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.”

Are You forgetting the Catholic Sacraments — purveyors of grace? Especially the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation?

What you need to forget is the idea that the Catholic Sacraments give grace, for while God can do such things as use others to convey the fullness of the Spirit, as that certain devout disciple Ananias did for Paul, (Acts 9) in Catholicism what God commanded to be done, or examples, is corrupted.

1. Baptism, which required wholehearted repentant faith, (Acts 2:38; 8:36,37) and meant immersion is reduced to sprinkling, and done to infants, who as morally incognizant innocent souls need not and cannot fulfiled the stated requirements for baptism. Thus there is no manifest difference overall in baptized Catholic kids which corresponds to the effects of regeneration in Scripture, with superior Godliness to evangelical kids, other things being basically equal.

And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (Acts 8:36-37)

2. Confirmation. This sacrament reduces what was/is sometimes a means of conveying the filling of the Spirit of Christ, resulting in manifestation of His power, to being a mere ritual as conducted by dead clergy, typically in response to gives the right answers to questions, resulting in no manifest Scriptural change.

And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. (Acts 9:17)

3. The Eucharist. The Lord's supper is turned from a remembrance/showing of the death of Christ by unselfish sharing of food with those of the body of Chris who are bought with His sinless shed blood, into something more like paganistic endocannibalism, in which spiritual benefits are obtained by eating parts of the body of a beloved deceased person. than what is seen in Scripture . Moreover, Catholicism restricts this to being conducted by Rome's unScriptural priests.

When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken....For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come...Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. (1 Corinthians 11::20-21,26,33)

4. Penance for the remission of sins changes an effect of repentant saving faith into saying prayers as a requirement for forgiveness. True faith is that which will bring forth fruits correspondent to repentance, and the believer must have a faith which will effect such, and God can even require a soul to do certain things of repentance which require saving faith in order to thus be forgiven.

However, it is faith that purifies the heart and appropriates justification, while reciting prayers is not a fruit of repentance, especiallly prayers to created beings in Heaven, which the Holy Spirit nowhere examples (except by pagans) or sanctions despite providing approx. 200 prayers in the written word He inspired.

To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43)

And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (Acts 19:18-19)

But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judæa, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. (Acts 26:20)

5. "Anointing of the Sick" turns what in Scripture is a promise of healing via the prayer of faith via holy presbyters (not Catholic priests), but into what is typically a precursor of death! ,

And Catholicism also abused the text on this to support required confession to her unscriptural priests in order to normally obtain forgiveness, but in which text there was no command to confess sins to leadership, versus to each other in general, but there is promised forgiveness, evidenced in the removal of God's hands of chastisement, Mk. 2:1-11) likely for sins of ignorance in response to the intercession of others. Yet which prayer for healing is not restricted to leadership, but includes all who are of fervent prayer and holy faith.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:14-16)

6. Holy Orders. Catholicism changes this ordinance from one in which presbuteros (senior/elder) were ordained as pastors, and who are the same persons called episkopos (superintendent/overseer) in one pastoral office, (Titus 1:5,7; Acts 20:17,28) and who were normally married, (1 Tim. 3:1-7) into an sacrament in which presbuteros are a separate distinctive class of sacerdotal priests called by the same name as OT priests (“hiereus), but which the OT never calls NT pastors , as instead all constitute the only priesthood (hieráteuma) in the NT church, (1Pt. 2:5,9; Re 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). who are all called to sacrifice. (Rm. 12:1; 15:16; Phil. 2:17; 4:18; Heb. 13:15,16; cf. 9:9) .

And which designation of clergy as a distinctive class of sacerdotal "hiereus" is she attempts to justify by imposed functional equivalence, supposing NT presbuteros engaged in a unique sacrificial ministry as their primary function, that of offering the Lord's super as a sacrifice for sins, which it never is in Scripture. And t neither presbuteros or episkopos are described as having any unique sacrificial function, not charged in the record of the NT church (Acts onward, which helps show how the NT church understood the gospels) with conducting the Lords supper, or shown doing so.

