Question: Hi Greg,

I wanted to ask you your thoughts on "eternal salvation." Can a person lose their salvation?

Thanks!

Vic

Answer: Dear Vic,

Let’s start with salvation itself. The Bible says that there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. Salvation is by and through grace.

We are given salvation because of God’s love (John 3:16) – not because of something we do to obtain it, or something we do to keep it. His lavish gift of eternal life is not something we can ever earn, by any work of merit. God can never be obligated to us. He doesn’t "work" the way we do in terms of receiving something because of effort or work expended. He doesn’t "need" anything from us.

What is salvation? Salvation is eternal life, given to us when we are saved. When are we saved? When we accept the free gift that is offered to us – when we trust and believe in what God says. Salvation is given to us when that happens – at that time we are given eternal life, even though we remain in this body of flesh (as Paul calls it, this "tent").

Eternal life is just that – eternal life. If it were conditional life, then God would tell us that – i.e. "I am going to give you eternal life IF…" – but that’s not what the Bible says. Those who are eternally saved cannot earn that eternal life. Neither can they do anything to make sure that is maintained. It is all by God’s grace, "Not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:9).

This does not mean that everyone who claims to be saved is – or that everyone who we think is a Christian is saved. Simply attending church – simply doing "religious things" does not make us a Christian. The only one who truly knows those who are Christians, who are saved, who have been given the Holy Spirit, is God. Humans cannot discern that.

We have a basic idea of one’s Christianity by the fruits (Galatians 5) of the Holy Spirit that are produced in that person – but even then those fruits are not produced by human effort, but by the gifts that God gives. We are not saved BY works, but we are saved FOR works (Ephesians 2:10). Those who are saved will be known by what God is doing in them, by how Jesus is being reflected in their lives. They will be salt and light in the world (Matthew 5).

Those who are truly his cannot be "snatched out of God’s hand" (John 10:28-29).

How does this account for some who once seemed to be Christians (at least to us. They seemed to be "doing" all of the "right" things) – who forsake Christianity completely and begin to live a life that is the very opposite of a Christ-like life?

One explanation is the passage in 1 John 2:19 – they went out from us because they were never of us. That is – they themselves may have thought that they were Christians, but never authentically knew God in a personal way.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht