What is OSAS? Backsliding and Salvation Security

OSAS stands for "Once Saved Always Saved." This is a common doctrine taught by many non-denominational churches, some Baptists, Provisionalists, and mainly Calvinist churches. It tends unfortunately to be the more mainstream view in evangelicalism today. What this doctrine suggests is that once someone puts their faith in Jesus Christ and genuinely receives the gospel and is born again, that this person can never backslide, fall away, or lose their salvation eternally. Scriptures used to back up this position include John 10:28, Romans 8:38-39, Philippians 1:6, and other scriptures that point to an assurance of salvation. However we should be careful, because the scriptures call us again and again to stand firm to the end, and to remain in Christ always. 

The word of God indicates that falling away is a possibility for genuine believers. We're told those who stand firm to the end will be saved (Hebrews 3:14). We're told to remain (abide) in the vine, for the branch that does not remain is cut off (John 15:6). If you're standing firm make sure you don't fall (1 Cor 10:12). Five virgins were wise, five were unwise and didn't receive the inheritance (Matthew 25:1-13). Take care, brothers and sisters, lest you have an unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12). After preaching to others don't disqualify yourself (1 Cor 9:27). If after we receive the truth we go on sinning deliberately there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:26-27). You who would try to be justified by the law have fallen away from grace (Galatians 5:4).

And of course from Romans 11:19-22 ESV "Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off." Seems pretty cut and dry to me.

But why dispute over it? Does it really matter if someone can lose their salvation or not? It's worth having a discussion about it. 

Is it really not worth having? If I tell someone that they can't lose their salvation, look at what I've removed: They can sin as much as they want, they can never lose it. No need for the fear of the Lord. No need for evangelism either, they can never lose it. In fact, they can ditch the body all together and go sit on the beach or watch tv, because hey, they can never lose it. When we say OSAS, we're cutting off the genuine motivation for believers to live like believers. So perhaps we think well, the motivation is love, not fear, right? Love is great yes, but more often than not we have to be motivated by a genuine reverent fear for the Lord. When we say OSAS, we remove all of that and more... and we wonder, why do we see so many Christians living just like the world, so many pastors addicted to pornography, so many lazy believers who don't evangelize? Well, we've taught a theology that leaves no urgency to keep living as a real Christian.

Yes, it's very important. 

"Calvinists, who deny that salvation can ever be lost, reason on the subject in a marvelous way. They tell us, that no virgin's lamp can go out; no promising harvest be choked with thorns; no branch in Christ can ever be cut off from unfruitfulness; no pardon can ever be forfeited, and no name blotted out of God's book! They insist that no salt can ever lose its savor; nobody can ever "receive the grace of God in vain"; "bury his talents"; "neglect such great salvation"; trifle away "a day of grace"; "look back" after putting his hand to the gospel plow. Nobody can "grieve the Spirit" till He is "quenched," and strives no more, nor "deny the Lord that bought them"; nor "bring upon themselves swift destruction." Nobody, or body of believers, can ever get so lukewarm that Jesus will spew them out of His mouth.

They use reams of paper to argue that if one ever got lost he was never found. John 17:12; that if one falls, he never stood. Rom. 11:16-22 and Heb. 6:4-6; if one was ever "cast forth," he was never in, and "if one ever withered," he was never green. John 15:1-6; and that "if any man draws back," it proves that he never had anything to draw back from. Heb. 10:38,39; that if one ever "falls away into spiritual darkness," he was never enlightened. Heb 6:4-6; that if you "again get entangled in the pollutions of the world," it shows that you never escaped. 2 Pet 2:20; that if you "put salvation away" you never had it to put away, and if you make shipwreck of faith, there was no ship of faith there! In short they say: If you get it, you can't lose it; and if you lose it you never had it. May God save us from accepting a doctrine, that must be defended by such fallacious reasoning!"

-John Wesley on Once Saved Always Saved

Why Should I Believe in Jesus?

Why should we believe that Jesus is really real and alive? Well there are several good reasons to believe this. 

Once again we can mention how Christianity rapidly spread from Jerusalem and into the ancient Roman empire, being preached by the same disciples who fled into hiding after Jesus was crucified. These same terrified disciples became as bold as lions to travel as missionaries across the ancient world when they encountered the resurrected Jesus. 

