Can You Lose Your Salvation?
Can you lose your salvation?
Is it possible to commit apostasy, or are those who fall away from Christ truly Christians at all?
This is a question that Christians (and non-Christians) have asked since the beginning of time. Thankfully, God’s Word gives us a clear answer. But, we need to dig and mine through each passage in prayerful humility.
Here’s a video illustration from Spencer that explains the basics.
Spencer Davis | Breakout Session | Eternal Security
Click below to listen to the full breakout session:
Session Summary
Spencer referenced several Bible passages in this breakout, including 1 Corinthians 1, Jude, and 2 Timothy, which suggest that God guarantees salvation and will keep believers until the end. However, verses from Romans 11 and Hebrews 2-3 seem to imply that one can lose salvation if they do not continue in faith.
However, these apparent contradictions can be reconciled by understanding that salvation begins and ends with God.
“True believers cannot lose their salvation because faith and repentance are gifts from God.”
Exhort one another daily to avoid being hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Continue following Christ, because the proof of true salvation is perseverance.
Scripture References
- Hebrews 3:12-14
- 1 Corinthians 1
- Jude
- Hebrews 2
- Romans 11
- 2 Timonthy
View Teaching Transcript Below:
Please excuse any grammar or capitalization errors. This is an automated transcript, provided to help you get more out of the episode and dig in deeper on any sections you want. Please listen to the audio recording and use your Bible (with prayer) to process the topic in correct biblical context.
Hebrews 3
Morning, everybody. Y’all doing good, good. Happy Thursday. It’s gonna be an awesome day. Hey, so turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter three. Hebrews chapter three is where we’re going to be at this morning. I want to talk about a doctrine that’s pretty controversial, that there may be churches here that disagree on this issue. And I’ll say you can disagree on this issue and still be on the same team. You can still be Christians and disagree on this issue, but and this, this session is not going to be so much preaching. It’s going to be more like classroom teaching. So the question is, can you, if you’re saved, can you lose your salvation? That is a big question that really, again, a lot of churches might disagree on this issue, but you can still, you can disagree on this issue and still be on the same team. If you’re truly saved, is it possible to lose it? Man, this question kept me up at night. When I was your age. I was sweating it almost every night, just like, oh gosh, what if I lose it? What if I sin? Does that mean I’m not really in Christ and man, so we’re going to look at Hebrews three. So keep your finger there. Let’s look at some verses on what does the Bible say on this issue? Is it possible? So I want to read you a first list of verses, and then I’m going to need some like audience response here. I want y’all to answer for me according to these verses, can you lose your salvation or no? Alright. Y’all ready?
1 Corinthians 1:
He will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. So this verse seems to say, man, God called you to Him and He will keep you until the end.
Jude:
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blame us before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Be glory, majesty, dominion and authority.
So this verse seems to say, man, God can keep you from stumbling and will present you blameless at the very end day last one 2 Timothy 1,
God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ, Jesus, before the ages began.
Skip down to verse 12. He says,
I’m not ashamed, because I know who I believed, and I’m convinced that he is able to guard until that day what’s been entrusted to me.
So this verse seems to say he called us before Tom and he’s going to guard us all the way until the last day. Alright, so this is pretty simple. Not a trick question. According to these verses, can you lose your salvation? No, not at all. Right, that’s easy. Sounds great, but there’s these other verses in scripture that kind of make you sweat a little bit. You read verses like this. Now tell me what you think about these verses, Romans 11,
Note then the kindness and severity of God, severity towards those who’ve fallen but God’s kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness, otherwise, you too will be cut off.
Wait, what so we need to continue, or will be cut off?
Hebrews 2
Now listen to Hebrews two.
Therefore we much we must pay much closer attention to what we’ve heard, lest we drift away from it.
Wait. Is it possible you can drift away from Salvation or from the Gospel Hebrews three? This is the verse we’re going to be in. This is the verse you turn to. We’re going to be in this here in a minute, but it says this, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it’s called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end, what’s that saying? So if we don’t hold our original confidence firm, then we fall away, we lose our salvation. Is that? What it’s saying?
