I’ve got a Question…
Can A Person Lose Their Salvation?
During this summer season, we are giving YOU the opportunity to select the topics of our discussion each Sunday morning. We’re calling the series, “I’ve Got A Question,” and you’ve given me enough topics to explore through the remainder of the summer – and I thank you – I think! The questions that have been asked are not easy ones! Here are a few of the questions we are going to examine in the weeks to come:
Ø Is evolution true? Explain cavemen and dinosaurs.
Ø Is Harry Potter safe for my kids?
Ø If God is in control, why should I pray?
Ø What tips does the Bible have about child discipline?
Ø Are all spiritual gifts valid for today – healing, tongues, prophecy, etc.?
Ø Does the Bible teach that we are supposed to tithe?
Ø What happens to babies who die?
WOW! Anyone want to change jobs? There are some tough items there – some of which have been debated for centuries, others that are as contemporary as today’s news.
The topic today is part of the first category – the question posed today has been and continues to be a debate that rages within the church. There are church leaders and teachers on both sides of the argument that I greatly respect. The question is this:
Can a person lose their salvation?
Will a person who has become a Christian always remain a Christian? Can a person who has chosen to follow Jesus later choose not to follow Him? Can a person who has professed to be a believer in Jesus Christ later slip back into a life of sin, and lose their salvation?
Now, to some, this may seem like a theological issue that really doesn’t have any practical implication. In fact, in my Christian Theology Text, by Millard Erickson, four chapters are given to this topic, over 120 pages, to give you some scale – he discusses the Holy Spirit in two chapters and less than 40 pages. But I think the ramifications are very practical. On the one hand, if there is no guarantee that our salvation is permanent, every believer has plenty to worry about – “Have I lost my salvation? How far gone is too far? Where is the line drawn? Has my spouse, or child lost their salvation?” On the other hand, if we believe that our salvation is absolutely secure, no matter how we live or what we do, we may see that as a license to live an immoral life with a false certainty that God has to let us into heaven because at some point we made a profession of faith in Christ! It leads to great abuse – people trust in some past decision, religious rite like baptism, or a childhood faith - but as an adult they have no spiritual vitality at all. The implications are enormous, and very practical – because it impacts the way we live our lives as believers in Christ on a day-to-day basis.
Now, before we dive into the “meat” of this study we must understand one very important thing. What we are discussing this morning is a matter of opinion. You can have differing views on this subject and still be saved! There are certain matters that are essential to accept –they are non-negotiable. They are found in our Statement of Faith. Things like the Bible is the inspired Word of God, that God created the world, that Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation, etc.
But there are other areas that are non-essentials that we can disagree on without dividing over! Items like styles of worship, methods of church growth or programming, the role of women in the church, etc. are what I would call non-essentials. This matter, sometimes called “ETERNAL SECURITY,” is also open to interpretation. There are great Christians on both sides of this issue, people you and I respect. So, this morning what I want to do is simply give you my findings, where I land on this issue. But please understand: We can disagree on this issue and still be in heaven together. (That’s when you’ll find out I was right!) We can disagree without being disagreeable and be one in the Lord.
I’ll make a deal with you on this. For my part I will do my very best to present both sides objectively. I think I can do that because as you’ll see I don’t agree with either position completely. But I would ask you to simply have a teachable spirit. Pray, “Lord, help me to understand the truth, and grace to love those who disagree with me.” In fact, let’s pray right now.
Prayer.
On your tables you will find a green half sized sheet of paper with some verses and discussion questions on it. I’d like you to read the verses, and consider the questions briefly – we’re only going to take 3 minutes with each question, so someone at your table read the first Question, and the verses, then discuss it.
[take 6 minutes to allow discussion of questions]
This issue really focuses around two major positions – the Calvinist, which believes in the eternal security of the believer, and the Armenian, which believes that a person can lose their salvation under some circumstances, but the issue doesn’t center so much on losing your salvation as much as how you get saved in the first place.
II. SEEING THE SIDES:
Calvinists hold a belief commonly reduced to “Once saved, always saved.”
