Let’s next put the idea of losing one’s salvation to the test by comparing it to some examples in the Bible. In John chapter 10 Jesus speaks of Himself as the “Good Shepherd”. He explains to the Pharisees that He is the door to the sheep, and anyone who enters can come and go and find pasture. Finally, when pressed about whether He is the Christ (the Anointed One) he says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.” So according to Jesus no one, not even Satan, can snatch us away from Him once we are saved.
Notice that Jesus makes a point to say that, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me?” Let’s jump ahead to another parable, one that was made famous because of its incredible imagery: The Prodigal Son.
I have heard those that say you can lose your salvation use this story as a proof for their argument that one can fall away, but regain their salvation through repentance. I believe this parable says something different. Notice that the young man didn’t feel bad about what he had done, he was looking after himself. He went back to His father because he had to, he was starving!
But Jesus says that the father saw his son while he was, “still a long way off.” His father ran out to him and embraced him! But why would he do this? Because he was waiting for his son to come back so he could express his love to him. As far as the father was concerned, the boy was never an outcast. Would the father run out to greet an outcast?
It made no difference that the boy offended the father deeply, that he took his gifts and squandered them. The boys’ “apostasy” had no effect on his father who was ready and willing for him to come back home and experience his joy and grace. Or do we suppose that if the boy had died in the pig pens, to extend the parable a little, that the father would not go to him, take him and bury him as a rich man’s son?
My friends we are the sons of a rich man. He will not let us go. He will not allow anyone or anything to take us away from His grace. The safety that we have in Him is overwhelming. Though we may squander our gifts, and miss opportunities to glorify Him, He still cares for us, and we are still His sons.
April 12, 2007
Our Helper, Our Inheritance - Can We Lose Our Salvation? Part 2
Another factor in the study of salvation is God's gift to us in the form of our inheritance, and our Helper. Our Helper is the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Himself said that we are essentially better off having the Spirit than with having Him around in the flesh (He said this immediately before His ascension). Our inheritance is our adoption by Jesus Christ into the family of Almighty God. Ephesians 1 explains all of it clearly: “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself.” In the case of losing our salvation, and therefore losing our sonship with God, it begs the question: Do we somehow thwart God’s plans for us through our apostasy?
The apostle Paul writes that we were predestined for His Glory (vs. 6) and that it was through the consultation of His own Will (vs. 11) that we were chosen for the inheritance. It was for His purpose that He chose us. So how does “falling away” for our own purpose fit in?
God not only foreknew us, He called us to Himself from the beginning. And once we heard the message of the gospel and believed, He put His seal on us in the form of the Holy Spirit.
The question is: would God break His own seal and take away the Holy Spirit from someone who was not living according to His laws? Would He betray His pledge to us on account of something we did or said to offend Him? Consider Matthew 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever…” (Emphasis mine)
In fact before we came to Christ we were dead in our sins; spiritually dead, and following the ruler of the present world, Satan. Most of us did what we wanted, any evil thing that our hearts devised, and some of us were at enmity with God, strongly opposed to Him and His message. Yet somehow God, in the richness of His mercy, chose to make us, “alive together with Him.” But that is just the beginning – the scripture also says that He, “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places.” Why would God choose to do all of this if He knew that we could at any time fall from His grace into death?
If our salvation was not as a result of works, then what works could we do to undo our salvation? As I said before, the idea of losing one’s salvation raises many concerns, and ultimately calls God’s own character into question. A believer must ask whether God takes back what He has given, or unseals what He has sealed, or disavows His own pledges. This is what really is at issue here. For the one who believes that their salvation can be lost, the answer to these questions must be monumentally unsettling.
The apostle Paul writes that we were predestined for His Glory (vs. 6) and that it was through the consultation of His own Will (vs. 11) that we were chosen for the inheritance. It was for His purpose that He chose us. So how does “falling away” for our own purpose fit in?
God not only foreknew us, He called us to Himself from the beginning. And once we heard the message of the gospel and believed, He put His seal on us in the form of the Holy Spirit.
