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People often ask me if I believe in “Once Saved, Always Saved.” They want to know if “Once Saved, Always Saved”is biblical.

I say “No, but I do believe in eternal security.” Once Saved, always Saved is not biblical, but eternal security is biblical.

Is that confusing? Well, let me explain…

Eternal Security and Once Saved, Always Saved

Most people think that eternal security and “Once Saved, Always Saved” are the same thing. They are not. To see this, let us begin with a basic definition of each.

Eternal Security is the belief that once a person has eternal life, they have it forever, no matter what.

Once Saved, Always Saved is the belief that once a person has salvation, they have it forever, no matter what.

Do you see the difference? The only difference between the two definitions is that the first talks about eternal life while the second talks about salvation. Since many Christians think that these two terms are synonymous, they don’t really see much of a difference between eternal security and “once saved, always saved.”

The problem, however, is with the word “salvation” itself.

The Word “Salvation”

As I point out in my online course, The Gospel Dictionary, the word “salvation” very rarely (if ever) is exactly equivalent in Scripture to the term “eternal life.”

The salvation word family (save, saved, salvation, etc.) means “deliverance” and the context determines what kind of deliverance is in view. Deliverance can be from sickness, premature death, enemies, demons, disappointment from God, and a wide variety of other negative experiences (cf. Matt 8:25; 9:22; Mark 5:34; 13:20; Luke 8:48; 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jas 5:15; Jude 5).

As such, most forms of “salvation” in the Bible have various conditions attached to them. If a person does not fulfill these conditions, they will not be delivered (or saved) from the negative consequences that follow.

Yet while failing to fulfill the conditions for salvation from sickness, enemies, or premature death might result in experiencing these bad events in life, such things have nothing whatsoever to do with a person’s eternal destiny or their possession of eternal life.

What this means is that as long as the word “saved” is incorrectly equated with eternal life, the concept of “once saved, always saved” can easily be refuted by pointing out the many places in the Bible where people can lose their “salvation” because they don’t obey God or fulfill the conditions of “salvation.”

But once we understand that the salvation word family almost never (if ever) refers to eternal life, the numerous passages that show various conditions for salvation gain theological clarity.

Let us consider a few examples.

James 1:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

According to James 1:21, people can save their souls by laying aside filthiness and wickedness, and receiving with meekness the implanted word.

If we think that the word “save” in James 1:21 means receiving eternal life, then James 1:21 is teaching that in order to receive and keep eternal life, we must get rid of sin and build our lives upon Scripture. If we do not get rid of sin and if we fail to follow Scripture, then we will not save our souls. In this understanding, there can be no such thing as eternal security.

When, however, we understand that the word “save” means “deliver” and we also recognize that the word “soul” does not refer to the eternal aspect of a person but rather to the life-giving principle within a person, the phrase “save the soul” is best understood as “deliver the life” from premature death (cf. Jas 5:20). This idea fits best in the context as well, where James calls his readers to get rid of sin and become doers of the word rather than hearers only (Jas 1:21-22).

The way to avoid the damaging and destructive consequences of sin in the life of the believer is simply to avoid sin and follow the teachings of Scripture. If you do this, you will deliver your life from the destruction of sin and a premature physical death.

1 Peter 3:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

Another example is found in 1 Peter 3:21. Here we learn that baptism saves us. So if we think that “saves us” means we receive eternal life, then the clear conclusion is that baptism is a requirement for gaining or keeping our eternal life. If we do not get baptized, then we do not have eternal life.

It is much better, however, to recognize that the word “save” means deliver, and so when Peter writes that baptism saves us, he is saying that baptism delivers us. What does it deliver us from? In the context, Noah and his family were “saved through water” (3:20), which does not mean that the ark gave them eternal life, but that they did not drown in the flood and were delivered from the wickedness and rebellious ways of the people who lived at the time of the flood.

Peter says the same thing can happen to us today (4:3-4) if we live in light of the resurrection. Is Peter telling us how to receive eternal life? No, he is inviting us to avoid the flood of sin and death that comes from lewdness, lust, drunken revelries, and abominable idolatries. Such sins drown out our lives, and we can avoid drowning in sin by recognizing that through baptism (outer water baptism represents the inner reality of Spirit baptism) we have died to sin in Jesus Christ.

Baptism reminds us that we are not slaves to sin but can live free from it. Living this way does not help us earn or keep our eternal life, but it does help us escape the pain and suffering caused by sin.

