A few weeks ago, my 14 year-old sister was about to be baptized. Right before the service, I asked her to sit outside with me on the same porch where she had accepted Christ on Thanksgiving a year and a half ago.

We had talked about baptism before, and though I had encouraged her to do it immediately, I knew that it had to be her decision and not something that was imposed on her. I told her that I was proud of her.

We talked about the beauty of the rite, about the importance of being a new creation, about having the "old washed away." Realizing her own fickleness as a teenager, she asked me, "What if I turn away from God after this? I mean, I don't want to, but what if I do? Will I still go to heaven?"

My response went something like this...

Well, that's the question, isn't it? Entire denominational rifts are based on this quandary. What is disconcerting about this question is that this often isn't about God's grace; rather, it's often a question of, "What can I get away with and still get into the paradise resort?"

In Romans 3, the Paul does a little proof on why we shouldn't test the grace of God:
 

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), 'Let us do evil that good may come'? Their condemnation is just. (v. 4-8, NASB)

The two types of people that I find asking the question "Can I lose my salvation?" are:
  1. Those who want to get away with sin and still be in the "Jesus club" on Judgment Day;
  2. Those who are truly seeking to honor God with their lives, while struggling with sin, and they are genuinely afraid of his holy wrath.

For the first half, I believe the Bible speaks about those types in Hebrews - a popular, yet often misconstrued verse on the subject of losing one's salvation. It says: "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." (v. 4-6, NIV)

As an early Christian, I read this verse to mean that we could mess up our lives enough that God would turn his back on us. In fact, I even shared this verse with a believer who had a drinking problem to guilt them into thinking that they could fall from grace. However, if you read the whole chapter, you will realize that this verse isn't for believers. In verse 9, the author writes, "But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation..." (NASB)

Popular pastor and writer John Piper once delivered a message called "When is Saving Faith Impossible?" He cites the Hebrews 6:4-6 and believes that this person isn't saved. Though having "elevated religious experiences" that resemble salvation, they have not genuinely repented and been created anew in Christ. Jesus echoes this in Matthew 7:

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' (v. 21-23, ESV)
 
I told my sister that this is a good question to struggle with, but not one to obsess over. For people in the second group, some can become neurotic at the fear of losing their salvation. Believing that God's grace has a limit, they live their faith life conservatively, walking on eggshells and paying penance toward God for every single sin. They are afraid that if they push the wrong button, they will forever be cut off from his eternal love. So, they keep getting "saved" over and over again, hoping that it will eventually "stick." Those types need to better understand who they are in Christ and that salvation isn't as fickle as a teenager girl.
 
This is a complex issue, and I don't want to be cavalier about sin, but attributing the acquiring and hypothetical losing of my salvation to works, I believe, is unbiblical and an insult to God's grace. More important than arguing over polemical issues, I think that it's important for Christians of all doctrinal stances to embrace some basic, biblical facts about their identity in Christ:
  • Romans 8:1-2 - I am free from condemnation.
  • Romans 8:28 - I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances.
  • Romans 8:31-39 - I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I cannot be separated from the love of God.
  • 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 - I have been established, anointed and sealed by God.
  • Colossians 3:1-4 - I am hidden with Christ in God.
  • Philippians 1:6 - I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me.
  • Philippians 3:20 - I am a citizen of heaven.
  • 2 Timothy 1:7 - I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.
  • 1 John 5:18 - I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me. (Neil Anderson, Freedom in Christ Ministries)
Although there are some challenging verses in the Bible that speak about testing ourselves, persevering, and falling away (verses over which we ought to wrestle in prayer), compared to those verses, there is a mountain of verses (at least, in my reading of the New Testament) telling Christians that they are new creations, secure and sealed in Christ, seated in the heavenly realms, given a new heart and a new spirit, not separated from God's love, safe from the Enemy, and so on. Reading the epistles is a good place to start for more on this subject.

Think about it rationally: If you are a new creation, can you become uncreated? Can you actually fall away and go back to being an old creation? I told my sister that I, personally, didn't believe that we could "lose" our salvation, but even if that were possible, it would take a force stronger than demons, angels, or anything in creation to separate us from God's love (Romans 8:38-39).

At the very least, your salvation is not something that will float away with the wind. Peter, who himself denied Jesus three times and was even called "Satan" by the Lord, seemed to believe that if born-again Christians fall back into sin, it's not because they've lost their salvation, but because they've forgotten that they have been "cleansed from past sins" (2 Peter 1:8-9).

Yet, with so many self-help books and quick ways to God, it's hard to tell these days who has had a genuine rebirth and who is hoping to have a "Get out of jail free" card to use at the Judgment, just in case Christianity "happens to be true." That's why Paul says to the church in Corinth, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5, NASB)
 
It's not bad advice. Test yourself. Peter told the church to eagerly "make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10, NIV). If you find out that you've said a half-hearted "sinner's prayer," gone through the motions, maybe even seen God move in your life, but never experienced real repentance and new life in Christ, consider the answer to the jailer's question "What must I do to be saved?" in Acts 16:30-34. Check it out for yourself. It's worth dusting off that old Bible on the shelf. You'll find what you're looking for, and I don't think that once you have it, it'll be that easy to lose.
 
While, I didn't mean for this blog to be a "case for eternal security," I realize that some people may take it as that. So, in order to be fair, here are some other links to sites on the subject of Calvinism, eternal security, election, etc. worth checking out. This isn't scholarly research or anything; I just googled "eternal security" and a few other phrases. I will say that most top search items brought me to websites that made a case for eternal security, and it was harder to find sites that go against this doctrine. Nonetheless, here's what I found:
 
The case for losing your salvation:
 
The case for eternal security:
Podcasts:
 
Examples of why these kinds of controversies don't interest me:
Here's a video on the subject of losing your salvation and God's nature as a Father: