Is a One-Time Choice to Accept Jesus Christ as Savior Enough for Salvation?

Many have the idea that eternal salvation is the result of a one-time choice that requires nothing further from us. A popular notion holds that if we sincerely and humbly pray a prayer asking forgiveness for our sins and for Jesus to come into our hearts as personal Savior, then our destiny is forever sealed from that moment—with us now saved eternally. That is assuredly not what the Bible teaches. We certainly must make that vital choice, but then we must keep choosing it—with God’s help. Our challenge is to not turn away, as we could still do that.

There are millions who believe in what is called the doctrine of eternal security—or “once saved, always saved.” The idea is that in initially receiving Jesus Christ we are saved and can never reject God’s grace and be lost. This is a serious misunderstanding of the biblical teaching on salvation and grace.

Yes, we are in a state of salvation in being freed from our past sins and their penalty when we receive Jesus Christ through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). But that is not ultimate salvation. Jesus said that “he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:13, emphasis added throughout). Hebrews 10:36 affirms, “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”

Of course we cannot do this on our own. We need God’s help, as the apostle Paul explained: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Yet God doesn’t do it all for us. We ourselves must be striving. As Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate” (Luke 13:24). And this must be in partnership with God, Paul writing, “To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily” (Colossians 1:29).

Paul fought his own ongoing battle with sin, as laid out in Romans 7. And note that in 1 Corinthians 9:26 he stated that if he gave up he would be lost: “Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air [just shadowboxing, not truly struggling]. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

Clearly salvation is not automatic after initial acceptance of Christ. We have to continue with God and not turn away. The same apostle explained in Romans 2:7 that God will grant “eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality.”

He told gentiles who came into the Church that God would grant “toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off” (Romans 11:22).

Paul told other gentile converts to Christianity that Jesus Christ had reconciled them to God through His death and would present them holy and blameless before God “if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard” (Colossians 1:21-23).

Paul told the evangelist Timothy, “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine [or teachings]. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:16; 2 Timothy 3:14-15). Of course, the others hearing would need to take the same heed.

The apostle James further stated, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25).

Still, we will often fail. Besides Paul’s discussion of his own failings in Romans 7, the apostle John explained that Christians still sin (1 John 1:8-10). The key is to get back up, ask for God’s forgiveness, and keep going.

Yet it’s possible to cease from doing that and to lose salvation, as the book of Hebrews repeatedly warns against. Hebrews 2:1-3 states: “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away . . . How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation . . . ?”

Hebrews 6:4-6 tells us, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

Yes, this could happen to truly converted Christians. Hebrews 10:26-27 further states: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).

These are stark warnings. The same book tells us that we will remain as God’s people in Christ “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end” and, again, “if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end” (Hebrews 3:6, 14). The message throughout the New Testament is quite consistent.

Thankfully we need not live in worry and fear, for as long as we do not through prolonged neglect or bitterness come to utterly reject God, our future salvation is assured. Paul said he was “confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). But we obviously have a part to play in that.

No, accepting and following God through Jesus Christ is not a one-time choice. It is an ongoing choice that we must continue making throughout our lives. And we can trust that God will help us in remaining faithful.