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Why A Person Born Again Can Never Become Unborn Or Lost CHAPTER TWO A believer in Christ Jesus is eternally saved from hell because of the relationship of the Holy Spirit to him. The Son gave His life on the cross for the believer; the Holy Spirit in regeneration gives His life to the believer. Let us consider the work of the Holy Spirit with reference to the believer. The Spirit regenerates the sinner when he comes to Christ for salvation. The sinner "must be born again" to "see the kingdom of God." He must be "born of water (the word) and of the Spirit." John 3:5. The Spirit is the Agent and the Word is the divine instrument in regeneration. Jas. 1:18; I Peter 1:23. The Spirit begets a new life or a new creation. II Cor. 5:17: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation)." The person born again is "a new creation." "Created in Christ Jesus unto (for) good works." Eph. 2:10. A divine nature is implanted in him in the New Birth. This life "is Christ in you." Col. 1:27. "Christ, who is our life." Col. 3:4. Regeneration is the reincarnation of Christ in the believer. Can Christ be driven from the believer? Can Christ die again? No! This new nature, or life, or creation, implanted in the believer by the Spirit, is an "incorruptible" nature, because it's begotten by the Spirit through the "incorruptible Word of God." I Peter 1:23. That which is "incorruptible" can never die. Therefore, the new nature in the believer can never die. The New Birth is not an improvement of the carnal nature, but the implantation of a new nature in the believer as we have seen. The carnal or old nature remains unchanged. "Because the carnal mind (old nature) is enmity against God: for it is 17
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:7. The nature received in the natural birth, and nature received in the New Birth, fight each other. "For the flesh (old nature) lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot (original reads "may not") do the things ye would." Gal. 5:17. Thus the battle between the two natures in the believer continues; they both strive to master the members of the believer's body. The believer is to yield himself unto God in order that the nature born of God might use his members instead of the old carnal nature. Rom. 6:12,13. The carnal nature can break the believer's fellowship with God, but it can never drive the new nature out of the believer. Not only is the believer born of the Spirit, but he is also indwelt by the Spirit. "But ye are not in the flesh (carnal nature) but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you." Rom. 8:9. "What? know ye not that your body is the (a) temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?" I Cor. 6:19. The Holy Spirit dwells in all who have received Christ as Saviour. The believer's "body is a temple of the Holy Spirit." "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." I John 4:4. The Holy Spirit in the believer is greater than anything in the world, whether Satan, demon, or man, and can never be driven from His temple, the body of the believer. The believer has "been sealed once-for-all" with Holy Spirit of the promise (original)." Eph. 1:13. God seals every believer "with the Holy Spirit." A seal denotes ownership, a finished transaction and 18
security. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer, is the seal of God in the believer, showing that the believer has been purchased. (I Cor. 6:19, 20; I Pet. 1:18,19) unto God; that God is his Absolute Owner, and shall never lose ownership of the believer. Not only is the Holy Spirit in the believer as God's Seal, but the believer is sealed in the Holy Spirit. "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby (in Whom) ye are sealed (have been sealed once-for-all) unto (or "until") the day of redemption (of the body. Rom. 8:23)." Eph. 4:30. Since the believer has been "sealed with" and "in the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption" when Christ shall return and raise the bodies of the departed saints, and transform the bodies of the living saints, no devil, or legion of demons, can ever remove the "seal" (Spirit) from the believer, or remove the believer out of the "seal" (Spirit). The Spirit is also called "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Eph. 1:14. This is the "redemption of the body" at our Lord's return. Rom. 8:23. Earnest money is money paid in advance, assuring full payment shall be made later. The presence of the Spirit in the believer is God's assurance to the believer that he shall be completely redeemed, body, soul and Spirit at the return of Christ. I John 3:2. The believer may "quench the Spirit" (I Thes. 5:19) and "grieve the Spirit" (Eph. 4:30), but the Spirit can never be driven out of the believer, nor the believer ever be snatched out of the Spirit, for he is sealed in the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption." Eph. 4:30. Not only does the work of the Holy Spirit in the 19
believer guarantee the believer's eternal security, but the promises the Spirit has given in the Word of God, give the believer absolute certainty of his eternal security from hell. The Spirit led Paul to write: "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height (nothing in heaven), nor depth (nothing in Hades), nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8:38,39. Surely, this great declaration of the Spirit, through Paul, is sufficient to convince every believer in Christ, that he is forever safe from eternal punishment. Read Romans 8:28-39.
CHAPTER THREE Finally, the believer in Christ Jesus is eternally saved from hell because of the relationship of God, the Father, to Him. What has the Father done, and is now doing to guarantee the believer's eternal security? The believer is eternally secure from hell because of the great doctrine of election. Arminians deny the great doctrine of election, but it is clearly taught in the Bible and all of God's dealings with His own are predicated on this doctrine. I shall not attempt to explain this doctrine, for I cannot. I accept it as a fact. This doctrine does not declare that God is unjust in dealing with men. On the other hand it declares His great, unsurpassing love for sinners. 'His ways are past finding out." Rom. 11:33. If the reader will turn to the following passages, he will find the doctrine of election taught: Rom. 8:28-33; I Thes. 1:4; II Thes. 2:13; I Peter 1:2: 5:13, et al. In this age or dispensation God is 20
taking out of the Gentiles "a people for His Name." Acts 15:14. The people He is taking out or saving, were chosen by Him "in Christ Jesus" before the foundation of the world." Eph. 1:4 It was an election "unto salvation" and not unto "condemnation." "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." II Thes. 2:13. This election was according to the foreknowledge of God" (I Peter 1:2), and not to any foreseen merit or action on part of those who would believe. The Divine Agent in accomplishing salvation of the elect is the Holy Spirit, and the effective instrument is the Word of God. John 3:5; II Thes. 2:13; Rom. 10:17; I Cor. 15:3,4; I Thes. 1:4,5. Every one "chosen" or "elected" or "foreknown" before the foundation of the world, shall be "called", "justified", and "glorified." "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." Rom. 8:29,30. Here is a five-linked chain. Two links reaching back into the eternity of the past ("foreknow," "predestinate"), two on the plane of time ("called," "justified"), and one in eternity of the future ("glorified). This five-linked chain shall not be broken. This simply means that no person who has ever been saved or shall be saved, shall ever fall away and become lost because of the great fact of election, which is the very foundation of the believer's salvation and eternal security. The believer is born of God, the Father. "Blessed 21
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again." I Pet. 1:3. "Whosoever is born of God." I John 3:9. The believer has been born into the family of God. A new relationship has been established between God and him. Before the believer's birth into God's family, he was a criminal before God, his Judge. Now God has become His Father, and the believing sinner is a child of God." Rom. 8:16. God shall henceforth deal with the believer as a child and not as a criminal. Hallelujah! A new relationship has been established. "God dealeth with you as with sons." Heb. 12:7. Having been born into the family of God, a believer can never become unborn and lose his position in the family of God—he is God's son forever. Is it possible for you, dear reader, to become unborn and lose your relationship as child of your earthly father? Reader, you will readily admit that such suggestion is foolish; no one can lose his sonship with his earthly father by becoming unborn. No, nothing can break the believer's relationship with his earthly father as a son. He may break fellowship with his earthly father, but never can he break relationship-sonship. So with our heavenly Father. The believer does sin against his heavenly Father and breaks fellowship with Him, but not relationship or sonship—he is His child forever. The sinner in his natural state does not want to be saved. "There is none that seeketh after God." Rom. 3:11. The sinner cannot come to God for salvation—he does not want to come. "No man can come to me, except it were given him of My Father." John 6:65. To the servant, who represents 22
the Holy Spirit in His work today, his lord said: "Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in." Luke 14:23. "Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth." James 1:18. I have quoted the above Scriptures to show that a sinner in his natural state does not want to be saved. Of course he has a natural desire to escape hell, and will readily accept the substitutes of the devil or man to escape hell, but he does not have a sincere desire to be saved God's Way. God sent His Son unasked on the sinner's part, to die in his stead. John 3:16,17. He sends His servants to preach the Gospel or Good News of the gift of His Son Who died in the sinner's stead. The Holy Spirit gives power to the preaching of the Word (Gospel) which results in the sinner's awakening to his lost rendition, and of God's wondrous provision of His salvation in Christ Jesus. I Thes. 1:4,5; Rom. 10:17. The sinner receives Christ as Saviour (John 1:11-13), has "everlasting life" (John 3:36), "and shall not come into condemnation (great white throne judgment) but is passed from death unto life." John 5:24. Since God sought the sinner out, and made him willing to be saved and saved him, surely the believing sinner can do nothing to cause God to undo His work in saving the believing sinner, and making him His Own child by birth. "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever." Ecc. 3:14. To His Own the Father says: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Jer. 31:3. "He that spared not His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him, freely give us all things?" Rom. 8:32. God has saved His child 23
"by grace" (Eph. 2:8), and He keeps His child "in grace" (Rom. 5:2). "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. 5:8,10. These passages show that God began working with the sinner while he cared nothing about God or being saved, but was an enemy of God, made the sinner willing to be saved through the preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Spirit, brought the sinner into His family through the New Birth, when the sinner received Christ as Saviour, and made him not only a child, but an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. Rom. 8:17. Therefore, a person born again can never become unborn, and shall always remain a child of God. But a child of God may, and often does, lose fellowship with God, His heavenly Father. The New Birth is brought about when the sinner receives Christ through faith; fellowship with the Father is maintained by the believer through his faithfulness or obedience to his heavenly Father. Sonship is based on what Christ did on the cross for the believer—He paid the full penalty of his sins—and on what the Holy Spirit through the Word of God did in the believer when he received Christ as Saviour—brought him into the family of God through the New Birth. Since sonship of the believer depends wholly on the work of Christ on the cross for him, and the work of the Holy Spirit in him, and, since the works of Christ and the Spirit are eternal, therefore, the believer's sonship is eternal. Since 24
