Can You Lose Your Salvation? - Bible Teaching #2

 

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Have you been told that you can never lose your salvation? That you are forgiven and eternally secure? How about if you believe with all your heart and say a special prayer that you are forgiven? I was one of them, and you, like I was, may be in jeopardy of losing your salvation or may not really be "saved" to begin with. In this article, we are going to look at what the Bible says about that.

Before we begin, pray for clarity and discernment and grab your Bible! For this article we are using a Thomas Nelson NKJV Reference Bible and The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition. May the Spirit of Truth guide you into the Truth.

Before we can even look at verses and topics themselves, we must first, as a pre-requisite, make sure we have the right definitions of words. Words like faith, believe, repentance, and love. What do they really mean? In order to know that we need to take a look at them in the Greek manuscripts and see what the words originally meant.

The word we all have heard "faith" was translated from the word "pistis", Strong's G4102 according to The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition. The word literally means persuasion or credence. In the book of James, chapter 2 verse 26, we read "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." In The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition, we read, "It speaks of fidelity, faithfulness. It describes the character of one who can be relied on." Now let's look at faith from another angle, how root words, suffixes and prefixes work. We all know what beauty means. What about beautiful? Beautiful means full of beauty. The "ful" at the end is a suffix in English literature. So faithful means full of faith according to how English literature works. What does faithful mean to us? If your husband or wife is faithful then he or she is loyal to you, right? He or she does not just believe you exist, but he or she does his or her part and is a trustworthy part-ner. As we read in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22-33, the marriage reflects Christ's relationship with us, not just a "belief" as we are told in today's terms; but a trustworthy, faithful, loyal partnership between us and Christ. Imagine if your husband or wife just "believed" that you existed, and did not do his or her part in the marriage; they did not give you your due affection as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, would that marriage last? Would you consider them a faithful husband or wife? We are the bride of Christ, married to Him, so we need to act accordingly. Does the faith you were told saves you look like that? This is saving faith, the Greek word pistis.

The word believe is a verb, it means "to have faith"; it is the Greek word pisteuo Strong's number G4100 according to The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition. So it is the action of carrying out the "faith" or "pistis" we have defined above.

The word "repentance" is a pretty important word. John the Baptist preached it before Jesus started His ministry, in Matthew 3:2. Repentance is the first thing Jesus preached in Matthew 4:17, it is also one of 2 things He told us to preach right before He ascended to the Father in Luke 24:47. Everyone preaches the Remission of sins as commanded in Luke 24:47, but what about the repentance? It must be pretty important, the first thing Jesus preached and last thing Jesus commanded us to preach right along with remission of sins. Now that we know how important repentance is, what does it mean? Well according to The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition, repent means, "to think differently or afterwards", "always, in the NT, involving a change for the better, an amendment", it is the Greek word metanoeo, Strongs G3340. In the notes on the word for repentance, Strong's G3341, metanoia; repentance is described as "in the new birth, and, generally, in the active turning from sin to God by the exercise of faith". As you can see repentance is a change in one's mindset resulting in a change of action, through exercising faith, being loyal to Jesus. No longer living for ourselves but changing our lives to live for Christ as mentioned in numerous places in the Bible. Such as, Acts 26:20, Romans 6:2, Acts 26:18, Galatians 5:17, Ephesians 4:17-24, Titus 2:11-14, 1 Peter 4:1-3, etc... As we can see just with those few sections, (there are many more), the Bible teaches us to turn away from sin and turn to God, stop doing what we want and start doing what God wants. That is repentance, the change in mind resulting in the change in action, where there is no change in action, there is no repentance.

Now the word "love" what does that really mean? It is a pretty important word, according to 1 John 4:8 "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." And in Galatians 5:6 "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love." If faith working through love is all that matters, we do not know God if we do not love, and God Himself is love; then we need to truly understand what Biblical love is. According to The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition, the Greek word, agape, Strong's G26 is the word most commonly translated as love in the New Testament. Agape means affection or benevolence. In the notes under the word in The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition we see "Christian love has God for its primary object, and expresses itself first of all in implicit obedience to His commandments”. We also have, "Christian love, whether exercised toward brethren, or toward men generally, is not an impulse from feelings. It does not always run with natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered." That makes Biblical love an action, not a mere feeling as we know it in modern terms. This concept is backed up in 1 John 5:2-3 and 2 John 6. Love is keeping God's commandments, which does no harm, and benefits everyone. Jesus mentions that type of love involving self denial as He did for us in, John 15:12-13. Biblical love involves looking after others before yourself in Romans 15:1-3. Is this the definition of love that you know? Not a feeling but selflessly following the commands of God and looking after others welfare before yours. That is Biblical love.

Now that we see that faith, belief, repentance, and love are actions as described above, these things being the cores of the Christian religion. Now we see that Christianity is an action not just a belief, therefore failure to execute such actions would make you not a Christian. This is a crucial point to understanding these several passages that I am about to list involving loss of salvation.

Hebrews 10:26-31
For if we sin willfully after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgement, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 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? For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 6:4-6
For it is impossible for those who once were enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

2 Peter 2:20-22
For if, after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 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. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb; "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."

Romans 11:18-22
do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I may be grafted in." Well said. 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.

Luke 12:42-48
And the Lord said, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler of his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find doing so when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has but if that servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant that knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or doing according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed to things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."

1 Corinthians 10:1-12
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Matthew 24:12-13
"And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved."

Those are just a few sections on this topic, (there are many more), saying that even if we are truly saved and following the Lord, we can lose our salvation and even become worse off than we were before we knew the righteous ways of Christ.

We are even warned about such teachers that tell us that we can live in sin and still be "saved". In 2 Peter 2:1-3 and 2 Peter 2:18-19, these teachers will live in destructive ways, luring those who have really escaped corruption, promising liberty while they themselves are still slaves, their hypocritical ways even making the world blaspheme the Truth. This is serious stuff, if you are a part of that group, your eternity is in jeopardy, "Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." - Ephesians 5:14. I was there, but I thank God for illuminating the deception and pulling me out of that belief. I hope and pray that this may be used by the Lord to open your eyes to the danger you may be in.

Thankfully we have Romans 11:23, Luke 15:11-32 and Ezekiel 33:12-20. If you repent, and turn to the Lord, He can graft you back in as He did me. So there is still hope, turn to the Lord and live explicitly for Him now!

Written with True Biblical Love,
Michael Patterson, God bless and Godspeed

I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and am willing to discuss any of these topics and more, in great detail. If you would like.

Email:

Michael.servantofchrist@gmail.com