“In Him you also, after listening to the message of
truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.” Ephesians 1:13, 14
The question is: would God break His own seal and take away the Holy Spirit from someone who was not living according to His laws? Would He betray His pledge to us on account of something we did or said to offend Him? Consider Matthew 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever…” (Emphasis mine)
In fact before we came to Christ we were dead in our sins; spiritually dead, and following the ruler of the present world, Satan. Most of us did what we wanted, any evil thing that our hearts devised, and some of us were at enmity with God, strongly opposed to Him and His message. Yet somehow God, in the richness of His mercy, chose to make us, “alive together with Him.” But that is just the beginning – the scripture also says that He, “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places.” Why would God choose to do all of this if He knew that we could at any time fall from His grace into death?
“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, that no one should boast.”
If our salvation was not as a result of works, then what works could we do to undo our salvation? As I said before, the idea of losing one’s salvation raises many concerns, and ultimately calls God’s own character into question. A believer must ask whether God takes back what He has given, or unseals what He has sealed, or disavows His own pledges. This is what really is at issue here. For the one who believes that their salvation can be lost, the answer to these questions must be monumentally unsettling.
March 30, 2007
Can We Lose Our Salvation? (Or, Can a Person Be Saved and Then Not Saved?) Part 1
My wife and I attended worship this Sunday at a prominent church in Northern California. During the service the pastor tackled a tough doctrinal issue in a question and answer format. The question was this: “Can a Christian lose his salvation?” The pastor briefly made a distinction between Calvinist theologies versus Arminian theology. In short, the pastor explained, he believes we can lose our salvation due to apostasy. The pastor used marriage as an analogy, saying that he could do a lot of bad things to his wife and know that she would continue to stick with him. But it would be foolish to think, he said, that he could do absolutely anything to his wife without her rightly leaving him. He supposed that if he were to cheat on his wife, she would be justified in leaving him, and most likely would. And the same would be true of us and Christ.
My first reaction was to address this analogy, as I believe Jesus speaks specifically to it, and I will also use this rebuttal as a preface for the reader to understand how I will continue my analysis of this question in the future. There is very little that the Bible does not speak to specifically, in some form or another. I believe (and I am not alone) that if we but search the Holy Word, rightly dividing the Word, and rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will find all the answers to our questions. Therefore I pledge that I will stick to the Word as closely as possible when answering this important doctrinal issue.
In the 19th Chapter of Matthew a group of Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce for any reason. Jesus quoted Genesis 2 for His answer, “The two shall become one flesh.” Or in other words; inseparable. But when pressed about why Moses gave certificates of divorce, Jesus tells them plainly, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning, it has not been this way.” Jesus was telling the Pharisees that divorce was a concession to the weakened human spirit, not as something God handed down as law. So to use divorce as analogous to losing your salvation, resulting in a “divorce” from God, does not hold up to His Holy Character. God is not human, and His ways are not our ways. Thus He has no frailty or weakness of character that would permit Him to make a choice to disown us. He is Almighty, infinitely strong, so what could I do to separate what He has deemed inseparable?
My first reaction was to address this analogy, as I believe Jesus speaks specifically to it, and I will also use this rebuttal as a preface for the reader to understand how I will continue my analysis of this question in the future. There is very little that the Bible does not speak to specifically, in some form or another. I believe (and I am not alone) that if we but search the Holy Word, rightly dividing the Word, and rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will find all the answers to our questions. Therefore I pledge that I will stick to the Word as closely as possible when answering this important doctrinal issue.
In the 19th Chapter of Matthew a group of Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce for any reason. Jesus quoted Genesis 2 for His answer, “The two shall become one flesh.” Or in other words; inseparable. But when pressed about why Moses gave certificates of divorce, Jesus tells them plainly, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning, it has not been this way.” Jesus was telling the Pharisees that divorce was a concession to the weakened human spirit, not as something God handed down as law. So to use divorce as analogous to losing your salvation, resulting in a “divorce” from God, does not hold up to His Holy Character. God is not human, and His ways are not our ways. Thus He has no frailty or weakness of character that would permit Him to make a choice to disown us. He is Almighty, infinitely strong, so what could I do to separate what He has deemed inseparable?
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