Doctrine of Immutability (Eternal Security)

I so call this doctrine a "doctrine of immutability" because it is our state that is unchanging. Our state being our status before God, on the basis of His Son. It is a present being, as to what the Lord calls us. These shall be facts immutable, irrevocable, and binding, as the self-evident truths of God's word. We will not be shaken because our foundation is sure and what winds, of doctrine, that fly by shall simply brush off us and not remain. As God's word says, what fellowship does darkness have with light? So let us illuminate the truth as darkness retreats and deception crumbles.

Often a case is made, to the detriment of our peace, using multiple verses that presumably reveal the possibility of our salvation being lost. This they do in contrast to what might be called "over arching truths." Comprehensive truths, that once seen cannot be unseen. This is not a verse or two, or even multiple verses to formulate a doctrine (with the bias of presupposition). This is going to be a stating of facts, clearly revealed in God's word. Not a list of verses confirming a position (as both sides are well equipped). No, we shall set the stage, see the intended consequences of Christ's actions and roles, and then see the big picture. The will of the Father.

Where better to start, than the beginning? We can only speculate in our perceptions of God revealed in His word as to the thoughts that went through His mind before speaking the world into existence. His foreknowledge and sovereignty permitting the existence of all that the universe encompasses, yet out of His good pleasure He endures it as Christ bore the cross with the joy set before Him. Merciful, indeed. Patient, of course. His long-suffering being the backbone to our repentance, as His desire is that none perish. That all would come to repentance.

What circumstance has man placed himself in that a holy and righteous God would call him to repentance? Condemnation, the path of the unrighteous for those outside of Christ. Adam and Eve being the catalyst of humanity's alienation from God through disobedience, and sin not being allowed in the presence of God, Almighty. A barrier between God and man. Sin's penalty is death, and God's judgement is righteous. What shall God do with a people incapable of redemption, in and through themselves? Will He let them suffer the consequence of their actions? He could have, but instead He chose mercy out of His abundant love for His creation. He sent His Son, and this is where we begin to see our status before God unfolding.

God so formulated a plan of reconciliation that would tear down the barrier between man and God that nothing could separate us from His love. Jesus went to the cross, died our death (atonement), and resurrected unto our justification before God. This was through His bloodshed, as it says in His word that "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission." Yet even greater and followed it is stated, "...where remission of these (sin) is, there is no more offering for sin." Our sins have been remitted, canceled a debt or punishment, because of the Lamb of God.

Through this act the barrier between the Lord and His creation was torn (symbolized in the veil being split in two). Sin, all sin, being remitted through the blood of Christ. Total forgiveness, redemption ours. Sin can no more alienate a believer from God than Jesus will go to the cross again. It is impossible, because He did one sacrifice for all time, for all sin. Not being like the priests of old having to do daily and yearly sacrifices, He being eternal and risen, was made an eternally sufficient sacrifice for all sin. His act then still applies today, how else would the lost be saved? Jesus' blood has granted the remission of sin (in its entirety).


We, at this point, now see one aspect of our status before God that is unchanging. Whilst this is no license to sin, sin no longer condemns. We stand justified before God on the basis of His Son. Sin as destructive as it is, and replete with natural consequences, does not lead to eternal condemnation as a believer because Jesus, through His bloodshed, has granted us the remission of sin. We are justified before God, fact. This is one truth that is self-evident, irrevocable, immutable, and binding. Is there yet more?

I ought to further elaborate on Jesus' role here, as our High Priest. This too shall be an overarching truth that maintains our status before the Lord. Yet another truth that cannot be unseen, erupting praise. What role and function does the high priest serve? A mediator before God and man, Jesus interceding on our behalf. Our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, with a priesthood that is eternal. Where as the priests of old died and therefore so did their service, Jesus lives on (resurrected) able to intercede on our behalf forever. For this reason He is able to save us completely or to the uttermost.