The example of the Apostle Paul is also telling. He encountered the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus road and he went from being a persecutor of the early church to one of its most ardent heroes (Galatians 1:23). 

Jesus appeared to over five hundred witnesses, and it was recorded by the apostle Paul that while he was writing his letter many of these people were still alive (1 Corinthians 15:6). He in effect invited readers to go and ask these eyewitnesses about when they saw Jesus. 

Jesus of course also showed himself to his disciples on the Emmaus road, along the sea of Galilee, and to James, after his crucifixion. Given the spread of Christianity from a few thousand persecuted Jewish Christians to being the most prominent religion in the world today, the empirical and historical evidence is strong that Jesus did in fact resurrect from the dead.

Additionally, even today billions of people testify to the fact that Jesus has changed their lives. This all forms a cumulative case that we can indeed believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

Now it’s time for you to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life as a human being. This is a huge decision. This is something God is also drawing you toward, helping you understand and receive.

It’s one thing to see Jesus Christ and his life and think well that’s nice. But what if you jump into it. What if you decide to respond to it, and become a Christian?

Have you given your life to God? It’s pretty simple. You can do so right now.

What we want to do is this: Believe in Jesus Christ. Believe that Jesus Christ is our personal savior. That when he died on the cross he was dying to pay off your debt of sins, all your wrong doings. And believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that Jesus is alive and in this room right now.

So you want to respond like this… confess your sins right now to God, the ways you’ve sinned, lied, cheated, stole, hurt others, bullied others, spoken evil things, confess your guilt before God right now.

And then believe that Jesus Christ took the penalty for those sins, for you personally on the cross.. Ask God’s forgiveness for those sins right now.

Kneel down and confess your sins to God and repent of them, say Lord, I’m not doing that anymore, I’m believing in Jesus Christ as my savior now. And when you do, you’ll receive the Holy Spirit, and be born again.

Jehovah M'Kaddesh: God who Sanctifies You

“When a person becomes a Christian, he usually undergoes some radical life changes, especially if he has had an immoral background. Through the first steps of spiritual growth and self-denial, he gets rid of the large, obvious sins. But sad to say, many believers stop there. They don't go on to eliminate the little sins that clutter the landscape of their lives.

Gordon MacDonald, in his book Ordering Your Private World, told of an experience in his own life that illustrates this truth. "Some years ago, when Gail and I bought the old abandoned New Hampshire farm we now call Peace Ledge, we found the site where we wished to build our country home strewn with rocks and boulders. It was going to take a lot of hard work to clear it all out....The first phase of the clearing process was easy. The big boulders went fast. And when they were gone, we began to see that there were a lot of smaller rocks that had to go too. But when we had cleared the site of the boulders and the rocks, we noticed all of the stones and pebbles we had not seen before. This was much harder, more tedious work. But we stuck to it, and there came the day when the soil was ready for planting grass." -Our Daily Bread.

We see in the names of God a deliberate order and pattern, a progressive revelation, step by step God reveals who he is to us through the opening books of the Bible.

“Genesis, the book of beginnings, reveals the beginning of sin. It therefore also reveals the provision of redemption from sin under the name of God, Jehovah jireh, God will provide. Exodus, as the book of redemption… where Jehovah’s people were redeemed from bondage in Egypt. In exodus was also the revealed name of Jehovah-rophe, Jehovah who heals life’s wounds and sweeten’s it’s bitter experiences as signified by Israel’s experience at Marah. Then came the revelation of God as Jehovah-nissi at Rephidim, where Amalek, the enemy, opposed and fought against Israel, Jehovah the banner over his people in holy warfare…” -Nathan Stone, Names of God

After sin has occurred in our lives, then God redeems us, through faith, and also delivers us from bondage to sin, he delivers us from slavery, then he heals our wounds, and turns the bitter waters sweet, then he is our banner of victory as we fight the spiritual battles in life and take territories for God’s kingdom. And in all of this, then we see the book of Leviticus, all about holiness, and we see the next name of God in our series, Jehovah M’Kaddesh, which means God who sanctifies.

Though we sinned many times, God delivers us, redeems us, heals us, and is the banner over us, and in all of this God begins to sanctify us, to make us more and more like Jesus.

In the book of Leviticus chapter 20, it says, “‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.” -Leviticus 20:7-8

The name of God: Jehovah m’Kaddesh which means The Lord who sanctifies you.

