But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Romans 6:22
Today, as evangelicals read Romans beginning in chapter 5 verses 1 through verse 11, they see it as a list of the benefits of having been justified through faith in Christ. The tendency is then to skip to chapter 8 to assure themselves and others that, having been justified by God, they are now eternally secure in Christ and that nothing will ever separate them from the love of God in Him. This is correct, of course, if one is truly justified or born-again. But the conviction that a person is secure in Christ, “once saved, always saved” is mere presumption if one’s supposed justification is not accompanied with an inevitable, corresponding, and necessary growth in righteousness and victory over sin following conversion.