Matthews 10
Matthew 10, you’ll be hated by all, for my name’s sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved, okay? So if we don’t endure to the end, we won’t be saved, we’ll lose our salvation. Is that, according to these verses, can you lose your salvation? Alright, these take a little more explanation. These are a little harder to understand. The first ones are really cut and dry. But here’s the bigger question, do Bible writers disagree about salvation? Does some of these guys think, yeah, you can totally lose your salvation. And some of these guys are like, No, you absolutely can’t. No, that’s not it, because some of these authors from the first list and the second list are the same guy, okay, so that’s not it. They don’t disagree about salvation, but if they’re the same guy, is it possible that some of these guys might not be very sharp, or they might flip flop or change their mind on salvation. Well, no, we don’t hold that either. We hold that everything in the Bible is true and that it fits together. So that means that verses from the first list and verses from the second list are both true and they both fit together. How in the world is that possible? Let me just say, when you hit one of those places in Scripture that seemed like a contradiction, that’s where you need to dig, because there’s the treasure. The treasure is in there. It’s just a hard concept to understand. Okay, so let’s do this. Let’s circle back and just talk about salvation on the whole Y’all good? Everybody with me? Okay, so let’s just talk about salvation. I’m assuming you know that you guys know at this point in the week, at this point you know in your walk, that you understand what’s required for salvation. If you don’t, again, this is a please stop and talk to one of the Snowbird staff. Talk to you. You’d pastor, man, we’d love to explain that to you. I’m just going to overview this real quick.
Just talk about what’s required for salvation. In in Mark 1 Jesus says, Repent and believe.
That’s what’s required for salvation, repent and believe. Now everybody knows this, right? You know you got to believe. You know you got to have faith.
John 3:16
Even the most famous verse in the world, and famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16 said,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
So belief is required for salvation. In Acts, when the Philippian jailer is asking Paul and Silas, he says,
What, sir, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
Belief (requirement #1)
Okay, so everybody kind of knows that. Everybody knows you gotta believe, but you may not know where belief comes from. It is belief something we just make up. In Ephesians two it says, For by grace, you’ve been saved through faith. Now faith is belief by grace. Grace, you’ve been saved through faith. And this is faith, and this is not your own doing. It’s a gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one can boast. So you know that belief is required for salvation, but you may not know that belief is a gift from God. God started that it’s not something you made up.
Repentance (requirement #2)
Second thing that’s required is repentance. Y’all know what repentance is, right? You’re heading towards sin. A lot of people explain it this way. You’re heading towards sin, and then you make a change, and you head towards Jesus, the word literally is it’s a change of mind, but it’s a change of your actions, because your mind has been changed. It’s a struggle towards Jesus away from sin.
We know that you have to repent from your sins to be saved, but you may not know where repentance comes from.
Acts 11
In Acts 11, it says when they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God, saying, then to the Gentiles, also, God has granted repentance that leads to life. That verse is telling us that Repentance isn’t something that you just be like, Alright, I’m going to try really hard, but it’s a gift of God. Now we’re responsible to do the work. We’re responsible to to try to strive, but really it’s God that starts salvation.
If belief and repentance are required, and God gives belief and God gives repentance, then that means salvation begins with God, not with us.
If God starts salvation, is it up to us then to finish it?
It’s a good question. I got three kids. Y’all probably seen them around this week. I’ve got a 12 year old girl and she works in the snack shack some I’ve got an 11 year old girl, and then I’ve got a nine year old boy, and he weed eats around camp. And y’all don’t know because your students, but I’m living in the golden age of parenting right now, because my son, he’s nine years old, and he can and loves to mow and weed eat. It’s beautiful because I haven’t mowed my yard all season, because he’ll wake up, he’ll want to mow the yard twice a week. Like, he’ll be like, Hey, Daddy, can I go weed eat today? And I be like, I guess so buddy, you know, but it’s, it’s fantastic. But, like, so he’s not, and he loves to do it, but two years ago, when he first started out, he couldn’t, like, start the Weed Eater on his own. It’s kind of hard, you know, if you’re a little kid, because you gotta, you gotta prime the little, the little pump there, and then you gotta put on the choke, and then you gotta round round, get it going, then turn off the choke. And so for a little kid, it’s kind of hard to do. So a couple years ago, when he’s first starting to weed eat, I’d have to kind of go out there and get it started and, you know, alright, buddy. So I’d prime it up, get it all warm, and then I’d hand it off to Jed. His name’s Jed. I hand off to Jed, and I’d be like, alright, here you go. Do a good job. And, you know, he’d go, and if I had to leave for the day or whatever, he’d have to finish the yard. But if it cut off on him, he was stuck, like he couldn’t restart it, or anything like that. It was like, I would start this thing up and be like, alright, don’t let it die. Do a good job. Have fun. And it’d be up to him to finish it. But sometimes he gets stuck.
The question is, is salvation like that? Does God start up the weed eater, ring, ring, ring, and then be like, Okay, do a good job. Stay saved. Alright?
