Can a Man Lose His Salvation?

The simple answer to the above question is NO, not if he is an elect Christian, one predestined to know Christ from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-14). Unfortunately there are many who believe a person can lose what God has so graciously and mercifully given. Because of this the simple answer "no" doesn’t just do away with the seeming contradiction to the scriptures that clearly teach that people do walk away from God. Furthermore, most of us know someone who has walked away from God and even renounced their faith in Christ. Some of these people might have even played an important role in our own salvation. All too often this causes us to believe that once a person is saved he isn’t actually always saved. The following essay will show that the Bible clearly does teach that once true salvation comes to a person he/she can never lose it. It will also show that there are in fact certain biblical references that show how a person once came to a knowledge of Christ only to renounce Christ. We will also look at the difference between "falling from grace" and "losing one’s salvation."

John’s gospel says many things about Jesus. He even tells us that his writing is only the tip of the iceberg, as it were, because all the teachings of Jesus could not be held in a library the size of the world (Jn. 21:25). But one thing John did reveal about what Jesus said was that a man can never lose what God has graciously given to him, namely, salvation.

Jesus, in John 6:39, says this, "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day." It is the Father’s will, who sent Jesus, that those who have been given to Jesus will not be lost. This passage teaches a handful of doctrines, not the least of which is the fact that there are only a certain few that are "given" to Jesus. This group of people are known as the "elect" throughout scripture. And Jesus says that they will not be lost – they are given to him by God the Father and are not lost but raised up on the last day. In verse 44 of the same chapter Jesus tells his listeners that no one can even come to him unless he has been drawn to come to Jesus by the Father. Those who are drawn to Jesus and stay with him until the end are those "elect." Salvation comes as a result of election, and salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8-10).

John’s gospel also clearly reveals Jesus’ plan of keeping all those who truly come to him in chapter 10. In this chapter Jesus is seen as a shepherd who looks out over his sheep. The Old Testament made several allusions to sheep and shepherds as they relate to this passage...

In contrast to these false shepherds who lead God’s people astray, Jesus is the True Shepherd. Look at what the True Shepherd does in John 10:1-30. First, Jesus says he is the door through which the sheep enter the pen. This means that he is the only way into the sheep pen. There is no other way to come into the presence of God as a child of God than through Jesus Christ who is the door. He is the entryway (vv. 1-10).

Second, Jesus says that he himself is the good shepherd. This is a clear allusion to the above passages cited from the OT. It also has the 23^rd Psalm in mind. Jesus lays his life down for his sheep (his people), and he never runs away from danger – not even his own death on a cross. This is clearly backed up by Jesus when he offered himself as a sacrificial lamb on behalf of the sin of mankind. He could have run, but he didn’t. Rather, he went willingly to the cross and bore our shame because he is the good shepherd. Verse 15 clearly shows how much Jesus loves his people when he tells them that "he lays down his life for the sheep."

Third, Jesus says that those who do not know him do not keep his words (v. 26). Only those who truly are the sheep of God, the children of God, listen to God and obey God through Jesus Christ (v. 27). Verse 28 is the clincher because it clearly teaches that no one is able to take God’s children out of God’s hand. The Father has given them to the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Father is greater than all. If this is true, and no orthodox Christian would deny this, then who or what could actually steal something out of God’s hand? The biblical answer is no one (vv. 29-30). Christ keeps all who have been given to him by the Father, they are never lost, and they listen only to Christ and his teaching.

The Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome also gives clear teaching about the security of one’s salvation. Now it must be observed from this magnificent letter, that the doctrine of election is pivotal to one’s belief system of salvation. Paul distinctly teaches that man is dead in his sins and unable to come to a knowledge of God on his own (Ephesians 2). Chapter three of Romans builds on this point. Since man cannot come to God on his own due to his spiritual deadness, John 6:44 makes that much more sense given that Jesus taught that no man can come to him unless the Father draws him. How can a dead man "make a decision for Christ"? It is God who makes that decision, and all we do is trust in Jesus. We don’t "accept" Jesus, he accepts us. We receive Christ as our Lord and Savior. With this in mind it stands to reason that given that this salvation is given to us as a gift, we who are spiritually dead, how then can we, who had nothing to do with our salvation, have anything to do with the loss of that gift? The simple answer is "we can’t." The reason we can’t is entirely spelled out in Romans 9-11, namely, we who are saved are elected by God’s mercy whom He shows to whom he will (9:15-16).

Romans 8, after showing that man is called, predestined, and justified all in one sentence, certainly shows that there is nothing we can do, those who have been predestined, etc., to lose what God has foreordained to occur. Look at verses 31-39. Paul, after showing us how we were saved, namely through predestination, now asks who can separate us from God’s love? With God for us there is no one who can be against us who can overtake God. This is the same God who gave His Son on our behalf, a gift to us, who graciously gives us all things (v. 32). If He didn’t spare His own Son as a gift to us then He won’t spare anything for there is nothing greater than His Son Jesus Christ. This same Jesus is at the right hand of God praying for us (v. 34). Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (vv. 35-36). If nothing can separate us from God’s love then we can rest assured that those of us who truly know Christ can never be taken away or separated from Christ.

Paul concludes in verses 37-39 saying, "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul is convinced that none of these things can separate us from God’s love. If Paul is convinced, an inspired NT writer, why are so many today not convinced?

Now this does bring up a pivotal question. Who is loved by God? If all are loved by God then all can never be separated from that love. But what does that love entail? Does it mean eternal life? I submit that God loves His elect. He is the Creator of all, but it is only those He elects that He loves, though He has mercy on all. Consider Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43. In this parable God sows seed that grows into wheat. An enemy sows weeds that grow up with the wheat. The wheat is God’s elect people (v. 38a), and the weeds are others, namely children of the devil who is the enemy that sowed them (v. 38b-39). The wheat goes into eternal life with God (v. 43a), and the weeds into the fiery furnace (v. 43b). Those that went into eternal life were children of God, loved by God. Those that weren’t were children of the devil, sown by the devil. The Gospel of John also speaks of this phenomena. Jesus tells those who oppose him that their father is the devil (Jn. 8:42-47). Does God love everyone? From these passages it appears clear that God loves His elect, not everyone, though mercy is shown to everyone. Now because God has not revealed to us who His elect are we are to love everyone and reveal God’s love to all who hate us. We, like all of God’s creation, anxiously await the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:18-25). It is not our place to decide who God loves and who He might not love. We love all and share the good news with all. That is our commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

Paul writes to the church in Ephesus in chapter one about many things tied to the issue of salvation. First, he writes to fellow believers in Jesus Christ, and he recognizes that Christ is the giver of all gifts given to his children (1:3). In verse 4 he praises God for having chosen his children and predestined them for salvation from the foundation of the world. God’s children were predestined in love and adopted as his own children. This is completely the work of God, and this prompts Paul’s continual praise of Him. We are redeemed by Christ’s blood as slaves sold into sin. Christ brought us out of that sin through the shedding of his blood (v. 7). In verses 13-14 the Holy Spirit seals those who were predestined from the foundation of the world. The Holy Spirit acts as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance as God’s adopted children. All three members of the Trinity are at work in this process, electing (Father), redeeming (Son), and sealing (Holy Spirit). Given this work of the triune God clearly spelled out in one paragraph in Ephesians 1:1-14 how can anyone actually believe that they can truly lose their salvation? After all, the sealing of the Holy Spirit guarantees our redemption!

Matthew 13:3-9; 18-23 teaches about the Sower and the seeds. In this passage God spreads the seeds of the good news, literally the "gospel," upon various kinds of soil. Some seeds fall along the path, and it is on the path where Satan steals the seeds. Translated, it means that many people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, but Satan blinds them to what they heard (cf. 2 Cor. 4:1-4). The second batch of seeds falls along rocky soil, soil that is hardened. This seed represents those who hear God’s Word and rejoice greatly over what they heard. They live as a Christian for a time, but the troubles of the world cause them to fall away. Just as the seed sprang up quickly, these people "accepted" the message of Christ quickly. But just as the seed had no root to sustain it so too did these people have no foundation in which to stand because their "conversion" to Christ was not really a true conversion. The third batch of seeds was much like the previous ones, but they had fallen among thorns which choked them out. This seed represents people who fall away after "accepting" Christ due to all the worries and deceitfulness of wealth. The final batch of seeds are those that fell among good soil. These seeds represent Christians who hear God’s Word and are raised spiritually from their deadness. They are believers who spread God’s Word and have good works to show the grace God has given them. Good works don’t save, but they give evidence of having been saved.

Now the question from those who believe they can lose their salvation deals with the middle two seeds – those that received it with joy, those that heard it and accepted the message. They fell away from the salvation they apparently once had. The answer to this "problem" is in the text itself. The only ones our Lord commends are those who produce fruit and endure life’s troubles and trials till the end. Furthermore, 1 John 2:19 clearly teaches that those who go out from us were never a part of us. Given this, we can conclude that those who fall away from faith in Jesus Christ never had true salvation. They had the joy of scratching the surface at best, but they were never sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14).