1 Timothy 4:16 and Once Saved, Always Saved

Then there is 1 Timothy 4:16. According to this text, our salvation is dependent upon how we live our lives and what sort of doctrine we teach and believe. If we fail to take heed of our lives and our doctrine, then we will not be saved.

If the word “saved” refers to eternal life, then Paul is telling Timothy that in order to receive eternal life, he needs to have Godly behavior and beliefs. In other words, keeping eternal life depends on living the right way and believing all the right things. What a scary thought!

If, however, we look in the context, we see a different truth emerge. Paul knows that Timothy feels inadequate to be an elder in the church at Ephesus because he is so young. Paul says that Timothy’s age will not matter if Timothy can give an example to the other Christians in proper behavior and conduct (4:12). If Timothy watches his life and doctrine closely, he will be saved (delivered) from people looking down on him or ignoring him because of his youthfulness.

Salvation is Conditional Upon Good Works. Eternal life is Not.

All of these texts, and numerous others in Scripture, clearly reveal that salvation is conditional upon how we live our lives and what we believe. So if we think that the word “salvation” refers to “eternal life,” then the clear teaching of Scripture is that receiving and keeping eternal life is conditional about believing the right things and behaving in the right way. This is why I say that “once saved, always saved” is not a biblical teaching.

However, eternal security is biblical.

Once we come to understand that the salvation word family almost never (if ever) explicitly refers to eternal life but instead refers to some sort of deliverance from the calamities of life such as danger, suffering, sickness, and premature death, or to some sort of negative experience at the Judgment Seat of Christ, we can readily teach along with Scripture that salvation is conditional upon what we believe and how we behave.

This does not mean, however, that eternal security is also false. Quite to the contrary, there are numerous reasons to believe and teach the biblical truth of eternal security, all of which I cover in my online course.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

Jonah 1:6-8 – Jonah’s Questionable Behavior

By Jeremy Myers

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I always find it interesting when non-Christians challenge and question Christians on our behavior. It’s pretty bad when the unbelieving world has a better sense of justice and a better understanding of right and wrong than Christians. But then, we’re often to blame, for the answers we give to them are so often … well, just flat out wrong.

This is what we are looking at this week and next week in our study of Jonah. Today, we will see some questions that Jonah gets asked, and next week we will see how Jonah answers. In both cases, the sailors on board the ship reveal a better understanding of God, and life, and justice, and right and wrong than Jonah reveals. We’ll see the questions of the sailors today in Jonah 1:6-8.

In Jonah 1, Jonah has placed his own life in danger, as well as the lives of everybody on board his ship. In verses 6-11, the sailors play a little game of 20 questions with Jonah. The answers Jonah provides are … surprising and shocking. Now, I cannot cover Jonah 1:6-11 all in one episode, so we are going to take two episodes to cover these verses.

We will look at most of the questions today, from Jonah 1:6-8, and then next week we will see how Jonah answers the questions of the sailors.

The Text of Jonah 1:6-8

So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”

In this discussion of Jonah 1:6-8 we look at:

The question of the captain to Jonah
The questions of the sailors to Jonah

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

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If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

Romans 6:1 is the Litmus Test for Grace

By Jeremy Myers

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In two previous posts (Grace 1 and Grace 2) I have tried to emphasize that grace is absolutely free.

The objection that is always raised when I write about grace this way is this: Won’t people take advantage of this kind of grace?

The answer to that is “Of course they will!”

But grace that comes with restrictions to avoid being abused is no longer grace.

Romans 6:1 and Grace

Inevitably, whenever I speak or write about grace this way, someone objects that I am contradicting Paul who said in Romans 6:1 that we should not continue in sin so that grace may abound.

Whenever someone asks this question, I am always pleased, because it shows that they are finally beginning to understand grace.

In Romans 4–5, Paul has been writing about the radical, scandalous, outrageous grace that I have been presenting here as well. Note that Romans 6:1 is an objection to Paul’s teaching about grace. It is only because of what Paul has written that someone raises the objection that if what Paul is saying is true, why can’t people sin all they want?

Paul goes on to explain why people should not, but he never says they cannot. And nowhere does Paul say that if people continue to live in sin, they will come to the end of God’s grace, or will prove that they were never truly justified in the first place. No, Paul argues that if a person truly understands the love and grace of God, and what God has done for them in Jesus Christ, this knowledge will lead them to live free from sin, not to live in sin even more.

