CAN WE LOSE OUR SALVATION?

Can we fall from grace? We call this doctrine by various names – “Once saved, always saved,” “Eternal Security,” or “Perseverance of the Saints.” By whatever name, I wish to argue that we are eternally secure in our Savior. However, I want to distinguish what I will argue from the understanding of the strict dispensationalists, who also believe that we are eternally secure.

Pastor and dispensational theologian, Charles Stanley, believes that a saving faith need not endure:

·       The Bible clearly teaches that God’s love for His people is of such magnitude that even those who walk away from the faith have not the slightest chance of slipping from His hand. (Eternal Security, 74)

Furthermore, Stanley believes that even the “believer” who becomes an unbeliever remains in Christ:

·       Even if a believer for all practical purposes becomes an unbeliever, his salvation is not in jeopardy. Christ will remain faithful. (93)

Of course, “Christ will remain faithful,” but to whom? Will He remain faithful to someone who had merely a passing “faith,” a mere flirtation? Or is saving faith – the Biblical gift of faith – one that will endure, however battered it might be?

According to Stanley, saving faith need not endure. Why not? He believes that if we have to do anything to maintain our faith, this means that salvation depends on us and, therefore, isn’t a free gift “lest any should boast.”

However, many verses insist that we must continue in faith in order to be saved:

·       “You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:22)

·       But now he has reconciled you… if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel… (Colossians 1:22-23)

·       …show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:11-12)

In fact, if we fail to believe to the end, we were never saved:

·       We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. (Hebrews 3:14; 6)

In light of this, a saving faith is an enduring faith, as Jesus had explained to the Samaritan woman He had encountered at the well:

·       Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water [from the well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14)

If we have the Spirit, our saving faith is like a fountain which never ceases. This also pertains to eternal life, which we have already been given. For example, Jesus claimed that we have already received eternal life, which is a life which never ceases. Consequently, having eternal life is a guarantee that we will not lose it:

·       "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24; 3:16; 6:40; 10:27-28)

If we lose our salvation, it means that we never had eternal life, since this is a life that lasts eternally. This demonstrates, in one small way, that eternal security (ES) is built into the very heart of the Gospel. Consequently, to deny ES is also to deny the heart of the Gospel. Let’s now look at other Gospel-centered principles.

Salvation is free a gift, not of ourselves:

·       For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

If we can lose our salvation, it means that salvation was never a free gift but more like a temporary lease, upon which we must make payments. However, Scripture proclaims that salvation was given without any consideration of our good deeds (Romans 3:23-28).

Eternal forgiveness is the promise of the New Covenant. Consequently, this means that forgiveness will never be revoked:

·       Then he [God] adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (Hebrews 10:17 quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Since God will no longer remember our sins, He will never bring condemning charges against us to deprive us of our salvation.

Those in Christ will never be condemned. However, many verses indicate that, if we are trusting in our good deeds, we have been severed from Christ (Galatians 5:1-5). However, we are assured that our Lord will bring us to the light and purify our faith. It is He who keeps us (1 Peter 1:5).

He will never stop perfecting us into the image of His beloved Son:

·       being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philip. 1:6)

Consequently, we will never be separated from our Savior:

·       Therefore, there is now no [= never] condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

If the possibility of condemnation has been removed, then there is nothing to separate us from Jesus.

There no longer any basis for an indictment:

·       …by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14)

If we are no longer under the law, there is no longer any basis for a charge against us. The same concept also pertains to criminal law. A transgressor can only be charged if he has violated a written law. In our case, Christ has already paid for our sins by dying for us. He has fulfilled the requirement of the law through His death.

Our Savior guarantees that He will allow nothing into our lives that can separate us from Him:

·       And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

If He allowed a trial to come into our lives that would eternally separate us from Him, it cannot be true that He is working all things together for our good. For this promise to be true, we cannot lose our salvation.

We need not worry:

·       Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philip. 4:6-7; Matthew 6:19-34)

If we could lose our salvation, we have grounds to worry.

We need not trust in ourselves. If we cannot entrust our ES to God, then we must entrust it to ourselves, but we are warned against doing this:

·       This is what the Lord says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh [oneself] for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:5)

To trust in ourselves is to not trust in God (Hebrews 11:6; Philippians 3:3).

The logic of salvation argues that we can entrust this concern to our Lord:

·       But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:8-10) 

If God loved us so much that He died for us while we were His enemies, we can be confident that He will most assuredly protect His investment now that we have been reconciled to Him as His friends.

Before we tackle the many problem verses, let’s take a look at some that explicitly teach that if we are saved, we will remain saved:

·       “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.” (Jeremiah 32:40)

·       “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:39-40)

·       “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” (John 17:12)

·       For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation [not even ourselves], will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

·       As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. (Romans 11:28-29)

·       He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 1:8)

·       To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. (Jude 1)

Problem Verses: Two Types

Admittedly, there are a number of verses that seem to indicate that we can lose our salvation. However, these verses are only of two types:

1.    People who leave the faith permanently

2.    Warnings against losing salvation

In the first case, it seems that those who leave the faith were never saved.

·       "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved….For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible.” (Matthew 24:9-13, 24; 7:22-23)

In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus contrasts those who “will turn away from the faith” with the elect who will not turn away. This means that the elect and the apostate are two very different groups of people. The elect, those who truly believe will be protected by the power of God. Those who walk away were never there in the first place. John explains that those who seemed to be believers were never really believers, and that is why they eventually disowned the faith:

·       They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1 John 2:19)

Superficially, they looked like believers but weren’t. “They did not really belong to us.” Paul made the same distinction:

·       …who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his," (2 Tim. 2:18-19)

Although this group had departed from the truth, they were never of the truth. They were never part of “God’s solid foundation,” as were those who “The Lord knows…are His.” Consequently, those who departed were never saved. The fact that they departed from the truth meant that they had never believed it.

Mere warnings against falling away are not the same as actually falling away. Almost all of the warnings against falling away are followed by a reassuring statement that the saved will not fall away:

·       It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. …Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case--things that accompany salvation. (Hebrews 6:4-5, 9)

·       If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God…. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. (Hebrews 10:26-27, 39)

Conclusion: Our Savior will never allow His people to fall away. It’s a matter of grace through the glory of the sacrifice of Jesus.