In the wide world of Christianity, the topic of whether or not you can lose your salvation is controversial. There are those who believe that a person cannot know if they have been given eternal life, and there are others who think it must be kept through good works.
Some are of the opinion that secondary graces are needed to be born again, and other groups teach that people are elected or predestined to be of God’s chosen few. Without clarity on this issue, it is impossible to be an effective witness for Christ, as the good news of the gospel will not provide a sense of security or stability.
Firstly, you can know if you have been saved. 1 John 5:13 says: ‘I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life’.
Let’s back up one verse to 1 John 5:12 that reads thus, ‘Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life’.
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In John 3:16, to paraphrase, it says that those who believe on Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life. In other verses, it makes clear that He died for the remission of our sins without which we cannot enter into heaven.
Reasons You Cannot Lose Your Salvation
So, let’s establish that you have trusted in Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Afterward, you may have continued to struggle with wrongdoing, or you may have done things of which you are deeply ashamed. Are you still saved?
Yes.
Let’s return to John 3:16 for a moment. In its entirety, it says the following: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life’.
What does everlasting mean?
Put simply, something that lasts forever. If you had this life for a brief moment but then lost it after doing something foolish, it would not have been temporary life. But we are given life eternal.
Filthy Rags
When you or do attempt to live good lives, the result is as written in Isaiah 64:6,
‘But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags’.
This means that no matter how hard we try, our own efforts will never be good enough.
It’s important to understand that if there had ever been a law that could have given life, it would have been the Mosaic Law. And yet, God still saw fit for Jesus to come to earth to take away the sins of the world.
He, alone, was the fulfillment of the commandments that we could never wholly keep, and these were as ordinances written against us. And yet, in Jesus, they are nailed to the cross, and His righteousness becomes our righteousness when we believe on Him. (2 Cor 5:21)
1 John 17 says, ‘But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin’.
1 John 1:19 says, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’.
We have access to God the Father through Jesus Christ, and the blood continually cleanses us from our sin. Is this a license to do whatever we want?
‘By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?’ Romans 6:2
Salvation is the work of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourself, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast’.
A free gift can neither be earned nor can it be unearned. It is given by faith, and even that faith is given through the strength of God.
In the Word, it talks about chastisement and discipline for those who refuse to live a godly life, as there are consequences for failing to walk worthily of the Lord.
Our security, however, is sealed until the day of redemption. Romans 8:9 says that if ‘any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his’. (Romans 8:9)
When we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:30 says ‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’.
We have been purchased by the blood of Jesus and sealed by His Spirit. Our salvation isn’t going anywhere. We also cannot lose it and regain it again as Hebrews 10:19 says ‘and by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all’.
One sacrifice, unlike ‘for this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship’.
The Bible also says that we are part of the body of Christ, meaning we are as permanently affixed as a ligament or a digit. John 10:28-29 says, ‘I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will 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.'
Hebrews 13:5 says, ‘For He hath said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’
Romans 8:33 says, ‘Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect It is God that justifieth.’ Verse 35 ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ 38-40 ‘For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Once you belong to Jesus, you can rest assured you are His forever.
Stay Gutsy,
Rosa
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