Can Christians Walk Away From Their Salvation?
Part 1
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-5; Rom. 8:35-39; John 10:27-29; Eph. 1:13-14
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” If the Word of God says “the wages of sin is death” then divine justice is under obligation to give sinners their wages or be in debt to them forever. However, eternal life is a free gift. Men merit hell, but eternal life is free. So, if I continue to allow sin to be my “work” then my payment will be death (hell) as that is what I earned. Now, eternal life through Jesus Christ is a gift that God Himself paid for me, if I choose to accept it. Let me explain it another way. Let’s say I work my fingers to the bones at a job that stresses me out while barely allows me to pay my bills. Then someone dies and “gifts me” an inheritance which not only makes me rich, but affords me the opportunity to fully retire. I have all the money that I need and more. If that happens, can you envision any scenario where I would continue to go to that job and work day after day? Absolutely not – I would give my two weeks’ notice, because that would be the right thing to do, and then I would be out. This is what God has given us – an eternal retirement which allows us to no longer “work” in the occupation of sin with a final retirement of hell. I want you to keep Romans 6:23 in the back of your minds as we go through this series I’ve titled: “Can A Christian Walk Away From Their Salvation?”
I have a weekly call on Saturday mornings with my siblings and nephew to touch base and just catch up. During these conversations we inevitably start talking about Scripture. Last week the question was asked if the saying “once saved always saved” was true. Immediately I felt led to address this subject in this series. I want to say up front that the Bible’s answer to this question will trouble some people who grew up as I did in a Church denomination that taught this. I have said on many occasions that I do not believe this and time after time I have been confronted by people who outright told me I was wrong. I remember one instance back in 1985 when I told my Sunday school class that this teaching was wrong and the response was not pretty. Two of the older members who studied the Bible religiously laid into me. After that verbal beating I almost changed what I knew to be true. I felt that I did not know as much as them and obviously I had missed something or had interpreted the Scriptures incorrectly. I was only 24 years old at the time and had only been preaching for 4 years so you can imagine the respect that I received after that statement. Since that time I have confirmed what the Scriptures says and I have matured enough to understand that it is my job to teach the truth and what people do with it is their responsibility.
Several years ago I was preaching a sermon at my Church and there was a visitor present who was a deacon at his own Church. As I delivered the message I said that it was dangerous to teach people that once they were saved they would always be saved without telling them how and why. Teaching that doctrine without teaching what it means to be saved and how we are to live in holiness opens the door for people to live however they choose and still expect to go to heaven when they die. We witness this lived out in Churches today where leaders and members alike are having affairs, stealing, fornicating, and all sorts of other stuff without any requirements to repent by others in the Church. To complicate this further, from what I have read in the Bible, the Bible does not teach this. So when I made this statement in my sermon on that Sunday I could see in his face that he had a problem with that statement. Sure enough, when the service was over he came straight for me and asked how I could believe such a thing as a pastor. I tried to explain to him some of the Scriptures, but he was not hearing me. Finally I asked him for his address so that I could follow-up with him in writing and share the Scriptures that I believed supported what I said. I told him that once he received the letter and had time to review it, to call me if he had any questions and I would gladly discuss the Scriptures with him. I went home and wrote the letter with the Scriptures and mailed it to him. I never heard back from him.
I know there are some people who will hear or read this message and will struggle with what I am going to share in this series. Because of that, my focus will be to allow the Scriptures to speak for themselves. Now before I go further, I want you to think about something. Sometimes my mind works in a literal way – I mean I read something and I walk away thinking that what I read means exactly what it says. I do not always look for an underlying message or an interpretation that requires me to dig deep into my imagination. So that is what you’ll hear in this series – a simple interpretation based on believing what the Scriptures say. I will not ask you to use your imagination when seeking to understand the Scriptures we will review. Let me give you an example of what I mean when I say I think more literally than figuratively when it comes to the Word of God.
In the Kings James version of the Bible, the word “sin” (singular) appears in the Bible 448 times. The Bible spends a lot of time talking about sin and the results of sin. The Bible talks about how the final payment for sin is death (hell) for those who do not repent and change. So the question is: “Who was the Bible written to or for?” The Bible was written “for” the Children of God to teach us how to have and live in a relationship with God. Now, in my literal thinking, if the Bible spent so much time talking about sin and the impact it has on our lives, sin must potentially have an impact on our lives. Now here is where I am going with this: if I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, get baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, and once saved I am always saved, then there would be no need to talk to me about sin because if I choose to keep sinning I am still saved. Once I am saved, I am saved forever and nothing that I do after that point matters. I cannot “lose” my salvation and the choices that I make no longer have any impact on where I will spend eternity. This is what once saved always saved teaches. Now I know some people will say that if a person does not change then they were never “really” saved and I will address this belief also with the Word of God. My point is simple: if once saved always saved was a fact, then the Holy Spirit wasted a lot of time on the subject of sin in the Bible and we know that is not true.
So we are going to dig into the answer to this question “Can a Christian walk away from their salvation?” That is the core question behind the doctrine, “once saved, always saved.” Those who believe once saved always saved do not believe that anyone who is “truly” saved will ever walk away from their relationship with Christ. They also believe that they are “sinners saved by grace” so the fact that they keep living in sin is covered by the grace of God. For those who do not believe once saved always saved, they believe that a person can choose to turn their back on Christ and spend an eternity in hell. They believe a person has the right (freewill) to make that choice. So in Part one of this series we will review a few passages of Scriptures that speaks to our eternal security. But what I really want us to focus on is our responsibility versus God’s responsibility.
Turn to First Peter 1:3-5. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5) You may be wondering why I selected this passage as it seems to prove that once you are saved you are always saved. Let me say up front, you will have the same thoughts about the other passages we’re going to look at after this one. Here in First Peter chapter one, the passage speaks of those “Who are kept by the power of God through faith…” There is an inheritance waiting for all of us who are “kept by the power of God through faith.” The word “kept” in the Greek means to “defend, guard, or keep.” In other words that word means to protect against outside forces or influences. So to be clear, a child of God has resources available to them to help them “be kept by the power of God” by choice. And we see this in the phrase “through faith.” God is able to protect us through our faith in Him and in what He has said in His Word. Without our faith, the Bible says God – now I want you to hear how I say this New Light – without our faith, God has no avenue into our lives to defend us, guard us or keep us. In other words, God is able to keep us because we want to be kept! And this ties right into the series we just concluded on the grace of God. As we saw in the series, God’s grace is always flowing and it carries all of His promises to us. And we learned in Ephesians that when we accessed God’s grace through our faith we were saved. It is not God’s power that holds us New Light. It is our faith in God’s love and power that holds us to Him. In other words, it is our love for God that holds us to Him so He can defend us, guard us and keep us.
Turn to Romans chapter eight. Romans 8:35-39 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39) Paul says that we are more than conquerors in Christ and nothing can separate us from the love of God. Again, when we read these verses, it gives us assurance that nothing “external” can separate us from the love of God. In this verse we see that word “through” again. It is “through Him that loved us” is the reason we are more than conquerors. If we don’t have Jesus in our lives, we will never be more than conquerors. How do we get to Jesus so that we are more than conquerors through Him? We choose Him. We make the decision to accept Him as our Lord and Savior and at that moment, we are born into His kingdom. Without making that decision first, we will not be more than conquerors. Remember the title of this series: “Can Christians Walk Away From Their Salvation?” Now, if we have to make a decision so that we can be through Him and be more than conquerors, can we not also make a decision to no longer accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior – to no longer be through Him? Can He stop us from changing our hearts and our minds and then walking in a totally different direction that will take us away from Him? Let’s bring this closer to home: Can Jesus stop us from doing whatever it is that we want to do, including walking away from Him? Has He taken away our free will? Do we have to do what He says in the Bible if we disagree with it? All of us know that the answer to these questions is “No.” So, is walking away from salvation any different? Some people say that it is, but again, I will address that later in the series.
