Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?
The Big Disagreement
Salvation is purchased by Christ alone. It is received by faith alone. God gives salvation freely apart from any actions to earn it. This gracious rescue apart from works is the key distinction between Christianity and every other religion on the planet. For 2000 years, orthodox Christians have agreed on this point as the central foundation of God’s message of redemption.
While Christians have remarkable unity with regards to how one obtains the salvation that God gives. What Christians constantly disagree on is how one maintains that salvation. In other words, a great debate swirls around the concept of eternal security. How secure is this state of eternal blessing? The question is often framed by nervous believers who ask “Can I lose my salvation?” Many Christians live in fear that they might have sinned too much or prayed too little to keep on being a Christian. They often worry that they have fallen out of God’s good graces.
Surely there are many scholars, pastors, and denominations on both sides of this debate. Some say that you have the ability to reject Christ just as you received Him, and that it is possible for true believers to fail to make it to heaven. This view is widely held by Catholics, Methodists, Eastern Orthodox, Anabaotists, and the majority of Lutherens, among others.
Other denominations say that salvation is accomplished, maintained, and completed by Jesus. They argue that there is nothing that a true Christian can do to stop God from keeping them till the end. This would be the doctrine of eternal security, held by all of the reformed denominations and camps, including reformed Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Congregationalists.
One of the reasons that this debate becomes so fierce is that both sides have their scriptural references, and use them to point out the flaws of the other side. When both sides have their scriptures ready to fire, it can often seem like the Bible contradicts itself. One verse warns us not to lose our faith, the other promises that God will protect us until the end. Which is true? This is where careful, holistic theology must come into play. When taken as a whole, the entire Bible weaves these seemingly contradictory statements together into a beautiful tapestry of God’s faithfulness and power. So let’s survey the texts and see what God has to say about the eternal security of those who trust in Christ.
Red Lights, Rebels, and Warnings
To the credit of one side of this debate, scripture is full of situations where it appears that a believer has lost their salvation and has been condemned by God to hell. The clearest picture of this is Judas, who walked with Jesus and ultimately betrayed Him. We see Judas die by suicide without ever having the repentance and restoration moment that Jesus gave to Peter (John 13:27, Acts 1:25, John 21).
In his epistle to Timothy, Paul speaks of those who have “wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus warns that in the last days “the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). The New Testament is riddled with people who “lost their faith”. How could this be if Christians are to be kept by God no matter what?
The New Testament is also full of warnings, or what I like to call “Red Light Passages”. These passages are rebukes to the people of God. They are strong words of correction that tell Christians when to stop and turn around. The most striking and controversial warning passages are found in the book of Hebrews (2:1-4; 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:12; 10:19-39; 12:14-29), and have been a point of contention for generations of debating believers. These five passages are widely considered a challenge for those who hold to the doctrine of eternal security. The most famous of these passages is Hebrews 6:4-6:
“For 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, 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.”
Texts like these make preachers nervous for a reason. They are serious, and require serious reflection. But how do we reconcile this with the multitude of passages on the unchanging love and faithfulness of God? What does it mean that these people who fell away have “tasted the heavenly gift” and “shared in the Holy Spirit”? This would have to be true believers, right? Well, maybe, but before we get to that, let's sample some of the passages that speak of the security of God’s love and salvation for those who believe.
Precious Promises
When arguing for eternal security, one has no shortage of passages to quote. From Jesus, to Paul, to Peter, to John, it is undeniable that God intends to love and keep His people through to the end. To unpack them all would require a book, not an article. Let’s take a look at some of the main ones for the sake of time. First, Jesus Himself taught His disciples of His power to save and keep all that belong to Him:
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 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 6:37-40)
Jesus chooses to use the word “never” when talking about the casting out of those who come to Him. He will never cast out the one who comes to Him by faith. It could be argued that they can still walk out of that grace, but He then solidifies the point by promising to “raise it up on the last day”. This point is so important that He repeats it twice. Jesus claims that all who are given to Him by the father, who approach Him by faith, will be resurrected to eternal life on the last day. Paul picks up on this theme heavily in His epistles. The “golden chain of salvation” is Paul’s powerful statement on the unbreakable purpose of God in salvation:
“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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30)
Here he speaks of the certainty of God’s salvation. The one whom God knew before they were born is also the one who is justified, and the one who is justified is also the one who becomes glorified. Elsewhere, he points to the unchanging love and faithfulness of God as the basis for this assurance:
“For 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.” (Romans 8:38-39)
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)
Jesus and Paul seem pretty clear, God loves to love and keep His people. Do you see how the Bible can seem contradictory? Don’t get discouraged, we have one more verse that may untangle the whole knot.