This is why I like to say that Romans 6:1 is actually the litmus test for anybody’s teaching on grace.

The Romans 6:1 Objection is the Natural Objection to Grace

If someone is teaching about the grace of God, and after they are done, nobody raises the objection that is raised in Romans 6:1, then the teaching on grace was not truly teaching grace.

A biblical explanation of grace will always lead people who have been paying attention to say, “But wait! If what you are saying is true, then why can’t I just go out and sin all I want?”

If you are teaching or writing about grace and you get this question, rejoice, for you have helped someone see the shocking, scandalous, and outrageous nature of God’s grace.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

Jonah 1:5 – Dozing Off While Others Drown

By Jeremy Myers

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I hope you’re ready to get challenged.

Do you remember in the previous episode, how I told you that by studying the book of Jonah we go on a journey with Jonah? And by doing this, we join Jonah in learning some surprising things about God, but also, some surprising things about ourselves?

Yes, well, it begins today. You are about to see your own face in the mirror, and I’m warning you now, it’s not a pretty sight. I hope you’re up for it! It’s going to get convicting!

In Jonah 1:5, we gain an interesting insight into the heart of Jonah … and in the process, an insight into our own hearts as well. Remember, we’re on this journey with Jonah, and on this journey, we learn some important things about God, about Jonah, and especially about ourselves.

The Text of Jonah 1:5

Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship in into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

In this discussion of Jonah 1:5 we look at:

The response of the sailors to the great storm
The response of Jonah to the great storm
Why Jonah’s response mirrors our own response in life

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

Since Grace is Free, YES … You CAN just go sin all you want

By Jeremy Myers

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I hold to radical, outrageous, shocking, scandalous, limitless grace. I believe there is no other kind of grace.

But whenever I teach or write about this sort of grace, it is almost guaranteed that someone will object by saying, “So are you saying that we can just go sin all we want?”

They are referring, of course, to the statement in Romans 6:1 where a person objects to Paul’s teaching about grace in exactly the same way. And Paul’s answer, of course, is “God forbid!”

Can I sin all I want?

In the past, I have responded similarly as Paul. I say “No, of course not!”

Then I go on to explain that just as obedience does nothing to help us earn or keep eternal life, sin does nothing to cause us to lose it or prove we never had it.

The reason God doesn’t want us to sin is because sin damages us.

(By the way, if you have a presentation of the Gospel which never gets the Romans 6:1 objection, then I submit to you that you are probably not teaching the same Gospel Paul was. If, after teaching about grace, no one says to you, “So are you saying I can just sin all i want?” then you probably have not taught grace. I call this question the Grace litmus test.)

But this past week I was talking to someone about grace, and they objected with the grace litmus test, and I don’t know what happened, but I sighed out of exasperation and decided to give a different answer than the one I had always given before.

The man said to me, “So are you saying I can just go sin all I want?”

And I smiled and said, “Yep. If that’s what you want to do, go right ahead.”

I got the “Deer in the headlights” look back from him. I think he had heard rumors that my type of theology existed, but he had never met anyone who was so willing to give him a license to sin as I had just done.

So yes, in a way, grace is a license to sin.

He started getting huffy with me, and tried to show that my response to him was different than what Paul said in Romans 6:1, and how therefore my understanding of grace different from that of Paul and so on…

But the more he preached at me the more convinced I became of what I had said out of exasperation.

Grace allows you to sin all you want … if that’s really what you want

If you really understand grace, and if you really understand God, and if you really understand God’s love for you, and after understanding all this, you really want to go sin, then be my guest, go right ahead.

Although grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust (Titus 2:12), grace also allows you to go sin all you want … if that is really what you want.

Let me put it another way.

If I told my daughters that I loved them completely, and that no matter what they did, I would always love them, forgive them, and be willing to die for them, and if, after I told them this, one of my daughters looked at me and said, “So I can just go stick my hand in the blender and you will still love me?” I would look at her a little strangely and say, “Well … yes … if that’s really want you want to do, go ahead. But know that if you do that, it’s going to be extremely painful. I will, of course, pull your hand out of the blender and rush you to the hospital to stop the bleeding and rescue what I can of your hand. But no matter what, I will still love you and cherish you as my daughter.”

This is what Paul means in Romans 6 when he responds with “God Forbid!” He is not saying, “No, you cannot!” but rather, “Why would you want to?”