the believer's fellowship with God depends upon his faithfulness to God, fellowship is lost whenever the believer becomes unfaithful to God, his Father. When I was unfaithful to any earthly father, I did not enjoy fellowship with him, but my relationship as a son remained unchanged. My father chastened me for my disobedience, but he did not cause me to be come unborn, for it was impossible to do so. Likewise, the heavenly Father chastens His child when he becomes unfaithful. He does not cast His sinning child off and treat him as a criminal. "God dealeth with you as with sons" (not criminals). Heb. 12:7. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." Heb. 12:6. He does not cast His child off when he sins but chasten him for his good. Heb. 12:10,11. The reader will bear with much repetition in this booklet for emphasis. When a child of God sins he does not lose his sonship. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man ("man" is not in the original—if any believer) sin, we (believers) have (still have although sinned) an Advocate (although he has sinned) with the Father" (God is still the sinning believer's Father). I John 2:1,2. Sin breaks fellowship but not relationship or sonship. All unfaithful believers lose fellowship and the "joy" of their "salvation," but not sonship or salvation. After David had committed two great crimes, he cried out unto God "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." Ps. 51:12. He did not cry out unto God to restore his salvation or sonship, but the "joy," for he was still a child of God and saved even though he had sinned. 25
Therefore it is as impossible to become an unborn child of God, as it is to become an unborn child of the earthly father. Not only is the believer eternally saved because he has been born of God and cannot become unborn, but his security is further assured because he "is kept by (in) the power of God through faith (not faithfulness) unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." I Pet. 1:5. The believer is "kept," being continually guarded, "in the power of God." God's power is keeping or guarding the believer. Christ said "My Father is greater than all and no man (nothing) is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." John 10:28. "All His saints are in thy hand." Deut. 33:3. It is the Father's power which keeps the believer and not his own. It is through "faith" in God and not through faithfulness to God, a child of God is kept. Those who believe that a child of God can fall away and become lost, substitute the word "faithfulness" for "faith" in I Pet. 1:5. I heard a preacher say over the radio: "Our eternal salvation (as though salvation were not eternal, otherwise it would not be salvation but probation) depends upon our faithfulness to God in all things: even the most trivial things in life." This statement is contradictory to the teachings of the Word that "eternal life" is a "gift" (Eph. 2:8) and not "of works" but wholly of "grace." Rom. 11:6. If salvation be of works, the preacher's statement is true, but Peter's statement (1:5) is false for it says "kept by the power of God through faith." If faithfulness be essential to a believer's eternal security, he must obey all of the commands of the Bible. The moment he fails to live a perfect 26
life, for it would require perfection to obey all the teachings of the Bible, he would forfeit his salvation. Thank God! He keeps the believer "through faith". The believer shall never lose faith in God until God proves unfaithful. He remains faithful. I Thes. 5:24: "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." In I Pet. 1:4 we read: "An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, RESERVED in heaven, for you who are kept by (in) the power of God through faith unto salvation. "This passage states that the power which guards an inheritance in heaven, for all believers, also guards all believers for the inheritance. All believers are as safe as the inheritance for the same power guards both the believers and the inheritance. All of God's children, without the loss of a single one, shall someday enjoy the inheritance now being guarded for them. See John 14:3; 17:24. In conclusion, let us notice a few great promises the Father has made, which give great assurance that not a single person born into the family of God shall ever go to hell. "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palm of my hands." Isa. 49:15,16. God will never forget His child; God's child is graven upon the palms of His hands and can never be removed. See John 10:28-30. In relation to His saints or children, God says (1) they are in His hands. Isa. 49:15,16; Deut. 33:3: "His saints are in Thy hand." He holds the hand of His child, and "though he fall (stumble), he shall not be utterly cast down: For the Lord upholdeth 27
him with His hand." Ps. 37:24. God does not permit His saint or child to fall away and become lost. (2) His child is between His shoulders. "And He shall dwell (remain) between His shoulders." Deut. 33:12. (3) God's everlasting arms are under His child. "The eternal God is thy Refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deut. 33:27. God is represented here as carrying His child. This is what He is doing. A person being born by another person reaches his place of destination, not because of his holding out, but upon the condition that the person carrying him, holds out. The believer's certainty, or uncertainty, of reaching heaven, is not determined by his holding out or not holding out, but by the power of God Who is carrying the believer to heaven. God grows not weary or faints. Isa. 40:28: "The everlasting God, the Lord—fainted not, neither is weary." The final great promise I call the reader's attention to is found in Rom. 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." Since all things work together for the believer's good, nothing can work against him to send him to hell. If a single believer should go to hell, this verse of Scripture would prove false. But this passage, along with thousands of other passages containing promises of God, is true, and nothing can separate a child of God from His Father's love and saving power. 28
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