The Key
By now, I’ve probably shown my hand. You’ve probably figured out where I stand on this issue. I believe that the key question that sparks this whole debate is the wrong question. The question isn’t “Can I lose my salvation?”, but rather “Can Jesus lose a sheep?”. When phrased in that way, we begin to view the issue of eternal security not as an issue of what man does, but what God does. If we do this, then we would be viewing security in the same way that we view salvation. Who does the saving? Jesus does. Then who does the keeping? Well, Jesus does.
Then what about all of those warning passages? How can those also be true? One key principle of Bible interpretation is to use the clear passages to interpret the unclear passages. Keeping this in mind, there is one verse that holds the key to this entire debate, one verse that unites all of these verses into a cohesive whole. That verse is 1 John 2:19, one of the clearest verses on apostasy in the New Testament:
“They 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.”
John is speaking to people who are confused by the apostasy they have witnessed. People that they worshiped with. People that their pastors did ministry with. People that they looked up to and admired had wandered from the faith. If they could lose heaven, can’t we? John reassures them that the reason that they left the faith was because they were never a part of the faith to begin with. Here is the key interpretive principle: true Christians will never fall away, because God extends His love and grace to keep them. This means that all that do fall away were never true Christians to begin with.
We can also see this by placing Hebrews 6:4-6, that great problem passage, in its greater context. Notice what kind of person fell away from the faith:
“For 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, 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. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” (Hebrews 6:4-8)
The writer immediately jumps to an agricultural metaphor, similar to what Jesus does in the gospels (Luke 8, Matthew 13, Mark 4). Notice that he speaks of the rain falling on two different plots of land. The first bears fruit and is rewarded, and the second produces thorns and is cursed. Both sat under the same rain, the same preaching, the same worship, the same prayers. They both participated in the graces of church membership. But only one of them received the seeds and produced life. The other one proved to be full of nothing but thorns and thistles. They left the church, but they were never of the church. They may have been in the church, but that doesn’t mean that they were in Christ. Jesus would say that this person was never a true believer to begin with (Matthew 7:15-20).
Wrapping Up
Of course, even after the argument is made textually, there are still many objections to be answered. Why would God warn us not to fall away if there is no way that He would let us fall away? The simplest answer is that God uses those warnings as His tool to keep us from the paths that our sin would take us down. They are His means of securing our salvation.
I imagine God using these warnings as a father does to his child. “Son, do not run into the road or you will get very hurt” is something I have told my son countless times. The statement is true, if he runs to the road he will get hurt by a passing car. However, an attentive father would never allow the running to happen. If my son dashed for the road, I would snatch him out of harm's way. As long as it is in my power to do so, I will never let him hurt himself. In the same way, God uses the verbal warnings, as well as the power of His word and Spirit, to do all that He can to keep His children from ultimate destruction.
Well then how do we get people to behave? Can they just live however they want and get salvation in the end? Of course not. This is what the book of James is about, the nature and result of true faith. James argues that saving faith produces good works, and that we can see the truthfulness of our faith as it works its way out of us in our actions. The same is argued by John, who claims that those who are born of God run from sin out of love for God, because God has given him a new birth (1 John 3:9). Salvation produces fruit, actions that are pleasing to God. Those who have truly been redeemed live differently, out of love and thankfulness to God.
When this doctrine of eternal security is embraced, the result is gratitude and confidence before God. It revolutionizes the way a believer views their life, their calling, and God’s unsearchable love. So Christian, take heart. God has begun a good work in you, and He never gives up. His salvation was purchased for you, apart from your works, and He plans to keep you through till the end. Jesus is your shepherd, and He is not in the business of losing His sheep. You are eternally secure. Rest in His promises.
