Eternal Security

by McCormick, F. | Category: Eternal Security | Nov 1957

The Sins of the Believer

How are we to understand the fact that those professing to have eternal life commit sins; does not this nullify the claim that they are saved for ever?

If having eternal life depended upon living a life of sinless perfection, then truly none would be saved, for no one is capable of doing this. God has made no such conditions to His promise The words are simple and plain

He that believeth on the Son bath eternal life."

"He that heareth My word and believeth Him that sent Me bath eternal life, and cometh not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life."He that believeth hath eternal life."

"He that hath the Son bath the life."

(John 3.36; 5.24; 6.47; 1 John 5.12)

These scriptures bespeak present fact and possession with no uncertainty; there are no conditions attached. We must recognize the fact that while men become new creatures in Christ by regeneration, and judicially are accounted by God as dead, buried, and raised with Christ, they dwell in bodies of flesh wherein remains the flesh that evil corrupt nature inherited from our first parents.

At the new birth the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and seeks to take control of the members of our bodies, but the old man, the flesh resists, resulting in conflict within.

"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would" (Galatians 5.17).

The arbiter in this struggle is ourselves, while we have the flesh within ever seeking the mastery we are not to let sin reign.

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof" (Romans 6.12).

Nevertheless, it is ever present. " If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1.8). God's word is written that we may not sin (1 John 2.1), but we are not immune from its constant activity. God Himself has recognized this fact and has made provision for the cleansing of His children upon the confession of their sins (1 John 1.9), provision having been made in the atoning death of Christ, "and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

Many believers live in constant fear of being lost again, thinking that the presence of sin arising from the flesh undoes what Christ has done for them. This is due to lack of understanding of the above, and the provision God has made for them as saints. Some confuse the once-for-all cleansing by the "washing of regeneration" (Titus 3.5), with the day by day cleansing of children of God (1 John 1.9).

The work Christ has done for us as sinners can never be undone by anything we may do, it is a complete work, and our salvation is not dependent upon our steadfastness or holding on, but on the value and acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ alone. Otherwise the gospel would be Christ plus human effort.

McCormick, F. | Nov 1957
Eternal Security