By Grace alone:

We are saved eternally solely because of the sacrifice of Messiah. Eternal security is the work of the Holy Spirit and not ourselves. Otherwise, some of our salvation would be to self be the glory and not to God alone be the glory:

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Messiah (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua so that in the ages to come He Might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:4-9).

When you came to the Lord Messiah Yeshua and put your trust in Him, not only were all your sins up to the day of your conversion forgiven but all your sins were put away for all eternity.

Many are misled:

The only ground on which God could forgive your sin or anyone else's is that the Messiah Yeshua settled the matter of all sin upon the cross. Therefore, when you trust Him, all that you have done wrong has gone down to His account. Your salvation exists solely by the grace of God and "not of yourself!" Many are misled to believe that when they are converted that all their sins from the time of their early childhood (age of accountability) to the moment when they put their trust in the Messiah were put away and that after this new start given by God that they must keep their record clean to the end of their lives, or not get into heaven. This means that even a single act of moral or spiritual failure could cause someone to cease to be a believer in Messiah and therefore be un-adopted as a child of God. So, the false and certainly ridiculous belief here is that after falling into sin believers must get converted all over again and be re-adopted as a child of God.

Led astray from pure grace into partial works:

This false belief is a hybrid form of salvation by grace and works and it greatly dishonors the sacrifice of our Lord. Some are afraid that the doctrine of Grace will lead people to be careless about their lives. Therefore, they tragically teach the possibility of a person losing his salvation after he has already been justified by faith. This false belief (really fear) goes something like this: If you do something really wrong and stupid, let's say at one o'clock today, then the Holy Spirit will leave and cease to indwell you (you lose your salvation); then let's say one hour later at two o'clock you are sorry and repent, then the Spirit will return and indwell you; then you will be saved again....

The lie of the revolving door:

Then at three o'clock you once again do something spiritually offensive and stupid, so the Spirit leaves you and you are lost again; thereafter, at four o'clock you repent and the Spirit returns, so that you are saved and lost again and again and again; and so on, until the Holy Spirit's ministry of salvation starts looking like a revolving door. This teaching is incredibly ridiculous. To be perfectly blunt do you get rid of your babies when when they mess up their diapers? Do you get rid of your little ones when they get into trouble? Certainly not, they are your little ones.

The finished work of Messiah:

If you are indwelt with the Holy Spirit He is not going anywhere. Once you receive Daddy's (yes it is perfectly all-right to call God your Daddy) invincible, incorruptible, immortal DNA, you belong forever to Daddy, God (cf. "Abba, Abba," Romans 8). You belong to your heavenly Father forever, for all eternity and yes just like you He cleans up His little ones' messes. The false teaching of revolving door salvation is born out of "fear" and "pride," not faith. This  lie is based on self-reliance and not complete reliance on God and His Word. In truth it is the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit and His virtue that saves us and not ourselves. These misguided persons do not pursue their false doctrine to its logical conclusion that their doctrine of insecurity is a practical denial of the finished work of our Messiah.

When eternal insecurity is justified:

However, this does not mean that if one professes to be saved, if you come down to the front of a church during an invitation, receive prayer and counseling and say (without sincerely meaning it) that you accept the Messiah Yeshua as your Lord and Savior, then you are eternally saved. Being baptized, becoming a church member, even a member who acts in a religious manner and does good works in the Name of the Lord, does not all by itself make you forever secure in God's saving grace. Our Lord, the Messiah Yeshua said to the Jewish and Gentile populace of His day that many will come before Him one day in His Name saying they are His followers, yet He will say to them: "Not every one that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? And in Your name have cast out devils? And in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:21-23).

I never knew you:

Such people may have preached, cast out demons, professed faith (deceptively) with their lips, and accomplished many wonderful works, however, they will be assigned among the lost in that day. Even though these self-deceived persons may plead their cause with great earnestness and present their case with a well-crafted defense, their vain claim to be justified by their works will in no way deter the Lord of Truth from judging them. These persons appear to be believers but they never altogether have actually become one of us. They will eventually be judged to be not truly regenerate. "They went out from us but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all altogether of us" (1 John 2:19). They "never" truly have been indwelt with the Holy Spirit, even though they appear to be a follower of the Messiah on the outside (by their religious works) but on the inside the DNA of God is absent from their inner life. Therefore, Humanity's Judge, the Messiah will one day say to them, "I never knew you." Rabbi Yeshua does not say to them, "I used to know you but you forfeited My favor by your misconduct and I do not know you any longer." The Messiah says, I "never" knew you! 

