Can a saved person ever be lost?
Once saved, always saved. Eternal security. Preservation of the saints. These are all terms you have probably heard in answer to the question: Can a saved person ever be lost? Can a Christian, a person who has received Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, sin to such a degree that he will lose his salvation, go to hell or hades at death, and eventually be consigned to the lake of fire at the great white throne judgment?
What you believe and know about your eternal security is vital to your hope and confidence as a Christian, as well as to your witness for Christ. Confusion about how you were saved leads to confusion about how a person might remain saved. Most of us know people who have made a profession of faith in Christ and who have perhaps even made a strong display of faith, involving themselves deeply in the life and ministry of the church, only to later repudiate that faith and become spiritual dropouts. Such evidence always raises the question, can a person once saved lose his salvation? Is apostasy a clear and present danger for the believer?
The Roman Catholic church teaches that people can and do lose their salvation. If a person commits a mortal sin, such sin kills the grace of justification that inhabits his soul. If he dies before being restored to a state of grace via the sacrament of penance, he will go to hell.
Though there has been much debate on the subject over the years, I believe that the Bible is very explicit on this point. In fact, the book of 1 John was written to this point: " These things I have written to you who believe in the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life."(1 John 5:13). Notice that the Apostle says you now have eternal life. We don't get eternal life after we die... we have it right now, when we believe. Now, let's follow this idea to its logical conclusion. If we know we have eternal life when we believe in Jesus, how long does eternal life last? Can you have eternal life for a year? A week? A day? If words mean anything at all, then eternal life must be eternal. It must last forever! Eternal life by definition cannot be lost.
Before we look at the doctrine itself, let’s define a few terms.
What does it mean to be lost?
What does it mean to be lost ? The essential reason that we all were once lost and guilt sinners under the wrath of God was our relationship to sin – any lack of conformity to the character and will of God. Are we sinners because we sin, or do we sin because we are sinners? Yes. Both are true. The Bible says that we are all guilty of personal acts and attitudes of sin (Rom 3:23; 3:10-18; Mk. 7:20-23). It also indicates that we are guilty because we are born with a sinful nature (Ps. 51:5), ultimately inherited from our ancestral father, Adam. The Bible even shows that all humankind is viewed by God as having sinned in Adam’s initial sin (Rom. 5:12).
The penalty that is the result of our sin is death.
- Physical death – the separation of the soul from the body.
- Spiritual death – the separation of the soul from God.
- Eternal death – the culmination and extension of spiritual death.
Scripture describes our condition before believing in Jesus Christ as being under the wrath of God: " Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him" (John 3:36).
What does it mean to be saved?
What does it mean to be saved ? To be saved from sin's consequences is not synonymous with:
- Dropping bad behaviors and adopting good ones in order to "get right with God"
- Joining a church
- Deciding to call yourself a Christian
- Going to the altar and saying you are sorry for your sins
- Changing your bad habits
- Adding Christian disciplines such as prayer or Bible reading to your daily routine
All of these things are "works" of some kind. Salvation comes by faith. Salvation is the result of believing, not a by-product of doing. " Salvation is from the LORD" (Jonah 2:9).
What does it mean to believe?
Believing in Jesus does not mean that a person merely believes that Jesus once lived on this earth, or that He was a good man or a fine religious teacher. Believing in Jesus means to place one's trust in Jesus as the provision of God for the forgiveness of sin. It means believing Jesus was, indeed, God's only begotten Son who paid the debt for your sin and who therefore qualifies to be your Savior. Believing in Jesus means believing that Jesus' death on the cross was
- substitutionary
--in your place; on account of your sin.
- atoning
--for the forgiveness of your sin, making it possible for you to be restored to God and accepted by Him.
- sacrificial
--the shedding of His blood instituted a new covenant relationship between you and God.
All who believe in the substitutionary, atoning, sacrificial death of Jesus are saved. That is what it means to be saved.
Is it a problem to be insecure in your salvation?
Is it a problem to be insecure in your salvation ? Let’s take a quick look at what insecurity causes in the book of Genesis.
In Genesis 11 the people of Babel were insecure with the thought of spreading out and filling the earth as God had commanded (Genesis 9:7), so they set out to build a city with a tower in order to find their security in a city and a society. That project was cut short, and the people were dispersed by confusing their languages (Genesis 11:6-9). In Genesis 12 Abram was not secure in the promise of God in verses 1-3, so he fled to Egypt and resorted to deception to save his skin at his wife’s expense (verses l0ff.). This sin was repeated in chapter 20. In Genesis 16 Abram and Sarai felt insecure without a child to assure them of their future and the realization of God’s promises, so they set out to produce a child in their own way. The child which came from the union of Abram and Hagar brought only discord and sorrow (cf. 16:4ff.; 21:1ff.). In chapter 27 we find that Rebekah could not trust God to give Jacob preeminence over Esau as He had said (25:23), and so she sought to bring it about by intrigue and deception (27:5ff.), but at the cost of the son she most loved. She probably never saw him again before she died (27:41ff.). Over and over in Genesis insecurity was a major factor in actions which greatly displeased God and resulted in great suffering and sorrow for the saints. The same could be shown throughout Scripture.
Problems with the position that salvation can be lost
What or how many sins can cause a believer to lose his salvation? Where do we draw the line ? Remember Jesus taught that sin was not in the act but in the thought. If this be so, we would have all lost our salvation long ago shortly after we acquired it!