Is that the way salvation is? No, it’s not.
In the Bible, salvation begins with God and it ends with God.
Both of these things, just like the beginning of salvation rests on God, the completion of salvation rests on God. I want to give three aspects on how the completion the end of salvation rests on God. First off, it rests on God’s nature. Think about who God is. He’s all powerful, and everything that he wants happens.
All of God’s purposes will be completed. And here’s what he says he wants. Philippians 1:6.
I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Salvation doesn’t just start with God. God finishes it, he will bring it to completion.
1 Peter 1
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again through a living hope, I’m sorry, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance this imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you listen to this who, by God’s power, are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
See these verses say you don’t save yourself so you can’t keep yourself saved. In reality, salvation rests on God’s nature. The second thing salvation rests on is Jesus’s work. Why did Jesus come to earth? He came to save sinners. Was he powerful enough to do it? Here’s the question. Was Jesus just powerful enough to start the work, or was he powerful enough to finish it? His work is powerful enough not just to start salvation, but to complete salvation. Third thing that salvation, the completion of salvation, rests on, are the promises of God. And think about what God’s promised. John, one he says truly, I say to you, whoever hears my Word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but he has passed from death to life, there’s a promise from God, and God is strong enough to keep his promises, right? God doesn’t make promises that you could break. In reality, salvation rests on God’s nature, on Jesus’s work, and on the promises of God. So the start of salvation and the end of salvation rest on God, here’s what I’m saying to you. If you’re truly saved, you cannot lose it. If you’re truly saved, you cannot lose it. We are secure not because of what we’ve done, but because of what God has done and is doing great. But pause. It would be great if the sermon just ended there, but we can’t pretend we didn’t read those verses at the start, right? Because those are some hard verses. So what’s going on with verses like that? Like those that say the one that endures to the end will be saved. What’s up with verses like that? Here’s what everybody’s still in Hebrews three, right? Let’s go there, and I want to read that verse, and this verse, and this concept is pretty complex, so I want to show you a video to kind of illustrate this verse, because I think it explains it better than I could and so.
But think about these hard verses. We can’t pretend that verses like this aren’t in the Bible, so we really need to think about what are they saying exactly. Let me read this verse. Then y’all watch this video, and then we’ll talk about it some more.
Hebrews 3:12-14
Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it’s called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
What is that verse saying? Y’all watch this video, and then we’ll talk about it.
All right. I hope that video made sense. I hope that helped to explain that that those that endure to the end will be saved, or to say it another way, those endure to the end, because they got saved. Those, if you got saved, you will endure to the end. You can’t lose it. Alright?
So back to the weed eater illustration. It’s not like that, like God starts salvation up and then it’s like, okay, buddy, do a good job. Job. Make sure you finish this. It’s more like when I was jeds age. When I was nine or 10, I had two uncles, Uncle Terry and Uncle Tommy, and they both drove trains their conductors. And so when I was a little kid, they’d be like, Hey, you want to drive the train? And I’d be like, Heck, yeah. And so they’d invite me to drive these trains across South Georgia, and it was awesome. But even when I was nine, I was thinking, is this legal? Like, should I be doing this? Can’t we kill a lot of people if a nine year old drives a train? But I didn’t want to say anything and mess it up, so I just kind of went with it. But for real, like, they let me drive the train, so I’d hop on the train, and they’d be like, All right, here’s the whistle, right here, when you see the sign with the two dots. You gotta blow it twice. All right, here’s the break. All right, take it off, and I’ll be like, we’re really doing this. And take off the brake. And they like, all right. Now you need to throttle it up and you start, you know, like the train to start going. And I, for real, was driving the train thinking, Please do a good job. Please do a good job, you know, because I was sweating wrecking this train, all right, but who was really driving the train? Man, it was my uncles, right? I was doing real things that really mattered. But my uncles really knew the deal. They really were starting things off. They were making sure that we blew the horn the right number of times. They were making sure we slowed down around the curves. They were making sure that we got to the right place at the right time, right now, I was really doing things that really mattered, but they were they were the ones that started this, they were the ones that ended it. It’s more like that. It’s not salvation.
It’s not like God Hands it off and says, “Alright, do a good job.” God is with us, causing us to continue. Now we’re doing real things that really matter. We have to strive. But part of the proof that we are in Christ is that we’re continuing to follow and strive like so here, here’s the question, though, why do some people seem to fall away? Y’all know people in your church, in your youth group, y’all, y’all have friends that seemed to follow Jesus, and then, now are not so what’s what’s going on there? Did those guys lose their salvation? Men, these verses say, No, that’s not possible.