The book of Leviticus lays out the ways in a which a redeemed people ought to live as a result of what God has done in them, in the most pure and holy way, fearing God, loving God, and obeying God’s ways in all things.

God is so many things to us,

Elohim, God our creator

Jehovah, God our Lord

El-Shaddai, God Almighty

Adonai, God our master

Jehovah-jireh, God who provides

Jehovah-rophe God who heals

Jehovah-nissi, God our banner

Now, Jehovah M’ Kaddesh, God who sanctifies.

God provides salvation for us through Jesus Christ. God provides healing to us as well. God’s banner is over us as we Christians fight our battles. Now God also sanctifies us.

The sin problem is the single greatest problem, the problem of rebellion, the problem of wickedness. Jesus pays off our sin debt. Now, as we journey along the path of life, we learn not to sin. The Holy Spirit is our teacher in that. God sanctifies us.

He sets us apart from the world and slowly makes us ready for paradise. That is the journey we are on now. We are learning holy love as a lifestyle instead of selfish sin. We are learning to ignore the flesh and live by the Spirit’s leading. We are learning to be all God has called us to be in Jesus.

We are like Israel in the wilderness on our way to the promised land. Our promised land is the New Jerusalem. And we want to persevere on the journey. And always be reminded that the generation that escaped Egypt rebelled against God in the wilderness and they died in the wilderness, aside from Joshua and Caleb. It’s a good reminder, to avoid sin like the plague on this journey. We too can die in the wilderness if we reject the leading of the Holy Spirit, as the Israelites rejected the leading of Moses, and worshiped the golden calf.

It's amazing how we try to test God in this area, and say well Jesus paid my sin debt so I can sin as much as I want now. The whole point of all that was for Jesus to pay it off, so you would respond by repenting, putting your faith in Him, and by submitting to the Holy Spirit’s leading, you no longer live as a slave to sin. You live free, sanctified, holy, pure and so you are now ready for paradise. Today you may be living a lifestyle of secret sin, and I want to warn you, you won’t get into heaven living that way. Repent, give it over to Jesus, ask his forgiveness, and he will forgive you anew, and guide you to safety in Himself.

What golden calf needs to be burned out of your life? Our God is a consuming fire. He will deliver you from any sin or addiction. Ask Him for help. But be aware, he is God who sanctifies you. Submit to that sanctification. Learn from the trials and tests. He loves you. He will guide you home safely if you submit to Him in all things.

The Parable of the Two Sons & the Pharisee and Publican: The Power of Humility, The Danger of Pride

I had learned about God when I was 7, 8, 9 years old, into my teens, but as my life became increasingly broken I rejected God, and went my own way in anger and pride.

In my mind, I recall, I said to myself, we don’t need you God. We’re going to make this planet into a paradise on our own and show God that we don’t need him. We’re going to create utopia ourselves. We’re going to show God’s whose really boss. That is the spirit of the world, right there, the spirit at work in the sons and daughters of rebellion.

And so I began my descent down a dark hill. One by one everything was stripped away from me, thanks be to God for that, my ego was as big as a house, and piece by piece, chunk by chunk he chipped it away, but even near rock bottom, total lostness, I would rather die than turn to God, and I even attempted suicide. That’s the height of what you’d call “reprobate” one abandoned to their own sins and disaster. They’d rather die than turn to God.

And yet, that was 2009, 2010 2011, then 2012, a few year later, finally, there was no more ego left, every piece, every sliver was chipped away, and God guided me toward his son Jesus Christ, and all heaven waited in silence, as I made my choice, would I cry out or not, and I did cry out, to Jesus Christ for salvation. And then everything changed.

My ego removed, replaced with light with a soft beating heart of growing love. The Lord lovingly sent me out to work in his vineyard fields. Head out to work my child, and do my will, and I will be with you.

Which brings us to our parable today, our first parable, as we will look at two today.

It’s from Matthew 21, the same chapter, Jesus’ triumphal entry. So we understand the context. He’s speaking to the leaders, the masses, in Jerusalem, in the temple, and he says this, scandalously, he says…

28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” -Matthew 21:28-32

Today Jesus might say to us, "Truly I tell you, the poor masses of India, and China, the witchdoctors and shaman of the African nations are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you Americans. For the message of the gospel came to you through countless teachers, and preachers and evangelists, and mounds of bibles reaching to the sky and even after you saw all this, you did not repent and believe."