There are a number of passages that each side uses to justify their position. On the back of the discussion questions sheet on your table is a partial list of some of the passages each side uses. Calvinists would point to these verses:
John 10:27-28: Jesus says: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Obviously this passage says that no outside force can take our eternity away, Satan can’t even snatch it from us. Here’s another one: Romans 8:1 - “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” The word condemnation there means “blame.” So, it doesn’t say there isn’t any sin but those who know Jesus won’t be blamed for their sin. That’s pretty secure. A little later in that same chapter - vss:33-35: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Paul answers that question in vs:37. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Nothing can separate us. The position is clear - Once you’re saved, even though you sin, nothing can separate you from the love of God - not even yourself. There are many other verses, as well.
Now, the other side, the Armenians, believe “Once you’re saved, you remain saved as long as you are faithful.” But when you flagrantly sin - you are lost until you repent.
This side has their own biblical texts. For example:
In 1 Cor. 9:27 the apostle Paul has just talked about receiving an eternal prize, a “crown that lasts forever.” And then just verse later he writes: “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” We looked earlier at Hebrews. In Hebrews 6:4-6, the author writes this: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.”
Each side has Scriptural backing, and each has some problems.
First, there are some problems with the Calvinist view. What about the person who claims to make a decision to follow Jesus, but never follows through with it, or “backslides” and doesn’t seem to bounce back? What if they never become a fully devoted follower of Christ? Often the Calvinist answer is that the person never was saved in the first place. In other words if they really were saved they wouldn’t stay in that backslidden state. I guess I just don’t see it. I have know people who were, by every appearance, genuine believers – even leading others to Christ, but for whatever reason they turned away. And when someone says, “Well, they were never a real believer.” I respond, “Well, they sure thought they were! They had no doubt that they were a believer at one time!” If they were never saved, but thought they were, then how do I know I am? How is that “eternal security?” That seems like “eternal insecurity” to me!
Another problem. How do you deal with free will? If I’m going to accept that we are chosen by God without our choice, then how do I deal with verses like Revelation 22:17, when Jesus issues the invitation to come to Him it says, “ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” Whoever wishes can come, not “those who have been chosen may come.” Why would Jesus tell us to “go into the byways, and among the hedges, and invite people to come” if they had no choice in the matter? Strict Calvinism believes that God selects those who will be saved, and creates them to be saved, and that He also creates people with the intention that they will be sent to hell – a belief called supralapsarianism.
There are also problems with the Armenian side. They claim that a person chooses to come to faith in Jesus Christ. They say that person remains saved as long as they are faithful...but how do they define faithful? Can any sin cause us to lose it? Or is it just the big sins? Where do you draw the line? Is it 5 sins? 10? 100? Now you are unfaithful? And if you hold that it’s any sin that makes you unfaithful well then you better not lie and then walk out and get hit by a truck - because you haven’t had time to repent!
If this is the truth, then we’re dealing with “eternal jeopardy?” You’re saved one minute but not the next! This view, by the way, is the primary reason for "last rites" given by the Catholic Church. Just in case there is some sin that we missed. And that’s not just a view held by Catholics. I’ve heard some Protestants say things like. "I wouldn’t want to die on Monday if I missed the Communion on Sunday." And what really bothers me about this position is this: “How do you live an effective Christian life if you are always worrying about falling from grace?”
III. COMING UP WITH A COMPROMISE:
By now you may be saying, “Ok, I get it. There are problems with both of these views! So get to the answer already! This is how I have come to peace with these two views. I believe it is scriptural, and is able to fit with all the passages we have seen this morning.
I do not believe that you can lose your salvation. I do not believe that you can lose your salvation like you lose your keys or wallet. I do not believe that anyone or anything can take your salvation away from you! I believe in the absolute sovereignty of God – He alone is in control of world events. I believe that God knows who will believe, when they will believe, and even orchestrates events so that they will believe, but He is able to do that without violating the individuals ability to make that choice. But I also believe that in His sovereignty, God has chosen to allow individuals to make the choice for their salvation. The Bible makes it clear what God’s will is – “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all will come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) – but sadly, not all will do so. Does that mean that their will is greater than God’s? No – but it means that God loves us so much that He has sovereignly determined to allow us to love Him in return, or reject Him. Because I believe that we have a choice in following Jesus, then I believe that it is possible to make a choice to not follow Him as well. I believe that there are biblical examples of this in the Old and New Testaments – men like King Saul and Judas, and, in Paul’s writings to Timothy he refers to Hymenaeus and Alexander, who had “rejected conscience, and shipwrecked their faith;” and Hymenaeus and Piletus, who “have wandered away from the truth.” Even more to the point, Lucifer – who was an angel – in the presence of God in heaven - by a rebellious, egotistical act of the will, defied God.
