Can A Christians Salvation Be Lost?
For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Most true Christians at one time or another in their walk with God, have doubted their salvation. Including myself. When you're a believer who strives to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30-31), and you believe with all your heart that all scripture is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16-17), then you may find yourself struggling with scriptures such as these:
Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him (1 John 3:6).
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God (1 John 3:9).
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
First, it's good to know that our doubts do not determine our salvation. Some true believers struggle with doubt, while some unbelievers who think they are saved have no doubts at all. But Matthew 7:21-23 we'll give them a rude awakening. If scriptures like the ones above cause you to doubt your salvation, then you must ask yourself one question. Why does the Bible also give us these scriptures as well:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).
As it is written, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).
Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
Since we all know that God does not contradict Himself, the obvious problem is our lack of understanding. You see, God does not give us His Word so we could just read it and try to figure it out with our own understanding in our language today. That could be a disaster.
2 Peter 3:16 says; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
There are many words that we read in scripture that meant something completely different back in the biblical times when it was written than it means in our language today. God expects us to be diligent and study His Word thoroughly. That's why we have Bible study tools like the Greek and Hebrew Lexicon and the Strong’s Exhaustive Bible Concordance.
2 Timothy 2:15 says; Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Hebrews 4:12 says; For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Joshua 1:8 says; This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Not only are we required to study His Word so that we can understand it more properly, but we are supposed to delight ourselves in His Word.
Psalm 119:15-16 says; I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your Word.
“Justification” and “Sanctification”
One way of helping to stop the fear of losing our salvation is by understanding what justification, and sanctification means in the Bible.
Justification is our declaration of righteousness in the sight of God. It's our promise of salvation for eternal life. All our past, present, and future sins were paid for by the blood of Jesus on the cross. So even in our weakest times, He's got us covered.
Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him (Romans 5:9).
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law (Romans 3:28).
Sanctification literally means “to set apart for special use or purpose”, that is, to make holy or sacred. Therefore, sanctification refers to the state or “process” of being set apart, i.e. “made holy”, as a vessel full of the Holy Spirit of God. (Wikipedia)
Hebrews 10:14 says; For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
I love the grammar in this verse. The ongoing continuous action of the Greek present tense is very important. “Those who are being sanctified” (us believers), have not yet been completely sanctified in the sense of committing no more sins. Therefore, I shouldn't expect perfection from myself until I get to heaven. When Father God looks at me, He sees the perfection of His Son Jesus. So while you're worried about your salvation, realize this one fact. Neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Job, Peter, John, Paul, nor any other biblical characters “after regeneration,” can ever claim that they never committed a sin afterward. So before you spiritually beat yourself up for committing the same sin over and over that you are addicted to committing, and hate with all your heart committing, realize that you are not alone.
King Solomon was the wisest man who ever walked the earth (1 Kings 4:30, 1 Kings 10:23), yet, despite God's commandment to be the husband of one wife (Genesis 2: 24), and not to multiply wives (Deuteronomy 17:16-17), he decided to disobey God. Look at what 1 Kings 11:1-3 says;
But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites— from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
And what about the infamous “Paul the apostle.” apart from Jesus Christ Himself, most scholars would consider him to be the most influential person in the Bible. We're talking about a man who worked harder and suffered more for the Lord than any other person in history (2 Corinthians 11:22-28). A man who practically wrote ¾ths of the New Testament himself. 13 Books (if you don’t count Hebrews). As far as committing the same sins over and over, look at what Paul the apostle says about himself.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:15-25).
So, if the wise King Solomon and the infamous Paul the Apostle could not keep from sinning, even after walking with and having a close personal relationship with God, then I shouldn't exactly be doubting my salvation then, should I?
Our Dirty Feet
The night before His death, in the upper room, Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples and washed their feet. While washing their feet, Peter tried to stop Him and said “You shall never wash my feet!” so Jesus said, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me” (John 13:8). Then Peter said, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:9). Then Jesus replied, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean…” (John 13:10). When Jesus spoke these words, He was speaking of the washing away of our sins by His blood. The curse on this earth has not yet been removed, nor has it been restored. So, although we've been “justified” and “sanctified,” our earth remains dirty. And while we remain here on earth, our feet get dirty. And our “dirty feet” are symbolic of our ongoing sin. Our feet need washing every day!
But,
1 John 1:9 says; If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This verse has been called the “Christian’s bar of soap.”While we are ultimately completely washed of sin by the blood of Jesus in our justification, we must go through a daily cleansing of our sins in our sanctification as we are in the process of being made holy. Make sure you cry out to Jesus every single day for the sins that you’ve committed. Because it's not the sins that we commit, it's our attitude toward committing them. Jesus looks at the heart. Just ask for His faithful cleansing and forgiveness every day.
“Heirs,” Through the “Spirit of Adoption”
Another way of helping to stop the fear of losing our salvation is by understanding what it means to be “heirs” through the “Spirit of Adoption.”
Romans 8:17 says, Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.
From the moment we gave our lives to Christ and chose to walk with Him until our last breath, we became joint heirs with Him and are Co-owners of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven officially became our permanent home. He changed our relationship with Himself in the form of “Spiritual Adoption.”
Romans 8:15 says For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
This scripture has important implications when it comes to the question of losing our salvation. Because adoption is based on the actions of the parent, not the child. Adoption is a permanent legal change. It would be virtually impossible for the child to un-adopt him or herself. Did you get that? Let me repeat myself. “It would be virtually impossible for the child to un-adopt him or herself.” That was part of the main message in the parable of the “Prodigal Son.” That the Lord's relationship with us as an adoptive Father is irrevocable.
Romans 11:29 says For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Also, the Holy Spirit permanently seals all whom He draws to Christ.
Ephesians 1:13 says, In Him, you also trusted after you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Once we are born again, we can never become unborn. Once we are saved, we can never become unsaved. Once we are adopted, we can never become un-adopted. And once we are sealed by God, no one can ever break that seal. Our Father will preserve us in the faith until the very end when we are reunited with Him in heaven.
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day (John 6:37-39).
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand (John 10:28).
So let's all keep our hearts right with God and cast out all our fears of losing our salvation. Let's all just spend more time studying His Word and getting closer to Him every day. Let's use our “Sword of the Spirit” to help us defend against the enemy of sin. Remember, Your Word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You (Psalm 119:11). Until we get to our real home in heaven, we will never be perfect in our own light. So until then, let's all just praise the Lord every day for His promise of salvation. And again I say, let's praise the Lord!
I Did It All for You
I remember the day you were conceived
a life still yet to bloom,
how wonderfully I formed you
within your mother's womb.
I placed My angels over you
to protect you as you grew,
and preserve your life from the wrath to come
I did it all for you.
I watched your daily rise and fall
Through happiness, toil, and strife,
I knew someday you'd follow Me
And love Me all your life.
My blood has washed away your sins
and that you can't deny,
including those you'll struggle with
until the day you die.
For as I hung there on the cross
with a body to marred to view,
You then received My righteousness
I did it all for you.
My earthly tomb is empty now
for all the world to see,
I've conquered death and hades
and set the captives free.
No longer shall you worry
No longer shall you cry,
I've sealed you with perfection
you’re the apple of My eye.
From the day you gave your heart to Me
You've never been alone,
My Spirit lives inside you
And will someday bring you home.
I've prepared your place in heaven
for when your journeys through,
you'll see Me here when you arrive
I did it all for you!
By Dale Coolbaugh
12/05/2022
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Thank You, and may God richly bless you all!