Eternal Security’s
Imputed Righteousness
Dan Corner
[Permission is granted to duplicate this article in its entirety,
but only without additions, alterations or omissions of any kind,
including the ministry name and address at the end.]
I
n a nutshell, the teaching of
imputed righteousness from the
viewpoint of Calvinism and the
eternal security proponent
simply stated is: a person once
saved is holy and righteous
without living holy and
righteously. In other words, a
Christian takes on Jesus’
righteousness at the point of
salvation and this righteous and
holy standing before God can
never be changed even by the
most vile and heinous evils that
could afterwards be committed.
They also tell us sometimes:
God can’t see the Christian’s
sin. Instead, he only sees Jesus’
blood and grace, but never the
sin. That is their
interpretation and teaching,
which is both demonic and
lethal.
This doctrine, in part, is the basis of how eternal security teachers can sometimes confuse the issue about sin and conceal the vital need to obey God after getting born again to prevent spiritual death (which eternal security also wrongly denies can happen to the righteous).
Their Proof Text
The chief Scripture they cite for this interpretation of imputed righteousness is Romans 4:6-8:
David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
It seems that very few are aware that Paul quotes David’s thirty-second Psalm, where he [David] referred to, among other things, his own sins which needed to be confessed to God and forgiven after his own initial salvation:
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”—and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah (Psa 32:5)
Shocking but true—the eternal security teachers read into Romans 4:6-8 something that is not there and seem to go unchallenged. All Romans 4:6-8 says is that one is spiritually blessed if he is described like that, which applies to when one gets initially forgiven. However, Rom. 4:6-8 does not say: (1) That the Lord will never count sin against such a person again under any circumstances or (2) That such a blessed condition is a guaranteed, perpetual, unchanging state, as the eternal security teachers interpret it to be.
Forgiven Sins Held
Against One Again
We must also never forget what the Lord Jesus himself taught in Mt. 18:21-35. Concisely stated, he declared that one’s mountainous sin debt, which was forgiven in a moment at the point of initial salvation, will once again be counted against him, if he does not forgive people who sin against him:
In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matt. 18:34,35)
We must compare Scripture with Scripture to rightly divide the Word of truth. When Matthew 18:21-35 is compared to Romans 4:6-8 we can again see irreconcilable problems for the eternal security proponents’ interpretation.
Other Proof
To further refute the interpretation of eternal security’s imputed righteousness please know that a person once saved can afterwards become spiritually defiled, soiled, impure, die, etc. With this in mind, please ponder the following relevant Scriptures:
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. (1 Tim. 1:5,6)
In that important passage, Paul not only stated he himself had a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith, but went on to state that some plural unnamed people he knew have not continued with these. In other words, after their salvation something happened to interfere with and change their pure heart to an impure heart.
Please know that at the point of salvation one’s heart is instantly purified by faith [in Jesus]:
He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:9)
Getting back to 1 Tim. 1:6, we can deduce that those referred to there, who once had a pure heart and salvation, lost that spiritual standing before God. If the version of imputed righteousness, as taught by the eternal security teachers, was true, that would be impossible and therefore could never occur! Hence, since it did (and does) occur, then we can be assured that a spiritually righteous and holy standing at the point of getting born again can afterwards be adversely affected and changed to the point of negating one’s salvation, which is what we see in various ways and at many other times in the Bible.
Keep Yourself Pure
Because Paul knew such a lethal change can occur, and was a faithful servant of God, he wrote Timothy the following:
Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. (1 Tim. 5:22)
It is apparent that Paul, who gave us Romans 4:6-8, knew sin could: (1) Cause a spiritually pure person, like Timothy, to become impure and (2) Timothy would have to do something for himself to keep that blessed condition of being pure under grace. Again, it is clear that Paul rejected the version of imputed righteousness, as taught by the dangerous eternal security teachers.
Peter similarly wrote:
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. (2 Pet 3:14)
Most in the church at Sardis didn’t do this and got spiritually defiled unlike the few mentioned here:
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Rev. 3:4,5)
All of that is enough, but there is more. Please ponder this fact:
Heart purity is the issue with God and such is related to salvation:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Mat 5:8)
Nothing impure will ever enter it [New Jerusalem], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Rev 21:27)
Fundamental to the earliest Christianity was the following truth:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)
Hence, under grace the Christian must keep himself from being polluted by the world. If it was solely left up to God, no one would ever become polluted by the world. This is why Paul told Timothy to do this which is related to final salvation.
Again, remember their demonic belief that a person once saved will remain holy without living holy, that is, one can be righteous while doing evil. Notice how the following Scriptures refute such by showing that the evil doers are the wicked and not the righteous:
Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbors but harbor malice in their hearts. (Psa 28:3)
The way of the LORD is a refuge for the righteous, but it is the ruin of those who do evil. (Prov 10:29)
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. (1 Pet 3:12)
NOTE: The righteous [the Christians] are contrasted with those who do evil [unsaved]. Again, those who do evil are not the righteous.
As clear as that is, ponder what Jesus said about who will go to the fiery furnace in the end:
The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 13:41,42)
Notice the similarity between that and those the Lord taught will be resurrected to be condemned:
Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:29)
The Apostle John also wrote that the sinful are without salvation:
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil (1 John 3:7,8)
The eternal security teachers are trying to lead us astray regarding this. John told us not to be led astray. Please read that again:
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil.
John’s warning about this type of doctrinal deception seems to be tailor-made for the Christians of our era who may hear the false teaching of imputed righteousness from the eternal security proponents. You must not be led astray by them. Observations are the following:
● The righteous and sinful are contrasted and can be identified by their behavior, that is, by doing right or by doing the sinful. To be righteous, you must do right. Those that do sinful things are of the devil, according to true Biblical grace teaching. That is also similar to the following:
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)
● False teachers will try to lead Christians astray and deceive them into not believing the aforementioned truth. Hence, we must be grounded in truth so that deceptive false teachers can’t beguile us.
“You Have Wearied
The LORD”
Back in the days of the prophet Malachi, he delivered the following message to people who were both deceived and sinful, which also seems customized for the eternal security adherents of our day:
You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” (Mal 2:17)
As already stated, the eternal security teachers declare all those who have once been saved and do evil are righteous in the eyes of the LORD. They also teach God is automatically pleased with those who were once saved. Hence, the very lies that wearied the LORD in Malachi’s day are still being circulated through eternal security and must still be causing the same adverse affect on God today, since he doesn’t change. This is more proof that eternal security comes from the devil.
The Truth
Simply stated, the righteousness that comes by faith [in Jesus Christ] happens at the point of repenting and having an obedient faith in Jesus, that is, at initial salvation. Such a righteous and holy standing before God can be lost, nullified and negated through after-conversion sinful activity, believing a false gospel and/or through disowning Jesus (persecution). For more related information please see this
http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/spiritualdeath.htm
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