Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation … (Hebrews 5:8–9)

Eternal security is a wonderful doctrine! Although the precise English phrase is not actually used in Scripture, the concept is clearly present as in our verse today. First, perfection in this passage applies to Christ, and to Him alone. Whatever “obedience” means, only Christ was perfectly obedient. Second, if perfect obedience was required of us, then who of us could be saved? James adroitly recorded, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). Furthermore, eternal salvation involves a quality component, an eternal quality of spiritual life, but also a “quantity” component. In other words, salvation that is sourced in Christ is never ending and thus cannot ever be lost, or it would not be eternal.

Notice the tenses of the verbs. Christ is our source of eternal salvation, because He “learned obedience” (past tense), “He became (past tense) the source of eternal salvation,” and this “to all those who obey Him” (present tense, implying an ongoing activity). All major English translations render these tenses the same. So we have two things happening in the past and one happening in the present. For those who wrongly believe a person can lose salvation through disobedience or falling away from the faith, that means something they do now (i.e. stop obeying) would change something that took place in the past (i.e. Christ became for them the source of eternal salvation)—an absurd idea.

Did Christ then give eternal salvation only to those whom He foreknew would perfectly obey? We have already seen that no one can perfectly obey. And the idea of God applying obedience on a sliding scale smacks of human religion, for the Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Even as Spirit-indwelt Christians we could never obey well enough to keep our salvation. Yet the verse emphasizes that Christ alone was “perfect”! While the word “obey” is used only sparsely in Hebrews, we see a major theme of the book is that Israel did not benefit from the “good news” of God because “it was not united by faith in those who heard” but “we who have believed enter that rest …” (Heb 4:2-3). So the Jews were to obey the command to “enter that rest,” which they refused to do because of unbelief. Therefore, in our passage today, “those who obey Him” are those who have put their faith in Christ, the promise and source of eternal salvation (see Acts 6:7, Rom 1:5, 16:26).

Lord, by Your grace I obeyed when You commanded that all should believe. And in You I rest secure and call on You as the source of my eternal salvation.