Can a person lose their salvation? (2)

It’s 2020 and our Theme is “Seeing Spiritually.”

During the months of June and July, I am preaching the sermons that you requested. I call it, “Hot Topics.”

This morning’s sermon is a question that was requested by several people, “Can a person lose their salvation?”

This certainly is a a hot topic! Certain denominations are very emphatic about this question.

My answer is going to be both “no” and “yes” which means I will have to explain.

The answer you arrive at has a lot to do with how you approach the question.

Are you a person who is struggling with your own assurance of salvation?

Or are you struggling because someone you love is not walking in the truth that they once knew?

Are you wrestling with sin and temptation and wondering if you have blown your chances of ever getting to heaven?

Or are you wrestling with doubts and disillusionment because you thought you had it all figured out and your neatly defined doctrines just came crashing down like a tower of cards?

Are you facing personal tragedy and disappointment and your faith is being shaken by your anger at God?

It’s a fair question to ask, and I think that every person at some time or another wonders where they stand in their faith.

If someone were asking me this question right now, my question to them would be, “what do you mean by ‘lose’?”

You can ‘lose” your library card or your car keys. It’s an act of carelessness and negligence but not one of intent.

Or you ‘lose’ someone who is trying to follow you. That would take some effort. It would be no accident.

The short answer is this, if you are concerned about having lost your salvation, then you certainly haven’t and I would hold out hope for anyone who may seem to be far from God as long as they are still alive. Only don’t stop praying, and struggling, and seeking to press into God.

Let’s begin by looking at a scripture that contains both “no” and “yes” perspectives, but which also defines for us the goal of the question:

1 John 2:1–6 ESV

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

So the goal is to be like Jesus - to reflect God’s image.

If that’s the goal of your salvation then you can’t go wrong!

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the goal for everyone.

Some people are just afraid of hell, but have no love for God.

Some people are just going along with the mainstream, nominal Christians, but know very little about what they believe or why they believe it.

Some people came to Christ because of what they thought Jesus would do for them - and it’s still about them. They don’t know how or why they are saved.

The basis of salvation

You are saved by faith, not by works.

Romans 10:9 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Many people believe that when they stand before God, God will weigh all of their good deeds against all of their bad deeds to determine if they are good enough to enter heaven.

This is a misunderstanding of what the Bible says about the final judgement. God will, in fact, reward the righteous according to their good deeds, but nothing is said about bringing up our bad deeds.

The confusion is because there are actually two judgement mentioned in the bible.

The first judgement separates the righteous from the unrighteous.

A person can only be righteous by faith. You can never be good enough on your own.

The second judgement is for those who are deemed righteous to receive their reward. This one has to do with works.

Works are important, but they don’t save you. You can only be saved by receiving Jesus by faith.

You are saved by grace, not by your merit.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

You are saved because of God’s initiative. God wants you!

We forget that grace means God wanted you.

God loved you before you before you loved Him back!

Sometimes people who have grown up in the church associate grace with guilt and think that it means we need to try harder.

When you hear, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace” does that kind of self-deprecation sound like something you would want?

When you get the true meaning of God’s grace is frees you to live out of God’s strength rather than your own.

I think that the question of losing one’s salvation is often a result of the church using guilt as a motivator.

Guilt is an excellent motivator but it has terrible consequences.

Motivating people with guilt perpetuates a religious spirit an facilitates human control, but does not lead to people who look and act like Jesus.

A better approach is to help people to know and understand who they are in Christ, so they begin to live up to their true identity.

You are in a covenant with God.

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Covenant is an ancient means of forming an alliance. It is stronger than an agreement. It is sealed by a ceremony which represents and exchange of one life with another either by blood or by marriage.

A covenant is consider to be unbreakable.

Though covenants have been broken, it is not without permanent consequences.

Your salvation is not a mere agreement, it is a Divine exchange, your life for His.

As part of the exchange, you receive the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit helps you to live up to your end of the bargain.

The Holy Spirit helps you to know what it means to be a son or daughter of God.

Romans 8:15–17 ESV

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Maybe you didn’t know that you gave up your life for His?

Maybe you thought that you had joined a club of some sort.

Maybe you are just following your family tradition and doing what is expected of you?

Maybe you thought you were just going to add a little Jesus to you life like you add cream to your coffee?

Once you realize this, there is a great deal of security in knowing who you are in Christ!

The reasons for security

You belong to God.

2 Timothy 2:11–13 ESV

11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

These verses are believed to be an early creed of the church designed to help people learn about their identity in Christ.

During the first centuries of the church they were faced with the problem of apostasy.

Being a follower of Jesus was against the law in many places and Christians were persecuted and compelled to renounce their faith.