Hebrews 6:4-6 is another passage used in order to justify the belief that people can actually lose their salvation. In all fairness this is a difficult passage in light of what the rest of scripture teaches about never losing one’s salvation. The passage reads as such: "…or 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." This passage appears to say that a person can fall away from God – something that Matthew 13 also agrees with. Now it must be noted here first of all that this "falling away" is not about a gross sin like murder or adultery. It has nothing to do with a Christian making a really bad decision and plunging himself into great trouble. We all do that, and yes this is a great sin, a "falling from grace" as it were. However, the passage at hand has to do with those who at one time called themselves Christians and acted as such, then later renounced their faith in Christ and went in another direction. This is what Hebrews 6:6 is speaking of, and it appears to be saying that it is possible.

Falling away is possible, and most people would not argue that it isn’t. Given the passage from Matthew above it is not only possible – it’s biblical. People do fall away. Am I contradicting my argument? No. The simple answer is that those who fall away from the faith they once proclaimed never actually had the faith they thought they once had. John Calvin says this of Hebrews 6:4-6:

In sum, Hebrews 6:4-6 teaches that people other than the elect are enlightened by the Holy Spirit and have even tasted of it. It does not say they were sealed by It. It certainly implies salvation, but given the teaching of Matthew 13 it is clear that those who once rejoiced in salvation and who sadly fell away were never truly saved – as evidenced by their falling away.

One final passage to look at is Revelation 3:5. Jesus says this in the passage: "He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels." The implication here is that those who don’t "overcome" will be erased from the book of life. Fortunately this is not what the passage is teaching, though some have foolishly turned this promise into a threat. The Greek text is very emphatic. It is better rendered in English as "I will certainly not erase…" The clear teaching here is that God will NOT erase one’s name from the book of life, but some have taken it to mean that He will.

Some have argued that the text in Exodus 32:33 proves that God can remove names from the Book of Life. Psalm 69:28 also implies the loss of salvation when it says, "Let them be blotted out of the book of life and not listed with the righteous." The difference in these verses and the passage from Revelation 3:5 is that the "book of life" in the Old Testament is quite literally the "book of the living." The OT passages are not teaching a loss of salvation, a concept not well developed, but the loss of life itself due to disobedience. The "book" here is a record of life, and the verses are calling for an end to their lives as a result of sin and rebellion. The New Testament concept of the "book of life" is much different in that it speaks of a book known only to God that contains the names of His elect children, those chosen from the foundation of the world (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27).

In ancient times rulers kept a register of the citizens of a city. When one died or if they committed a heinous crime their name was taken off the registry of citizens in that town. Christ, however, promises never to erase those names that were written in the book of life "from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8).

All Christians sin. Some sin in ways that seem worse than others. Just because one is a Christian does not necessarily mean that he/she will not continually struggle with sin. Even the Apostle Paul confesses that he seemed to do that which he knew was wrong – even though he hated it (Romans 7:16-25). It was the sin working in him that made him fall short of God’s glory, saved though he was. In our modern day who of us doesn’t know of a well-intentioned preacher who committed adultery only to have it aired on network national television? When a man/woman sins he/she falls short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). The kind of sinning that mankind deems is worse than another (i.e., adultery, fornication, murder, etc.) is still a "missing of the mark" (the literal meaning behind "sin"). We might term this "falling from grace," though this is a misnomer. God’s grace always sustains the true believer, and one can never fall outside of His grace. However, it is a great sin, one that must be repented of in order to restore fellowship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. When speaking of a "fall from grace" this is not to be confused with a "loss of salvation." Though impossible to lose one’s salvation, it is quite probable that we all "fall from grace" from time to time from selfish acts that bring disgrace to the name of Jesus Christ and His holy church.

Whether or not a person can actually lose their salvation is a topic that is much debated in churches and seminaries today. Most people know someone who once acted like a Christian and made a profession of faith. They might have even had a profound impact on our lives. Be that as it may, the Bible must be our guidebook in dealing with this matter. It is clear biblically that people do seemingly come to a knowledge of Christ and "taste" of the Holy Spirit without actually being "saved." Jesus addresses this (Matthew 13), John the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, and the writer of Hebrews. When the OT says something like "blot their names from the book of life" it must be noted that this book is not the same book of life taught in the New Testament. It is simply speaking of life itself, and it appears to have derived from the secular practice of keeping a list of citizens in a particular city (cf. Ezra 2:2-62; Nehemiah 7:5-64; Jeremiah 22:30). It was applied to the people of Israel and those others who professed faith in God, who enjoyed a fellowship with God, and with whom was a "fountain of life" (Psalm 36:9).

Salvation in Christ must be understood in light of the doctrine of election (Romans 9; Ephesians 1). Salvation’s call goes out to the world, and those who have been chosen for God’s redemption through Jesus Christ come to Christ. John 6:44 clearly teaches that only those who are drawn by the Father to Christ actually come to Christ. Matthew 22:14 teaches that "many are called, few are chosen." Those who are chosen come to Christ, and as John 6:37 teaches, "…and whoever comes to me I will never drive away."