Once you are saved, can you lose your salvation? To put it shortly, yes, you can. You can indeed be saved, then fall away. You can lose your salvation. In this post, I'll provide the proof from the pages of scripture, that yes you can lose your salvation....
Let us start with I Corinthians 9:26-27: "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
Here Paul speaks of himself, the Apostle Paul being cast away possibly, if he does not keep his body in subjection. More on this later, let us get on to another verse.
I Corinthians 5, Paul is speaking of a Christian that is in gross sin, and in verses 4 and 5 he tells what should be done to this person: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
Paul speaks of delivering this person to Satan so that their body gets destroyed, so their soul will still be saved. Basically what I get from this is that this person will die prematurely so that perhaps it will prevent them from continuing in their sin and eventually denying Christ.
Now for some more verses: Revelation 3:14-16, Jesus is speaking to the Laodicean Church: "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, i stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
This church is lukewarm, they are still Christians, and Christ is rebuking them and telling them to repent, yet, he is also telling them if they do not repent, he will do away with them. In other words if they do not repent they will be damned.
A common thread we see here is that when a Christian sins and continues in sin, they will lose their salvation.
As you sin you grow further and further from Christ, then finally you deny him altogether. I know this first hand, I've been there, when you sin enough and long enough, you will deny Christ, I did. It is painful, but folks, it is true. When you sin you become guilty, and if you do not repent, it will drive you further into sin, and away from Christ.
Let us start with I Corinthians 9:26-27: "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
Here Paul speaks of himself, the Apostle Paul being cast away possibly, if he does not keep his body in subjection. More on this later, let us get on to another verse.
I Corinthians 5, Paul is speaking of a Christian that is in gross sin, and in verses 4 and 5 he tells what should be done to this person: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
Paul speaks of delivering this person to Satan so that their body gets destroyed, so their soul will still be saved. Basically what I get from this is that this person will die prematurely so that perhaps it will prevent them from continuing in their sin and eventually denying Christ.
Now for some more verses: Revelation 3:14-16, Jesus is speaking to the Laodicean Church: "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, i stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
This church is lukewarm, they are still Christians, and Christ is rebuking them and telling them to repent, yet, he is also telling them if they do not repent, he will do away with them. In other words if they do not repent they will be damned.
A common thread we see here is that when a Christian sins and continues in sin, they will lose their salvation.
As you sin you grow further and further from Christ, then finally you deny him altogether. I know this first hand, I've been there, when you sin enough and long enough, you will deny Christ, I did. It is painful, but folks, it is true. When you sin you become guilty, and if you do not repent, it will drive you further into sin, and away from Christ.
4 comments:
From an arminian perspective, yes, you could lose your salvation. But from a reformed perspective, no you can't.
I didn't earn my salvation. Nothing I did (or will do) influenced God to save me. He saved me because He graciously chose to overlook my sin. He chose me - I didn't choose Him (trust me on that one :) If my salvation is entirely dependent on His grace, there's is no way it can stripped from me. A god that dumps his followers when they tick him off is a fickle deity. He knew, before time began, everything I have done or will do. Why would He be "surprised" by my sin later on and decide to revoke my salvation?
All of Romans 8 is an exposition of this topic. It states clearly "Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (v. 39b)
We are also told that there will be some pretty convincing fakes (Matt 7:22). Judas, for example. When Jesus said one would betray Him, all of the disciples didn't turn around and point at Judas accusingly, "Oh gee, pal, what'd you do this time? You know, you are such a terrible liar, what made you think you could pull this off?!?" No, they all said "Lord is it I?" (Matt 26:22).
When a "christian" is found in gross sin and rebellion, we have to realize that it is indeed possible that he was a really good (and not necessarily intentional) fake.
Thank you for your comment Jordanna, first I agree we cannot earn our salvation, (Ephesians 1:8 and 9) there is certainly no works that we can do to be saved. I didn't make myself clear, when I speak of someone losing their salvation, I am speaking of one turning their back on Christ, after they have fallen into sin, as in the scripture examples I used. God is not dumping you, you are dumping him, that is what I am speaking of.
I definitely agree about fakes, there are some pretty good ones out there, no doubt about that, but, Paul was no fake, and he expressed concern about if he didn't keep his body under subjection he may lose his salvation.
Thank you for your comment, I really appreciate the way you started it, and I can see that from a reformed perspective, there is no way you could lose your salvation, that just can't work.
God Bless,
Flame of Jah
Uriah,
Have you watched this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4vP0nSJCTQ
I am not able to post an extensive comment at the moment, but I felt led to share this with you while I could, lol.
He also has a series on Calvinism that, from the looks of it, you might enjoy. ;) lol
IS THE ADMONITION ABOUT FALLING FROM GRACE A FALSE WARNING?
John Calvin said it was impossible to fall from grace. Why would God warn men of something that could not happen?
Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
Was God joking when He said men could fall away? When a road sign says, litterers will be fine $500 dollars, does that mean it is impossible to litter?
1 Corinthians 10:6-12 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.......
8. Nor let us act immorally , as some did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. (Was that an example of once saved always saved?)
9. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. (Was that an example of eternal security?)
10. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.....(Was that an example of perseverance of the saints?)
12. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
Is God in the habit of issuing feckless, meaningless, erroneous, false, warnings?
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be temped beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
God provides men an escape from a sinful lifestyle. Men have a choice. Men have free-will. God does not prevent men from sinning. GOD DOES NOT GUARANTEE ONCE IN GRACE ALWAYS IN GRACE!
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