Example – Parable of the Sower
But there’s another crucial verse, you know, Jesus tells that parable about the the farmer who’s planting the seeds. He said, Man, some of these fell in good soil, and a plant sprung up. And everything was great. But some of these, they fell on this shallow soil. And so the plant sprung up for a minute, but the soil wasn’t deep enough. The Roots couldn’t take and they just kind of fell man. In reality, we all know folks that have kind of sprung up and seem like they were in Christ, but the proof that they weren’t in Christ is that they fell right be around the things of Christ, but not in Christ.
Example – Judas
As with Judas, he was around Christ, but not in Christ, right?
Because salvation is not some, you know, he said, but I guess once saved, always saved. So I’m good. Salvation is not some handshake agreement that you can lock God into, right? Like when you’re little, you can pray this prayer and just be like, Alright, I got you now. I’m saved, and I can do whatever the heck I want to do, man, it’s not like that. You lock God in, then you can live however you want to. In reality, salvation is a work that God begins and that God will continue. And the proof that it’s real is that it continues. Now, I wasn’t in here when you guys sat down in those chairs, so how do I know that you actually sat down in those chairs? What’s the proof? Well, we’re sitting here right now. Dummy, that’s right. The proof that you sat down initially is that you’re still seated right the proof that you got saved is that you’re still continuing. You’re still following. JD Greer gave that illustration, and he also said, this is not just once saved, always saved, although that’s true, but it’s once saved forever. Following. I really like that. It’s not just once saved, always saved, although that’s true, but it’s once saved forever following.
Hebrews 10 talks about it. He says this,
“For you have need of endurance, so that when you’ve done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and preserve their souls.
And remember, where does faith come from? Hebrews 12 tells us that Jesus is the founder and the perfecter of our faith. He’s the starter and the Ender of our faith. Because what I used to sweat in bed at night was, I know it takes faith to be saved. But do I how do I know that I had enough faith? How do I know that I had the right faith? Man? Faith is a gift from God, and God doesn’t give some weak, imperfect, temporary gifts. He doesn’t give you the runt of faith, right? He’s going to make sure that that faith that saves is faith that finishes. God sees to that, and we’re called to be faithful. Is it possible to lose your salvation? No, but theoretically, just think through, how would that even happen, like later on in life? When your kids get scared at night in their rooms, you’ll have to explain to them why it’s not possible. Like I had one of my kids that was scared of, gosh, I always forget his name, the otter in Zootopia that goes crazy. What’s his name? Emmett Otterton. Thank you, sir. So I had one kid that was afraid at night that Emmett Otterton, you know when he’s the one that goes crazy, right? That his eyes get red and he’s like,
Oh, he was afraid that Emmett Otterton was in his vent, like the air conditioning vent, and was coming out to visit him at night, and so I’d go in there. And of course, you know, with a kid, they’re not thinking rationally, but sometimes it helps to kind of shine the light on that situation and explain. Man, that’s impossible, but why is it impossible? How would that even happen? So I’d reason with him be like, All right, man, how is Otterton? First off, here’s a drawing. That drawing is not going to leap off the screen and become a real crazed otter. And second off, how’s he going to get in that vent? There’s no way in from down there. He would have to have a key to the house, come in, open your vent, crawl in and be like, I’m gonna get him, you know. But so sometimes it’s helpful if you have fears to think, is this even possible? Like, how theoretically would it happen? So salvation, according to these verses, you cannot lose it, but theoretically, how would it even happen if you could, let’s think you would have to say one of three things. You would have to say that something or someone could take you away from God, or that God could just lose you, like, oh, shoot, where’s that guy? Or you’d have to say that you could take yourself away from God that you could lose it yourself. So theoretically, let’s just shine the light on each one of these real quick. Theoretically, how would it even be possible for you to lose your salvation? Number one, could someone or something take you away from God?
Romans 8 addresses this.
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? He’s going to answer it. Can tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as is written, for your sake, we’re being killed all day long. We’re regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I’m sure that neither death or life, angels or rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. In Christ, Jesus, our Lord.
So theoretically, can something take you away from God? Nope, he this verse is saying, There’s nothing so bad, there’s nothing so powerful that it can separate you from God’s love. Now, bad things can still happen to you and do like famine and peril and danger and sword. Those things are still on the table. But what’s not on the table is being separated from God’s love. This says that nothing made can separate you, talking about earthly things or supernatural things, nothing made can separate you.