You see, sin doesn’t stop God from loving us, nor does it stop God from doing everything He can to rescue us from the devastating and destructive consequences of sin. Sin definitely doesn’t prove that we were never His son or daughter to begin with.

No, sin hurts us. It cuts us. It ruins us. Sin destroys our relationships, our health, our finances, our marriages, our jobs, our longevity, our emotions, our psyche.

Asking the question “So I can just go sin all I want?” simply shows that you do not fully understand the love of God, the grace of God, or even God Himself! It also reveals that you do not understand the devastating and destructive consequences of sin.

Asking the question, “So I can just go sin all I want?” reveals that you don’t understand how painful sin can be.

Asking the question “So I can just go sin all I want?” is like asking, “So I can take this knife and stab it into my leg?” … Yes, if that is really what you want to do, go right ahead.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

Jonah 1:4 – Does God Send Storms?

By Jeremy Myers

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In Jonah 1:4, God sends a storm upon Jonah and the ship that carries him to Tarshish. Is this how God normally behaves? It’s a practical question that all of us face in life from time to time.

My wife and I are experiencing some difficulties in life right now. Quite often, it feels like we are in a storm, being buffeted by wind and waves. We sometimes have trouble keeping our heads above water.

My wife mentioned our struggles to someone this week, and they sent an email to her saying that the reason we are facing this storm is because we are sinning. The person who wrote the email said that God sent these troubles upon us because our views about church and about the LGBT community were sinful. We have been deceived by Satan, the email said, and so this is why God is punishing us with the storms of life.

People read in the Bible that Jonah disobeys God and so God sends a storm. Then when people see others facing storms in life, they says, “Oh, well, it must be because you are disobeying God.”

Is that really how God works? Does God send storms into our lives to punish us? If you sin, will God send disasters into your life to punish you? Does God send sickness, disease, famines, floods, earthquakes, or the loss of jobs, income, health, or even the death of a family member? Is this what God does?

Well, lots of people think so, and it is because of verses in the Bible like Jonah 1:4 that they think so. This is the verse we are looking at today, and by doing so we will hope to answer some of these questions.

The Text of Jonah 1:4

But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.

In this discussion of Jonah 1:4 we look at:

The description of the great storm in Jonah 1:4
Why some people think God sends storms upon sinners
Why Jesus reveals that God does not send storms to punish sinners
If God does not punish sin with storms of destruction, then what is going on in Jonah 1;4?
A brief preview and overview of the message in the book of Jonah

Resources:

While you wait for my book on the violence of God to come out, below are some additional resources that I have found helpful, and you might too…

Redeeming God Discipleship Area
Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes
Is God to Blame? by Greg Boyd
The Crucifixion of the Warrior God by Greg Boyd
Is God a Moral Monster? by Paul Copan
God’s Word in Human Words by Kenton Sparks
The Bible Made Impossible by Christian Smith
Disturbing Divine Behavior by Eric Seibert
The Human Faces of God by Thom Stark
Reading the Bible Again For the First Time by Markus Borg

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

Outrageous Scandalous Grace – the only kind there is

By Jeremy Myers

55 Comments

Grace is the key to everything.

And I am not referring to the week-kneed, limp, powerless, feeble grace that you find in most Christian theology today, but the shocking, outrageous, scandalous, indiscriminate, senseless, irrational, unfair, irreligious, ridiculous, absurd, offensive, infinite grace which Jesus exhibited during His life.

The only people who really object to this kind of grace are the religious people who think that their behavior merits them some sort of special privilege or position with God and are offended that the so-called “sinners” are put on equal footing with them before God. But that is exactly what God’s grace does.

By grace, God loves all, forgives all, and accepts all, with no conditions, no strings attached, no fine print, no qualifications, no limits, and no ongoing requirements.

The grace of God is so outlandish and foreign to every human way of thinking and living, I believe that it is absolutely impossible for any human being to place too much emphasis on grace.

But what is grace?

Grace is often defined as God’s unmerited favor, or, in everyday terminology, God giving us something good that we do not deserve.

Grace is different from mercy, which could be defined as God not giving us something bad that we do deserve.

I do not think that there is too much disagreement in many Christian circles on the definition of grace, and so I do not want to spend too much time trying to defend a specific definition of grace.

What we do see, however, is that certain groups try to limit, restrict, or modify grace so that it is not as shocking or scandalous as it first appears.