There is no condemnation upon us, for we are in Christ and the Lord as our faithful High Priest makes intercession for us. This priest, our Lord, doesn't make continual sacrifices as others did. For He is the very sacrifice, and this being so, if His blood didn't remit all sin He would've had to suffer since the foundation of the world (since He is the sacrifice for sin). Yet, His blood is sufficient, eternal, and His sacrifice the propitiation for the sins of the world. Since the role of the high priest is, essentially, to make peace with God, appeasing His justice we have this in Jesus always (as He lives on forever, as does His priesthood; including His sacrifice and bloodshed).

Here we yet find another aspect of immutability. Our place of justification before God based upon the blood of Christ, unchanging, as the Lord our High Priest intercedes forever upon our behalf. Our Mediator, our Advocate with the Father. Our position and status secure, found in Christ. This is too self-evident as we comprehend the role of the high priest and Jesus' advocacy on our behalf.

Justification has been established thus far, a crux in the discussion of eternal security. We have stated the facts, and not one is questionable. Every point forthright, to the point, and binding upon the believer. So far we have solidified the status of the believer before God on the basis of His Son. Christ and Him crucified. A salvation that is by grace and through faith. Not a work of our own, but the will of God, not coming to condemn men but save them. Being now justified by the blood of Christ, scripture says, we shall be saved from the wrath to come.

We now move onto another aspect of immutability. God is not a liar, and for this reason is He faithful and true. He does what He says, whether it be a promise or a prophetic utterance. What then does that make of the Holy Spirit in us, and we being the temple of the Spirit? Is there a promise here by God, that He will fulfill because He is not a liar? Ah, the Seal of the Holy Spirit, as our guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. The seal unto the day of redemption.

As we come unto repentance, being drawn by God, believing in the Gospel we are then given the Spirit of God to dwell in us. We become His temple. The Lord gave Him unto us to lead us into all truth, to confirm in our hearts that we are, indeed, the children of God. Not only this, but to work in us sanctification (as was said, grace is no license to sin). On top of all of this, the Holy Spirit was given to be a seal, a promise and down payment ("earnest") of what is to come on the day of redemption when promises are kept and we are given our glorified bodies.

This the Lord will do, and if the Spirit resides in you, you have this hope, this assurance, and bright future ahead of you. This is yet another immutable, irrevocable truth, God is not a liar, and if He has placed the Spirit in you then He is a guarantee of what is to come.

We must keep in mind that God does not make mistakes. Those whom He has given His Spirit are His. He will not lose one that He has drawn and has come unto repentance. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He, as the word emphatically states, shall finish the good work He has started in you. This too points to His faithfulness, and sovereignty. Even with carnal Corinth did the apostle Paul say that he thanked God for them, and the Lord would confirm them onto the end, blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even if one needed to be handed over to satan for the destruction of the flesh that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord.

It is for these reasons given that this doctrine of immutability has been stated. Our status before God is unchanging by His providential grace, through His forbearance, and mercy. It is the blood of Christ that justifies us, the Father's love that sent the Son, and the Spirit of God that seals us until that glorious day of redemption. The full culmination of all that God has promised, and the continual revelation of the riches of His grace towards us. God is faithful to keep His word, Jesus our High Priest is ever interceding on our behalf as our Advocate, and the Spirit of God (the Spirit of Adoption) testifies of our sonship whereby we cry, "Abba! Father!" We have become sons, heirs of God through Christ.

For all these reasons and more, we are assured. We are secure. What has been provided here as the groundwork for the doctrine of immutability is a relaying of over arching truths in the Word of God. Truths irrevocable, immutable, binding, and self-evident. We have many verses suggesting one thing or another, but I ask you, how now do we interpret them in light of indisputable facts? Praise the Lord for His work, in humility we all say, "Glory to God."

Great article. Is there a link to more?

Thanks, and no, I wrote this over the last couple days on here (good thing it saves the content of your posts). Appreciate the feedback.

Isn't that save function quite the blessing indeed. I appreciate your sharing your inspired thought in print here.

Hey! BenFTW... PTL!

As I see it:
Rom 8:1 NASB "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
But we see in Gal 2:11 NASB "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned."

So here we see Peter stood condemned, and yet in Rom 8:1 NASB, we're told that, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Which is a clear contradiction between the two verses.