Opponents of eternal security admit that salvation is of grace, but maintaining it becomes a matter of works. This is a system of salvation by faith plus works that Paul condemns in Gal. 3:1. If this is the case, the believer would have room to boost. Paul says no part of salvation is by works (Eph. 2:8,9). If we admit that human merit cannot save us how can we say that human merit can preserve us?
Biblical assumptions
Eternal security is the biblical teaching that a Christian is not only saved by God’s grace and power, but he is also kept by it. One who is truly born again can never relapse into the former state of being lost. Thus the saint is spiritually secure from the time of his salvation to the time of his glorification. To put this into its simplest form, "Once saved, always saved." To speak of it in more biblical terms, all those who have been chosen in eternity past and, in time, called and justified will, without exception, be glorified:
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these he also justified and whom He justified, these He also glorified (Romans 8:28-30).
There is not so much as a hint that some will be lost from one step to another in the divinely directed process from election to glorification because it is God who is working all things together for good.
This doctrine of the security of the saints is based upon several biblical assumptions. First, we assume that not all who profess to be saved are actually saved:
"Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’" (Matthew 7:22-23; cf. also James 2:14-26).
Some will appear to be Christians who never were.
Second, we must regretfully admit that some who are genuinely saved may not, at a given point in time, appear to be a Christian. In the Old Testament Pharaoh might not think Abram to be saved as he lied about Sarai (Genesis 12), nor does David seem to be a saint when he took Uriah’s wife and his life (2 Samuel 11). In the New Testament, Peter did not appear to belong to our Lord when he denied Him (Luke 22:54-62), nor did the man who was living with his father’s wife, an act considered pagan by unbelievers (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). The doctrine of the security of the saint does not mean that a Christian cannot fall, but only that his salvation will never fail:
The steps of a man are established by the LORD; And He delights in his way. When he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong; because the LORD is the one who holds his hand (Psalm 37:23-24).
Third, we must say that the doctrine of the security of the saints does not mean that all who are truly saved will necessarily feel so at any given moment in time. There is a great deal of difference between security and assurance. Security is a reality, while assurance is our perception of this reality. Security is a fact; assurance is a feeling. At times of sinfulness and disobedience, assurance is frequently lacking, but security is not.
Fourth, while I am spiritually secure from the moment I have been born again, pursuing a life of sin and disobedience is ill-advised:
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5:1-5).
The sinner here was a true Christian, I believe. He had done that which shocked even the pagans and brought discredit to our Lord and His church. The discipline which Paul urged was intended to restore this brother, a course of action that was effective (2 Corinthians 2:5-11). Paul said that while his flesh might be destroyed, his spirit would be saved. Spiritually this sinning saint was secure, eternally secure, but he was nevertheless in great danger. God has ways of dealing with sin besides revoking salvation. Being turned over to Satan is a frightening possibility. Our souls are secure in the Lord, now and forever, but we still may reap the consequences of divine chastening if we choose to take the grace of God lightly.
A Scriptural Defense of Spiritual Security
The doctrine of our eternal security is not just true because we want it to be so and not even because we need it to be true; it is a fact because the Bible boldly states this to be the case. While there are many lines of proof for the security of the saints, I will focus on some of those which are most striking to me.
(1) The saints are spiritually secure because the Scriptures say so. Our Lord Himself assured us of our security in Him:
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them; and they shall never perish, and no one shall 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 10:27-29).
Let your way of life be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you " (Hebrews 13:5).
For I can confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time . (I Peter 1:3-5).
To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy . (Jude 24).
Here is the fundamental issue in the matter of our security: who initiated our salvation, God or us?
(2) In addition to explicit statements in the Scriptures there are also many implicit assurances of the security of the saints. We know that God is omniscient (that is, He knows all). Knowing all means that God knew all of our sins long before He ever chose us (in eternity past) or called us. How inconceivable it is to think that an omniscient God would save us from some of our sins, all the while knowing that by other sins we would be lost. Since God is immutable (that is, He never changes), His purposes never change, nor do His promises, nor does His love. If God’s love does not change, nor His purposes, and His power is greater than all, how can we ever be lost, having once been saved? The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
(3) We never find any instance in the Bible, Old or New Testament, where one who was once saved lost his salvation. David sinned greatly, but he was restored. Peter denied his Lord, but he had a position of prominence in His church. And even the man who lived with his father’s wife was considered spiritually secure (1 Corinthians 5:5). And lest someone object that these men were all lost and then saved once again, let me remind you of this passage:
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame (Hebrews 6:4-6; emphasis added).
If it were possible to be lost after once being saved (which it is not), then that one would be lost forever.
Conclusion
The security of the saints was never intended to encourage slothfulness or sin in the Christian’s life. The major objection to the doctrine of the security of the saints is not exegetical or biblical, but practical: "Once saved, always saved means that once I am saved I can live any way I wish and still go to heaven." In one sense this is hypothetically true. Nothing I can do, once I am saved, will cause me to lose my salvation. But let me remind you, as I often do, that just because a doctrine is wrongly applied does not mean that the doctrine itself is wrong. Any truth can be misapplied and yet still be true. The doctrine of spiritual security means that when I sin as a saint God will deal with me as a son, not as a stranger.
For a believer to lose his salvation would demand a reversal and an undoing of all the preceding works of the Father, Son, and Spirit. The key issue in the discussion of the believer’s security concerns the issue of who does the saving. If man is responsible for securing his salvation, then he can be lost; if God secures the person’s salvation, then the person is forever secure.
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