CAN YOU LOSE SALVATION?

Ro 2:7 (NIV)  To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

DOES THIS MEAN YOU CAN EARN SALVATION?

• No. You cannot begin to do good according to God's ways until you have received the free gift of eternal life.

SO CAN YOU LOSE ETERNAL LIFE?

• God gives you a free will to choose Him or to turn away from Him both at the time of conversion and for the rest of your life.

Rev 3:5 (NKJV)  He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

• When you repent and believe in the Son of God, your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 

  • If you do not endure to the end, your name will be erased from the book of the living.

Mk 13:13 (NKJV)  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

• When you are born again, you are a new creation.

2Co 5:17 (NKJV)  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

• How can a perfect creation of God be corrupted and lost?

Satan was the greatest of holy angels in heaven before he chose to turn away from God.

• In the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus gives a very stern warning to lukewarm Christians.

Rev 3:16 (NKJV)  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Of course you will read commentaries that tell you Jesus is not talking about born again believers but superficially religious people. 

• But consider how precise and accurate Jesus is with words. 

  • You cannot vomit something that is not inside you. 

  • Jesus can only be talking about people who are IN Christ but lose their position through lukewarmness.

Commentaries based on the Reformed tradition will tell you this is incorrect Bible interpretation because you cannot base doctrine on figurative language, such as a parable. 

• But the this rule of Bible interpretation was not made by God.

Consider this passage.

Jn 15:4 (NIV)  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. 

• "I am the vine; you are the branches. 

  • IF a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

• 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. 

• IF you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

Again the conservative evangelical commentaries say the person who was cut off and burned was never in Christ in the first place. 

• However, this interpretation is quite inconsistent and illogical.

Jn 15:5 (NIV)  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

The same conservative commentaries will tell you the branch is the believer who is IN CHRIST because he is born again. 

• If this is so, the branch which is cut off and burned can only be a born again believer who does not continue in faith and obedience. 

• Any other interpretation is totally illogical makes nonsense of the precise teaching of Jesus.

• Salvation is an ongoing blessing but also an ongoing responsibility.

What about Paul?

Romans 11:22 (NASB)  Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 

Jesus and Paul agree.

Jn 8:31-32 (NASB)  So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."