Can a Christian Lose Salvation?

Why a True Christian Can Never Lose Their Salvation

We have seen that it can certainly look like someone has lost their salvation. But as we draw toward the end of this article, let me share some verses that prove this simply cannot be the case.

Can anything separate us from the love of God?

  • Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:39)

Can a new creation be un-created?

  • Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:17)

Can anyone be un-born again?

  •  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

Could  the price paid by Jesus be too little?

  • redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect… (1 Peter 1:18–19)

Can we be un-declared righteous?

  • We have been justified through faith… (Romans 5:1)

Can the gift of eternal life prove to be temporary?

  • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Can the sovereign chain of salvation be broken?

  • Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

Can God break his word and be proven untrustworthy?

  • I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. (2 Tim 1:12, NIV)

Will God forget to finish his work of salvation?

  • May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely…at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 These 5:23-24)
  • I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. (Philippians 1:6).

Will God not keep us from turning away from him?

  • I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jer 32:40)
  • Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling… (Jude 24)

Can the irrevocable be made revocable?

  • For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:28)

Will God lie for the fist time ever in your case and break all these promises?

  • …in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. (Titus 1:2)

The way to have confidence that you are saved

Perhaps this passage in Philippians sums this issue up more than any others

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing,  that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,  holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Philippians 2:12-16)

Note that this passage teaches us

  1. To obey.
  2. That there is a work we are meant to do in walking with Jesus.
  3. That we should have a healthy fear and trembling, not smug complacency, about our spiritual state.
  4. That as we play our part we should be confident that actually it is GOD at work in us to save and restore us.
  5. If we learn not to grumble and argue and to hold fast to God’s word we will be lights in the world and be found blameless because of the gospel.

There is a need for perseverance in our faith. The writer to the Hebrews points back to a true salvation decision and says that the evidence that we were ever a Christian is that we still are at the end of our lives:

“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (Hebrews 3:14)

Jesus doesn’t call us just to a momentary decision to follow him, but to a lifetime of abiding in him.

But we are not dependent on ourselves alone to keep ourselves in the Faith. The one we have entrusted ourselves to will himself keep us safe. Jesus himself has promised us clearly:

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)

He will keep you in his hand and will never let you go.

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. (John 10:27-28)

Paul has great confidence in Jesus’ ability to keep him saved:

I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him  until that day. (2 Timothy 1:12, NASB)

This promise is similar in some ways to another found in the Old Testament which Piper says is the promise he has clung to most throughout his life as a Christian:

“Fear not, for I”—this is God talking—“I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

No wonder the writer to the Hebrews encourages us strongly:

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:22-23)

The writer to the Hebrews also gives us great confidence in the following quote, which I will end with, and I trust this article has prepared us for the next article in my Jesus commands series on the demand of Jesus that we both fear and trust him:

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)

I will leave you with this prayer I am praying today having read all the Scriptures that prompted this article:

 

Lord Jesus, many years ago I made a decision to follow you. Yet you predestined me before the foundation of the World to be perfect in you.

I have wandered from you. Yet you have never wandered from me.

I have sinned, yet you go on forgiving me.

At times I still wonder if I am even a Christian at all.

Yet, you promise that you will never leave me, never forsake me, that no one can ever snatch me from your hand.

Please pour out more of your Holy Spirit on me that I would know full assurance of salvation, and be transformed more and more into your image.

Teach me how to obey your commands.

Take my weakness and make me strong for you.

Abide with me whatever life throws my way.

Give me great confidence that I am yours.

Take my life completely and use it for your glory.

Let me walk without grumbling or arguing.

Make me a light in this world.

Help me show others the way to you.

Raise up an army of true believers who will walk with you and boldy declare your word.

Bring revival to my heart, and to the church in my nation and elsewhere in the world.

Let your kingdom come

Let your will be done

In my life as it is in heaven.

Please direct my path and give me a great hope and future.

Thank you for living for me, dying for me, rising again for me, pouring out your Spirit on me, and for preparing a place for me.

This article originally appeared here.