I don’t believe that you can lose your salvation, but I do believe that you can willfully and deliberately walk away from God. The Bible says in 1 Thess. 5:19 that we can quench the Spirit- put out His influence. In 1 Tim. 4:2 it talks about a conscience that can be seared as with a hot iron- become so hard it no longer responds. Paul talks about being diligent so that he doesn’t preach to others and then find himself disqualified. (I Cor. 9:27)
So the bottom line is this – and this is where it gets practical – Your relationship with God is not something to be played with or taken lightly! Some of you use God like people who take an aspirin when they have a headache! “Oh! I’m in trouble, I need to get right with God, so that He will fix my problems!” QUIT PLAYING! When things are going good, we don’t need Him, so we neglect Him – when times are bad we come runnin’ to Him, crying out like one of His poor children – “Help me daddy!” Let me tell you something – and I mean this in all seriousness – if that describes the extent of your walk with Christ – then you very possibly are not saved at all – hear me! There are some terrifying portions of Scripture that back me up – like the whole book of James – and Jesus’ teaching that on judgment day “many” would stand before Him and say, “Lord, we know you, we prayed in your name, we taught in your name, we cast out demons in your name!” “But,” Jesus said, “I will say to them, ‘Depart from me, I never knew you!”
Quit playing! Hebrews chapter 10:26-31, says,
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
A month ago, Pastor Gary Dunseith stood here and told us that 90% of the opportunities to come to Jesus around the globe occur within the borders of the United States – and yet we continue to “trample the Son of God under foot, and treat as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant.” I believe the words of that last verse should send shivers down the spine of every American, because we take our opportunities so lightly – The question for many isn’t “Can you lose your salvation?” – it’s “Have you been saved at all?” Have you made a decision to follow Jesus, or are you just playing? Do you pull the name of Jesus out of your pocket like a lucky rabbits foot when times are hard, then put Him away when you don’t need Him? Man, you better get on you knees and beg for forgiveness and genuine salvation! If you are saved, do you discipline yourself, like Paul, so that you will not be disqualified? I’ll tell you, I don’t believe you can lose your salvation like you lose your keys, but I believe that if you are saved, you won’t lose it due to neglect, either! We all need to take this thing seriously and stop playing!
We just spend the last week at an Air Force Base in Central Wisconsin. During WWII the Air Force popularized the phrase: “point of no return.” That point was the spot where their fuel was over half depleted and they no longer could return to home base for fuel. This week we watched the launch of the space shuttle, and they reached a point, just 5 minutes into the flight, where they could no longer return to the Kennedy Space Center if there was a problem – they would have to go on to a landing spot in Spain. Houston informed them when the point was reached.
I believe there is a spiritual point of no return. I believe an unsaved person can get so cold to the Spirit of God that they no longer even hear the truth. And I believe that a person can come to Jesus, and genuinely trust in Him, but get so caught up in the world, so neglectful and hard, that the cares and values of this world grow up like weeds and choke out their salvation. Jesus taught that in the parable of the four soils. This person has become so far gone that even though they know the truth, even though they responded to Jesus before, they have effectively thrown their salvation away.
The point is this: You don’t want to be in this situation. If you are relying on some decision you made as a child years ago, or a piece of paper that says you got baptized or confirmed, or became a member of some church as your means of salvation, but do not live a life that is holy and seeks to please God, you may be kidding yourself. Stop Playing with God! We are not called to be people who take on the family name of God and then go and drag that name through the mud. We are called to be holy, because HE is holy! Live you life in such a way that people will see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven. Live a life that pleases Him, that is marked by continued growth, maturity and service, not because it earns you a place in heaven, but because the Holy Spirit is working in you to craft you into the image of Christ. That is what He has saved you to.
Prayer.