Review of ‘Once Saved, Always Saved?’ by David Pawson
This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1998.
Let me begin by saying that I heartily approve of the motivation and the concerns which lie behind this book. It is all too true that much evangelical preaching has been seriously superficial and one-sided, representing salvation as though it were simply a salvation from eternal perdition and not also a salvation from sin.
Likewise, there has all too often been a lack of emphasis on the need for repentance, both in those who are coming to Christ for the first time for salvation, and in those who are believers but do not, as they should, heed the Lord's repeated and insistent calls to the churches to repent of the things that displease him (see Revelation 2; 3).
I would not wish, therefore, that any comments of mine on this book should be taken as minimizing the problem, or undermining David Pawson's desire to deal with the problem.
My major concern with this author is that, in the end, his interpretation of Scripture seems to me to treat sin less seriously than Scripture treats it.
As I read him, Mr Pawson says that believers who continue unrepentantly in sin can lose their salvation, and need, therefore, to be warned of this possibility. As I understand Scripture, Scripture maintains that a person who continues unrepentantly in sin is not, and never was, a believer at all. Mr Pawson recognizes that there are some who hold this view that I have just enunciated; but then he rejects that view and prefers to think that it is possible for a genuine believer, while still being a believer, to persist in unrepentant sin; and feels it enough to warn such a believer that, if they carry on like that, they will sometime eventually lose their salvation. In my view, to say that is to regard unrepentant persistence in sin as nowhere near serious enough. Scripture declares that unrepentant persistence in sin is a sure and certain mark that a person is not a believer at all, and never has been.
As evidence for this view, I cite the following Scriptures.
Doctrinal apostasy: 1 John 2:18–28
In this passage, John deals with false teachers, as is evident from 1 John 2:22. They deny that Jesus is the Christ. This is doctrinal apostasy. For in saying 'they went out from us' (1 John 2:19), John indicates that these people had been members of the Christian church, professedly in agreement with the apostles. But now they had departed from the apostolic teaching and had, presumably, gone out from the Christian churches.
The question arises: what were they before they went out from the Christian community? Were they, at this stage, genuine believers who subsequently lost their faith? The answer is most certainly no, for John himself tells us what their original status was: 'they went out from us, but they were not of us'. This seems to me to be both clear and explicit. It does not allow us to argue that they were once believers who then apostatized and lost salvation.
To make this abundantly clear, John adds, 'if they had been of us, they would have continued with us' (ASV). In saying so, John enunciates a basic principle of the New Testament, that true believers do 'continue'. John then adds, 'but they went out, that they might be made manifest how that they all are not of us'. In the verses that follow, John makes a very big distinction between these false teachers and the true believers, and exhorts the true believers not to let themselves be compromised by dallying with these false teachers and their false teaching, lest in so doing they should be ashamed when the Lord comes.
Moral apostasy among professedly Christian teachers: Jude 4
The men to whom Jude refers were advocating moral permissiveness in the churches. They are like bishops and ministers nowadays who are themselves practising immorality, and recommend that those who practise immorality should be allowed into church fellowship, and indeed should be allowed to become ministers in the church. Notice how Jude describes the entrance of these men into the church: 'There are certain men crept in privily' (Jude 4 ASV). The phrase is very revealing. True believers do not creep into the church privily. Creeping in privily is what wolves in sheep's clothing do; it is what false believers and hypocrites do. The men were not, and never had been, true believers.
Moral apostasy among members of the church: 2 Peter 2:20–22
Here Peter describes those who have 'known the way of righteousness'. By knowing, he means not simply those who are aware of what the Bible teaches, but people who have come to understand what the Bible teaches by the influence and illumination of the Holy Spirit; but who, in spite of that, deliberately turn back from the holy commandment.
To explain their conduct and how it is that, after professing to be Christians, they returned to an immoral way of life, Peter uses two parables, and the parables are exceedingly illuminating.
