Eternal Security: Fact of Fable?

“Why, if I believed that way, I could go out tonight, get drunk, lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, and live like the devil, and still be saved.”

I would like to relate a personal experience here. Some years ago an Arminian friend of mine would often repeat the above words to me. One day I said, “Glen, you’re always bringing this up. Let me ask you a personal question. Are you telling me that the only reason holding you back from going out tonight and doing all these things is the knowledge that if you did, you’d be lost?”

He quickly assured me, “Oh, no! That’s not the main reason why. I don’t do them because I love my family and the Lord!”

I then told him, “I feel the same way! I simply have no desire to do those things. My belief in eternal security has nothing whatsoever to do with the matter.”

But someone might object, “How about the person who does all the terrible things but still claims to be eternally saved?” Well, I think the first question I would ask him is just what the Savior has saved him from! For such a one the following verses are sobering indeed:

• Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5)
• Bring forth fruits showing your repentance (Mt. 3:8)
• A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit (Mt. 7:18)
• Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17)