Misapplying Once Saved, Always Saved

You have probably heard of the doctrine once saved, always saved, but if you haven’t, it is the belief that once a person has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior they can’t lose their salvation no matter what they do.

Paul puts it like this, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9 ESV)

However, there are some Christians who believe once saved, always saved gives them a license to continue sinning because Jesus already paid their debt. That is not what this doctrine is about. This is what we are going to focus on today because they are misapplying God’s grace to justify their sinful behavior.

Misapplying Grace is Nothing New

This is nothing new; it was happening during Paul’s time as well. He touched on this in Romans 6:1 when he asked “are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (ESV) His answer? A resounding NO!

This type of faith comes with no caveats, such as “take up your cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34) as an example. Many times this mindset is the byproduct of an immature or incomplete faith, but other times it is a willful abuse of God’s grace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer called this cheap grace. God’s grace is not permission, it is opportunity. Or more pointedly: God’s grace is not permission to continue sinning, it is an opportunity to change from the path of destruction and to bring yourself into relationship with God.

This brings us to 1 John 2:3-6:

³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (ESV)

So, you can see that we are supposed to keep God’s commandments when we come to know Christ. We are to begin to walk in His ways.

Sanctification Through Christ

We are justified when we accept Jesus, but we are not expected to be just like Jesus when we first come to him. Through the process of sanctification we will begin to walk more like him as we become more mature in our faith. True repentance will always lead to change within us over time. As Jesus fills our hearts and minds more, we will want to sin less.

When you truly believe, you should not want to continue in your old ways. As you grow in Christ, you should shrink in sin as God begins to create a new heart within you. (Psalm 51:10)

Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)

Stumbling into Sin vs Choosing to Sin

We may stumble from time to time and fall into our old ways. We are never going to reach perfection on this side of eternity, but perfection is not what I am talking about.

What I am talking about is the person who continues to sin purposely and without remorse, regret, or repentance because they feel like Jesus already paid for any sin they commit after they have accepted him. There is a difference between stumbling into sin and choosing to sin.

Jesus himself called for, and expected, people to change:

³² “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32 ESV)

Jesus met people where they were in their lives; he did not hang out with prostitutes and sinners because he condoned their actions; he hung out with them to change them. And from the examples in Scripture they did just that. Jesus changed the lives of everyone who truly followed him and he wants to do the same with us.

God’s grace is not a free pass or a get out of jail free card. His grace gives us the opportunity to repent from our past lives and to start to live for Him. God has given us the opportunity for repentance, what we do with it is up to us.

We all need to ask ourselves; are we using God’s grace as permission to continue to sin, or are we using it as an opportunity to live for Him?

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