There are Scriptures in the Bible that make it appear that saved people can fall away. However, there is an abundance of Scripture that support "eternal salvation" not a conditional salvation. After all, we do not save ourselves. Remember, Paul asked the Galatians 3:3 "Can you start in the Spirit and finish in the flesh?" No, this is impossible. And remember, he is speaking to Christians.
That is why 2 Timothy 2:15 said to Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You cannot glance at Scripture or merely read it. You must study it. You also must compare the New and Old Testaments because knowing the Old helps you understand the New better. When Jesus addresses the people who called Him Lord, Lord in Matthew 7:21, I think it is telling when He says to them "I NEVER knew you."
Also, Romans 8:9 says But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Therefore, you can't even try to live saved if you do not belong to Christ. You cannot live for Christ without Him. How can you say "I tried to live for Christ but He left me." If you don't have His Spirit, you are none of His.
Romans 8:9 is a hard scripture to escape. It is in your face. This means that if you think you can lose your salvation, you also think that the Holy Spirit can be in you and then leave you. But Jesus promised that he would be with us forever. That He would never leave us. John 14:16-17 KJV says
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you (speaking of the Day of Pentecost).
How can Jesus be in you and you are striving to live for Him, and then one day, he decides to dump you? For what? Why did He save you in the first place? Because you were good? No! Because you were special? No! It was not for anything we have done. Not for any works that we did, but because of His great love for us and He wooed us to Himself (John 6:44 says
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.) We cannot boast that we saved ourselves, nor that we keep ourselves. We are both saved and kept by God. 1 Peter 1:5 says Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Ephesians 2:8 says For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
God does not give His Spirit to the world John 14:16-17. He is saying that if you have God's Spirit, you both see and know God. Remember, God told those in Matthew 7:21 "I NEVER knew you."
If you think that God, after He gives us His Spirit can take it back, that sounds like a false doctrine. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:22 ESV and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Also Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV says In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,[b] to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 says
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
God makes great and precious promises to us. 2 Peter 1:4 says by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
God is not a liar. He cannot lie. Numbers 23:19 says God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? He cannot make us a promise and not keep it. We hang our lives on these promises and stand on them. That is what Abraham did. He believed that God would keep His promise to Him. Romans 4:2-5 says
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
This is an abundance of support for "eternal salvation." We are both saved and kept only by God, not ourselves. Paul was continually, in his letters to the church, reminding them of who they were, urging them not to sin because they had been purged of sin. Sin was dead to them.
We are not Christians because of what we do but because of who we are. We must remember that and lean on God to fulfil His will in our lives and help us live godly. If a human being thinks he is a cat and meows, he does not become a cat. He is a human being acting like a cat. The Bible says that we are new creations in Christ Jesus. When we believe, we pass over. We must keep our hearts and heads in His Word so that we understand who we are now so that we do not sin against Him. A Christian who sins does not understand what has happened to Him. We must cling to Jesus and His word so that He will transform us.
