As told to a friend

Gentle Reader, we havew here an understand that many hold on too....
Read and tell me where you see yourself
For many years, I was a member of a "church" group that held that sins were forgiven upon request. They also opposed the concept of "the security of believers," which was also referred to as "once saved, always saved." At some point in time, I became aware of the fact that the two concepts were not the same. The difference in the two concepts was in the term "believers." In order to understand this, we must fully comprehend the truth of these things, we must understand the scriptural disposition of those that are "in Jesus."

Romans 4:88 "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account."

2 Corinthians 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.


In Romans 4:8, the phrase "take into account" was rendered from a single Greek term that means "to put together with one's mind, to count, to occupy oneself with reckonings or calculations." This is the same word that is rendered as "counting" in 2 Corinthians 5:19. Paul was declaring that God did not recognize the sins of those who are in Jesus!

Romans 8:3, 4 - 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

In the above verses, Paul stated that God had "condemned" sin in the "flesh." In the context of the Roman letter, Paul used the term "flesh" in regard to the "fleshly system" of service under the Law. What Jesus had accomplished for those that were under the Law is fund in the meaning of the term that was rendered as "condemned, which meant "to depose, to set aside."

"Condemned. Deposed from its dominion, a thing impossible to the law, which could pronounce judgment and inflict penalty, but not dethrone." Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament, Romans 8:3.

Paul stated that God, through Jesus, had set aside or ended the dominion of sins under the Law. Jesus didn’t end the Law; He ended accountability for sins!

Hebrews 10:1-4 - 1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The subject of the above text is "making perfect." The offerings of the Law, by nature of their repetitiveness, demonstrated that they were inadequate for that purpose. The "keys" to the writer’s presentation are found in the phrases "no longer have consciousness of sins" and "once offered." How can man no longer have consciousness of sins? That can only happen if he is secure in the knowledge that his sins are "not taken into account." That is precisely what the writer stated in verse 4.

The writer used a single Greek term that was rendered as "take away." While the writer is commonly understood as addressing "forgiveness," the meaning of the Greek term was in regard to the removal of a burden, article of clothing, or the suffering caused by the loss of something. The only other time that term was used in association with sin was in Romans 11:27, where the meaning is parallel with the verse under discussion.

Romans 11:2727 "And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."

Contrast the above verse with what Paul had stated in the earlier verses of our discussion. Then contrast the Hebrews writer’s use of "take away" with his presentation of God’s promises.

Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more."

Hebrews 10:17 "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

How does one not remember? The only way that is possible is to have them not come to mind. The Hebrews writer stated the conclusion of the matter in verse 14: "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." The Hebrews writer stated that, for those under the Law, the single offering of God’s Son made all sins, past present and future, unaccountable! As gentiles, we have been made partakers of the "hope of Israel."

A practical application is found in Paul’s first letter to the saints of Corinth. Paul spends the first fourteen chapters unbraiding those saints for their many failures. While I would not seek to minimize those failures, we find that they did not affect their standing in the gospel of our Lord and Savior. In fact, we find that Paul praises them in that regard.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 - 1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

Paul not only told them that they were standing firm in the faith, he also stated that if they continued accordingly, they would be saved.

One will be hard pressed to find any scriptural reference to someone having "fallen away, other than those that are said to have abandoned the Way of Jesus. This was clearly the case with those of Hebrews 10:39: "But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Therefore, as was stated in the beginning, while I cannot support a teaching of "once saved, always saved," the scriptures require that I support the concept of "the security of believers." Our salvation is in the gospel; it has the power to save (Rom. 1:16). We should trust in what God has revealed to us, and not seek to re-establish a system of law, which can only lead to failure.