Do Christian Believers Have Eternal Security?
- Edward D. Andrews
- 10 hours ago
- 6 min read
The question of eternal security touches the heart of the Christian life because it asks whether salvation is a living relationship that must be guarded, or an irreversible status that cannot be lost. Scripture presents salvation as a genuine gift of God grounded in Christ’s ransom sacrifice, received by faith, and maintained by continuing faith and obedience. The Bible never portrays salvation as something a human earns, yet it also never treats salvation as a mechanical transaction that makes future unbelief or rebellion spiritually harmless. The faithful Christian can have deep assurance, but that assurance is not detached from perseverance. The inspired writers repeatedly connect confidence with continuing to hear, believe, obey, and remain in Christ.
Jesus Himself gives strong comfort that His followers are protected. He said that His sheep listen to His voice, He knows them, and they follow Him, and He gives them everlasting life, and no one can snatch them out of His hand (John 10:27-29). The force of that statement is immense: there is no power on earth, in Satan’s realm, or in human hostility that can forcibly tear a faithful believer away from Christ. Yet the description Jesus gives of His sheep is not accidental. They are identified by ongoing realities: they keep listening, they keep following. The security is real, but it is the security of a living shepherding relationship, not a guarantee applied to someone who stops listening and refuses to follow. The text gives protection against being “snatched,” not permission to wander away.
Paul likewise celebrates the strength of God’s saving love, declaring that nothing external can separate faithful believers from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). This is not sentimental comfort; it is a declaration that persecution, distress, demonic forces, and death itself cannot overpower God’s saving purpose for those who remain in Christ. Yet Paul, in the same letter, warns believers that persistence in sin leads to death, while living in harmony with the Spirit-informed direction of God’s Word leads to life (Romans 8:12-13). Paul is not contradicting himself. He is distinguishing between outside threats that cannot forcibly sever a believer from God, and a believer’s own willful turning away from the faith. External enemies cannot steal salvation from a faithful Christian, but Scripture consistently teaches that a person can abandon the faith and thus forfeit what was once genuinely held.
This balance becomes clearer when we let the apostles define saving faith. Saving faith in the New Testament is not mere mental agreement with facts about Jesus. It is a trusting, obedient allegiance to Christ that continues. Paul tells the Corinthians that the gospel saves them if they hold firmly to the word preached, unless they believed “for nothing,” meaning an empty belief that does not endure (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). He tells the Colossians that Christ will present them holy if indeed they continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting away from the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:22-23). These are not hypothetical warnings given to imaginary believers. They are pastoral warnings to real congregations, showing that continuance is integral to the biblical picture of salvation.
The letter to the Hebrews presses this with sober clarity. Hebrews describes some who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, became partakers of the Holy Spirit in the sense of experiencing the Spirit’s powerful work through the congregation and the Word, tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming system, and then fell away (Hebrews 6:4-6). The text does not treat these experiences as meaningless. It describes genuine exposure to the realities of God’s saving activity, and then a decisive rejection. The point is not to create constant fear in tender consciences, but to expose the spiritual danger of hardening oneself into apostasy. Hebrews also tells believers to “take care” lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God, and it urges them to encourage one another so that none may be hardened by the deceptive power of sin (Hebrews 3:12-13). A warning against falling away would be incoherent if falling away were impossible.
At the same time, Hebrews anchors assurance in Christ’s faithful priestly work and God’s unwavering truthfulness. God provides strong encouragement through His promise and oath, and believers can have hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure, because Jesus has entered as a forerunner (Hebrews 6:17-20). The anchor imagery is not that the believer is incapable of letting go, but that the hope itself is solid and reliable, fixed in the accomplished work of Christ. The problem is never weakness in Christ’s saving power; the danger is in a believer’s drift, neglect, or rebellion. Hebrews warns against “drifting away” by paying less careful attention to what was heard (Hebrews 2:1). Drifting is rarely a dramatic leap; it is often slow, excused, and concealed until faith is strangled by sin’s deceitfulness. Scripture therefore gives both real assurance and real warnings, not because God is unstable, but because humans are morally accountable creatures who can choose faithfulness or unfaithfulness.
James speaks in the same moral register when he insists that faith without works is dead (James 2:17, 26). This does not teach salvation by meritorious deeds; it teaches that true faith expresses itself in obedient action. A “faith” that refuses obedience is a corpse. John also ties assurance to obedience, stating that we come to know that we know Him if we keep His commandments, while the one who claims to know Him but does not keep His commandments is not speaking the truth (1 John 2:3-4). John writes so that believers may know they have everlasting life, but he grounds this knowledge in a life that remains in the apostolic teaching, loves the brothers, rejects lawlessness, and confesses the Son (1 John 5:11-13; 1 John 3:14-15; 1 John 2:24). The assurance is meant to be enjoyed by those walking in the light, not used as a theological shield for those who return to darkness.
A major confusion in this debate comes from treating “assurance” and “unconditional security” as the same thing. Scripture commands believers to have confidence in God’s faithfulness, but it never grants confidence to the unrepentant. Paul tells believers to keep testing whether they are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). Peter urges believers to supply faith with moral qualities and to be diligent to make their calling and choice sure, and he warns that the one who lacks these things has become blind and forgotten his cleansing from past sins (2 Peter 1:5-10). Peter’s language about cleansing from past sins is significant because it shows he is addressing people who have truly entered the saving realm, yet he still urges diligence lest they become spiritually blind. These exhortations function as God’s means of keeping His people alert, humble, and dependent upon Him.
When Scripture describes believers as “sealed,” it is describing God’s ownership and the authenticity of His saving work, not a denial of human responsibility. Paul says believers were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14). The Spirit serves as a guarantee in the sense that God has begun His saving work and will complete it in those who remain faithful. Yet Paul also warns the same congregation not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom they were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). A sealing that coexists with a warning not to grieve the Spirit is not a license to treat sin lightly. It is a call to live in a manner consistent with the holy identity God has given. Scripture is consistent: God is faithful, Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient, and the believer must remain in Christ.
Jesus uses the language of remaining with vivid simplicity: “Remain in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). He speaks of branches that bear fruit because they remain, and branches that do not remain and are removed and thrown away (John 15:6). The point is not that a believer lives in terror of accidental loss, but that discipleship is real, fruit-bearing attachment to Christ. He also teaches that the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13). Endurance is not a meritorious achievement that forces God’s hand; it is the necessary expression of authentic faith in a hostile world. The apostolic writings agree: believers are guarded by God’s power through faith (1 Peter 1:5). God guards, and the guarding operates “through faith,” meaning the believer continues trusting and obeying.
Therefore, Christians can and should have strong assurance. God wants His servants to approach Him with confidence based on Christ’s atonement (Hebrews 10:19-22). The faithful Christian is not meant to live in a constant fog of uncertainty. Yet the Bible’s assurance is covenantal and relational. It is the assurance that God will never fail to keep His promises and that no external force can rob the believer of salvation, while also affirming that a person can willfully abandon the faith, return to sin, and become hardened into apostasy. This is why the New Testament calls Christians to remain, to endure, to keep holding firmly, to keep walking in the light, to keep their conscience clean, and to keep their hope fixed on Christ. The security is real, but it is the security of abiding in the Savior, not the security of a label detached from discipleship.
About the Author
EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
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