Question: "Can a Christian lose salvation?"

Answer: First, the term Christian must be defined. A “Christian” is not a person who has said a prayer or walked down an aisle or been raised in a Christian family. While each of these things can be a part of the Christian experience, they are not what makes a Christian. A Christian is a person who has fully trusted in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and therefore possesses the Holy Spirit (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8–9).

So, with this definition in mind, can a Christian lose salvation? It’s a crucially important question. Perhaps the best way to answer it is to examine what the Bible says occurs at salvation and to study what losing salvation would entail:

A Christian is a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). A Christian is not simply an “improved” version of a person; a Christian is an entirely new creature. He is “in Christ.” For a Christian to lose salvation, the new creation would have to be destroyed.

A Christian is redeemed. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18–19). The word redeemed refers to a purchase being made, a price being paid. We were purchased at the cost of Christ’s death. For a Christian to lose salvation, God Himself would have to revoke His purchase of the individual for whom He paid with the precious blood of Christ.

A Christian is justified. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). To justify is to declare righteous. All those who receive Jesus as Savior are “declared righteous” by God. For a Christian to lose salvation, God would have to go back on His Word and “un-declare” what He had previously declared. Those absolved of guilt would have to be tried again and found guilty. God would have to reverse the sentence handed down from the divine bench.

A Christian is promised eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Eternal life is the promise of spending forever in heaven with God. God promises, “Believe and you will have eternal life.” For a Christian to lose salvation, eternal life would have to be redefined. The Christian is promised to live forever. Does eternal not mean “eternal”?

A Christian is marked by God and sealed by the Spirit. “You also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13–14). At the moment of faith, the new Christian is marked and sealed with the Spirit, who was promised to act as a deposit to guarantee the heavenly inheritance. The end result is that God’s glory is praised. For a Christian to lose salvation, God would have to erase the mark, withdraw the Spirit, cancel the deposit, break His promise, revoke the guarantee, keep the inheritance, forego the praise, and lessen His glory.

A Christian is guaranteed glorification. “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). According to Romans 5:1, justification is ours at the moment of faith. According to Romans 8:30, glorification comes with justification. All those whom God justifies are promised to be glorified. This promise will be fulfilled when Christians receive their perfect resurrection bodies in heaven. If a Christian can lose salvation, then Romans 8:30 is in error, because God could not guarantee glorification for all those whom He predestines, calls, and justifies.

A Christian cannot lose salvation. Most, if not all, of what the Bible says happens to us when we receive Christ would be invalidated if salvation could be lost. Salvation is the gift of God, and God’s gifts are “irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). A Christian cannot be un-newly created. The redeemed cannot be unpurchased. Eternal life cannot be temporary. God cannot renege on His Word. Scripture says that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

Two common objections to the belief that a Christian cannot lose salvation concern these experiential issues: 1) What about Christians who live in a sinful, unrepentant lifestyle? 2) What about Christians who reject the faith and deny Christ? The problem with these objections is the assumption that everyone who calls himself a “Christian” has actually been born again. The Bible declares that a true Christian will not live a state of continual, unrepentant sin (1 John 3:6). The Bible also says that anyone who departs the faith is demonstrating that he was never truly a Christian (1 John 2:19). He may have been religious, he may have put on a good show, but he was never born again by the power of God. “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16). The redeemed of God belong “to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).

Nothing can separate a child of God from the Father’s love (Romans 8:38–39). Nothing can remove a Christian from God’s hand (John 10:28–29). God guarantees eternal life and maintains the salvation He has given us. The Good Shepherd searches for the lost sheep, and, “when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (Luke 15:5–6). The lamb is found, and the Shepherd gladly bears the burden; our Lord takes full responsibility for bringing the lost one safely home.

Jude 24–25 further emphasizes the goodness and faithfulness of our Savior: “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

“Paul’s letter to the Corinthians did not make being “carnal” a normative condition. There is no such category as “carnal Christian.”

Paul recognized carnality as a condition that actually existed in the Church.
It is never Gid’s ideal, but it is a reality for some believers.
Paul never describes these believers as losing their salvation.
There are the consequences of loss of rewards and a wasted life.

“Do you think God will allow His true children to live in sin? to live a “carnal” life? to go on sinning, without correcting it?”

