Those who teach unconditional security (or, once saved, always saved) doctrine think they’re clever when they try to defend their doctrine with the question “How can you lose eternal life?”  They throw out this question in a rhetorical sense to try to sound slick and to try to make those who believe contrary seem foolish.  However, we know from the examples and instructions of the Bible that the possibility of eternal life being lost is a basic Bible concept.

You just have to read the first three chapters of the Bible to see how eternal life can be lost- unless you want to claim that the serpent was actually telling Eve the truth in telling her that she would not surely die from eating of the forbidden fruit.

Genesis 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Genesis 3:4-6: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

Saying that Adam and Eve lost the spiritual life from God in them and became separated from Him is just another way of saying that they lost eternal life.  

Eternal life in the Bible then is spoken of as a quality of life which one receives by being properly related to the Father through Jesus Christ.

John 17:3: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Refusal to be subject to God is what brought us into spiritual death and put us in need of an unspeakably costly atonement.  An authentic, valid restoration from our fall would have to involve a real solution to both these problems.  As we need Christ’s atoning death to restore our souls from death to life, we also need to repent of sin and be subject to God’s authority through Him to partake of the eternal life which He offers- and continue therein (i.e. continue on the narrow way to life in Christ) until the end.

The eternal life that those who truly believe in Christ receive in this life is a pledge or a deposit of eternal life, not eternal life in its fullness- as salvation in this life has not been finalized nor already arrived at for anyone.  The following things were all spoken directly to Christians who had really been born again in Christ and given a pledge of eternal life.

1 Timothy 6:12: “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”

Revelation 2:7: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Fullness of eternal life is only granted on Judgment Day after one endures faithfully on the narrow way to life in Christ until the end.  Those who enter that way but don’t endure in subjection to Christ’s authority lose eternal life.  This does not negate the truth that some who think they’ve entered that way never really did at all.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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