Can I lose My Salvation?
Perhaps no topic has more divided believers than whether one can lose their salvation or whether once saved they are eternally saved.
While we do not want to create division in the church or consider one side evil and the other side good, this is an important topic which scripture deals with thoroughly. Without question, there are true believers on both sides of this issue, both claiming to have scriptural support for their position. So lets look at the Word of God and see what it says.
The Bible states all people are born into sin and on their way to hell. Without repenting and placing their faith in Jesus they will be lost eternally. However when someone does truly repent and trust in Jesus, they are forgiven of all sin and become what the Bible refers to as “born again.” They are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) and no one can snatch them from the Fathers hands (John 10:28-30). Salvation is the greatest gift God has given to us, and no one can take it from us. The real question is, can we walk away from this gift? Can we truly be saved and then fall back into sin and end up back where we started, lost in sin and on our way to hell?
The Bible has a lot to say about this subject and of course not all people claiming to be believers truly are (Matthew 7:21-23). Many people who fall away were never saved to begin with (1 John 2:19). While we understand that there is scripture that people believe supports once saved always saved, we believe there is far more scriptural evidence to support the belief that one can walk away from salvation and be lost eternally.
In the Old Testament God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 18:24-26, telling us when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, his righteousness will be remembered no more.
Romans 11:11-24 speaks of people being grafted into Christ, and others being grafted out because of unbelief, it even leaves open the possibility of them being grafted back in if they do not persist in unbelief.
Hebrews chapter 3:12-14 warns us not to depart from the Living God and that we must hold our confidence in Christ firm until the end.
Hebrews 6:4-6 goes to great lengths to describe a true believer who falls into apostasy and cannot repent or be restored.
2 Peter 2:20-22 speaks of a person escaping the pollution of the world through Jesus and then getting sucked back into it. This passage says their end is worse than their beginning.
James writes to fellow believers in chapter 5 and exhorts them to bring back a believer who has wondered from the Truth and in so doing they will save the wanderer’s soul from death.
When Paul wrote to the Galatians in Chapter 5, he warned those who were trying to be justified by the law had fallen from grace.
Perhaps the clearest wording in all of scripture on this topic is found in 1 Corinthians 8 where it tells us a weak brother, for whom Christ died, perishes or is destroyed.
These and many other verses in the Bible, along with the universal experience of many Christians seeing genuine believers walk away from the faith, causes us to believe that one can be saved and yet fall away from the faith.
Other scriptures that teach one can walk away from salvation: