“ONCE IN GRACE, ALWAYS IN GRACE.”
This formula expresses a pleasing fable, with which many seem disposed to congratulate themselves, quiet their consciences, and allay their fears in regard to the consequences of the future. The old query, What shall we do to be saved? is still a live query in many minds. A correspondent in Berrien County, Mich., writes: “There has been a man around here who preaches that if a person is once truly converted, he never will be lost. No matter what he does, he will come to God again and be saved. He never will die in his sins.” Our correspondent says he does not know what denomination this man belongs to. The text he appeals to in support of his position is John 1: 29: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Of course, it is easy to give such scriptures as this a general application, and keeping back all the conditions to be complied with, come to most erroneous conclusions. For instance, on this text it is easy to begin to reason that if Christ takes away the sins of the world, then they can appear no more against us for condemnation. But there are conditions attached to everything Christ proposes to do for us, and all the promises He gives us. It is true that He will take away the sin of the world. But is it to be done without any conditions on the part of the people? That would be Universalism. So the question still recurs, On what condition does Christ propose to take away the sin of the world? On the day of Pentecost, Peter mentioned one of the conditions. After his powerful discourse (Acts 2: 14-36) his hearers were pricked in their hearts, and cried out, “What shall we do?” (verse 37) and he said unto them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Verse 38. A little later Peter states the conditions more fully (Acts 3: 19, R. V.): “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus.” In both these texts the conditions are plainly expressed. These are repentance and conversion. Without these, sins are not to be blotted out and taken away by Christ. Conversion is a miracle of grace; and the question is, When it has once been experienced, can it ever be lost? That we understand to be the contention of the man here referred to. And if it should be lost, is it not sure to be restored before the close of one’s probation, so that he who has once been converted would not die in his sins, but be at the last under grace, so that it can be truthfully said, “Once in grace, always in grace”? that is, no matter how far he may have wandered from the path of grace, or the favor of God, he is sure to come back into it again before the end. Such a position may be considered very full of consolation, and any apparent failure is very easily excused. If any one dies apparently in a state of condemnation, the excuse is at once at hand, “Then he never was converted.” But what reason is there for supposing that if a person has been once in grace, or favor, or acceptance with God, he is bound to return to that condition, if he has lost it, before he dies? The Spirit of God is a very sensitive and tender Spirit. It occupies the unique position that a real sin against it has no forgiveness. Matt. 12: 31. It is very easily grieved. Hence the injunction as found in Eph. 4: 30: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” We may grieve this Spirit till it takes its leave of us, and we are left to ourselves. The same rule holds good to-day, and will till the end of time, that was applied in the days of Noah: “And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” Gen. 6: 3. The antediluvians were once in grace, and the Lord’s Spirit was striving with them. But they resisted more and more, till the earth was filled with violence, and every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. Then the Lord took His Spirit from them, and at the last, instead of being in grace, they found themselves in the waters of the flood, which took them all away. So the Spirit of God may be grieved to-day; and the sentence will go forth in reference to the world in its present condition, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” So we have this admonition: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10: 12. And many such admonitions are found in the Scriptures, showing that although we have been standing, we may fall. And the apostle tells us what that fall is. It is a fall from grace, showing that we have previously been in grace. Gal. 5: 1-4. By one more reference it can be shown that though once in grace, it does not follow that we must always be in grace, or that we shall always be thus. We will take one who was eminent in the Christian life, yea, the very chiefest of the apostles. This was the apostle Paul; and what does he say of himself? Read his testimony in 1 Cor. 9:24-27: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” Paul, acting as an apostle, and preaching to others, was certainly in grace. To him, after all his experiences and sacrifices and abundant revelations (2 Cor. 12:7), the Lord will never say, “I never knew you.” Matt. 7: 23. Yet he did not deem it sure that he should always be in grace. He had fears that he might be a “castaway.” Then he certainly would not be in grace. And to guard against such a calamity, he fought against, with an unsparing hand, all the impulses and inclinations of his carnal nature. “I keep under my body.” And here he uses the figure of a pugilist. Literally, “I smite it in the face, bring it into abject bondage, lest it get the mastery over me, and cause me to be a castaway.” If Paul had reason for such fear, how much more has any man to-day? Let no man flatter himself into a feeling of safety, with the pleasing fable of “once in grace, always in grace.”