Instead the primary work of NT pastors is that of prayer and preaching. (Act 6:3,4; 2 Tim.4:2) by which they “feed the flock,” as charged, (Acts 20:28; 1Pt. 5:2) for the word is called spiritual "milk," (1Co. 3:22; 1Pt. 1:22) and "meat," (Heb. 5:12-14) what is said to "nourish" the souls of believers, and believing it is how the lost obtain life in themselves. (1 Timothy 4:6; ;Acts 15:7-9; cf. Psalms 19:7)

In addition, Catholicism separates presbuteros and episkopos into two distinct offices, and requires celibacy to be the norm for both.

7. Marriage. Catholicism, especially the Roman version, takes this union, which was never restricted to those performed by the religious authorities of God, and for which we have no examples of annulment (even under conditions Rome considers possible grounds for such) and which union most of the apostles were in, (1Co. 9:5) but one or two possible grounds for divorce;

And in which conjugal relations was not restricted to purposes of procreation, and changes it into such a conditionally valid sacrament, that it allows annulment under various conditions of subjective judgment, which would mean multitudes more RC marriages are not valid (though not considered as such until Rome judges them to be so), while not allowing for any conditions for divorce, and effectively rendering it a second class condition which her clergy are not to be in.

" And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. (Genesis 29:25-26)"

And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. (Matthew 19:9)

Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. (Proverbs 5:19)

Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? (1 Corinthians 9:5)

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;.. One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) (1 Timothy 3:2,4-5)

Thus are Catholic sacraments exposed as aberrational substitutes for what Scripture teaches, but which are justified by RCs under the the novel and unScriptural premise of ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility as per Rome (and basically in primary cults).

“I understand that many people are weak and we all start from different places, but after 30 or so years, I expect to see much more Christlike character out of someone than to live a carnal life.”

That’s exactly right. I think we are supposed to discern the spiritual state of those who profess salvation, including when we examine our own lives. The parable of the sower gives us a basic template.

Some have heard and not believed. That’s pretty easy. Some show some initial evidence but no real, lasting fruit. These are those who do not continue on the path of discipleship. True disciples keep Christ’s commandments. They don’t just call Jesus “Lord” with their mouth (although this is the first evidence), they also confess by their works. These second and third types may take longer to discern. And then there are those who have clear evidence of being born-again believers.

We also have to recognize that we can be fooled. Look at Judas. Only Christ recognized he was a phony. The other disciples considered him completely trustworthy. There are other parables that explain cases like him. For example, the tares and wheat.

Some professing Christians are converts of a false Gospel. So they appear as other Christians. Christ said for His servants not to uproot the tares that grow among the wheat because this could uproot the wheat also.

But the purpose of discerning the state of a professed Christian, including ourselves, is not to condemn, of course. It is to know the right prescription.

The pattern I see throughout the New Testament is that the Gospel is not just for the lost. It is for those who believe also, so we can continue to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. When we sin, we return to the cross. We confess and repent. We don’t go to some “advanced Christianity.” We go back to the basics: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, all in accordance with the Biblical prophecies. Then He was seen alive again by hundreds of witnesses, which we have a record of in the New Testament. We avail ourselves of the forgiveness, justification, sanctification, and glorification offered to us by repentance and faith.

This message strengthens the weak believer. It helps us grow. But it also is a message for professing believers who have not yet born fruit, who are still living in sin, who may have not really been born again. And perhaps even those who have followed a false Gospel may be brought to repentance. But these need to come to the realization that they did not understand the true Gospel message, or did not properly repent, or did not believe with their whole heart.

Luke 13:6-9
He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”

Galatians 4:19
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

“Paul recognized carnality as a condition that actually existed in the Church. It is never [God]’s ideal, but it is a reality for some believers.”

My point may have not been clear. Of course there is such a thing as a Christian acting in a carnal way. But there is a myth of the “carnal Christian.” I shared earlier that Paul clearly states that being a true believer, a true follower of Christ, is being someone who has the Spirit of Christ indwelling them. These are NOT carnal.

Romans 8:9
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

When Paul described the Corinthians as “carnal” he was describing sin that is uncharacteristic of being a Christian. A Christian can potentially steal, but a thief is not a Christian. A Christian can potentially murder, but a Christian is not a murderer. A Christian can potentially act in a carnal manner, but a Christian is not carnal.

