Can Christians Lose Their Salvation? - Part 1

In short, the answer to this question might be yes if one assumes salvation depends on the actions of believers themselves.

First, we need to clarify what is meant by the two most common statements suggesting we can lose our salvation. There's a considerable difference between the idea of losing our salvation and renouncing our salvation. Losing salvation implies that God has control over the decision; in other words, God rejects us because we fail to meet a standard required to keep our salvation. Renouncing salvation suggests a decision we make in turning away and rejecting God, and those who make the case for the latter imply that our rejection causes God to reject us as if one is linked to the other. In my opinion, both arguments are ill-conceived; however, some believe God will reject us—even after He has saved us—which creates tension with His claim that He won't lose any of those given to him.

However, in making a case that challenges any possibility of losing salvation, my argument applies to both views and centres on the question of authority, and whether or not those who claim salvation are "born-again". On this, our eternal security is secured by God and depends on God, NOT on anything we do or say after being saved.

Joh 5:24 "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

The judgment seat of Christ will determine the value of what we have done with salvation, but not salvation itself. What is being “born again”? The clearest explanation is found in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, where God’s response is to send the Holy Spirit to live within, as a deposit that sets apart and guarantees salvation to the believer. God takes this step in full knowledge of every aspect of the believer’s past, present, and future, as well as the motive that drives the appeal in the first place. Why would an all-knowing God save someone, knowing they would reject him?

John 10:27-30 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." The language here is emphatic and implies that those being spoken of are born-again believers. Therefore, if, as some claim, we can lose our salvation for either of these two reasons, they’re implying that God is incapable of carrying this out.

I decided to address this topic after listening to many robust public commentators who make the case that Christians CAN lose their salvation and imply that "born again" believers CAN reject God, and thus lose their salvation, without any consideration for Jesus's statements to the contrary. Considering the theological tension this creates, one might have expected more, or at least a balanced argument about the tensions a statement like this creates. The general reason for preaching that born-again believers can lose their salvation often seems to be motivated by the need to ensure that Christians don’t take their salvation lightly. However, not only is this approach ill-conceived, it also treats the body of the Church as if it’s unable to make informed decisions. It has been said, “that one idea sounds good to a man until another idea contends with it”. Indeed, one could argue that a polarising approach to hermeneutics leaves the Church with an extremely narrow understanding of biblical truth.

The evidence for "losing or renouncing salvation" should be weighed against evidence to the contrary, and born-again believers should consider that if God would consider taking away our salvation, no professing Christian can ever say they are literally saved, because we can never know at what point God might reject us. The issue is that God becomes a liar, and grace cannot exist under conditional salvation. Essentially, we’re left in the same position as the Jehovah's Witnesses, where salvation is determined by the unrealised value of our works, as if that were possible.

To assume that anything we do can be so serious as to cause an all-knowing God to reject us is to presume we are less worthy now than we were before we were saved. But there is no sin that we can commit after justification that God’s foreknowledge didn’t already know about. Therefore, by reducing salvation to levels of sin or unfaithfulness that God is somehow unaware of is naive, and we reduce salvation to human decision, ability, and works, thereby convicting all believers.

Any debate over contesting ideas will incur tension and the risk of creating offence, but not having it is far more detrimental to the body of Christ. The truth will often reveal itself in the process. False doctrine invites legalism and fear and requires the manipulation of God’s word to cover the error. I believe this is what we have here, where the case for preaching that salvation can be rejected or lost emanates from Man assuming the position of God, and the need to control salvation itself. However, assuming control of God's responsibility is problematic—when a spiritual idea determines its theology, truth is invariably compromised.

Those who hold this view invariably use the biblical narrative out of context, conflating the theology of justification with the process of sanctification. In reality, our post-justification actions and the merit of works should be positioned within the process of “sanctification,” which is ultimately tested by Christ (the Bema seat), but is often wrongly projected as an ongoing justification for salvation. As such, it suggests that if we don't meet a prescribed standard, God will take our salvation from us. It also suggests God blindly chooses those He knows will reject him. Because this view implicates "born again" believers, it creates tension with the words of Jesus and God. Proponents also use professing Christians who walk away or renounce their faith as examples of those losing their salvation. All this begins with a fundamentally flawed theological presupposition that those who “renounce” their faith were "born-again" in the first place? The wheat and the weeds have always been present in the Church. Yes, we can look at the fruit of a changed life, but ultimately only God and the person concerned know. Any move to judgment becomes highly subjective, and involvement in a Church tells us very little, which explains why we are told to let the wheat and the weeds grow together. The presupposition that undergirds any view of eternal security should begin with God’s word, which suggests that God is the one who saves, NOT Man, and He builds His Church, not the actions of man (Mal 3:17-18).

SALVATION DOES NOT DEPEND ON US? If salvation depended on us, I would agree that we could lose our salvation, but thankfully, salvation depends on God alone. 1Jn 5:13 says ALL our sins were taken care of on the cross. What does this mean? All our sins were then future past; they hadn’t happened? Jesus died for all our sins before our salvation, and all those after our salvation. God, being outside the dimension of time and space, knows all things throughout all time, from beginning to end. Therefore, God saved us based on who we were, who we are, and who we will be. Foreknowledge is not the same as theistic determinism, which has no support from the scriptures. God created Man with real responsibility so that our decisions are full of meaning.

