor. Indeed, you will get Biblical truth about Free Grace themes, like faith alone for eternal salvation, and why the Grace Evangelical Society is zero point Calvinistic. We come your way three times a week at the Grace Evangelical YouTube channel. Check it out and tell a friend about the Grace Evangelical Society. 

BOB: What did you tell me, didn’t somebody say something about, like, for example, the parents might give their son a car? Yes. As long as he maintained good grades. Yeah, then that’s not really okay. What the gift is, is the temporary use of the car for as long as he gets good grades.

LEON: Under conditions. 

BOB: Right. But what the gift God gives is secure the moment you get it. It can’t be lost. It can’t be forfeited. So, what Al was talking about the pastor said, and by the way, the pastor said about 70% of the church wouldn’t go in the Rapture. And I guess what he’s saying, there are people who believe in a partial rapture. They believe that if you’re unfaithful, you’re still eternally secure, but you won’t go in the Rapture. But it’s clear from Al’s question that the pastor believes that everyone who’s born again will go in the Rapture. And so, if you don’t go, you’re one of the people that’s going to be condemned unless you come to faith during the Tribulation. And the problem with it, like Al describes, is ultimately, if the pastor’s looking at his own works for his own assurance, he can’t be sure. 

Now, it sounds like this church he’s talking about is an Arminian church, believes you can lose your salvation. Right? 

LEON: I would certainly think so. 

BOB: But there are also lots of Calvinist churches and Calvinist churches teach one of two things. The old Calvinists, the kind that when we studied at Dallas Seminary, we learned about, would say, if you were genuinely one of the elect, if you’re genuinely one of the people for whom Christ died, if you have genuine saving faith, then you will persevere to the end of your life and faith in good works. And if you don’t persevere in holy living until the end of your life, then you prove you were never born again in the first place. Right. We used to hear that. 

LEON: Yes. 

BOB: But there’s a new kind of Calvinist, like John Piper or Tom Schreiner and Ardel Canaday, and they teach that at the moment of faith, a person gets what they call initial salvation. And then if you persevere to the end, you win what they call final salvation. Have you ever heard these terms, Leon? Initial salvation and final salvation? 

LEON: Yes. It’s like you, at first, you receive only a probationary period. 

BOB: Right. But, but they don’t say quite like that because then they would say, you could lose it. So they don’t say, you can lose it. They say, you’ve never gotten it.Right. What you get is some kind of an initial life, but it’s not yet everlasting life, and you get the everlasting life, if you persevere to the end. And the problem with that view is it’s really no different than saying you can lose everlasting life. Because either way, you say, if you don’t persevere in holy living, you’re going to the lake of fire, right? 

So, what’s the comfort for the Calvinist if they end up in the lake of fire and go, thank God, I didn’t lose it. I just never had it in the first place. Is that real comforting to them, you think? 

LEON: I would think no. 

BOB: I would think so too. And the same thing with, well, I’m glad I had initial salvation, but I’m kind of bummed out. I didn’t win final salvation. And by the way, when I say win final salvation, look at the book by Ardel Canaday and Tom Schreiner called The Race Set Before Us. On page 40, they show a picture. And it’s a picture of a man running a race. And they say he’s running toward the prize. And they say the prize is everlasting life, the prize is salvation. And they say the man’s only going to get the prize when the prize, if he continues to run the race. Well, that’s work salvation. 

And I remember, about the year 2000 or 2001, I went to the Ligonier conference that year. It was in Miami. And I visited with a leading pastor. I’ve told this story before. If you all have heard it, you’ll get it again. But here’s the story. I talked to him and I said, “Is it true according to Scripture that only those who persevere to the end of their lives and faith and good works will get into the kingdom?” He said, “Oh, yes.” And I said, “Is it true according to Scripture that we can’t be sure if we’ll persevere to the end?” And he said, “Oh, of course, because that’s what the apostle Paul said, 1 Corinthians 9:27, he wasn’t sure he was going to persevere.” “Oh, wow, I said, “Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that mean that we can’t be sure where we’re going until we die?” And he said, That’s absolutely correct.” He said, “I think I have what are the works of the Spirit. But I may admit, I could fall away and prove I was wrong. And if I fall away, then I’m going to hell.” 

That’s the position of a five point Calvinist. That man was a leading, he had a PhD. He taught at the leading seminary and he had a church of about a thousand people. Like this guy, he believed that a significant percentage of his own congregation were not born again. So whether you’re a Calvinist or Arminian, if you don’t believe in the free gift of eternal life and that once we’re saved, we’re always saved, well, then you’re going to go through life with what I call Daisy theology. He loves me. He loves me not. You hope you end your life on. He loves me. 

You know, the truth is, once we believe in Jesus, we’re secure forever. Great question Al, I really appreciate the question. For those of you who lack assurance of please read the Gospel of John. It’s crystal clear. It’s written to tell you how you can be sure you have eternal life and it’s simply by believing in the promise the Lord Jesus Christ makes that “He who believes in me has everlasting life, John 6:47 and you’ll never hunger, never thirst, never die, never perish, never be cast out.

In the meantime, let’s all, keep grace in focus. Amen. 

ANNOUNCER: We would love to know where you are when you are listening to us. Please take a short minute to send us the call letters of this station and the city where you are listening and how many times a week you listen. Thank you. You will be helping us with our stewardship. Send it to radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org. We are so thankful for our financial partners who keep us on the air. Every gift is tax-deductible and very much appreciated. To learn how to become one, you can find out more by going to faithalone.org. On our next episode, we begin a new series. It’s called Tough Texts, based on a book by Bob Wilkin and Zane Hodges. Join us for that and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.