The idea that there is a category of Christians who are carnal is a deception of the Devil who loves to twist scriptures and lead us to destruction.

Christians can commit sins and act in a carnal manner. They can not remain in a state of sin. Those who profess Christ with their mouths but continue living in a state of sin, unrepentant, are NOT true believers. By definition they are NOT followers of Christ.

The worst thing to tell such a false convert is to not worry, they will go to Heaven because they said the sinner’s prayer, or got baptized, or made some other profession of faith. They need to be warned that their works are a denial and repudiation of what they said with their mouths. They are headed for hell, not Heaven.

“Paul never describes these believers as losing their salvation.”

The specific believers who were being carnal, quickly repented when Paul wrote these words to them.

2 Corinthians 7:10-11
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

“There are the consequences of loss of rewards and a wasted life.”

We all are going to lose some rewards, because none of us perfectly follow the example of Christ. This is not a description that applies to someone who repudiates the Gospel message of repentance and obedience by shacking up with his girlfriend and declaring he is just a carnal Christian. He thinks he has fire insurance, but loves sin more than God. Paul says that the unrighteous will NOT inherit the kingdom of God.

These are not going to miss out on some “rewards.” The only treasure these have is the wrath of God in hell.

Romans 2:4-5
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Do we suppose that merely hearing the Gospel saves someone? Do we think merely admitting it is true, saves? The apostles teach it is better for some if they had never known the way of righteousness, if they subsequently turn away. That’s NOT describing someone who merely has less rewards.

2 Peter 2:21
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

Hebrews 10:28-29
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

I am using strong words because I think this is very urgent for our time, not to berate you or be argumentative. We live in a post-Christian era where many people consider themselves Christian but really need to hear the Gospel and realize they have not yet met the requirements of repentance and faith.

“God chastens only his sons. They remain sons.”

And those who are not corrected from their sins, are not sons. They never were. There are people who profess to be Christians but live wicked lives. I’m sure you are aware of this. It is literally everywhere in our society.

“And yet it did so [i.e. go on]”

Let me clarify. By “go on” I mean for it to continue, which it did not. Yes, it happened. It did not continue. We must not give people false hope of salvation if they continue in their sins. The message to those who continue to murder, steal, commit fornication, worship idols, and so forth, is that they are commanded to repent. Those who do not repent are not going to be in the kingdom of Heaven. Those who are real believers, i.e. those who have the indwelling Spirit of Christ, are going to be unable to remain in their sins. They will be overwhelmed with conviction. They will be troubled in every way until they are restored to fellowship with God. They will not remain stubbornly in rebellion to the commands of Christ. Real believers do not do this.

“Yet some do [continue in sin].”

Not believers who are destined for Heaven. Professing Christians who are in danger of being cast into the lake of fire do. These need to realize they are in danger and repent.

1 John 5:18
We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

The tense of the verb “sin” in Greek is indicative of continuing sin. John said earlier that if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We know that believers sin. What they do not do is continue in it.

I feel compelled to address this error just as much as the opposite error which is salvation based on our own righteousness.

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

People are going to hell. Of course it’s germane. It is at the heart of it. The Bible passages that cults use to discredit the doctrine of the security of the believer are still in the Bible. They are in the Bible because they are very important. They are not saying that a child of God can quit being a child of God. But they are warning that not everyone who thinks they are “saved” will turn out to be so. And these desperately need to hear that they are lost and heading to hell. They do NOT need to be placated by a message reassuring them that, since they once professed faith in Christ, they have no worries. They need to worry.

The Bible warns over, and over, and over. We must not trivialize this.

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

You are confusing assurance with security. The believer’s future is secure and can not be lost any more than a believer can remain in sin. It is neither possible for a genuine believer to lose their salvation or remain in sin. They are “kept by the power of God.” God keeps the believer from stumbling rather than enabling a believer to live in sin.

