Yes you can loose your Salvation

I think, probably just like you, that I would like to believe that my salvation is secure in the hands of Jesus Christ and cannot be lost.  However, when I read the bible, I have not yet found anywhere that tells me I cannot lose my salvation but I have found many places that tell me I can.  So in truth, my answer to you is, Yes! I do believe we can lose our salvation.  

 

I do not think it is so much a question of our Father revoking our salvation, rather a question of us losing it and I will set out for you here some of the reasons for my belief.  However, to avoid misquoting scriptures, let us first set some basic principles in place.  

 

i)  Knowing that God never changes and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  It is reasonable to say that what I believe must not be picked out from just one scripture but must be supported in both the Old and the New Testament of the Bible.

 

ii)  All quotations that I give will be from the New King James Bible unless otherwise stated.

 

iii)  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16).  Simply, we cannot ignore a scripture because it seems to say something we do not want to hear.

 

Let us begin then.

 

1)  Scripture tells us to, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling".

 

If we are saved regardless of what we do, this scripture in Philippians 2:12 would make no sense at all.  If we accept this scripture for what it says, we can understand that our salvation is still within our control, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).   Why then is it in our control?  Simply because we have been given the ability to reject God's work in our lives in favour of our sinful desires. 

 

This has to be so because God is love (I John 4:8) and love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own (1 Corinthians 13:5).  Love never forces itself upon others, demanding obedience from them.

 

Let me put it to you this way.  When we give our hearts to God and receive Him as our Lord and Master, we receive the sure promise of our salvation.  In the very instant that we receive Him into our lives as our God, we are made perfect and scripture is fulfilled in our lives.  We are saved and all of our sins are forgiven.  However, those sins that are forgiven are the past sins and not the future sins that we may still commit.  Once we are saved, when we sin, our salvation is still possible through our repentance of those sins.  Without that repentance, our sin separates us from God in the same way as it did with Adam, 

 

2)  Adam had the perfect relationship with the Father and he lost it.

 

Adam was formed by God and had the fullest relationship with Him possible.  Scripture tells us that he was commanded, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  (Genesis 2:16-17)   However, scripture also tells us that after he ate the apple, he lived for one hundred and thirty-two years.  Is this a contradiction in the bible?  No!  This helps us to understand that when God said he would die, He was talking about Adam dying spiritually and not as we so often think about it in the physical. 

 

Does this set a principle of rejection that when we sin we die that same way?  Yes, It does!  We know that it is our sin that separates us from God.  I have to put it to you that our salvation is our acceptance into the bosom of our Father in Heaven so that we may receive the fullness of His love in our lives.  Adam was already there until he lost it.  That was foretold to him before he ate the apple, so we can see that the principle of rejection was set in place from the very beginning by God.

 

3)  God's chosen people were ultimately rejected by the Father

 

We can see God’s principle of rejection in the offspring of Abraham

 

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.  (Deuteronomy 7:6)

 

Undeniably they were the chosen people of God, and yet with their persistent rejection of His laws from generation to generation God ultimately had to bring correction to them.  Do you not know that God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?  (Hebrews 12:7)

We can see the result of that chastening in the following scriptures: 

People will call them rejected silver because the Lord has rejected them. (Jeremiah 6:30)

For the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. (Jeremiah 7:29)

 

4)  The Prodigal Son

 

The story of the Prodigal son is a very well known parable told by Jesus. In this story, the son is given his inheritance and goes away to squander it. The father does not run after him but waits, looking to see him return.  When he does, the son is accepted back into the family with open arms.

 

We know that this parable tells the story of our Father in heaven waiting for us to come back to Him in repentance.  However, you must realise that the parable is a story of the son who returned.  I do not tell the story of a son who stayed away and died in his sin.  But it does give us all that we need to see what the result for that son would have been. Because the father did not run after the Prodigal son, if he had died in his sin, he could never have been received back by his father. 

 

5)  Other Scriptures to Consider

 

Hebrews 2:1-3  - Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.  If the scripture tells us that we can drift away and neglect so great a salvation, how is it that we can be so certain that we cannot?

 

Hebrews 3:12  -  Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.  If the scripture warns us to beware of this, how can we say this cannot be?

 

Hebrews 6:4-6  -  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. If the scripture tells us that we can fall away, who are we to say that we cannot?

 

1 Corinthians 9:27  -  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.  Even Paul knew that he himself might be disqualified if he didn’t take care.  Are we any different from him?

 

Romans 8:13  -  For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  Here is the point that we must start to understand.  If we live according to the flesh, we will die (in the biblical term of being separated from God).  

 

However, we have been given the task of putting the deeds of the body to death so that we may live.  This is not something that we have to handle on our own.  In truth, the vast majority of us are not able to undertake such an overwhelming task as that on our own, most of us lack the fortitude and the personal willpower to dictate our own lives that way.

 

This is not a task that is assigned to us to be undertaken on our own, this is the reason why we have been given the Holy Spirit as a Helper.

 

John 16:5-15  -  But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 

 

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

 

Our Father in Heaven decided that we would need a Helper with this task.  We know that God could convict the world on His own without any intervention from us, but God chooses to work through people and not around them.  I do not believe it is the role of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement without working through someone.  Instead, it is obvious through the scriptures that just as God works through people, it is the role of the Holy Spirit to work through you.  As a Helper, the Holy Spirit will convict you of your sin, of righteousness and judgement and through you (as you change) He will convict the world.

 

Praise be to our Father in Heaven!  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Romans 8:14).   As we are led by the Spirit of God, we can be confident in that sure promise of our salvation.  We are not left to our own devices to achieve the impossible.

 

When Jesus taught on the subject of attaining eternal life, His disciples were greatly astonished saying, “Who then can be saved?”  But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25-26)  We just have to be willing to allow Him to work His miracles in our lives; to learn obedience to His commandments so that we can have the salvation that He has promised to us.