Can You Lose Your Salvation?
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2023 8:04 pm
That's like asking, "Can you lose your marriage? Of course you can. In fact, in the Bible, salvation is likened to marriage many times. In marriage, it only takes one of the two parties to be unfaithful to their marriage vow, to end a marriage. So with God, we know He will never be unfaithful to us, but we can be unfaithful to Him. If this were not possible, then why would the scriptures warn us time and time again to not fall away?
Thank God that when we sin every now and then, we don't cease to be saved. John tells us that we can confess our sins, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
But Jesus warns us that if we do not abide in Him, we are thrown away as a branch, we dry up, and we are cast into the fire, and we are burned. That doesn't sound like salvation - more like damnation. John 15:6
1 John 5:11-12 says: "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
So if we walk away from and reject Jesus, we also walk away from eternal life. We can't take eternal life with us - that remains in Him. So if we don't remain in Him, then we are not remaining in eternal life or salvation either. In Christ, in whom is eternal life, we have salvation. If we depart from Christ, we also depart from salvation. Again, God and Christ are always faithful, but we can turn our back on Him.
If it were impossible to lose our salvation, then that means that God would essentially take away our free will, (which we know He never does), because God gives all of us saved people, the free will to reject Him whenever we want to. He does not force us to stay saved against our will. He does not force us to go to heaven.
Thank God that when we sin every now and then, we don't cease to be saved. John tells us that we can confess our sins, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
But Jesus warns us that if we do not abide in Him, we are thrown away as a branch, we dry up, and we are cast into the fire, and we are burned. That doesn't sound like salvation - more like damnation. John 15:6
1 John 5:11-12 says: "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
So if we walk away from and reject Jesus, we also walk away from eternal life. We can't take eternal life with us - that remains in Him. So if we don't remain in Him, then we are not remaining in eternal life or salvation either. In Christ, in whom is eternal life, we have salvation. If we depart from Christ, we also depart from salvation. Again, God and Christ are always faithful, but we can turn our back on Him.
If it were impossible to lose our salvation, then that means that God would essentially take away our free will, (which we know He never does), because God gives all of us saved people, the free will to reject Him whenever we want to. He does not force us to stay saved against our will. He does not force us to go to heaven.