Exactly. God chastens only his sons. They remain sons.

“And even in the case of more egregious sin Paul was addressing in Corinth, it was unthinkable that this could continue to go on.”

And yet it did so - that Paul took the next step, allowing the believer to be turned over to Satan with the hope of restoration of fellowship with the church and an obedient life in the future.

“So, yes, even Christians can commit very serious sins. But true, born-again believers can not continue in sin.”

Yet some do.

“Because it is possible for people to be convinced they are “Christian,” but actually be on their way to hell.”

Of course they can. This isn’t germane to the discussion of whether believers can live apart from active fellowship with God.

“Assurance is based in the evidences of being a true believer.”

Assurance is based on the sufficiency of Christ’s total payment of sin.

” It is never based merely on having said a prayer to receive Christ.”

Obviously.

“The test is having fruit, transformation, obedience, continuing in the faith, and an awareness of the indwelling Holy Spirit.”

Bearing fruit via the new Life of Christ inside is normative. It does not rule out times of living apart from God due to sin. Nor is bearing fruit equally in every season normative.

“So I return to my original point. A Christian is not someone who has merely, at some time or another, made some sort of decision for Christ”

Again, obvious, but different point.

“Because it is possible for people to be convinced they are “Christian,” but actually be on their way to hell.”

You seem to be arguing accurately, we’re we discussing the basis of salvation dear FRiend. In this thread, we are discussing the blessed assurance of a true believing Christian.

“People who profess faith in Christ but remain in sin, bear no fruit to God, demonstrate no grief over sin, but stubborn persistence in sin, are headed for hell.”

You can only see the outside, but not whether the Life of Christ is now present in the heart. You can guess and form a judgmental opinion, but god knows and we do not.

“Those who think they are just “carnal Christians” who will just miss out on some rewards but will escape hell because of the fire at the bema judgement need to realize they are LOST and still need to repent and believe the Gospel.”

Perhaps yes. Perhaps no. God knows the truth. We do not.

Best

“Losing one’s salvation” is just another way of saying they were never saved in the first place.

No, it is not; that would be a circular fallacy.

Take His warnings seriously.

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

...

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

...

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

...

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

First Corinthians, Catholic chapter ten, Protestant verses one to twelve,

Hebrews, Catholic chapter three, Protestant verses seven to nineteen and Catholic chapter four, Protestant verse one,

Hebrews, Catholic chapter six, Protestant verses one to twelve,

Philippians, Catholic chapter three, Protestant verses thirteen to fifteen,

as authorized, but not authored, by King James

The verse in Hebrews makes salvation a one shot deal. You blow it and you’re done for good. Can’t be saved again. Do you agree with that?

The verse in Matthew 24 is about the Tribulation period and is not applicable to someone who is saved by grace through faith in the church age. That verse has been misapplied by some religious institutions to hang a person’s salvation over their head.

12 Peter 2 may not even mean actual believers, but those who have been exposed to the Truth of the gospel and choose to reject it.

2 Timothy 2 Peter denied Christ and what was Jesus’ response?

James 5 is a tough one and could make a case for your point. I’d be interested in other’s take on it.

Colossians 1 doesn’t say the person wasn’t saved but that they will not be able to stand before God holy, blameless, and above reproach. IOW, standing before the judgment seat of Christ, they will hang their heads in shame for not living as they should have.

Galatians 4 talks about falling back into legalism. Doesn’t say the person isn’t saved any more.

Revelation 2 was written to the church body, not the individual believer.

I ask the question as unfettered free will is believed to be by some necessary to love and worship God, and without it, we are just automatons. So, to those who believe this, I would like to know if they believe that same free will exists in heaven, and if not, how do they reconcile it.

Interesting because I don't believe in free will.

We are either slaves to sin or slaves to God.

No one is a completely free and independent entity but God alone.

That said, even supposing that I had totally free will in the matter of getting saved and staying saved, I would gladly surrender that right to God once I got saved so as to not ever risk taking that free will and choosing against Him.

I would be and am happy to have Him seal me and protect me from myself, from my own stubborn nature and tendency to rebel and if possible, to do something so stupid as to turn my back on Him at the cost of my own soul.

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