But:
In Rom 8:1 KJV, we see, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This removes all contradiction because believers can be condemned if they walk after the flesh rather than after the Spirit, just as Peter does in Antioch when certain men came from Jerusalem.

Again in Jam 3:1,2 NASB "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways..." The footnote for, "stricter judgment," here in the NASB is, "greater condemnation."

Its not the KJV that I give the preeminence, but rather, it is to the Textus Receptus that I give it.

You must understand the context of the word condemned and what it means. In Galatians 2:11, as it says in the KJV, it means "to be blamed." Even if we used the word condemned, it would only mean that he, Peter, was found to be at fault, guilty. Which he was, in that he wasn't "walking uprightly according to the gospel." So he was addressed for it. There was no eternal condemnation involved here, only that Peter was guilty of not walking in the liberty Christ purchased for him and leading others also to be a part of his "dissimulation" or dishonesty.

As for Romans 8:1, we simply go to verse 8:9, and see that being in the flesh or the Spirit is a matter of being. If the Spirit dwell in you then you are not in the flesh but the Spirit. As for condemnation, Romans 8 has more to say that is truly comforting.

Romans 8:27-39 King James Version (KJV)
27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 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.
30 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.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You are eternally secure as long as you stay in Christ.

Leave the 'house' and you're on your own.

I have not seen the doctrine of eternal security widely accepted in the Pentecostal or charismatic groups. The Calvinists have sort of given it a bad reputation but it is quite biblical. Rome gives eternal security a wide birth and want no part of it. Around here it is slammed as OSAS and beat to death. LOL Doesn't change Gods word on the subject.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

Who is it that keeps you? Again, God doesn't make mistakes. If the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance, you will receive your inheritance. If the Spirit resides in you, you have that hope, assurance, and birthright (in that you are born-again, a child of God and an heir of God through Christ).

You can no more separate your kinship with your earthly family than you can supersede the blood of Christ. Once in the water you are wet, once washed in the blood of Christ are you redeemed.

Question: How do we know that the spirit in fact is resident in ourselves? Is there a way to know?

Don't tell me that "by their fruits" they shall be known because we all know that most people will waver at one point or another in their walk. I don't find this to be a satisfactory explanation for evidence, if that were so then most people that claim to be Christians are liars.

Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

For the cause of Christ
Roger

That's rather problematic don't you think?

That means that all the "Christians" out there, are right.

How can all be right if we are talking about an objective matter?

Where does scripture say that?

How so? There is only one Holy Spirit and He knows who belongs to God and who does not. Men can and will lie but not God.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

My confidence comes from what Scripture says and not from what I may or may not accomplish in the body:

2 Corinthians 5
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

The Gospel according to Ralph.

The whole point is to find objectivity whilst we are in this plane we call life. Wasn't the Bible given to us by God so that we can know who he is while in this life?

You are now saying that it doesn't matter what we know, but only what God knows. Or you are willfully ignoring the importance of my original inquiry.

Can you please be consistent in what you believe instead of justifying all of these impossibilities with abstract concepts manufactured to remedy the insanity you call Christianity? You either have a way of telling that you are in the right spirit or you don't and from what is apperant, we do not have such a method other than "I feel it" or "I just know" so.

How is that more valid than a Muslim saying their religion is the true religion because of their personal revelation, or a Hindu claiming to have been healed by Vishnu?

It is impossible to know if one has the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to prove it exists, and it is dangerous to humanity as we have seen throughout the course of history.

The "God told me so" line is one that has been used time and time again to justify all kinds of craziness, it does not make anything true.

You must have a lot of faith in the church fathers then, they are the ones that gave you the canon.

I have not changed anything. You are now bouncing all over the place. It is are real challenge to argue against God. LOL

Of course God exists. He has revealed Himself in His word and in His creation. God created you in His image and likeness.

We know the Holy Spirit exists because Jesus Christ said the Holy Spirit would come in His place on this earth. He also said that the Holy Spirit would dwell in the hearts of those who love God and do His will.

What are you trusting in?

For the cause of Christ
Roger