A dog, when it has eaten a lot of foul matter, which it finds painfully indigestible, will relieve itself of the pain by vomiting. But vomiting does not turn the dog into a sheep, who would not eat such foul stuff in the first place. The dog, remaining a dog, will eventually go back to what is its nature to do.
Similarly, a sow. Peter here has borrowed a Greek fable that tells of a sow who decided that she would like to be a nice fine lady. So it set about doing what the nice fine ladies of the time did. It went to the public baths, got itself scrubbed all over, put on a nice dress, put a jewel in its snout, and tried to walk on its hind legs. For a while it succeeded, but then, coming across a filthy pool of mud, it forgot all about being a lady, dived into the mud and wallowed in it. Why? Was it because it had managed to become a nice fine lady, but then lost its lady's nature? No, of course not! It did what it did because, though it had been cleaned up on the outside, it had never been changed inside. It had never been born again, never become a new creation.
This is more solemn than warning people that, having been born again and become children of God—having become, in fact, Christ's sheep and known him by name—they could, if they are not careful and persist in immoral behaviour, lose the divine nature and revert to being unregenerated swine. Scripture says that people who behave like this sow did were never true born again children of God at all. They were unregenerated people, cleaned up on the outside without ever having received a nature of the children of God.
The question of Practical Righteousness
He that doeth sin is of the devil. (1 John 3:8 ASV) In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. (1 John 3:10)
Commentators say that John deals solely in black and white, and does not seem to allow shades of grey. It is the fact, however, that John recognizes that believers do from time to time sin (see 1 John 1:9–2:2). John, then, is a realist, and it has always been open to believers who sin, as we all do, to confess their sins and receive forgiveness. But John is equally clear that those who constantly and unrepentantly practise sin are children of the devil. They are like Cain, who was of that evil one (see 1 John 3:12). Cain was not a believer, who then sinned so badly that he lost his salvation. He never was a man of faith; never was a child of God.
Our Lord's own testimony: John 8:30–44
Here we have mentioned people who are said to have believed on Christ (John 8:30). To these people, therefore, who had believed on him, our Lord remarked, 'if you abide in [continue in] my word, then are you truly my disciples'. Here our Lord intimates what is the mark—the indispensable mark—of a true believer: a true believer continues in Christ's word.
Now, these men who professed to believe on the Lord Jesus objected to what Christ said. He pointed out that they were slaves of sin, and needed deliverance from bondage to sin. But they responded by getting very angry. They claimed to be children of Abraham (see John 8:39) and children of God (see John 8:41). How did our Lord treat this claim of theirs? Did he say, 'Yes you have really come to believe on me, you are children of Abraham and children of God; but if you persist in your present attitude you will lose your salvation and cease to be children of God and children of Abraham'? No, he did not say anything of the sort. He pointed out to them that they were not children of God nor children of Abraham, and never had been: 'you are of your father the devil' (John 8:44).
From this, there becomes apparent what John points out in John 2:23–25, namely that not all professed belief in Christ is genuine belief. When Christ was at the feast, many believed on him, but Jesus did not commit himself to them. The reason is that they were not true believers. Our Lord himself declares that he will never cast out anyone who genuinely comes to him (see John 6:37). But he did not accept those who at the feast said they believed on him, because he knew what was in them. Their belief was not true faith.
Similarly, in the great parable of the Sower, our Lord indicates that there are some people who for a while believe (Luke 8:13–14). Since our Lord says that they, in some sense, do believe, I must not say that they did not believe. But, on the other hand, our Lord says that they believe for a while; and belief that is simply for a while is not the genuine thing. The New Testament everywhere insists on the fact that true belief persists. These people, then, who believe for a while, fall away in a time of testing. Why do they fall away? Our Lord explicitly states the reason why: 'they have no root'. They have none, because they never did have any. This was the seed that fell upon the rock where the soil was shallow. The rock being warm caused the seed to germinate, but precisely because it was rock, the germinated seed was never able to develop roots. Therefore, the seed had never any hope of persisting and bringing forth fruit. These people, then, are not and never were true believers. The mark of the true believer, as our Lord gives it in Luke 8:15, is this: 'these are such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit with endurance'.