The Crucifixion was not a Condition of Grace

One way that many use to limit the extent and effectiveness of grace is to connect it with the crucifixion of Jesus. It is not uncommon to hear sermons or read books where it is claimed that it is only because Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world that God can now show grace toward people.

If Jesus had not died, we are told, then God could not have extended His grace toward sinners.

But once again, such an idea strips grace of all its meaning and power.

Grace, by definition, is unmerited.

There is nothing that can be done (or not done) to earn or merit or deserve grace. If God could not extend grace unless someone died (whether it was us or Jesus), then God’s grace is not grace at all, but is a transaction.

The extension of God’s grace toward humanity was not preconditioned upon the death of Jesus on the cross. Grace does not demand payment in any way, shape, or form. Grace is not the act of God paying the debt of sin by sacrificing His own Son on the cross as our substitute. Grace has always been extended by God simply on the basis of His love.

Grace would still be extended even if Jesus never died on the cross.

The death of Jesus on the cross was because of God’s grace; not the grounds for it.

It is this fundamental flaw in modern theology’s understanding of grace that has caused so much trouble in many other areas of theology as well. But once we see that God gives grace for no other reason than because God is gracious, it is only then that we begin to understand the true nature of grace.

So don’t limit God’s grace by thinking that God could only extend it by sacrificing Jesus to pay the debt of our sin. That’s not grace.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

Jonah 1:3 –Slapping God in the Face

By Jeremy Myers

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I published a post this week on the blog about how a true understanding of grace allows you to just go sin all you want. If that is really what you want.

I am going to write more about that in the coming weeks, but I received several emails from readers who wanted to know if I meant intentional sin as well.

If a person intentionally and knowingly sins, will God still love them, forgive them, accept them, and keep them in His family?

The answer is yes. There is no sin, intentional or unintentional, which will cause God to stop loving you and forgiving you. This is a big theme in a lot of my writings and teachings. I teach a lot more about this in my course, The Gospel According to Scripture, but I’m bringing it up now because in the verse we are looking at today from Jonah, we see Jonah commit a pretty big sin. And he does it intentionally.

Jonah pretty much slaps God in the face. He spits in God’s face. To put it more crudely, Jonah gives God the finger. You can’t get much worse or much more intentional than that. And we will see in future episodes how God responds. If you feel like you have sinned pretty badly, then make sure you keep listening to the podcast because you will be both challenged and encouraged.

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The Text of Jonah 1:3

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

In this discussion of Jonah 1:3 we look at:

What it means for Jonah to flee to Tarshish instead of go to Nineveh
The significance of the term “the presence of the Lord”
What the story is telling us by the repeated use of the word “down”

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

By Jeremy Myers

35 Comments

God’s offer of eternal life is simple … but it is not easy to believe.

The simple offer of eternal life in the Gospel is that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ for it.

Simple, right?

But not easy to believe.

It is not easy to believe that God’s free gift of eternal life is by grace from first to last.

True grace is something completely foreign to the way life works or to the way most people think. Humans are unaccustomed to grace. We are told almost from birth that nothing is ever free, that there is always a hidden catch, and that we should always read the fine print.

So when the gospel is presented to us and we are told that eternal life is the absolutely free gift of God to anyone who receives it by faith in Jesus, and that there is nothing we need to do or even can do to earn it or keep it, most people start a get a little suspicious.

They start to look for the fine print.

They start to search for the catch.

The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

So we go looking for the fine print, the footnotes, or the hidden conditions.

Sadly, there are far too many Christians who are more than willing to provide the fine print and explain the catch.

“Oh yes,” they say. “Eternal life is free, but you have to love God in return and obey what He says in Scripture in order to prove you have it.”

Others say, “Well, you need to understand, if you truly are a Christian, your life will have the good works to back up your claim. If you don’t have the good works, then this means you are not truly a Christian.”

Then there is this argument: “Eternal life is free, but before you can receive it, you have to fix up your life, seek after God, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, prepare your heart for faith, and pray the sinner’s prayer.”

To all these sorts of teachings, and countless similar ideas, the gospel in Scripture says “No! Eternal life is a free gift of God.”

Eternal life is by God’s grace from first to last.

There are no works needed to gain eternal life, keep eternal life, or prove you have eternal life.

Eternal life does not require you to reform your life, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus, get baptized, seek God, or pray a prayer.

Just receive eternal life as a free gift from God by believing in Jesus for it. That’s it!