Messiah's Voice:

In contrast to the lost who are obviously not saved by their works, the truly saved, referred to as the Messiah's sheep, are known to the Messiah by virtue of their personal "relationship" to Him:

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man take them out of My hand. My Father that gave them to Me, is greater than all; no man is able to take them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one" (John 10:27-30).

The Messiah's sheep are eternally related to Him "only" because they are indwelt by the Gift of the Father, the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit facilitates the relationship between the sheep and their Shepherd, Messiah Yeshua, where:  

1.    You hear Messiah’s voice (study, understand and with maturity obey His Word); 

2.    You follow Him (learn to walk in submission to the will of the Spirit); 

3.     You receive eternal life (that issues out of personal dependence on the Shepherd and not reliance upon your own self); 

4.     You are protected by the Father's own divine strength (are safely living under the everlasting watchful care of God's own protecting Sentry, the Holy Spirit); 

5.     You are made eternally secure in the Hand of the Father. No one is strong enough to take one of God's children out of His supremely strong grasp. This includes the believer himself. Not even your own prodigal misconduct can remove a true disciple of Messiah from the eternal grip of the Holy Spirit. 

6.     You are physically and spiritually united forever with the Father and the Son by the Holy Spirit; 

7.     You possess a personal relationship with God through the Messiah and are thereby, forever known to Him (are His child).

However, what about those persons who are renounced by Messiah? They are self-deceived, thinking themselves to be worthy of eternal life in God's presence. They make pious claims, referencing their wonderful religious activities and recounting their great moral and civic accomplishments, however, tragically the Messiah says to them, "I never knew you." The Messiah does not know these persons because they have not been cleansed of their sins and received the Gift of the Father. These proud, success-driven persons expect to be saved by virtue of their own works and not by the grace of God alone.

Salvation is a gift: 

Man, in his fallen state is helpless to save himself. But God is not helpless. He has come to earth, taken the form of a man, delivered man from sin, returned to heaven, and sent His own Spirit into the lives of all who humbly believe in Him as their Savior. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee that Messiah's followers will one day be transformed into the perfect likeness of their Master, the God-Man Yeshua (English, Jesus). Without the Holy Spirit indwelling you there is no other possible way you can be saved. Without the indwelling gift of God the Father, you can not be reborn from above.  

A gift is not earned:

A gift is not "earned" by one's own good works; otherwise, it is not truly a gift. A gift is received solely by the virtue and graciousness of the Giver. Only those who possess the Spirit of Grace are saved. Your good works, tainted by your sinful nature will never save you. Only the untainted, blameless, sinless works of the Holy Spirit can and will save anyone. The Holy Spirit is Personified Grace. Without the Spirit's indwelling presence no one is saved. He is the Eternal Evangelist of us all. It is possible to morally do nearly all the moral things the Messiah has spoken of and yet never be regenerated. It is also quite possible to join a synagogue or church, make a profession of faith; study Torah; observe ordinances, teach and preach, and yet never be born from above. If one teaches and preaches the truth, it will produce good results and will do people good whether the teacher or the preacher is a true believer or not, for the truth maintains its integrity and powers for good even when it is conveyed by a deceiver with selfish motives. Of course the truth is used to better advantage when it is proclaimed by a godly person who is motivated by a sincere desire to glorify God and not to enrich or glorify himself. Nevertheless, God uses His truth regardless of who may proclaim it and this explains how people may do mighty works in the name of the Messiah Yeshua and yet never be born from above.

