Eternal Security: A New Heart

When God forgives a sinner, He does not forgive their sins only up to the moment of confession. He forgives their entire lifetime of sins—past, present, and future.¹ When God declares someone “righteous,” He already sees the complete picture of their life. No new evidence can appear later to change His verdict. Once God justifies believers and declares them righteous, the verdict is irrevocable. Just like Abraham, He does not wait until the end of their lives to do this, but justifies them in the moment they hear and genuinely believe the message.

Romans 4:9-10 (BSB) …We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before.

Nothing a believer can do will change the verdict. Since eternal life was not earned on the basis of their deeds, it also cannot be lost on the basis of their deeds. It remains an undeserved, unearned gift that cannot be withdrawn from those once justified. Believers can be assured that God’s forgiveness is never lost and the promise of eternal life remains secure.²

This assurance, however, does not lead believers into sin.

Know Them By Their Fruits

After God justified Abraham by faith, He later gave him the sign of circumcision to show the world that he belonged to God.

Romans 4:11 (BSB) And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

This serves as an allegory for the transformation God produces in believers’ hearts. After God sees their genuine faith and declares them righteous, He circumcises their hearts to cause them to love others from the heart.

Romans 2:29 (NLT) And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit.

This transformation shows the world that the believer has genuinely believed the gospel and now belongs to God.

John 13:34-35 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

The disciples recognized genuine believers by the fruit God produced in their lives.³ Jesus taught them to recognize false prophets by their behavior.

Matthew 7:15-18 (BSB) Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

John encouraged his audience to comfort themselves if they doubted whether they were saved by recognizing how their lives had been changed since believing the gospel.

1 John 3:14 (BSB) We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.

Believers are fundamentally changed. Instead of delighting in sin, they delight in love.

How God Transforms

When God justifies a believer, He gives them a new spirit and a new heart that desires to obey Him and love others. God’s own Spirit produces this transformation by coming to dwell in their heart forever.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (BSB) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances

The new spirit and heart God gives do not delight in sin—and cannot. They are created in the likeness of Jesus and desire only what is good and right.

1 John 3:9 (BSB) Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

John does not mean believers will never commit individual sins. He means the overall direction of their lives and their defining pattern of living are no longer marked by continual, unrepentant sin. He acknowledges that Christians may still sin, yet this does not cost them their salvation:

1 John 2:1-2 (BSB) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

A believer does not immediately receive a new body. The earthly body they still inhabit can be tempted by sin. Only after that body dies and their spirit goes to heaven do they receive a new heavenly body that cannot be tempted.

Romans 8:10 (BSB) But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Therefore even Spirit-filled believers cannot earn salvation by their works. While they live in earthly bodies, sinless perfection is not guaranteed. Paul warns Christians not to put confidence in themselves to earn what Christ has already accomplished, even though they now have a new heart.

Philippians 3:3 (NLT) For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort

The new heart and spirit God has given remain in conflict with the sinful temptations that still operate in the earthly body (Galatians 5:16-18). The old body carries leftover thought patterns, habits, beliefs, and desires that clash with what the believer now truly wants. That is why believers may still sin at times until the day they go to heaven.

Romans 7:15-18 (BSB) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Although God does not guarantee complete sinlessness in this life, He does help believers gain increasing victory over sin. His Spirit gradually transforms their minds and bodies so they become better able to carry out God’s will (Romans 12:2). He powerfully reshapes their behavior to match the new desires He has already placed in their heart and spirit.

Romans 8:11 (BSB) And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

Trusting the Spirit

Believers are encouraged to trust the Spirit rather than rely on human effort to produce a godly life.

Galatians 3:3 (NLT) How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Paul teaches that rules requiring devotion, discipline, and self-denial offer no real help in conquering evil desires.

Colossians 2:22-23 (NLT) Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

Trying to become right with God by keeping the law actually awakens sinful desires and produces the opposite of what we intend.

Romans 7:4-6 (BSB) Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Jesus taught His disciples that apart from His work in them, they could accomplish nothing.

John 15:5 (BSB) I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

Scripture describes good works as fruit the Spirit produces:

Galatians 5:16 (BSB) So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Colossians 1:8 (NLT) He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

Philippians 1:11 (NLT) May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

Galatians 5:22-23 (BSB) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Philippians 2:13 (NLT) For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Hebrews 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace… make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ…

How Believers Cooperate

Plants do not force fruit to appear. They simply put themselves in position to receive what produces it: they send their roots into nutrient-rich soil, open their leaves to the light of the sun, and continually seek water. In the same way, believers cannot force the fruit of the Spirit to grow in their lives. They can only create the conditions that allow God to produce it.

Those conditions are created by resting more deeply in the gospel of grace and refusing every other method of trying to make themselves right with God. Just as a plant thrives by remaining connected to soil, sun, and water, believers thrive by remaining connected to Christ—abiding in Him through trusting His words and depending on His finished work. Instead of demanding change from themselves, they simply ask God to transform them. And just as the plant’s fruit appears as the natural result of receiving what it needs, the Spirit’s fruit grows in the believer as the natural result of receiving what only God can give.

John 15:7-8 (BSB) If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.

Galatians 3:5 (NLT) I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

A believer’s life then is one of rest and trust. Instead of relying on their ability to change themselves into someone God appreciates, they trust in what Jesus did and watch His fruit effortlessly and unexplainably grow in their life.

Summary

Justification is God’s verdict that a believer is righteous for the entirety of their life. God does not wait until the end of a person’s life to declare this. He declares it the moment they first place genuine faith in Christ. This grace does not lead Christians into sin.

After God justifies a believer, He gives them a new heart and a new spirit, and places His own Spirit within them to cause them to walk according to His will. When believers simply abide in the gospel, the Spirit transforms their behavior to reflect Christ’s love and grants them victory over sin—even though perfection is not guaranteed in this life.

Footnotes