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

This is why the free offer of eternal life is a problem for most people.

It sounds too good to be true.

It sounds too radical.

It sounds like it’s taking grace too far.

Since the gospel of grace is opposite to the way the rest of life works, many people have great trouble accepting it.

So almost without fail, when people first begin to grasp the implications of the freeness of God’s grace in the offer of eternal life—that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it—they begin to ask questions.

One of the most frequent questions is this: “So if eternal life is free and all I have to do is believe in Jesus to get it, does this mean I can go sin all I want?”

A man recently posed the question to me this way, “Are you saying that I can believe in Jesus for eternal life, but I can still sleep around, and steal from people, and even murder anyone I want to, but I still get to go to heaven when I die? I don’t have to stop sinning? I don’t have to read the Bible? I don’t have to go to church?”

While many Christians would answer “No” to these questions, my answer is always, “Yes!”

No ifs, ands, or buts.

Without qualification.

Absent of all fine print, footnotes, or hidden conditions.

Yes, I know.

If I say that grace allows you to go sin all you want, you now are beginning to wonder if I am a false teacher who promotes licentious living.

You have probably heard rumors that teachers like me exist, but have rarely (if ever) encountered one in public.

Pastors often preach against “those grace teachers,” but few people have ever really met one.

This is because most so-called “grace teachers” still include a lot of “ifs, ands, or buts” in their teachings about grace. So the true “grace teacher” is viewed as a bit of a legend, sort like leprechauns and elves.

But I have now exposed myself as one of those mythical monsters that people are warned about by their pastors. Even still, you might be thinking I do not mean what I say.

But I do.

Since grace is free, you can go sin all you want.

I will explain this idea more in future blog posts, but if you absolutely must know NOW what I mean, take my course on the gospel. It explains all this (and more) in great detail.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

How to read and teach the Apocalyptic Literature of the Bible

By Jeremy Myers

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Have you ever tried to study or teach the books of Daniel and Revelation?

If so, you know how challenging they can be. This is partly because these books are two of the “Apocalyptic” books in the Bible. The apocalyptic books of the Bible are some of the hardest to read, study, understand, and teach.

I recently read an excellent book on how to study and teach these apocalyptic sections of the Bible. It is the book Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature by Richard Taylor.

In this book, Taylor provides an excellent summary of what Apocalyptic Literature is and why it is so difficult for modern readers to understand. He then moves on to provide numerous suggestions and guidelines for studying Apocalyptic Literature and teaching it to others (e.g., p 118f). Taylor also includes several warnings about the pitfalls that many ancient and modern Christians have fallen into when they study and teach these difficult portions of the Bible (p. 130f).

I found this book to be one of the best introductory books I have read on Apocalyptic Literature in the Bible, and highly recommend it for anybody who wants to study, teach, or preach through any of the Apocalyptic books or sections of the Bible. This is especially true if you plan on teaching the book of Daniel. I say this because the Taylor uses the book of Daniel to provide practical examples of how to read and teach Apocalyptic Literature. As such, this book almost serves as a good mini commentary on Daniel.

Of course, if you are studying Revelation, this book by Taylor will be helpful too, but there are not nearly as many tips or suggestions on Revelation as there are on Daniel. This is probably the only downfall to Taylor’s book, since Revelation tends to be more difficult to read and understand than Daniel. But I have previously provided some tips on reading Revelation, and there is another book in the series which focuses specifically on Revelation.

So, do you want to study and teach Daniel and other apocalyptic books of the Bible? Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature by Richard Taylor will lead you in the right direction.

Eternal Security and Once Saved, Always Saved

The Word “Salvation”

James 1:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

1 Peter 3:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

1 Timothy 4:16 and Once Saved, Always Saved

Salvation is Conditional Upon Good Works. Eternal life is Not.

The Text of Jonah 1:6-8

In this discussion of Jonah 1:6-8 we look at:

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Romans 6:1 and Grace

The Romans 6:1 Objection is the Natural Objection to Grace

The Text of Jonah 1:5

In this discussion of Jonah 1:5 we look at:

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Can I sin all I want?

Grace allows you to sin all you want … if that’s really what you want

The Text of Jonah 1:4

In this discussion of Jonah 1:4 we look at:

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

But what is grace?

The Crucifixion was not a Condition of Grace

The Text of Jonah 1:3

In this discussion of Jonah 1:3 we look at:

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

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