Now, from this we learn that the indispensable mark of a true believer is 'endurance' or, if you will, 'perseverance' or 'persistence'; and this is the theme that all three apostles, Paul, James and Peter, dwell on at some length, and there is an obvious reason why they should. Mr Pawson himself, in sundry places in his book, touches on this situation. If it is true that a person who unrepentantly persists in sinning shows himself or herself never to have been a true believer, would that not mean that none of us can be sure that we are believers? Would we not have to wait until the end of life until we can be sure that we showed perseverance, thus demonstrating that we had been, since our conversion, true believers? In other words, how can believers be sure that they will not eventually fall into sin and persist in it? How can they be sure that they will endure, abide and persist in Christ's word and in the faith?
Let us see how the apostles deal with the question.
The witness of the apostles
Paul: Romans 5:1–5
Up to this point in his epistle, Paul has stated, and many times repeated, that justification is by faith and not through works. But if faith is the vital link between us and God, it raises this question very forcibly: can a believer be sure that their faith will persist, in spite of all the temptations and testings of life? For if justification depends upon faith, what happens if a believer's faith is broken, so that they can no longer be regarded as a believer?
Paul turns, therefore, to answer this question in Romans 5. Here he lists the implications involved in having been justified by faith. First comes peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, Paul points to the fact that, through Christ, we have access into this grace wherein we stand. When he says 'stand', he does not mean 'stand' as distinct from 'sit'; he means 'stand' in the sense of 'stand fast'. In other words, since we stand in God's grace, our standing is secure.
As a result of this, he points out that we can boast of hope of the glory of God. Now, in New Testament terminology, 'hope' does not indicate slender and uncertain hope, as it often does in English when, for instance, we say 'I hope the weather will be fine for my holiday' and we rather expect it won't be. Hope means certain expectation, as in Hebrews 6:19: 'which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast'. Here, then, in Romans 5:2, we are told that, having been justified by faith, we can enjoy the certain and secure hope that, one day, we shall attain to the glory of God; we shall be conformed to the image of his Son.
But Paul then points out that, having been justified by faith, we can be utterly confident that tribulation will not break or destroy true faith. So we can rejoice, even in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces endurance, or persistence; and persistence produces demonstrated genuineness.
It is important to notice here that Paul uses the word knowing. We are to 'know' this. God wants us to know it. We are to know that, where there is true faith, tribulation will but effect endurance, and in that knowledge we can find courage to meet the tribulation.
James: James 1:2–3
James says exactly the same thing: 'count it all joy when you fall into various testings'. The word he uses is the same word as our Lord uses in Luke chapter 8 of those who, in times of testing, fall away. The 'testings' that James is thinking of are those which will show whether we are true believers or not. How, then, can we face such testings with confidence? And how can we possibly face such testings with joy, if those tests are so serious that they will, in the end, demonstrate whether or not we are true believers?
James explains: 'Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various testings, knowing that the proving of your faith produces endurance, persistence, perseverance'. Notice two things: first, that James uses the verb 'knowing' just like Paul does. It is this certain knowledge that can give us joy in our hearts when we face life's testings, and it is for lack of this knowledge that many believers live in uncertainty and fear.
Notice, secondly, that James, in talking of endurance, or perseverance, is using the same word as Paul does in Romans 5, and as our Lord did in Luke 8.
Peter: 1 Peter 1:5–9
Peter, like Paul and James, talks about our testings and the proving of our faith. Notice that he likens our faith to gold that has to be, and will be, tried and tested in order to remove from it any dross that there might be in it. But at the same time, Peter indicates that our faith is gold. God will test it, but he never will destroy it. He will bring it through the test to praise, glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The bearing of our Lord's intercession upon the maintenance of a believer's faith: Luke 22:31–34
There were two apostles, one was Judas and the other was Peter. Mr Pawson appears to think that Judas was a genuine believer who eventually fell into the grievous sin of apostasy and betrayed the Lord Jesus.
I find that exceedingly difficult to believe in the light of what our Lord said in John 6:64, 68–71. What did he know about Judas from the beginning? Was it that, from the beginning, he was a true believer, but eventually that he would fall away and be lost? No, the verse seems to say the very opposite. He knew from the beginning who they were that believed in him, and who it was that should betray him. Verse 66 tells us that 'upon this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him'.
Challenged by the Lord, Simon Peter then answered, 'Lord we have believed and know that thou art the holy one of God'. Here spoke a true disciple, in contrast to those disciples who went back and walked no more with him. But when Peter thus confirmed his faith in the Lord Jesus, we then read in John 6:70–71, '"Did not I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (He was referring to Judas, who was eventually going to betray him).' I find it difficult, indeed impossible, to think that our Lord at the beginning regarded Judas as a true believer. In this context, Judas stands in vivid contrast to Peter and the other apostles: he had a demon, said Christ. From the very beginning, Jesus had known that he was not a true believer.
We never read, therefore, that Christ prayed for Judas. At the very last he still offered him the sop (or bread) of his friendship and salvation, and the offer was sincere. But Judas, though he took the bread, persisted in his rejection of Christ and his determination to betray him (see John 13:21–27). Christ never prayed for him that his faith should not fail.
But he did pray for Peter, that his faith should not fail. Though Peter's courage temporarily failed, and for a while he acted extremely inconsistently and denied the Lord, and for the time being shattered his testimony, his faith did not fail. In fact, when Peter had denied the Lord three times, and the cock crew, and the Lord turned and looked upon him, Peter then believed Christ more than ever he had done before. He had no option. What Christ had said had now come true. Peter, in that moment, knew that the rest of what Christ said would also come true: he would turn again, and when he had turned he would strengthen his brethren. Peter, therefore, persisted in his faith, and in spite of his temporary breakdown he remained a believer. He did so, of course, solely for this reason: that Christ, as his great high priest, interceded for him.
Christ has no favourites: what he did for Peter he does for all true believers (see Heb 7:25).
Judas, then, was not a true believer, and Christ never prayed for him. On the other hand, in John 17, Christ does pray for the rest of the disciples and all those who down the centuries would come to believe on him through their word. And one of the major burdens of his prayer to the Father is this: he himself has kept the eleven disciples and not one of them is lost. That is, he has maintained their faith. Now, upon his leaving this world, he asks his Father to keep them. The question surely arises: Christ confidently asserts that he has kept the eleven disciples and none of them is lost—will the Father be less good at keeping believers in Christ than his Son was when he was here on earth?
The coming kingdom of God
Now let me come to the topic which Mr Pawson dwells upon: that is, the coming Kingdom of our Lord. Here I think it exceedingly important that we listen to Paul in Galatians 3:13–29, as he expounds the conditions upon which we inherited the great inheritance promised to Abraham and to his seed.
In this context, Paul is arguing that justification is by faith and not by works of the law. Mr Pawson would agree that justification is not by our merit whatsoever. But Paul, in this great passage, argues that not only is justification by faith, but so also are the promise, the covenant and the inheritance. If, then, you were to say that justification depends on faith plus the works of the law, on grace plus our merit, Paul would anathematize you (see Galatians 1). We must not, therefore, suggest that entry into the inheritance is by faith plus our merit; for if we did so, Paul might anathematize us as well.
How, then, are we to understand the verses in Galatians 5:19-21? Mr Pawson seems to read this passage, and its sister passage in Ephesians 5:5–8, as if Paul was saying to the believers that if they do these things, they will not inherit—and this he takes to mean that, if true believers fall into persistent sin, they will forfeit entry into the inheritance. Once more I want to suggest that Mr Pawson's view underestimates the seriousness of persistence in sin. Paul does not say in Galatians 5:21 that if you do such things, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He says those who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And since he has earlier proved up to the hilt that inheritance in the kingdom of God depends solely on faith (in the same way as justification does), then those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God are by definition unbelievers. And that is what we find the Apostle John saying in 1 John 3, that those who unrepentantly persist in the practice of sin are not believers who are in danger of missing the inheritance: they are not believers at all. They are, to use John's strong language, children of the devil.
An alternative view held by others which comes somewhat nearer to the truth of the matter says that believers who live lives of poor spiritual quality fail to enjoy the inheritance into which God has brought them (like the Israelites in the times of the judges, who had entered into their inheritance but did not drive out the sundry enemies that prevented them from enjoying the fullness of their inheritance that they had a right to). But we must be careful to avoid the doubtful point of view that the inheritance is something additional to salvation, and that it is something that not all believers have access to.
Mr Pawson also makes much of the warnings in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Mr Pawson seems to think that true believers can, in the sense in which Hebrews 10:26, 29 means it, 'sin wilfully . . . tread under foot the Son of God, count his blood a common, valueless, thing, and do despite to the Spirit of God'.
With all due respect, I hold this as a quite mistaken exposition of those verses, but I have written at length about the warnings in Hebrews in my little book An Unshakeable Kingdom. So I will not repeat here what I have there said.
How to tell if you are a true believer
Finally, for the moment, let me comment on the question that constantly arises. We all, from time to time, sin. If, then, persistency in sin is a mark that the person concerned is not, and never has been, a believer, how could you ever tell whether yourself or anybody else is a true believer or not? Why, in fact, does the writer to Hebrews issue such dire warnings to people whom he addresses as holy brethren?
The answer is to be found in the very nature of things. If, for instance, you had been standing by Peter's side when he strongly denied the Lord, and someone had asked you 'Is Peter a believer?', what would you have said? You could not know Peter's heart as the Lord knew it. You might well have said, 'From what I have known of Peter and the way he has behaved in times past, I feel convinced in my heart that he is a genuine believer. I think he is a believer who is now acting inconsistently, but I have to admit that he himself is saying at the moment that he is not a believer. How, then, can I contradict what the man himself is saying?'
Moreover, if you had the opportunity at this stage to consult Peter, you surely would have reminded him of his earlier love for the Lord and implored him not to cast away his confession of faith. You would have reminded him that, if he would only come to the Lord and confess his sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive him. He could come boldly to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in his time of need. But at this very moment, you could not have yourself been 100% sure that Peter was a believer.
The writer to the Hebrews shows the same attitude. At Hebrews 6:9–11 he confesses to his readers that in his heart of hearts he is persuaded that they are true believers. He reminds them of the evidence in their past life of such works as indicated that they were true believers and loved the Lord, and were genuinely saved people. But then he adds, 'while in my heart of hearts I am convinced that you are true believers, and there is evidence that you are genuinely saved, I am speaking as if I were not convinced that you are genuine believers'. The writer was not able to read their hearts any more than we are able to read other people's hearts. He exhorts them, of course, not to throw away their confession but to return to the Lord.
The simple fact remains that, if Peter had never come back to the Lord and had persisted for the rest of the years in denying the Lord, you would have had to conclude that he was not, and never was, a true believer; he was like Judas. Though, of course, in Peter's case, we are told in advance in Luke 22 by the Lord himself that Peter was a true believer, and that he would come through his terrible experience; that his faith would not fail, and that he would be restored.
So we cannot be 100% certain of other people's hearts. We can only look upon the evidence—though here we may take comfort in the words of Hebrews 6:10, that God himself does not forget the evidence which in past times people gave that they were true believers. But can we be certain in our own hearts that we are true believers? We may claim to know the Lord. Can we know for certain that we know the Lord? Well, yes, of course we can. 1 John 2:3 says, 'Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments' (ASV). None of us keeps these commandments as well and perfectly as we should like to, but in the heart of every believer there is a desire to keep his commandments, and when believers fail to keep them they will do as the context suggests: they will sooner or later confess their sins, and the Father will forgive them. In addition there is, of course, the internal witness of the Holy Spirit in the heart of every believer, that as believers we are the children of God (see Romans 8:16).
These, then, are my initial responses to the reading of this book.
