Cherish your Salvation

Can Christians lose their Salvation?

Can we misplace it? No, I don’t think we can.
Can we reject it, forsake it or discard it?
Yes I believe a Christian can choose to reject or forsake God and God’s Salvation.

We make choices and decisions throughout our lives. Through many of these decision points or events, we are faced with 2 choices mainly, God or the World (Which includes ourselves and the lies of the enemy).
What happens when we don’t choose god? What does it mean when we choose God?
When we choose God, we draw closer to him. When we don’t choose God, we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit. I believe it is that simple, not always easy but it is that simple.

It is possible that if we don’t choose God day after day, we can end up losing our Salvation, even if we were once saved and once accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

One passage that speaks directly to this question is Hebrews 10:26-31.
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Salvation is a precious gift from the Living God and should be treated as such and never be taken for granted.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. A sobering thought. It is my belief that a Christian can give up, reject or discard his or her salvation, especially over time.

I am not saying that any child of God who sins gives up their salvation. Every Christian sins. I am saying however, that an unrepentant sinner can forsake his/her salvation, even if he or she accepted Christ into his or her heart once before.

An example is when someone has wronged you and you are unable to or find it difficult to forgive that person. I firmly believe that how you deal with it and dealing with it together with God is key. An attitude of “Dear God, I am unable to forgive this person right now, please deal with it for me as I lay this on the altar.” vs “I know/don’t care what the bible says, I am not going to forgive this person”. A big difference between the two examples. The latter example is a one of being unrepentant.

Or an adulterous person with an attitude of "I am going to continue with this" while being a Christian and not dealing with it is another example of being unrepentant.

James 1:15 (NIV)
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

This "death" referrers also to a spiritual death which can also mean losing your salvation. It has a lot to do with the state of our hearts and also our relationship and attitude towards God. He is a loving Father, most definitely. Do remember also that he is the Sovereign King and The Almighty Lord of Lords whose holiness and righteousness will not be mocked.

The Revelations Chapter 2, Jesus warned the Church of Ephesus, calling them to repent.

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Meaning they were about to be condemned unless they heeded the warning of Jesus and repented. “You have forsaken the love you had at first”. What this tells me is that the church of Ephesus once loved Christ and had a genuine relationship with Christ. They have now departed from that and are at risk of being condemned. This was a Church which was prospering and bearing fruit. In a modern context, you would equate this with a wealthy church with a large passionate congregation.

Mark 8:34 (NKJV )
34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

What the verse tells me, while the love of God is unconditional, being a disciple of Jesus is conditional. Conditional on us denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following him.

2 Peter 3 (NIV)
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

From the verses above I also firmly believe that the Lord, out of his prefect love for us will always give us an opportunity to repent.

God wants all of us to come to repentance and will always provide an opportunity for us to do so. Repentance is however an active decision that we make, like when we make a decision to love and marry our spouses. We will have to choose Jesus, which also means choosing to repent, out of our love for Him. The flip side is true as well, without repentance we will perish, which is the opposite of life, eternal or otherwise.

Denying our self-life is not a trivial matter nor should it be treated as such. To quote AW Tozer :
“He (our self – life) must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple.”

Repentance is not something that “just happens” as we abide in Jesus. If so, we would not have been called to repentance, repeatedly.

We though, have to make a conscious decision. Ridding sin from our lives is not something that happens effortlessly or automatically. There will always be a struggle, that we as followers of Christ have to go through and (empowered by the Holy Spirit) will eventually overcome. Without a struggle, there is no instance of overcoming.

Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, let us thank our Lord Jesus for his sacrifice. Let us pray for the Lord to grant us wisdom and courage, to continually choose Him over ourselves. For the Holy Spirit to convict us of any unrepentant attitude in our hearts. I pray for the Lord to lead to us all to repentance and the courage and strength to overcome. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.