God's GRACE IS UNCONDITIONAL, and if anything, whatsoever, is raised as a condition for keeping our salvation, once we have been justified and born-again, salvation becomes conditional, therein contradicting the entire message of the cross. Jesus cried out, on the cross, “It is finished”, meaning “paid in full”. Paid for everyone, for all time, was the point, insofar as anyone who believes in Christ through faith receives justification in Christ, from the very moment they are born, into the body of Christ.

Salvation depends on God's sovereign purpose—and his solemn promise, NOT our faithfulness (Rom 4:16). If salvation depended on human ability or decision, then the promise isn’t secure. Christ's death enabled God to save us despite our moral impurity, and our eternal salvation does not depend on anything we do after salvation, either—the judgment of what we have done with it, yes, but not salvation. Remember, God knew us before we were born, which includes all our sins, past, present and future, YET HE CHOSE TO JUSTIFY, SEAL, AND GLORIFY those who received him on faith alone. Is it believable that God would justify someone who would eventually renounce him? In my opinion, no—this idea makes no rational or theological sense. Those who claim to reject God or Jesus Christ never knew him, and were never spiritually reborn in the first place. Any debate over eternal security should emanate from what God says, not by bringing difficult passages into direct conflict because we think people might take salvation lightly. Somehow, this approach appears to suggest we know better, by inherently mocking the wisdom of God. Often, the problem lies in our interpretation of difficult passages, such as those found in the Book of Hebrews.

In John 6:37-40, “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do THE WILL OF HIM WHO SENT ME. And this is the will of him who sent me, THAT I SHALL LOSE NONE OF ALL THOSE 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 them up at the last day."

THEREFORE, IF ANYONE CAN LOSE, OR WALK AWAY FROM THEIR SALVATION, JESUS FAILED. In John 10:28-29, Jesus says we shall NEVER lose our salvation and no one can cause this to happen, because salvation does not depend on us. The word “never” is a double negative, meaning it’s like saying never—forever. Therefore, anyone who says we can lose our salvation is suggesting that GOD FAILED ALSO.

God knew when he saved us that we were depraved (Rom 8:29), and aside from the lens of Christ, all believers continue to be unworthy to be saved; let that sink in. There’s nothing new we can do that goes against his solemn promise. He knew us before we were born, and THROUGH HIS FOREKNOWLEDGE, HE KNEW WHO WOULD RECEIVE CHRIST AND BE WITH HIM IN ETERNITY (this statement alone should be enough), and according to this foreknowledge, he PREDESTINED (examine Sealed Eph 4:30) us to be conformed into the image of his Son. The subject of salvation has already been confirmed, and our salvation is settled through the power of God. When God says He chose us, don’t imagine we're special and somehow deserving of God’s attention. Being “chosen” emanates from God's foreknowledge of what we will do with the grace of God, not from any level of worthiness we might attribute to ourselves. Paul confirms this in Rom 8:20“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified”. Foreknew, predestined, called, justified and glorified, all this was decided before we were born. It’s easy to forget this, and those who preach that salvation can be lost fall into the trap of imagining that salvation depends on us.

We can debate the wheat and the weeds, but that’s another discussion. The righteousness of Christ has justified our salvation. If we’ve already been justified by both God and Jesus, nothing can take that from us (Rom 8:26). BUT, ALL CHRISTIANS WILL BE SUBJECT TO JUDGMENT. All those who are saved will come before Christ (Bema Seat) to answer for what we have done with our salvation, but the judgment is about works, not salvation. I recently heard the story of the prodigal son being used to support the idea of losing our salvation. While the son squandered his inheritance and walked away, he lost his inheritance, but never lost his salvation and returned to his Father’s house. To suggest that his salvation was lost when he went away (termed a backslider) is not true, nor is it in keeping with the parable. He lost his inheritance (prize), which are the rewards or lack of, that we incur at the judgment seat of Christ. God's love is not dependent on our love, and in the same way, the parable illustrates that the Son never lost his father's love—and indeed the Son remained in the Father's house (Lk 15:11-32).

In 1 Cor 9:27, what did Paul mean when he said he feared being “disqualified for the prize”, or in other versions, “castaway”? This passage is often used to suggest that Paul feared losing his salvation. But it wasn’t salvation—Paul wrote the book on salvation and chose his words carefully. The entire narrative concerns our “works”, and Paul was referencing the prize. He feared that his good works might not withstand the fire at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor 3:14-15). There are rewards in heaven, and each of us will receive rewards according to what we have done with our gifts and talents. We can indeed lose our inheritance. If this were not the case, the judgment seat of Christ would be without theological meaning.

Finally, it’s our choice to believe and receive the gift of God, that is, Jesus Christ. This is our free will choice—and man cannot fool God through action or deception. If God exists, this idea is foolishness. Remember, God’s foreknowledge already knows our decision, and those he knows he has already predestined, and those, also, he calls, and those, also, he justifies, and those also he glorifies.  If salvation depended on the will of man, we could indeed lose our salvation. On this point, opposing views lose their way. The only decision we have to make is to believe in God through faith and receive the gift of "spiritual rebirth". Once reborn, salvation is sealed; it DOES NOT DEPEND ON US. Suggesting that Christians can lose their salvation is a form of blasphemy because it denies God’s word, his power, and his foreknowledge. WE WERE SEALED WITH CHRIST AND BECAME SONS OF GOD FROM THE MOMENT WE BELIEVED AND RECEIVED THE REDEEMING WORK OF THE CROSS.