Can a
Christian lose his or her Salvation?
One major debate
within Christian circles is the question of whether or not a Christian
can lose
his or her salvation. Arminians argue that true believers can sin
so much
that they lose their faith and perish. Some Christians respond by
arguing
that once a person professes faith in
1. Classic Arminianism
• One must
persevere in faith
to be saved.
• True
believers can lose
their faith.
• Those dying
without faith in
Christ are condemned.
“The believer who
loses his faith is
damned.”
2. Antinomianism
• One need not
persevere in
faith to be saved.
• True
believers can lose
their faith.
• Those who
lose their faith
are saved, since they once believed.
“The believer who
loses his faith is
saved.”
3. Classic Calvinism
• One must
persevere in faith
to be saved.
• True
believers cannot lose
their faith, since it’s God’s gift.
• Those dying
without faith in
Christ are condemned.
• Those who
“lose” their faith
never had it to begin with.
• God will
preserve true
believers and they will be saved.
“The
‘believer’ who loses his faith never
really had it—or at least it wasn’t in
Proponents of the first two approaches quote biblical references, but
each must
strain to explain away the other group's biblical data. How can
an
Arminian read Romans 8, then tell true believers that they may screw up
and go
to hell??? Then again, how can Charles Stanley read Hebrews 6 and
10 and
tell unbelievers who once professed faith not to worry, that they will
be
saved??? Any true biblical teaching must “fit”
with ALL the biblical
data, without pitting one text against another and without having to
explain
away a single “jot or tittle” of God's inerrant Word.
I believe that
only the classical Calvinist model takes into account all of
the
biblical data.
Arminians are right when they say the Bible teaches that only those who
persevere will be saved, and they’re right in accusing
Antinomians of
easy-believism and cheap grace. Antinomians (they wouldn’t
use the term)
are right in telling committed believers that they are secure in Christ
and
“once saved, always saved.” But both of these views
are wrong is assuming
that a true believer can lose his faith and fall away from
Christ. Faith
is “a gift of God—not by works, lest any man
boast.” Paul was confident
that, since Christ had begun a good work in believers, He would
continue
that work until completion (Phil. 1). John said that those who
fell away
were never really true Christians, since true believers don't leave the
faith
(1 John 2:19).
Scripture teaches that believers must persevere until the end,
but also
that believers will persevere until the end by God's
grace. As the
Westminster Assembly concluded, Christians might temporarily yield to
Satan's
temptations, even to excess, but like Peter when he denied Christ three
times,
God will still restore and preserve the faith of the Christian, a faith
which
God gave in the first place! Peter went on to be chief among the
apostles! Two biblical principles must be held side-by-side:
1. You Must
Persevere until
the End: God's
Requirement of His People
God does not merely
command us to begin
to believe for a time, and then fall away. He requires us to continue
to believe until the end, living lives of repentance and covenant
faithfulness. Granted, He does not ask for a perfect faith, but
He does
ask for a real faith, one that produces real, lasting change.
•
Colossians 1:21-23
• 1
John 1:5-10; 3:3-6
•
Hebrews 10:26-31
•
Hebrews 12:1
2. You Will
Persevere Until
the End:
God's
Preservation of His People
We will persevere
because God
preserves us. God will keep us from falling—not one
will be lost
of all those who belong to the Son. True believers are not able
to leave
Christ, for Christ is at work within them.
• John
6:38-40
• John
10:28-29
•
Romans 8:28-39
•
Philippians 1:4-6
•
Philippians 2:12-13
• 1
John 2:19
This first set of texts cannot be used to refute the second
(Arminianism); nor
can the second set of texts be used to refute the first (cheap
grace). The
point that makes the two compatible is the biblical teaching that faith
(while
commanded of everyone) is a gift from God to His elect.
If faith
is simply a human action of a free will, then it can be lost. But
if
saving faith is God's gift, then it cannot be lost. Can professing
Christians fall away? Yes, and they will perish. Can true
Christians fall away? No, for they are kept by the invincible
power of
God in Christ. The Bible teaches us that professing Christians who
leave the
faith were never truly believers (1 John 2:19; and notice the
qualification
even in Hebrews 10:39).
“They,
whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called, and
sanctified by
his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of
grace,
but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally
saved.” —