• If a person accepts Christ as their Savior, but later abandons their faith, are they still saved?

  Students of the Bible vary on the answer to this question, but as I understand the Scripture, the answer is yes. If a person truly trusted in Christ, then he cannot lose his salvation. He will lose rewards and experience serious consequences in this life, sometimes even the sin unto physical death, but since our salvation is based on the finished work of Christ, we are kept by the power of God and His sovereign work. Several passages stress this.

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  322

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Spiritual Life

  Assurance

• Does Ezekiel 3:20 mean we can lose our salvation?

  Whenever we read or study any passage, we must understand the use of words such as salvation, righteousness, death, repentance, etc. according to the context and be very careful not to read our own ideas into the text. Salvation can refer to salvation or deliverance from physical death, from divine discipline, or any number of conditions. Of course, it often does refer to eternal life as well, but this must be determined from the context.

  I have copied a quote from the Bible Knowledge Commentary on Ezekiel 3:20 which I think will help.

  Ezekiel 3:20-21.

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Scripture Twisting

  Assurance

• How does 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 relate to our perseverance or God’s preservation?

  The literary context and argument must be kept in view when looking at this or any other passage. Paul has clearly affirmed his confidence of their salvation along with their calling to live as set apart believers. They had richly experienced God’s grace so that their testimony for the Lord had been clearly established, even through the bestowal of spiritual gifts in great abundance, lacking none. But in the context that follows, Paul points to their immaturity and carnality (1:10f). The need is for them to go forward into maturity and Christ-like change.

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  320

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  Scripture Twisting

  Assurance

• What does it mean when it says we must “remain in Him”?

  While there is no passage that specifically says, “Once saved, always saved,” there are passages like Romans 8:32-39 which in essence say this:

  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

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  319

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  15

  Biblical Topics: 

  Spiritual Life

• What does it mean to be “severed from Christ” in Gal. 5:4?

  In the book of Galatians, Paul uses the concept of justification by grace through faith apart from the works of the Law to teach sanctification by grace through faith. This is especially true with chapter 5. Paul is really not talking about how to get saved here or about the possibility of losing salvation, but about what legalism does to one’s ability to grow, mature, and experience the power of God in his or her life.

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  318

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Scripture Twisting

  Regeneration, Justification

• How to you reconcile James 2 with salvation apart from works?

  First, when you trust in Christ, that is believe the gospel message about the person and work of Christ as God’s Son and His death, resurrection, and ascension as the solution to your sin problem, you are immediately born into the kingdom of God by the Holy Spirit and become a child of God through faith in Christ. This is the very clear message of both John’s gospel and the teaching of Paul in all his epistles.

  The book of James does not contradict this when properly understood.

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Scripture Twisting

  Law

• How can people receive the gift of salvation yet have no interest in discipleship?

  This is frustrating, but we must guard against the temptation to ‘front-load’ the gospel with works of submission up front, and ‘backload’ is by attaching various works as the means for achieving the final aim of faith. The principle is that salvation is FREE (Rev. 21:6), but discipleship is COSTLY and it often requires time for the Spirit of God to prepare people and bring them to this point.

  I think Paul’s experience with the Corinthians and his statements to them in 1 Cor. 3:1-6 illustrate this as does Heb. 5:11f as well.

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Discipleship

  Regeneration, Justification

• Does Matthew 10:22 mean a believer can lose his salvation?

  Those in the Armenian position who, believing that one can lose his salvation, believe Matt. 10:22 teaches that unless one endures to the end he forfeits his salvation. Similarly, those in the Reformed position who, holding to the perseverance of the saints (i.e., all true saints will persevere), believe this passage teaches that a failure to endure to the end proves one was never saved. Other passages of similar emphasis sometimes used by these two groups are Hebrews 4:14; John 15:6; and Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13. But none of these verses cited proves their contentions.

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  315

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Scripture Twisting

  Assurance

• If a believer doesn’t suffer much, could it mean he really doesn’t belong to Christ?

  Suffering is not in itself a proof of one’s salvation. There are many who have suffered for their religious beliefs, but who were not true believers in Christ. There are many factors that affect whether one suffers and how much. Christ was speaking about suffering by persecution because of one’s relationship to Him. I don’t know where you live, but if you live in the U.S., Christians often do not suffer for their faith because this has been a Christian nation, one that was founded on Christian principles.

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  314

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Assurance

  Suffering, Trials, Persecution

• Can you give a clear definition of ‘believe’ in relation to salvation?

  As it is used in Scripture, especially in the gospel of John, it connotes the concept of accepting the facts of the gospel, but included in that is the concept of trust. To believe in Christ for salvation means one believes in what the Bible says about Jesus Christ—He is God’s Son, the God-man Savior, that He personally died for our sin, was raised from the dead, and that one turns from self-trust or indifference and trusts in Christ alone for their salvation.

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  Biblical Topics: 

  Soteriology (Salvation)

  Terms & Definitions

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