Jesus is contrasting in this parable, two different types of people, responding to the statement from the Dad, he says, go work in my vineyard.

Son 1 says no I’m not going.

Son 2 says yes I’ll go.

Words don’t matter much here. It doesn’t matter what they say. It’s what they do that matters.

Son 1 later changes his mind and goes in.

Son 2 lied, and never went to work in the vineyard.

Jesus gives this parable to illustrate a simple point, the accredited, the powerful, the wealthy, the affluential, the esteemed, are missing the kingdom of God because of their pride.

And the lowly, the miserable, the addicted, the prostitutes, the corrupt tax collectors, they are entering the kingdom of God, though they went into sin at first, later they changed their mind and gave their lives to God and got to work in his vineyard fields.

So this was a message that Jesus gave to rebuke the scribes, Pharisees and religious leaders of his time who rejected the message of John the Baptist. If you recall John the Baptist was one who prepared the way for Jesus’ coming, calling people to a baptism of repentance from sins, getting them ready, for the coming messiah.

Jesus contrasts many of the common people who viewed John the Baptist as a true prophet of God, and embraced his message of repentance, which made them ready for the coming of Christ, and those religious scholars and Pharisees and I’m sure other common people as well who rejected John the Baptist and as well were in the process of rejecting Jesus’ message as well.

They had learned so well to follow the law of Moses. Yet despite having the entire Torah memorized, and the prophets, and the psalms and proverbs, which all point to the coming of Jesus, their pride blinded them to the truth.

Just as I was once blind to the truth. And just as many are now blind to the truth in our world today.

So this spoke directly to what they were thinking about Jesus.

Have you ever had someone not like you because of a misunderstanding and you knew that if they could get over that misunderstanding that you could have a good relationship with them? But then realized that they just can’t get past it. They won’t listen. Maybe that’s kind of how Jesus felt, he knew he could save them, but they just couldn’t get past the law of Moses. They couldn’t see beyond it to the coming of Jesus. And it cost them everything.

So since we are not Jews under the Torah, but are New Testament believers in Jesus, what can we take this from this parable today?

We can stay humble to what God is doing in our lives. And stay humble for God to correct us on our theology, our understanding of Him, on how we love people, on maybe a sin that’s in our lives that he’s convicting us about, but maybe we’re ignoring or resisting that leading from God.

It’s been on my heart lately, so many Christians in the world today have messed up theology. Many, many, many Christians I know who are otherwise very doctrinally sound don’t believe in spiritual gifts, or the five fold ministry, they say certain things have ended, they disallow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and leading, and reject certain gifts they think have ceased. Certain Christians are very focused on Mary, and the eucharist, and statues and candles, and I feel like they're missing things about God. Certain people just operate in a sort of dead religion. Others teach once saved always saved, a doctrine that can lead people to complacency and sin. Some even teach gay marriage is affirmed by scripture. Some teach Jesus isn’t really God. It’s just crazy.

We have to be so careful with how we understand who God is. Always keep scripture first. Sometimes we get caught up in these man made systems, Arminianism vs. Calvinism and we forget to keep the scripture first, and instead we make scripture secondary to our theology. Never do that. Always keep scripture first, don’t try to force God into a box. And then we can get puffed up about theology too, and get arrogant about it. Watch out for that. Stay humble. Stay hungry for the raw truth about who God is, and let your preconceptions about what you think God is be overruled time and again by new things you hadn’t seen in the scriptures before, whether it be his deep love or his severe wrath or his justice or his mercy or his forgiveness or his grace or his anger or his divine beauty.

Stay humble, don’t miss something God is doing because you’re caught up in man made systems or old ideas not based on the word of God, or worse ideas based on cherry picked verses that exclude other verses, some only take the harsh verses and make an idol of God as a cruel task master, more so today some make an idol of God who is all love and no justice, who is all mercy and no wrath, and they pervert God’s character just as much as the cruel task master version.

Stay humble, stay teachable, and let God interrupt your easy picture of who He is. God has done that for me time and again and I haven’t always liked it, but he forces me to reconsider and reconsider who He is, and He is always taking me beyond what I thought even a month or a year ago. It’s wild, and a bit unnerving, but it’s His will, and His character, I’ve got to embrace that journey. But also, make sure that journey doesn’t lead you away from God’s word. God is not going to contradict His word. That’s how cults and apostasy start, is someone changes what God’s word says to fit modern times or their own ideas.

Stay humble, stay teachable. /

Similarly, our second parable today, from Luke 18:9-14 has a similar message. It says, “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.””

I want you to understand that the Pharisees were not monsters. In fact many of the leaders of the people and some of the Pharisees believed in Jesus, says so in John 12:42, but they were afraid to tell anyone, because they feared being expelled from the synagogue.

These were people who saw the disastrous history of Israel, the repeating cycle of following God and then the next generation fell away from God, and then the kingdom splitting, the civil war, then Assyria taking Israel into captivity, and Babylon taking Judah into captivity. They were desperate to do the right thing, they were so desperate to fix the nation they became legalistic. And made man-made doctrines to sort of fill in where they thought God had missed something. Sounds a lot like theologies of today, always trying to fill in what God said.

In all of that devotion and study, they faced the danger of pride, and many fell to it, so the Pharisee is praying and saying to God, look at me, look how great I am, and he judges people around him, and says wow God thank you that I’m not like these terrible people. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of my income, I tithe.

They were getting the external things right, fasting and praying and tithing and serving God, memorizing scripture, wearing the proper attire, and so on, but they had lost God himself in all the rules and regulations. They had become self focused and it had become about them. Pride had slowly done it’s work in them.

Pride is probably our greatest danger as Christians. I certainly think so. It’s a deadly poison, and the solution to it is humility. Humility is beautiful and pleasing to God.

See the tax collectors, standing far off, refusing to look to heaven, he was repentant, beating his chest, upset with himself for his wicked ways, and he cries out for mercy from God. And he left the temple that day justified before God. The Pharisee left poisoned and arrogant.

Thankfully for us as Christians we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. And when we begin to get prideful, which is a chief danger as wealthy Americans, the Holy Spirit begins to convict us, and humbles us, sometimes by making us look stupid. Believe me, so many times in my life, the Lord has humbled me, by having someone rebuke me, or I end up saying something foolish and prideful and people look at me like I’m being ridiculous. Have you ever experienced that? It’s not fun. But it’s a gift in disguise because it’s humbling us. Hopefully we can learn then over time to humble ourselves, so that we don’t have to endure the embarrassment and shame of being humbled by God himself. But take it as a gift if you are, because it means you were on a bad road. Then again, we can also resist and rejecting the Holy Spirit’s leading. I’ve seen that as well.

There was a famous missionary, someone that I had read his books, and really loved this dream he had of the gospel and the continent of Asia, and a bridge showed before to a ripe harvest. But over the years it all began to change, instead of empowering missionaries, it became one big megachurch sort of thing. Several pastors went to this man to correct him about the way he was setting things up, and his pride, and the gathering of money under one core power instead of the original way he had set it up for missionaries to be supported and to plant churches that would be independent of a central authority, in any case, when they went to him to correct him several times, he simply said to them, “once you have the money, you have the power.”

So guard against that sort of pride in your life. Always stay humble. We are servants of God. Keep that servant attitude, and you will be like the worker, who maybe didn’t want to go right away, but later went into the harvest field to work, and like the publican, though he had sinned and cheated people of their tax money, he went before God humbly, and sought forgiveness and he received it.

I think back to when I was blinded by the pride of life and the spirit of this world, we’ll make our own utopia, we don’t need you God and we’ll show you that we can do it without you, what foolishness! The pride of life can blind us to the truth, yet thankfully, God often humbles us, and brings us low, and the ego is gone, and thankfully once that ego is gone, we’re willing to listen and embrace who God really is, in all His beautiful and terrifying glory. Keep that humble mindset of the heart, and you will walk steadfastly and firmly as a Christian servant in a world full of pride and self-exalting puffed up worldliness. Humble pie tastes pretty gross, like eating crow, it isn’t necessarily fun to keep humble and meek and serving others as God’s servant and giving God all the glory, but the payoff is beyond imagining. Eternal life, in perpetual joy and peace, in a real utopia, a permanent city, the New Jerusalem, a perfect city, with no sin, made by God himself, just us as His people to dwell in. That’s something special and worth some humble pie.