However, assurance can be lost. Assurance comes from getting right with God. Yes, getting right is predicated upon, as you said, “the sufficiency of Christ’s total payment of sin” and not on our own righteousness. But it is not merely the imputation of righteousness that gives us assurance. It is seeing the practical outworking of the salvation Christ accomplished by His indwelling Spirit. We are not witnesses of His resurrection directly. But we are witnesses of what we have seen and heard in our own lives. This transformation results in a believer being assured that they are in fact a believer, destined for Heaven.

1 John 3:19-21
And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

“It does not rule out times of living apart from God due to sin. Nor is bearing fruit equally in every season normative.”

The message to anyone living in sin is to repent. Anyone living in sin has no basis for certainty that they are a child of God, destined for Heaven. I’m not talking about sinning in general. We all sin. But living in sin is something different.

Bearing fruit is the result of abiding in Christ. It is not the result of trying real hard. If we are a branch of a grape vine, and we receive proper sun and water and nutrients from the soil, we will produce grapes. If however, we have a defect, we will not produce grapes. Or, if we are some other kind of plant we will not produce grapes. Those who are grape vines AND abide in Christ will bear fruit. And the vine dresser will prune this fruit so we can produce more. So, yes, there are seasons. But the vine that bears fruit is the one that stays connected to the root. Branches that do not abide in Christ are cut off and thrown into the fire because they do not bear any fruit. These represent professing believers who do not bear fruit. They may be part of the grape vine plant (i.e. church), but they are not truly connected (do not have the Spirit), so they wither as a branch and are unfruitful.

Being fruitful is the mark of a believer. Being unfruitful is the mark of an unbeliever. Some branches bear only a little fruit. Some bear a lot of fruit. All believers will have rewards and treasures in Heaven. Those who bear no fruit will not get into Heaven by “the skin of their teeth.” They will be cast into the fire.

“we’re we discussing the basis of salvation... [and] the blessed assurance of a true believing Christian.”

I don’t think it is possible to broach one subject apart from the other. Again, assurance and security are different things. But the question under discussion is whether a Christian can lose his or her salvation. The answer to that question is based on whether we are discussing how things appear from a human perspective versus God’s perspective.

God chose the elect before the world began. It is impossible for the elect to be eternally lost. The elect are chosen not only to believe, but also to go on believing, to do good works, to continue in the faith, to be kept from stumbling, and to ultimately bear the image of Christ, being perfected at His return. So the elect are secure.

Assurance is about knowing if we are elect. How do we know? We know because He called us. We know because when He called, we believed. We know because we have received His Spirit. We know because we continue to believe. We know because we continue to grow in knowledge and works.

2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

2 Peter 1:5-11
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“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.”

I agree, but with some caveats. We can discern and know based on the Biblical test of fruit. It is important to distinguish between believers and unbelievers. How else can we obey the command to not be unequally yoked? Believers should only marry believers. How do we know? And if we know that someone is not a believer, even if they profess to be one, then we know they need to be made aware that they are not a believer. Or, at least they need to be convinced to follow through with their commitment to Christ by continuing in obedience to the commands of Christ.

The purpose of discerning that someone is lost is not to condemn them, but to know that they need to hear the Gospel. At some point in time we were all lost, under the threat of God’s wrath, heading toward hell. If no one saw the need to preach the Gospel to us, then we would not have heard and believed.

Allow me to repeat something I posted earlier in another response. The pattern I see throughout the New Testament is that the Gospel is not just for the lost. It is for those who believe also, so we can continue to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. When we sin, we return to the cross. We confess and repent. We don’t go to some “advanced Christianity.” We go back to the basics: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, all in accordance with the Biblical prophecies. Then He was seen alive again by hundreds of witnesses, which we have a record of in the New Testament. We avail ourselves of the forgiveness, justification, sanctification, and glorification offered to us by repentance and faith.

Galatians 4:19
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

I did not intend to make such a long post. I hope I have not overwhelmed you by writing too much. And I hope that I have not come across as condescending. I need to learn as much from my fellow believers as anything that I have to offer to them. Most of my life I have been in error when it comes to seeing “carnal Christianity” as normative. I learned that it is destructive to believers because it can lead to complacency over sin. And it is destructive to unbelievers who think they are already “saved” but continue to live in sin. It is critical for both groups to realize that Christ came to save us from, not just the penalty of sin, but from sin itself.

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