Galatians 5:1-5 is another passage that many individuals believe teaches that we can lose our salvation. Here is what it says:
These verses clearly indicate that everyone who says at one time that they are saved, may indeed not be.
Christians (genuine born-again regenerated converts) are triple-sealed. The Father, as explained in John 10:29; the Son, as explained in John 10:28; and the Holy Spirit, as explained in Ephesians 4:30. No one can break that triple seal of protection. If God has sealed us, you can be sure that we are indeed sealed and that there is nothing we can do to unseal ourselves, as these passages demonstrate and prove: When the Bible says "it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ" (2 Cor. 1:21), what does that mean? What does the Bible mean when it says "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6)? How about when it states "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" (1 Thess. 5:23-24)? How about "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day" (2 Tim. 1:12)? Also, "To him who is able to keep you from falling..." (Jude 1:24).
God is responsible for our salvation, not us. God is responsible for the security of our salvation, not us. Our salvation is a completed event. "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24 - past tense, it's already a completed action). "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Eph. 2:8-9 - "have been saved" is the perfect tense, which means it is a completed work). Romans 5:11 says we have "now received reconciliation." Now! Not "one day" or "eventually." "Received" is a verb that indicates a completed, past action. It is done. We are reconciled to God. We cannot be unreconciled from Him. Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are [being] sanctified."
If you examine the four soils Jesus spoke about, this truth is made evident and perfectly clear. Only one of these soils is a genuine convert. Two are pretenders for a time until they fall away. Jesus' parables tell us that the kingdom will be filled with genuine converts and false converts. A profession of faith does not equate genuine faith. The loss of salvation group buys into the same lie that just because someone prays a prayer they must be saved. Praying a prayer does not save anybody. It tends to create a large number of false converts. That's what you need to realize and come to terms with. 1 John 2:19. They left because they never belonged; i.e., they were never saved. Justification is a past act. Sanctification is an on-going act. Don't confuse the two.
You see what genuine exegetical Bible study results in? Comparing Scripture with Scripture. Not isolating random verses or passages and twisting them to mean something they clearly do not teach. The nature of genuine faith is that it cannot become unfaithful. The faith that does so was never true saving faith to begin with. The reason the loss of salvation group interprets the Bible incorrectly is because they believe incorrectly. They believe that everyone who makes a profession, whether by praying a prayer or otherwise, is genuinely saved at that moment; and when those people do not bear fruit that evidences that salvation, rather than admit the truth that those people were false converts and never saved to begin with, they claim that those people were saved but that those people lost their salvation. When you err in one place, as the loss of salvation group has done with their understanding of salvation, it is inevitable that you will err in another place in relation to the first. Get your gospel straight and correct, and your understanding of salvation straight and correct, and your erroneous interpretations of loss of salvation will quickly disappear.
To say that we can lose our salvation says that we must work to maintain it, which has turned the grace of God into a works-based salvation. If you have to work to maintain your salvation, or even to effect it, you will never be good enough to earn that salvation and will find yourself in hell for all eternity, no matter how earnestly you believe the truths of Christ Jesus with your head. Love is the law of the Christian life, and this love fulfills the law. Drop all your spoon-fed spirituality and start studying the Bible for what it actually says and teaches—not for what you were told it says and teaches. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide—not men who have interpreted it in error.
"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness." Galatians 5:1-5In order for someone to "fall from grace" you need a standard of measurement. The Bible repeatedly and clearly informs us of what we must do to be saved (Acts 16:30; John 3:16; John 1:12; Ephesians 2:8, etc.). However, the Bible never tells us what we can do in order to lose that salvation. Any standard for the loss of salvation has to be based on works:
"You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed [as] crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" Galatians 3:1-5The view that says we can lose our salvation also says, inadvertantly, that we must work to maintain our salvation. Paul calls this view "foolish"!
"Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, 'THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.'" Galatians 3:11If no one is justified (saved) by keeping the law (being good enough), then no one will stay justified (saved) by keeping the law (being good enough). Being saved happens at one point in time and is an identifiable "crossing the line." If you can lose your salvation, how do you determine when you cross back over that line?
