Losing Salvation

By David Block

“He has gone to church since he was a child then one day he just went off the deep end. He came forward one time at a winter retreat and asked Jesus into his heart. He was baptized a couple of years later. I just don't know what happened. Once he stopped going to church he got involved in the wrong crowd. One thing led to another and now he's in prison. I'm worried that he might die without coming back to Jesus. I'm afraid he's lost his salvation.”

Does this sound familiar? Can a person really lose their salvation? I heard this question many times in Bible college. One professor would teach that you could lose your salvation. “You can't presume on the grace of God.” Another would teach that it was almost blasphemy to question our salvation. This caused confusion in the students and we were left to ourselves to figure out what exactly the Scriptures taught.

So, what does the Bible - the whole Bible - really say about the salvation of sinful man? Let us examine the word, use our God-given rational minds, and call upon the Spirit to illuminate God's truth to us about his salvation.

First, we should examine what exactly we mean by the term salvation. Salvation means deliverance from the hands of our enemies (Luke 1:71, 74), this evil age (Gal. 1:4), the devil (Heb. 2:14, 15), all uncleanness (Ezek. 36:29), sin (1 John 3:5), the wrath of God (Romans 5:9), and eternal death (John 3:16, 17). When you put all of this together, there is no wonder why the author of Hebrews calls salvation “great” (Heb. 2:3). The salvation of God frees us from everything in a world that was infected by sin. There is nothing evil left in the world that holds any power over the one that is saved.

The questions that arise from just looking at the definition are:

1. If salvation is truly deliverance from all evil, how can one return to that evil?

2. If you are delivered from your enemies, this evil age and the devil then what outside force can cause you to fall away?

3. If you were saved from your sin and all that makes you unclean then what is left inside of you that would cause you to stumble?

4. If you have been saved from eternal death and the wrath of God what condemnation is there left?

I'm all for the idea of the depravity or total inability of man to come to Christ, but to think that once delivered from all evil mankind can break the bonds of Christ and will return voluntarily into the bondage of sin seems a bit harsh. The questions above are all left unanswered if you believe that you can do something to lose salvation. So, let us turn to a different aspect of salvation.

Not only are we delivered from all evil; we also - as a result of salvation - possess eternal or everlasting life. John tells us that, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36 emphasis mine) and, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life,” (John 6:47 emphasis mine). If someone argues that a person can lose salvation, then that person must also argue that a person loses eternal life. However, this cannot be true - due to the simple fact that the very definition of everlasting life won't allow it. How can someone possess something that is eternal and have that thing come to an end? Something that is eternal has no end. This is why we say that God is eternal. In order to say that one could cease to possess eternal life you would have to change the meaning of the English word eternal, not to mention the Greek. The Bible writers chose the word for a reason because when God gives you life it continues forever.

Another common phrase that people like to use concerning salvation is that someone “lost their faith in God”. Most people wouldn't have a problem with this idea, however we must consider if this idea of losing faith in God is biblical? Can a person lose faith thereby losing salvation? Is faith something that we gain apart from God giving it to us? There are three passages that will shed light on this dark corner of theology.

The first is Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast”. Faith is a gift from God so that no one can boast, “Hey, look at me! I'm believing!” or “Why don't those morons just believe. It's so simple.” Boasting is removed because salvation, in all facets and aspects, is a total work of God alone.

The second is Acts 18:27. “And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed”. In this verse, we see that Apollos was a help to those that believed through grace. Grace, being unmerited favor, means that the people believed in God because of the favor shown to them and not through their choice or will. This means that if the people had faith in God, it must have been given to them by the very grace of God.

The third verse is Philippians 1:29, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Paul makes it clear that believing in Christ along with suffering is granted to a person for the very sake of Christ.

Taking all three of these verses into account, we see that faith in Christ is a gift of grace bestowed upon an individual. Saving faith is not a work or something that you can manifest in yourself. You are not born with faith in Christ and you cannot simply decide one day to have it. In fact, faith unto salvation has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Christ. We believe for Christ's sake, not our own.

So we see that “Can a Christian lose their salvation?” is not a reasonable, or more importantly, a biblical question. To argue this question is nonsensical. However, we can ask the question, “Can Christ lose a Christian?” for the simple fact that if you need faith to have salvation and faith is given to you by God, then he is the one that has to keep your faith not the other way around. So is Christ habitually losing those whom he saved? Does he allow people to lose the faith that he gave them and to escape from salvation? Will Christ remove faith and salvation from people that commit sin once they are saved? Let's see what the Scriptures say.

John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

John 6:40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”

Romans 5:8-10 “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

1 Cor. 1:8-9 “…who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

2 Cor. 5:5 “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. “

1 Thes. 5:23-24 “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

1 John 2:25 “And this is the promise that he made to us— eternal life”.

There are many more verses that I could quote, but I think that you get the message. God gives salvation to us and promises to keep us. Since Christ is God and God is omnipotent, I know that we cannot overpower him nor would he “allow” us to do so. We must remember that we “were bought with a price” (1Cor. 6:20). When we become Christians we “are no longer [our] own”.

In conclusion, we find that the teaching that one can lose his or her salvation is not only illogical; but, anti-biblical and demeaning of Christ, his work and power. It reduces the promise of eternal life to an enticement to be good. It robs the Christian faith of its rock solid assurance. This teaching reduces the Church to a potential or the “Gee, I hope some make it,” Bride, instead of the Gomer ransomed with the husband's own blood and protected for eternity by the dread warrior King. Can you see the difference? Let us all thank God that his promises stand firm, his assurance is true, and that he won't allow any to be snatched out of his all powerful hand.