CAN BELIEVERS LOSE THEIR SALVATION?

Unchanging Faith ❧ Part 15

Selected Passages ❧ Pastor, Dr. John Denney

Can a genuine believer lose his or her salvation? When people ask me this question, I find it is a good indication they are truly saved.  The question they’re really asking is the security of their salvation in Christ conditional or unconditional? If the security of our salvation is conditional, then it is backed by our behavior.  If it is unconditional, then it is backed by God’s grace.  Which is it? The Bible says God saved us by His grace.  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Paul goes on in Romans 11 to say: if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace (Romans 11:6).  Our eternal security then rests completely on God’s grace and not our behavior.  

Even though the Bible is very clear about this, many genuine believers continue to struggle.  Why is this? The reason is understanding the difference between the assurance of our salvation and the security of our salvation.  The security of our salvation is a fact.  It focuses on the completed work of God in Christ that secured my salvation.  On the other hand, the assurance of our salvation is a feeling.  It focuses on my feeling of being secure in my salvation.  The late theologian Charles Ryrie said it this way: A secure salvation is a true fact whether one realizes it or not.  Thus, a believer has security whether or not he has assurance (Ryrie, 328). Security comes from realizing my salvation is a gift from God through my faith alone in Christ.  Ryrie goes on to point out: We didn’t work for it; God freely gave it to us.  If we did not work for our salvation, then how can we work to keep it? If works could not gain our salvation, then no lack of works can lose it. HOW CAN WE HAVE ASSURANCE OF OUR SALVATION?  Are we meant to go through our entire lives as believers wondering and worrying if we’re genuinely saved? The Bible says we’re to be confident in our hope of our salvation (Col. 1:5).  How can we be confident? What can give us assurance? Three serious-minded questions I find helpful from respected Bible teacher Wayne Grudem: 1) Do I have a present trust in Jesus Christ for my salvation? 2) Is there evidence of the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit in my life? 3) Do I see long-term growth of Christ-likeness in my life? 

1. Do I have a present trust in Jesus Christ for my salvation?  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it (Colossians 1:22-23, NLT). Paul is talking to genuine believers here.  He says they’ve been reconciled to God through Jesus’ death.  As a result, they’ve been brought into God’s presence and are holy and blameless without a single fault.  That is the fact of the Gospel of God’s grace – Jesus’ death paid the full penalty of our sin.  Paul wants this fact to give them assurance.  How?  You must continue to believe in this truth and stand firmly in it.  Paul’s emphasis is on the present, right now, not the past.  It’s not enough to say, as some do, I prayed a prayer of trusting Jesus and asked Him to be my Savior twenty years ago.  Assurance doesn’t come from a prayer we prayed in the past.  Assurance comes from trusting Christ right now.  Hebrews reminds us: For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end (Hebrews 3:14). 

One of the most well-known verses in the Bible is John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). John’s favorite word throughout his gospel is: “Believe.”  He uses it more than 80 times.  It means to personally believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance.  The word believe he uses here is in the present tense – meaning there is a complete trust and reliance right now.  Charles Haddon Spurgeon puts his finger on it when he writes:  It will not save me to know that Christ is a Savior; but it will save me to trust him to be my Savior. I shall not be delivered from the wrath to come by believing that his atonement is sufficient; but I shall be saved by making that atonement my trust, my refuge, and my all. The pith, the essence of faith lies in this – a casting oneself on the promise.Believing right now means personally making Christ’s atonement for our sins our trust, our refuge, our all right now.  This is what John has in mind.  

This doesn’t mean you won’t have doubts or struggles.  It doesn’t mean you won’t wrestle with sin and even lose at times.  John is saying despite all these things your present and ultimate trust rests on Christ. 

The first question we need to answer in order to have assurance of our salvation is: Do I have a present trust in Jesus Christ for my salvation?  

1. Is there evidence of the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit in my life?  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law(Galatians 5:22-23, NAS).  This fruit is the evidence of God working within us.  Does this mean in order to have assurance we need to perfectly exemplify love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? If that is the case, then we’re in serious trouble!  None of us live out these Christ-like characteristics perfectly.  Nor are we growing equally in all these areas.  Each one of us are a work in progress.  None of us have arrived. You may be going through something right now in which you’re finding it very difficult to be loving, or kind, or patient.  You may be dealing with an irritating co-worker, or someone in the church, or your spouse. It could be a trying child.  One of the ways we become more loving, more patient is by being in situations that require a love or patience that is greater than we already have.  It is then we have to rely on God to produce the needed fruit within us.  But it is up to us how we’re going to respond.  Seeing the need to be more loving isn’t enough.  We have to surrender to the work of God in us to produce the needed fruit.  

Genuine believers produce genuine Christlike fruit in their lives. It doesn’t happen all at once, but there should be the evidence of it in our lives.  If God is working in our lives doing His perfect work to make us complete (Phil. 1:6), then those changes will be evident over time.  

Another evidence of God working in our lives is our influence in the lives of other people.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 7 the difference false prophets (believers) and true believers will be the kind of fruit we produce in influencing others.  Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions (Matthew 7:20, NLT).  Some who say they are believers don’t produce the fruit of belief but discouragement and criticism.  They’re not interested in building others up in Christ but rather tearing them down.  True believers want to see others built up in their faith.  That’s consistent with the Spirit of God within them.  What is the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in your life? What are you known for – a builder or a discourager?   The second question we need to answer in order to strengthen our assurance is there evidence of the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit in my life?    

1. Do I see long-term growth of Christlikeness in my life? Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ(2 Peter 1:5-8).Peter lists seven Christ-like traits he says believers should intentionally apply to our lives due to our faith in Christ.  These are the things we see long-term growth – moral excellence (doing what is right), knowledge(knowing God’s will), self-control(the ability to say no to temptation), perseverance(the strength and will to keep doing what is right), godliness(living like Jesus), brotherly kindness(building others up in Christ), and love(loving God, loving people). 

I want to caution you here.  This is not a fierce religious moral code we’re called to live out in our own strength.  Beware of legalism which produces the rotting fruit of pride and self-righteousness.   The only way we can produce these traits is by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  The Apostle Paul, who was a recovering Pharisee, discovered the secret to genuine change within came from a surrendered life to Christ.  I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20).  Shortly before Peter gives his list of seven Christ-like traits believers are called live out, he tells us (God’s) His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us(1 Peter 1:3).  God is the One who supplies everything we need to live out our calling as God’s people.  Paul tells us the secret of growing in Christlikeness is a surrendered trust in Christ.  Peter tells God has given us everything we need to live that life out. 

All of us want assurance in our lives.  We want a secure peace of mind that enables us to enjoy our relationship with God as He intended.  God doesn’t want you to live in constant fear of whether or not you’ll make it to Heaven. we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay(2 Peter 1:4, NLT).  Our inheritance, our salvation, is kept in Heaven beyond the reach of change and decay.  Beyond the change of my rollercoaster emotions, beyond the change of my successes or failures, beyond the change of this world.  Not only this, but our inheritance is beyond the decay of our aging bodies or this dying world.  

As much as our destiny is fixed, we still have daily battles, clashes with doubts, and times of struggle.  Reminders of the past may try to pull us down and discourage us. We need to remember there is therefor now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).  We have to silence the old reminders with God’s truth and power.  

Let me leave you with this.  Well-known author, educator, orator, advisor to presidents and former slave Booker T. Washington use to tell the story of something his mother did that I think will be helpful to us as well.  Each morning of Booker’s young life on the plantation he was jolted awake by the crow of a rooster.  Long before daybreak the unwelcome shrill would fill the ears of Booker and the other salves reminding them it was time to crawl out of bed to make their way to the cotton fields.  The rooster became a reminder of their backbreaking slavery. 

Then in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed an executive order – The Emancipation Proclamation.  It immediately came into effect declaring the slaves were now free.  The very next morning after Lincoln’s order, the day seemed to start just like any other but with one exception.  The moment the rooster began crowing Booker’s mother decided she’d heard enough.  She began chasing the rooster around the barnyard with an ax.  That same day, Booker’s family fried and ate their alarm clock for lunch! The first act of freedom was silencing the daily reminder of their slavery.  

Any roosters crowing in your life trying to steal the assurance of your salvation in Christ?  You might need to take your ax, or in this case, your Sword – God’s Word and put an end to their obnoxious noise.  Your eternal security in Christ is a fact.  Don’t let the crow of the roosters pull you back into the slavery of your fears.  Our eternal destiny in Christ is an unchanging fact.  That’s the kind of joy-filled assurance God wants us to have.  Do you have a present trust in Christ for your salvation? Is there evidence of the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you see long-term growth of Christlikeness in your life?