Messiah's call to faith: 

The Message of the gospel is about sin and sinners who sin by nature, who are under the wrath of the one true Righteous God, who have been led astray through a life of rebellion and disobedience into self-despair. The gospel message sees fallen humanity in light of God's holiness. It is a horrible offense that sin puts upon the Holy and Righteous God. Man exists in a state of alienation from God. He has by his unrighteous acts terminally exposed himself to God's condemnation, hostility, and wrath. The gospel message jointly presents the Person of Messiah with His saving work, incarnation, atonement, resurrection, ascension, and heavenly session (referring to His present status in heaven of ruling as an advocate for His followers from the "Right Hand of the Father"). The Message of the gospel is a divine summons or call to faith and repentance, a change of heart and mind, a new life of denying self and serving instead the Savior in self's place. The believer delivers the gospel message to others. However, the works of conviction, conversion, sanctification, and glorification are all divine activities that belong solely to the "Office of the Holy Spirit," who is the exclusive agent of the new birth. 

The call to repent and believe in Messiah: 

There is one call of the Spirit in Scripture (Ephesians 4:4). There is a call where the gospel is proclaimed to every creature under heaven. The gospel is preached accompanied with a summons to repent and believe (Matthew 11:28-30; Isaiah 45:22). The followers of Messiah are:

a. called to fellowship with the Son (1 Corinthians 1:9);

b. called to inherit a blessing (1 Peter 3:9);

c. called to freedom (Galatians 5:13);

d. called to peace (1 Corinthians 7:15);

e. called to holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7);

f. called to a worthy walk (Ephesians 4:1);

g. called to one hope (Ephesians 4:4);

h. called to eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12).

Born from above:

Don't you worry about losing your salvation for whoever God calls He justifies, whoever He justifies He will glorify. There are no shortfalls in His divine process. Meditate upon this phrase of John 3, "born from above" (cf. our article, "Witness of Rebirth"). What does it mean you are born from above? Once born from above can you ever be unborn?    

An unbreakable bond:

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).   

Who shall separate us from the love of God that resides in the Messiah?

Once we have been justified by faith, who is there and what power is there that can separate from the Love of God?

The answer is clear, there is not a shadow of doubt or a question left about this matter once we agree with God's Word that nothing exists in all of death or life that can separate us from the Love of God once we have been born from above as a result of our exercising faith in the Messiah.

Nothing can separate you from the Love of God:

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life....shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord." 

Can you think of anything that exists outside these two great domains of life and death?

All humanity is included in both these spheres of existence. You are included. Therefore, it is impossible for anyone who is a believer to be separated, for any length of time after conversion, from the Love of God.

It is even impossible for you to separate yourself from the Love of God.

Nothing can separate believers from the Love of God because the Love of God is the Person of the Holy Spirit.

No one can overcome the power and will of the Holy Spirit.

He always successfully finishes what He starts:

Once the Holy Spirit has begun the work of salvation in you He will bring His work to completion.

There is nothing anyone can do to stop the process. Once born from above your perfection is inevitable. No one can stop the Holy Spirit from making you perfect on the day of resurrection!

Once you are regenerated (indwelt with the eternal life of the Spirit) not even you, the wayward believer, can keep yourself from the inevitable perfection God has guaranteed by His rebirthing of you:

*Unseen powers can't separate you;

*Angelic hosts can't separate you;

* Principalities, good or evil can't separate you;

*Powers, good or evil can't separate you;

*Events of the past won't separate you;

*Events of the present can't separate you;

*Events of the future can't separate you.

Nothing in the heights and depths of the entire universe or within all of creation can separate you.

No created being has the power to overrule, or change in any way the Spirit's work of eternal salvation in you.

There is nothing that good angels will do and nothing that evil angels can do that can result in your being separated from the Love of God that was permanently given to you as a gift of adoption at the time you first exercised faith in the Messiah.

The Gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit is God's personal guarantee that you are safe if you are already a believer in the Messiah Yeshua.

Once you have been regenerated by the Word and the Spirit of God, once you become a new creation, receiving a new life and a new nature wherein you have been made a partaker of the divine nature, then you are justified from every possible charge that anyone might bring against you before the throne of God.

It is thereafter absolutely impossible that that you could ever again be a lost soul.

A once-in-eternity offering:

Eternal security rests solely upon the perfection of Messiah's one time offering upon the cross.

Personally, I do not understand how any knowledgeable person can read the Letter to the Hebrews and not see that the writer is contrasting the many sacrifices offered under law with the once-in-eternity sacrifice of our Lord Messiah Yeshua.

