Salvation – What is it and can I loose it?
By Romeo Pelle
SALVATION – WHAT IS IT AND CAN I LOSE IT?
What is Salvation?
Romans 6:23 declares that “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Those supporting “Once saved forever saved” advance this definition of salvation arguing that when God gives someone the gift of salvation, He will not take back His gift. However, this definition of salvation is simplistic and incomplete.
When we look at the whole Scripture, we see from Genesis to Revelation a loving God searching to commune in an intimate way with His creature, the human being. We define ‘salvation’ as being an intimate relationship between the fallen, but forgiven man and his Creator through Jesus Christ facilitated by the Holy Spirit; it is the restoration of the initial relationship man had with God in Eden before the Fall.
Human relationships take many forms, such as marriage, friendship, partnership, etc., and all of these relationships need two parts to contribute for the maintaining of that relationship. Any human relationship that is not maintained is destined to fade away and eventually cease. Similarly, salvation – the relationship between the forgiven man and God – if not maintained and cultivated, can be lost.
If salvation is indeed my relationship with God, and through my faith in Jesus Christ I have become a son or daughter of God, can I withdraw from this relationship or am I “glued” and unable to exit from it? Let’s look at Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. It is obvious to all that the father figure represents God. In the end he declares to the older son, “This brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:32). Jesus’ parables mirror spiritual realities and we can conclude that a person that became a son of God can be tempted by Satan to leave his father and go into the world. When he does that he is “dead”! Praise God though, that he has the chance to come back to life!
Let’s look at another example: In John 15 Jesus describes His relationship with the saved ones by an analogy of the relationship between the vine and its branches. He warns His followers, “Remain in Me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (15:4). He continues to teach about the consequences of NOT remaining in Him: “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (15:6).
Question to Ponder: Are the two above examples (and many others) spiritual realities or fiction?
It seems very clear that Jesus warns of the possibility that Christians could become separated and alienated from God. Those who maintain that “once saved you are forever saved” ignore the full revelation of Scripture. Their main mistake is that they only look at salvation from God’s perspective and His sovereignty. It is true that God has accomplished everything on His side of the equation: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (1 Peter 1:3). But Scriptures have a lot to say regarding the role of human responsibility in the process of salvation.
We don’t want to imply that salvation must be earned through human efforts and deeds. In Ephesians 2:8 apostle Paul clearly declares, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” However, the same apostle states, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil.2:12). The implication is that the human ingredient, the exercise of man’s free will, plays into the other side of the equation, namely, in the perseverance in faith that continues the process of salvation.
As we mentioned earlier, God did not create us as programmable computers that follow Him blindly; He desires sons and daughters that freely choose Him, obey Him through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and continually follow Him out of love and reverence! However, for as long as Satan is free to tempt us, apostle Peter’s warning still rings true: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Why is it so difficult to envision a worldly and disobedient Christian to be devoured by Satan? Those maintaining that salvation cannot be lost point to two important passages. The first, John 10:28-29 states, “I (Jesus) give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” The other one is Romans 8:35, 38-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” These wonderful promises are ours, but both of them are from God’s perspective. It’s very true: NOTHING can snatch me or separate me from God, except MYSELF!
Let’s look at other Scriptures that “place the ball” in the court of human responsibility:
- 1 Corinthians 15:2 “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
- Matthew 24:13 – “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.“
- Matthew 24:24,25) - “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.”
- Romans 11:20-22 – “Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:12 – “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:1,2 – “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.”
- Galatians 5:4, 7 – “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law (the O.T. law); you have fallen from grace… You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
- Colossians 1:22, 23 – “…to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel…”
- 1 Thessalonians 3:5 – “For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain.
- 2 Peter 1:10 – “But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall.” Falling from where? From being “elected”?
- 2 Peter 2:20-22 – “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
- Hebrews 6:4-6 declares that for a certain category of believers, their fall is without any possibility of return to faith: “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, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 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.”
- Furthermore, Paul himself exercised spiritual disciplines to ensure he perseveres till the end: “So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).
If the man that was entrusted to receive the revelation of half of the New Testament warned Christians about the potential of falling away from God’s grace, we must take his warnings very serious, follow his example and be on guard, practicing the spiritual discipline.
Why do we need to understand our responsibility in the process of salvation? An erroneous understanding that “Once saved forever saved” has the potential of lowering our guard against the devil and his deceitfulness. Scripture is very clear in its warning: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9). The essence of our salvation is not a set of rules of DOs and DON’Ts; it is the cultivation of our intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit!
Posted by Romeo Pelle