Turn to John 10:27-29: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand.” (John 10:27-29) There is so much in these three verses. Jesus says “My sheep hear My voice.” That’s very important because it determines everything else that follows. The word “hear” means “to hear, understand and obey.” But Jesus didn’t stop at hear. He emphasizes the point of obedience by adding the word “follow.” It’s a word that paints a picture. You have two people who are walking on a road that divides in two. Instead of one person taking one road and the other taking the other road, both decide to “follow each other” and take the same road. In other words, they are in agreement with each other. And that is what “hear” and “follow” communicate in this verse. As Christians, we cannot say we follow Jesus unless we agree with Him. It’s only when we hear, obey and follow that we receive eternal life. Now, if we can receive eternal life, can we not also “un-receive” it? New Light, we cannot talk about “once saved, always saved” without the person having the right to decide for him or herself whether or not to continue following Jesus. And this is why those who teach that someone was never “really” saved when they walk away from their faith and return to the life they once lived. Now the part of this passage that throw people for a loop is when Jesus says “neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” We’ve seen in Romans 8 that nothing “external” can separate us from God. In other words, no one can come into our lives and make us reject our salvation. And that is exactly what this phrase is talking about. No one can “forcefully” take us from Jesus. No one can forcefully take our salvation. When we read this verse, we tend to read it this way: neither shall any man pluck them out of My closed hand. But the verse doesn’t say closed does it? If Jesus’ hand was closed, that would mean He is taking away our ability to choose whether or not we love Him enough to want to stay in His hand. But if His hand is open, then it is our love that keeps us in His hand. New Light, the choice to stay or leave is ours. I hope you see this.
The last Scripture we’re going to look at this morning is from Ephesians 1:13-14: “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” So many in the Church have used these verses to justify the teaching that once you are saved you are always saved and they’ve done it by focusing on the word “sealed.” They have interpreted it to mean sealed as in a container or a box or something like that. In other words, because we are “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,” no one can “break the seal” – not even the person who is sealed. But the word does not mean to be sealed in such a way as to be untouchable. In the Greek the word means “to stamp (with a signet or private mark) for security or preservation.” Do you remember when Pharaoh made Joseph second in command in Egypt and gave him his ring? That ring represented Pharaoh’s authority. Whenever an official document was prepared, it was sealed with wax and as it began to harden, the ring, which carried Pharaoh’s image, was pressed into the wax. When the person received the document, the first thing he would look for was Pharaoh’s image, or his mark, on the wax because it would let him know that the document was truly from Pharaoh. The same is true for being “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Every single Christian “has God’s stamp or private mark” on them. That’s why take Bible tells us that Jesus knows His sheep. So, the seal is not about being locked up so that the person can’t be removed. It’s about understanding that those who have God’s stamp are the wheat and not the tares.
These four Scriptures are often used to prove or justify the doctrine once saved always saved and I will admit I 100% agree with what is captured in them. I believe that a Christian who is walking with God, living an obedient life and doing the will of God is saved and will continue to be saved even if there are times when they mess up and must repent. I have no problem with this at all – I am aligned with God’s Word. However, and here is where the trouble starts, I do not believe God’s grace gives us the liberty to live any way we choose. As a matter of fact, because we have accepted Christ, we have the power within us that’s empowered by God’s grace to live the way God has commanded us to live. New Light, God’s grace gives us the power to live above sin. So the issue has never been someone stealing us away from Christ, the issue has been our choosing to walk away because we desire something different in this life. We cannot choose Christ in the afterlife while choosing Satan in this life. Who we choose in this life – as demonstrated by how we live – is who we have chosen in the afterlife. In this series I am going to show you through Scripture the truth about whether or not a Christian can walk away from their salvation. Through the Word of God, I will prove to you that not only is it possible for someone to turn their backs on Christ, in these last days, according to the Bible, it’s probable. And when someone turns their back on Christ, they will in fact spend eternity in hell.
I want to close this message by giving you a question to meditate on during your meditation time this week. There is a word that appears in the Bible that you have heard but might not have thought about its meaning. The word is apostasy. Depending on the translation of the Bible you use, the word could be translated as “backslide or backslidden.” The fact that the Bible mentions apostasy makes it the first and really only argument against the once saved always saved doctrine unless you believe that someone who dies after rejecting Christ on this side sill goes to heaven. It also answers the question about whether or not someone can renounce their salvation and their relationship with Christ. Please understand, if apostasy is not possible then once saved always saved is true. However, if apostasy is possible, then once saved always saved cannot be true. Here is the definition of apostasy as it relates to Christianity: “a defection, departure, revolt or rebellion; a willful falling away from, or rebellion against Christ or Christianity.” This is what the Bible says will happen in these days in which we live in. So the question for you to meditate on this week is “Is apostasy possible?” May God bless and keep you.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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