Under the law every time an Israelite sinned, he needed a new sin offering and every year the nation had to celebrate the great day of atonement when a new offering was presented to God for the people (cf. our article, "Messiah in Yom Kippur").

This was so because none of the repeated sacrifices could ever actually take away sin, they simply covered sin up to the time of the final solution for sin, the Messiah's sacrifice.

Hebrews 10 informs us that when the Messiah came into the world and offered Himself without spot to God, the effect of His sacrifice was eternal:

"For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).

How long are these sanctified persons perfected? The Word of God does not say as long as they behave themselves; rather, the Scriptures say, Messiah's followers are "perfected forever."

Your redemption is a finished work.

Saying that the redemptive work of Messiah is not finished without being completed by the moral works of man is an "insult" to the Spirit of Grace.

Believing our moral failures can cause us somehow to have the Holy Spirit dislodged from our hearts, when we have been assured no man can cause us to be taken from the Hand of the Father, is believing a great lie.

When we believe we can lose our salvation and gain it back over and over again we are practically lowering the sacrifice of the Messiah to the level of the repeated offerings of bulls and goats that existed "before" the dispensation of the Covenant of Grace (that was put into effect after the once-in-eternity sacrifice of the Messiah was crucified on the Tree).

A dishonorable view of the atonement:

In this false teaching every time this un-adopted, re-adopted cycle happens, the past is considered under the blood, but one has to keep his record clean for the future.

If only those sins that were committed up to the moment of your conversion were put away by the atoning blood of Yeshua, what way would there be that the sins you have confessed afterwards could ever possibly be dealt with?

This is a ridiculous, absurdly shortsighted, incredibly dishonoring view of the atonement of the Messiah.

No wonder the Holy Spirit is extremely insulted by it:

"How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:29).

National election differs from individual election. The shortfall here is not a moral one but a spiritual failure.

This passage is pronouncing a fiery judgment principally on Elect Israel for refusing to embrace the Covenant of Grace that is wholly entered into by faith through the atoning, blood sacrifice of the Messiah Yeshua. 

The House of David will not be restored until a new generation of Elect Israel (physical descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) embrace their national destiny of inheriting salvation by the grace of God and not by works of self-righteousness (the Covenant of the Law):

"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn" (Zechariah 12:10).

Messiah's atonement is for your future sins:

Messiah died for the sins you committed up to the moment of your conversion and He died for your future sins too. 

How many of your sins were in the past when the Messiah died for you on the cross?

All your sins were in the future when Messiah Yeshua died for you.

When the Lamb of God (Korban Pesach) died as your sacrifice for sin you had yet to commit any sin.

The Messiah died for your sin before you had been conceived, born, lived out your childhood, were married, raised children, and entered into the mature years of your life.

God saw all your sins (past, present and future) when He laid your iniquity upon the Lamb of God.

The moment anyone trusts the Lord Yeshua to be their Savior, their status as a sinner who was about to be punished by God for sin was abruptly ended.

After that procreative moment, the new believer becomes responsible to act as an adopted child of God the Father.

Although punishment for sin is no longer possible, discipline of this new child of God is compulsory.

When as His child you sin against our heavenly Father, then God Himself will deal with you about that, but as your heavenly Father and not as a judge.

God's chastisement (discipline) of you as His redeemed child is a boundary line of truth that stands by itself and is a clear testament to you that He actually is your Righteous Father.  

Enduring Grace:

The eternal security of the believer is based upon the omnipotent power and virtuous perseverance of the Holy Spirit:

"Being confident of this very thing, that He that began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Messiah Yeshua" (Philippians 1:6).

Pay attention to who begins the good work of salvation in the life of each believer. The Holy Spirit does.

The Spirit convicts you of sin. He leads you to put your trust in Messiah. He through the Word of God testifies that you are saved. He conforms you to the likeness of the Messiah Yeshua.

The Holy Spirit is the one who ultimately will conform you fully to the image of the Messiah. He must finish in every believer the sacred work He began at regeneration (your eventual perfection):

"Being confident of this very thing, He that has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Messiah Yeshua."

Wholly by the grace of God the Holy Spirit exercises ample ability to break down your opposition to Him and bring to an end your rebellion and unbelief.

He disciplines you sufficient to subdue your will and mature you.

He manifests His power upon, in and through you sufficient to complete His work of perfection in you.

The Word of God clearly shows that once God takes up residence in your heart by grace nothing can ever again separate you from the love of Messiah, so "once in grace, always in grace."

Once indwelt by the Spirit, always indwelt by the Spirit: 

Another way to express eternal security is, 'once in the Spirit of Grace, always in the Spirit of Grace."

The gift of the Holy Spirit is the inerrant means by which we are Guaranteed our Salvation. By the Spirit's power we are assured that we will endure in faith to the completion of our salvation:

"He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13).

If someone starts out and makes a profession of faith but gives it all up, he will never be saved, because he was never truly born from above in the first place.

Such a person never received the Enduring Grace of God into his heart, the Person of the Holy Spirit.

The only reason why anyone endures to the end is because of the enduring perseverance of the Holy Spirit.

When the Spirit of Grace begins a work, He will never give up until it is completed. You can be confidant that if He has begun the work of salvation in you that work will be perfectly brought to completion.

Knowing Him who is from the Beginning:

Fifty-one years ago the Spirit of Grace and Truth led me to trust in the Messiah Yeshua. I have experienced many ups-and-downs since that memorable day when I responded in faith, at a Billy Graham Crusade, hosted at the San Francisco Cow Palace. I have had many varied experiences, but the most wonderful thing is this, the Enduring Grace of God has never let go of me. At those times when I have been disobedient and did not behave respectfully toward God, He did not let go of me. Instead, I found myself being painfully reformed in my heavenly Pappa's Woodshed (place of discipline) until I was athletically trained up to correct the deficiencies within and once again return to a happy state of full fellowship with God. We are just as much children of God when we are being disciplined in Pappa's Woodshed (sometimes severely) than we are when there are no shortfalls and we are experiencing joyful fellowship with our heavenly Father. 

When trouble comes you do not cease to be His child: 

Your child does not cease to be your child when he gets in trouble and has to be corrected. It is precisely because he is your child that you correct him. It is your parental discipline that assures your child he will grow up to be a mature, caring, wise, godly person. I needed lots of discipline as a child, I was very strong willed. When I grew up, I went to the number one party school in the nation (Chico State University, California). There I misbehaved and got into my fair share of trouble. I was the most miserable person on campus until my Senior year when God made my painful discipline complete and I was fully restored to fellowship. I saw many young people come to faith during my Senior and first Graduate year (in psychology) at Chico. In two years our campus fellowship started with fourteen persons and one bible study group and it grew to five hundred persons and twenty-eight weekly bible study groups. I went thereafter, to a Southern Baptist seminary, became a street minister in the San Francisco Bay area (my birthplace) and worked as a Juvenile Hall chaplain. I remember harsh times of discipline in the streets and in the Juvenile Hall facility as well. Life can get very ugly in the streets and the correctional institutions. Sometimes the Lord has to use severe discipline to get His children to survive and overcome in these types of spiritual battlegrounds. Easy religion does not work when you live close to Satan's throne. You have to receive special warfare training to live where I grew up in my childhood and ministered in my twenties (things got easier later, when I served around the world as a Navy and Marine Corps Chaplain for twenty-two years). 

Pappa disciplines His children: 

God "disciplines those He loves." In that San Francisco bay area Juvenile Hall (Contra Costa County) I saw a wonderful revival. Five thousand children came through that facility each year. Each child stayed at the facility for only an average stay of fourteen days. During the four years that I served as a Chaplain at the Juvenile Hall a fellowship was established. My mentor Keith Spooner ("Spoon" for short) decided that we would have altar calls, where we would communicate the gospel to the children and young people (teens) and invite them at the end of the services to accept our precious Lord, the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) to come into their hearts. The children walked forward, picked up a piece of wood (that they would later make into a cross) and signed their name in a register, demonstrating their desire to be members of our Fellowship of the Cross. Every child was followed up with counsel and prayer. At the end of the two year evangelistic project there were 5,000 names in that book. Since that time I have been serving our Lord as a Navy and Marine Corps Chaplain for twenty-two years and a Christian counselor for nineteen. I have had the pleasure of seeing many people come to faith over the course of my life. I have had the privilege of helping many wayward believers through some incredibly difficult times of God's discipline. You are not expected to enjoy God's discipline; that's not possible because His discipline hurts. However, we all should be thankful for Pappa's Woodshed because without it we would waste this good life He has given us. Without God's discipline none of us would ever enjoy full fellowship with our heavenly Father; and furthermore, we would not grow-up in our faith. Without God's discipline all the followers of Messiah would be one big preschool, with no one growing up to full maturity.

Oftentimes, Pappa's children are confused and beat up:

Many of the persons I have helped were so beat up and confused from the adverse impact of the world’s numerous assaults on them that they doubted or lost outright their sense of spiritual identity as children of God. Oftentimes, when restoring these little brothers and sisters of mine I have sensed God’s presence and love in an overwhelming way. They were still believers. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, though seriously grieved, still abided within them. These believers' incredible misery was a "mark" of their faith. Through the disciplining ministry of the Holy Spirit, these true believers knew they would not be released from their misery until they repented of their misconduct and yielded to the will of their Father. Just because you are born from above and have eternal life does not mean you are done. You have to be trained up to do your part of helping out with the Family Business. 

The Woodshed: 

Sanctification must follow conversion. We cannot lose our salvation (the indwelling work of the Spirit) but we can break fellowship with God. God our Father disciplines those He loves. When you repeatedly violate His will for you in an important matter, He will put you in His House of Discipline, what J. Vernon McGee called, "The Woodshed." Trust me, if you go in the Woodshed, you won't come out until you have completely submitted yourself to God and been thoroughly trained to do whatever God wants you to do next. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God; and the fear of God is the hatred of evil. Those who have spent significant time in The Woodshed both fear God and obey Him.

Pain works:

Pain works! You can repent quickly and be blessed; or you can take your time and be torturously miserable. In sanctification you have a choice, you can't lose your salvation but you can lose the joy of a life of full service and fellowship with our heavenly Papa. You who are born from above, don’t waste this good life that our heavenly Pappa has given you. Accept His discipline now. Obey Him. Let this good life begin to become His Masterpiece. Our heavenly saw you and loved you before you were conceived in your mother's womb, before the foundations of the earth He called you to be His child. Trust Him. Lean into God our Father (not away).

Lean in: 

Dr. J. Vernon McGee always said that when he was in Pappa's Woodshed he learned to "lean in as close as he could to God." This way, "the leverage of the whip was not so good and it didn't hurt near as much." "Lean in, stay close to God," soon the discipline will have run its course and the joy of the Lord will be your reward. So I believe in the perseverance of the Holy Spirit of God that having begun the work He will carry it on to completion (whether in pain or joy; the choice is yours). 

An old and New Creation:

The doctrine of eternal security is based upon the fact of the New Creation, "Therefore if any man be in Messiah, he is a new creation; old things have passed away and all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). How does one become a new creation? First of all you must understand you were born into this world a member of the old creation that the first Adam the first is head of. Second you must recognize that every child of Adam's race comes into the world lost and is under a sentence of death, "The love of Messiah constrains us; because we therefore judge that if one died for all, then were all dead." The first Adam, who is the head of the old creation, was placed on trial in the Garden of Eden. The entire world was represented in him, all of us were represented in him. As the Spirit of God says of Levi, "He was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedek met him" (Hebrews 7:10). So everyone of us were represented in Adam when the old creation was on trial. Adam failed and God said: "In the day you eat the [fruit of the knowledge of good and evil], you will surely die." Spiritual death came swiftly because the Holy Spirit immediately ceased to indwell man when he sinned. However, physical death came more slowly, as it initially took several hundred years before Adam and his wife Eve died physically.

Adam's failure:

The first man to die was not Adam but Abel, his son, who was murdered by his envious brother, Cain. As a result of Adam's failure the old creation fell down in death and every person who has ever been born in the world since that time has been born in death. No one else has ever been born from above (born of the Spirit of God), in the manner the first Adam was created, except the Messiah. The Messiah is the Second Adam. He is the Last Adam. The Messiah is the Head of the New Creation. His birth, like the first Adam was a supernatural one. Adam was created sinless but fell. Therefore, all who are members of the old creation die and are lost.

At the cross:

When Messiah Yeshua saw the plight of humanity, where humankind had descended down into death, He stooped down from heaven's glory and came to earth to deliver lost humanity from sin. He delivered you and I from sin by being crucified on an accursed tree. At the cross Messiah chose to go down into death, down where condemned humanity was. Once in hell (yes there is one), the Messiah delivered believing humanity by bringing many of us by grace from death into eternal life. The Messiah, our Savior, came to earth on our behalf as the Sinless One. Miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, He alone was born of a virgin mother. After His atoning death and life-giving resurrection, He did not come up alone out of death, for God has made all who believe in the Messiah alive together, so that all who believe in Him are brought up from the place of death into eternal life with Him.

The New Adam is making all things new:

At one time we were members of Adam's condemned race, now we are made members of: a new race of redeemed humanity; members reborn from above by the Holy Spirit; citizens of the second Adam's New Creation. What does God do for you now? Does He put you where Adam was before and say, "Now behave yourself and if you are good you won’t die again?" No, He puts you up higher than Adam could ever have gone except by Messiah's new order of creation:

"He has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua" (Ephesians 2:6).

Since you belong to this New Creation you can never be lost. You were once lost because the head of the old order of creation had failed. You went down with the first Adam. You can never be lost unless the New Adam, the Head of God"s New Creation falls. But, thanks be to God, the New Adam will never fall. Right now, the Messiah remains on the throne, at the right hand of God, where God the Father has put Him, in recognition of His exceedingly great work of salvation on humanity's behalf.

No drowning above the water:

Dr. Harry Ironside tells us of the story of "Pat the Irishman," who was converted but was seized with a dreadful fear that some day he might commit some great sin and lose his soul. The man was horribly worried that he might fail God and be lost after all, and so he was troubled and tormented at the thought. One day He went to a worship meeting and heard the words read, "You are dead, and your life is hid with Messiah in God." "Glory to God!" shouted Pat. "Whoever heard of a man drowning with his head that high above water?" It is a fact that believers are raised up together and made by God to sit together in heavenly places in Messiah. Dr. Ironside reminds us of this great truth when he says, 'We are linked with Him, we belong to the New Creation and that is why we shall never be lost!"

We already possess Eternal Life:

The believer already possesses eternal life. We are faithful to the end if we are indwelt by the Faithful One. With the Holy Spirit's help we are now waiting for the redemption of our bodies. It is the Spirit of God that will preserve us spiritually alive until the day of our perfection and it is the power of the Holy Spirit that will transform our bodies of humiliation into bodies of glory. Then we will have received eternal life in all its fullness, spirit, soul and body. In our entire being we will be conformed to the Messiah. It is in this very special sense we are hoping for eternal life. Therefore, every believer is at the present time in possession of eternal life.

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

"He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36).

"Truly, truly, I say to you, He that hears My word, and believes on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life" (John 5:24).

As a believer who is indwelt with the Holy Spirit, you possess eternal life Now!

Eternal insecurity revisited:

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27).

If a person does not hear the Voice of the Son of God he is not a true follower of Messiah. Therefore, the Messiah does not know him as His own. The unregenerate person may follow for a little while outwardly, temporarily appearing to walk in the way of righteousness but then he will permanently turn from it: "But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, 'The dog has returned to its own vomit;' and 'The washed pig has returned to its mud'"  (2 Peter 2:22). You can temporarily look moral and religious but without true faith you cannot receive the gift of the Holy Spirit that will permanently change your nature. You can do many of the moral things that the Messiah says you should do and still be lost forever.

What you need is a new birth and when you are born from above, you be given a new life. When you receive the new life, you will love following the Messiah and you will be completely miserable when you don't. As a true child of God if you do not rejoice in following the Messiah, you will be tormentingly miserable in your longing to return to Him while you temporarily waste away your life experiencing the ways of the world. If you love the ways of the world and do not feel guilt when sinning but experience joy instead, then you are deceiving yourself. You are not a child of God. If you have never truly repented of your sins, believed in Messiah now and receive the transforming life of the Holy Spirit within you.

A strong indicator:

Your behavior is a strong indicator of whether you are a true disciple of the Messiah. A real follower of the Messiah may fail, but there are differences that can be discerned between a true or false believer. For instance, examine the differences between two of Rabbi Yeshua's first twelve chosen disciples, Peter and Judas. Peter failed, and failed miserably but he was a genuine believer. One look of sorrow from his Rabbi Yeshua and he wept bitterly. Peter's heart was broken the moment he realized how he had dishonored the Messiah. However, Judas had traveled and studied under the Lord for almost three-and-a-half years and yet, he was a devil all the time. This false disciple was a thief who was always looking after his own interest. He was the chief financial officer of the Messiah (His treasurer), entrusted with the financial resources of the Messiah's teaching ministry. Yet he was a thief and a liar. He stole money from the ministry's operating fund (John 12:6). Judas led others to believe that he was loyal to the Messiah, when he was really plotting with the religious leaders of his day to have Him arrested. He was the close friend (the kinsman) that the Torah prophesied would one day betray the Messiah. 

Genuine repentance: 

Vain remorse eventually overtook Judas but not genuine repentance. Unlike Peter, who repented in humility and received God's forgiveness, the false disciple was bitterly wounded in his pride. Judas rejected outright the forgiveness theology of his Rabbi, and chose instead to harshly judge himself for his moral failure (condemning an innocent man). In his self-justice, Judas went away, unjust and condemned by his failed works and of his own choosing hanged himself. Judas in his self-deceit and pride never humbled himself and became a child of God (born from above). Peter, in contrast, exercised sincere faith in Messiah's teachings. He humbly sought and found forgiveness through his Rabbi's Torah of justification by faith. Peter believed in God's grace. He accepted God's help and saving work. He renounced his old belief that he could be saved through his own prideful works of righteousness. The true believer is justified through faith in the Messiah's saving work. The false believer is condemned by seeking justification through faith only in his own prideful works (such was the tragic status of Judas when he took his own life).

Persuasive discipline:

People say, "If you preach this doctrine of the eternal security of the believer, men will say, 'Well, then it doesn’t make any difference what I do, I will get to heaven anyway.'" If this is what you are thinking, you are underestimating the power and all-persuasive discipline of the heavenly Father!

The all-powerful Hand of the Father and the Son:

"My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life." How can the life that our Lord gives us be eternal if it could be lost? "They shall never, no never [double negative] perish, nor shall any man take them out of My hand." The double negative in Greek in this Scripture makes Messiah's declaration absolutely certain. If you are indwelt with the Gift of the Father you "shall never, no never, perish." It is impossible for anyone who possesses the indestructible, immortal, invincible Seed of the Father to ever perish, be ruined, rendered useless or be destroyed (Greek, apollumi):

"My Father has given them to Me, He is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them out of My Father's hand" (John 10:29).

The Father and the Son are one, and the Hand of the Father and of the Son is the Holy Spirit. No one can break the grip the Gift of the Father has on you. No one is strong to take you out of the all-powerful Hand of God. Do not be afraid. God will never let you be taken from Him and be destroyed.

Your salvation will never be taken away: 

Your salvation cannot be taken away. The Scriptures (which cannot be broken) say that you cannot even take yourself from the Hand of the Father and the Son. The words "no one" includes you. People try to sinfully put safeguards (as if God needs man’s help) around God's truth and say, "You are justified by faith if you have enough good works to add to it." That is an outright lie. It is by faith alone that anyone is given the gift of God. Salvation is the gift of the Holy Spirit. His eternal help is not earned. God does not owe anyone anything; least of all He is not obligated to fallen, unrepentant, self-willed mankind; he is not required to eternally seal anyone with His own Spirit. We are delivered from sin and given the gift of the Holy Spirit only because God is gracious. He is the God of grace, the Spirit of Grace. He offers everyone His salvation as a free gift. Will you accept His gift of salvation?  

His good works will save you:

Getting to heaven is not like riding a bicycle, wherein if you stop, you will fall off because you’re getting to heaven is not dependent on your strength but the strength of the Holy Spirit. You will never run out of strength sufficient for salvation because the power of the bike is not dependent on you but the unfailing power and virtue of the Holy Spirit. Eternal good works are only those works that the Holy Spirit manifests through you after you are made alive by the Spirit (regeneration, sanctification). When you mature in the faith, you will find your heart so filled with love for our Rabbi Yeshua that you will one day, by the helping hand of the Spirit, live in a manner that will bring our Lord and Savior glory.