There’s only one thing that doesn’t fall into the made category, and that’s God, and that’s who you’re joined to. Nothing can separate you.
2. Can God lose a Christian?
So the second possibility shine a light on this, can God lose a Christian?
Because John 6 Jesus is talking. He says, this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. To say that a Christian can lose his salvation is to say that Jesus can lose a Christian because that’s really what’s going on here. To say that a Christian can lose salvation to say that Jesus didn’t do his job. His job was to keep all the sheep, but he couldn’t.
Jesus is the only one with the absolute power and authority to do whatever he wants, and here he’s saying that what he wants to do is to keep you saved if you’re a believer.
3. Can I lose my own salvation?
So third possibility, this is the one that kept me up at night. Can’t I lose it myself? Is it possible that you’re in God’s hand, but you can, you can snatch yourself out of God’s hand.
John 10
John 10, it says this,
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of my hand. My father, who’s given them to me, is greater than all, and no one’s able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.
When I was younger, I used to read this verse and say, Okay, well, I know nothing can snatch me out of God’s hand. But can I? Can I just jump out of God’s hand? You know, when my kids were smaller, you know, now they’re all grown, but when they’re babies, you hold their hand all the time because their heads are so large, they just fall over all the time, right? The kids are, like, top heavy and so, you know you whenever you come up to a puddle or a curb or something like that, you kind of grab your kid’s hand and lift them over. They lift their pudgy little legs, and you go over. And so you squeeze pretty hard, because they’re not strong enough to hold on. Like, what if I relied on my kids grip to get them over that puddle? It’d be like, just strong enough to get their pudgy little legs off the ground, then squeeze. Oh, that let go because they’re not strong enough to hold them like, and sometimes kids want to let go. You know, if they’re scared, they’ll be gripping me tight. You know, if we’re going, like, whenever this train trestle that went over a river, and they’re like, just so tightly holding to me. But I mean, if there’s a puppy across that highway, they’d be like, let me go. Let me go, like, trying to snatch themselves out of my hand. But thankfully, I’m stronger than my kids. Like kids loosen their grip, but I don’t think you can’t snatch yourself out of God’s hand.
Are you stronger than God? Is your power of choice greater than God’s will? Man?
Look at Jesus’s words. Think about that verse where he just said,
My sheep. Hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish. And no one is no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Think about it. He wouldn’t say, no one will snatch them out of My hand. If, in reality, every one of you could snatch yourselves out of his hand, right? He wouldn’t say, God is greater than all. If, in reality, each one of you is stronger than God. He wouldn’t say they will never perish if, in reality, oh, kind of a lot of them will. And we get it twisted. We get Jesus’s words twisted. And we read this verse to say, I give them eternal life, and they’ll never perish unless, unless they they do, and no one can snatch them out of my hand, except every single person who can snatch themselves at like we twist Jesus’s words to say things that they won’t. Now, can a believer still sin? Yeah, I believe we probably all did today, and you might see a believer walk in a period of sin, but if they’re truly a believer, they’re going to endure to the end. There’ll be a period of discipline as sons, and they’re going to come back, right? Because we have our identity changed by Christ. He says, My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow Me.
Our desires have changed to where we want to follow. Here’s the deal. We are in God’s hands, thankfully, not our own.
John MacArthur said this,
“If you could lose your salvation, you would.”
But think about if you can lose your salvation, the doctrine of election, like God choosing a doctrine stinks if you could lose your salvation, the doctrine of justification, where God says, not guilty. If you could lose that, that doctrine stinks. If you could lose your salvation, men the work of Jesus, what would it have been about? Thankfully, my salvation doesn’t rest on me. It rests on the nature of God. So can you lose your salvation? No, no, 1000 times no.
The Bible says salvation is of the Lord
I don’t save myself, so I can’t unsave myself. I don’t I didn’t adopt myself, so I can’t un adopt myself. I didn’t seal myself, so I can’t unseal myself. I didn’t choose myself. I can’t un choose myself. He started the work and he will complete it. The faith that saves his faith that finishes man God’s work is so complete, and that’s so good, and we should take confidence in that last verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it.”
That’s good. God does the work of keeping someone saved. In reality, amen. So if you’re a Christian, you need to take confidence in God’s work. I think the bigger question is, are you in Christ? Are you a Christian? Are you in God’s hand? And that’s offered to you today. If you don’t understand what salvation is about, man, please talk to your youth leader.
Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart. Come to Jesus. His arms are open and secure that the faith that saves is faith that follows, once saved, forever following. That’s really good news.
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Romans 8