So if you are a persecuted Christian the question of losing your faith takes on an entirely different meaning.

What if you are tortured? What if you cave in to the pressure? Will God disown you if you are weak?

These words reassure believers that you belong to God, no matter what.

There is only one exception: If you really want out, God will not hold you against your will.

No one can compel you to renounce your faith if you don’t want to.

They can mess with your mind,

They may be able to make you do things to make you think you have failed.

Think about it, if they have to make you do something, then it is not your will.

God honors your will. The enemy doesn’t.

You are born again.

1 Peter 1:3–5 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The most compelling evidence for your salvation is your personal transformation.

Here again Peter is writing to believers who are persecuted.

They may not be able to participate in religious activities as they would like, but no one can take their faith.

Even if they die, it will only bring them freedom in the presence of Christ!

Peter spends the rest of the letter encouraging them to control what they can, their thoughts, attitudes and their own actions.

So for the person who is being spiritually transformed, nothing can stop that transformation.

More often it isn’t opposition that prevents spiritual growth, but rather complacency.

Most of the time when I have heard people ask, “Can I lose my salvation?” What’s behind it is another questions, “What can I get away with and still be a Christian?”

If that is the intent of the question then it make me wonder if spiritual transformation has ever occured.

Many who teach the doctrine of eternal security would say that if a person falls away from the faith that they were never really saved in the first place.

They’re not wrong. But that’s not a reason to abandon someone, I would want to explore if their is something missing in their spiritual understanding or if perhaps, they are simply spiritually immature.

God is helping you.

Jude 24 ESV

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

This passage has been a great comfort to me in my own spiritual journey.

There have been times in my life where if the right person had not been there for me at the right time, my life could have had a very different outcome.

Who was behind all of that? God was! And God’s people responded to me out of obedience to God.

The battle is real! And there are real casualties.

God is for us.

And we need to be cooperating with God by persevering and helping others to overcome.

The need for perseverance

Shipwrecks happen!

1 Timothy 1:18–20 ESV

18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

This is one of the passages commonly cited by those who say that you can lose your salvation.

Here are two guys who apparently started well, but at some point they turned and began to work against Paul and his coworkers.

Some people take the phrase “turning them over to satan” to mean that Paul had given up all hope for them.

Actually, it probably means just the opposite. Paul says that he is hoping that they will learn their lesson.

Paul is telling the church to remove their prayer covering of protection so that God can allow them to reap the consequences of their action.

Sometime we come to that place with people that we are praying for where we realize that everything that we are doing to try to help them is not really helping and we have to pray, “God, do whatever it takes!”

Faith must be tested.

Hebrews 12:15–17 ESV

15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

The truth is that many times the things that would have the potential to wreck our faith will serve to draw us closer to God.

Most people at sometime in their life will have a crisis of faith where they begin to question what they have believed up to that point?

At a time like that easy answers aren’t helpful.

The person going through a crisis of faith needs to struggle.

They need to be able to ask questions for which they don’t have answers.

Sometimes their doubt is rooted in emotional hurt or disappointment that needs to be expressed.

Successfully navigating a crisis of faith means that you come away with a sense that the problem, question or situation is bigger than you are and that even though it is beyond you, it is not beyond God.

The testing of faith means that it becomes apparent to whatever extend our religious belief has actually been a trust in self rather than faith in God.

You still have a free will.

Hebrews 6:4–8 ESV

4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Most of our doubt and unbelief is because of ignorance.

Most of the time when we don’t act like children of God it’s because we haven’t fully realized who we are in Christ.

Most of the time, when people turn their back on God, it’s because they are deceived. They are believing a lie about God, about the situation or about themselves.

The point of this passage is that spiritual growth is that natural result of spiritual revelation.

When you see God as He is then you are transformed into His image.

When the Holy Spirit is in you it is going to transform you to be more like Christ.

There is however, at least a theoretical possibility, because God has given each of us a free-will that we can use it to turn away from God if we truly chose to do so.

But that is not easy to do. You have to harden you heart to the Holy Spirit, which if there is an unpardonable sin, that would be it.

If the very idea of turning from God horrifies you, then you have a working conscience. Everything is as it should be!

If however you find yourself entertaining thoughts and feelings that you know should be disturbing, but your numb to them, then you ought to be concerned! Repent while you still have some conviction left!

Questions for Reflection:

When you received Christ, why did you do it? Were you thinking about what God would do for you? Did you know that God also wanted you?

Have you exchanged your life for Christ’s? What have you given over to God most recently? What have you received from God in it’s place?

Do you worry about turning your back on God? What worries you most, the pressure that would come from the outside or that which would come from inside you? Ask God to help you identify the source of that fear.