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one [point,] he has become guilty of all." James 2:10If failing to be "good enough" could determine that loss, then, according to James, we would lose it as quickly as we gained it. There is not a single minute of any given day where you and I are without sin, whether in word, deed, or thought (and the intentions of the heart). How do we know when we have "crossed the line" from saved to unsaved? The bottom line is: you cannot know. Scripture does not tell us, because it is not possible! If you can lose your salvation, and the Bible gives us no clear criteria for what constitutes that loss, how can you ever know that you have eternal life?
"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life." 1 John 5:13Our perseverance in the faith shows our faith was genuine, or conversely, when one fails to persevere, it shows that their faith was not genuine:
"For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end" Hebrews 3:14 (cf. 3:6)
"They went out from us, but they were not [really] of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but [they went out,] in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us." 1 John 2:19
"The faith that fizzles at the finish had
a flaw at the first."
These verses clearly indicate that everyone who says at one time that they are saved, may indeed not be.
"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 13:5Look at Esther. It says "These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring" and "seal it with the king's signet ring--for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked." God is much higher and much greater than any king. If He has sealed something, it is a done fact. The Holy Spirit serves as God's signet ring. Read Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; and 5:5.
Christians (genuine born-again regenerated converts) are triple-sealed. The Father, as explained in John 10:29; the Son, as explained in John 10:28; and the Holy Spirit, as explained in Ephesians 4:30. No one can break that triple seal of protection. If God has sealed us, you can be sure that we are indeed sealed and that there is nothing we can do to unseal ourselves, as these passages demonstrate and prove: When the Bible says "it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ" (2 Cor. 1:21), what does that mean? What does the Bible mean when it says "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6)? How about when it states "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" (1 Thess. 5:23-24)? How about "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day" (2 Tim. 1:12)? Also, "To him who is able to keep you from falling..." (Jude 1:24).
God is responsible for our salvation, not us. God is responsible for the security of our salvation, not us. Our salvation is a completed event. "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24 - past tense, it's already a completed action). "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Eph. 2:8-9 - "have been saved" is the perfect tense, which means it is a completed work). Romans 5:11 says we have "now received reconciliation." Now! Not "one day" or "eventually." "Received" is a verb that indicates a completed, past action. It is done. We are reconciled to God. We cannot be unreconciled from Him. Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are [being] sanctified."
If you examine the four soils Jesus spoke about, this truth is made evident and perfectly clear. Only one of these soils is a genuine convert. Two are pretenders for a time until they fall away. Jesus' parables tell us that the kingdom will be filled with genuine converts and false converts. A profession of faith does not equate genuine faith. The loss of salvation group buys into the same lie that just because someone prays a prayer they must be saved. Praying a prayer does not save anybody. It tends to create a large number of false converts. That's what you need to realize and come to terms with. 1 John 2:19. They left because they never belonged; i.e., they were never saved. Justification is a past act. Sanctification is an on-going act. Don't confuse the two.
You see what genuine exegetical Bible study results in? Comparing Scripture with Scripture. Not isolating random verses or passages and twisting them to mean something they clearly do not teach. The nature of genuine faith is that it cannot become unfaithful. The faith that does so was never true saving faith to begin with. The reason the loss of salvation group interprets the Bible incorrectly is because they believe incorrectly. They believe that everyone who makes a profession, whether by praying a prayer or otherwise, is genuinely saved at that moment; and when those people do not bear fruit that evidences that salvation, rather than admit the truth that those people were false converts and never saved to begin with, they claim that those people were saved but that those people lost their salvation. When you err in one place, as the loss of salvation group has done with their understanding of salvation, it is inevitable that you will err in another place in relation to the first. Get your gospel straight and correct, and your understanding of salvation straight and correct, and your erroneous interpretations of loss of salvation will quickly disappear.
To say that we can lose our salvation says that we must work to maintain it, which has turned the grace of God into a works-based salvation. If you have to work to maintain your salvation, or even to effect it, you will never be good enough to earn that salvation and will find yourself in hell for all eternity, no matter how earnestly you believe the truths of Christ Jesus with your head. Love is the law of the Christian life, and this love fulfills the law. Drop all your spoon-fed spirituality and start studying the Bible for what it actually says and teaches—not for what you were told it says and teaches. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide—not men who have interpreted it in error.