Is it possible for a Christian to lose their salvation?
Saved From What?
If you have ever shared the gospel with someone, maybe they’ve asked you why they need to be saved. They might ask, “Saved from what?” For starters, God says for those who reject the only name by which they can be saved (Acts 4:12), that it is “because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom 2:5), and in time, “He will render to each one according to his works” (Rom 2:6), but there’s a difference between the judgment of the Christ follower and those who reject Jesus Christ, and it is “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Rom2:7-8). Those who trust in Christ are saved from God’s wrath, or saved from God Himself, Who will execute judgment for both the living and the death (Heb 9:27). Daniel the Prophet wrote, “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Dan 12:2-3). What is precious about the gospel is that we are separated from God by our sins (Isaiah 59:2), but we are reconciled by God (Jesus). We are spared the wrath of God, by God’s wrath being placed on God (Jesus). God demands a payment; but He also provides it (John 3:16).
The Founder of Salvation
Jesus Christ is not only the author of our salvation (Acts 4:12), and the Father is the initiator of our salvation (John 6:44), Jesus Christ is the Captain of our salvation. Speaking of Jesus, the author of Hebrews writes that “it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Heb 2:10). This verse not only says that He is the founder of our salvation, but it is He “by whom all things exist,” something which the Apostle John says of Christ, writing that “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). He is the founder of all matter, naturally including us, but more than that, as the “the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:15), He is not just our Creator Who gave us physical life (Author of life), He is the One Who brings eternal life. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). If Jesus says whoever believes in Him has eternal life, but then loses it, did they really have it in the first place? Can you have something that’s eternal and then it ceases to exist? Jesus would have to cease to exist if His promises ceased to exist, including His statement of security from Him and from the Father, as He said, “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” (John 10:28-29). Who or what could snatch someone out of God’s hands or the mighty hands of Jesus?
Groundless Fear
Many people who have been brought to repentance (2nd Tim 2:25) and have trusted in Christ, still live with serious doubts about their own salvation. One day they feel certain they are saved, but then the next day or the same day they feel hopelessly lost and condemned to hell. What a miserable life that would be, wouldn’t it? Yet, I know many people who struggle with this, but why? Jude writes that we are to “have mercy on those who doubt” (Jude 1:22), so we should show them patience and understanding. Perhaps some Scriptures trouble them, like where the author of Hebrews writes that “if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries” (Heb 10:26-27), so “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace” (Heb 10:29)? So who is this speaking about? The author is writing to a Jewish audience that is likely composed of believers and unbelievers, just like in churches today, and so he tells them, “it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit” (Heb 6:4), “and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Heb 6:5-6). Are those who tasted of the heavenly gift the same as those who received it? Tasting or hearing about “the heavenly gift” is not the same as receiving it. The author of Hebrews conclusion to this chapter doesn’t sound very condemning at all, as he writes, “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Heb 10:39). Those who only “tasted [of] the heavenly gift” and have left the fellowship, “went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1st John 2:19).
Conclusion
All too often people put too much stock in their own feelings. They place a higher value on their feelings than what God’s Word says, and human feelings are overrated because they are so subjective. And, they can be the most undependable of all human emotions. They might not even realize they’re doing it, but when we allow doubts about the security that is found in Christ alone, we are robbing ourselves of the joy of the Lord, which is a source of strength (Neh 8:10), and that joy should be in every believer, because as far as God is concerned, it was “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2nd Cor 5:21). “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom 8:31), and “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” (Rom 8:35)? The Apostle Paul answers his own question by writing, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”(Rom 8:38-39).
Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.
