You Can’t Lose Your Salvation … But You Can Walk Away From It
I have good news for Christians. You cannot lose your salvation. Your salvation cannot accidentally fall out of your pocket like your keys. Your salvation cannot mysteriously disappear somewhere in the dryer like your socks.
You cannot place your salvation somewhere and forget where you placed it. Your salvation is in Christ. You always know where it is.
But the truth is that you can walk away from your salvation. Your salvation is in Christ. If you walk away from Christ, then you walk away from your salvation.
Whether the hardening of our heart comes through difficulties, persecution, the cares of this world, or a naturally based intellectual pursuit (Heb 3:12-15; Mt 13:18-23; 1 Cor 1:18-25), we can decide to walk away from our salvation that is found in Christ.
We can abandon our Christ for something else (Gal 1:6; 1 Tim 4:1). We can trample upon the sacrifice of Christ and insult God’s Spirit (Heb 10:29). We can decide that the perseverance it takes to be a Christ follower requires too much and stop following him (Jn 6:60-66; 8:30-31; Col 1:23; 1 Tim 4:16; 2 Pt 1:8-11).
None of what was listed above happens on accident. We make choices that cause us to move away from Christ.
Or, more accurately, it is the choice we do not make that causes us to move away from Christ. That choice is the choice to lay down our lives – our wishes, our demands, our expectations, our comfort – and to take up our cross and to follow after him alone.
Him alone.
That is the key. Many times we follow Christ for an ulterior motive. We want Christ to fulfill some desire in our life instead of letting Christ fill our lives. This God-and problem is the downfall of many.
What if I feel as if I am falling away from God?
So what do we do if we feel as if we are walking away from Christ? The answer is simple.
Repent!
There is no mystery in this. You do not have to wait on God to mysteriously force you to turn around as if your faithfulness is wholly up to God and you have no say in the matter. The Spirit has all along been faithfully calling you to the Father (Jn 14:26; 1 Cor 10:13; 2 Thess 3:3; 1 Pt 1:3-5). Will you respond in repentance and obedience, or will you continue to harden your heart by walking toward whatever you feel allured to?
If our faithfulness was wholly up to God, then we would never sin because God always faithfully provides a way of escape for us in temptation. But we do sin, and it is possible for our continued sin to lead to a hardened heart that falls away from the living God.
The solution to our sin problem is not some mysterious act of God that we can only helplessly wait for. God acts faithfully all the time. There is never a time when God is negligent in his protecting us. We are the faithless ones (Rom 3:3; 2 Tim 2:13).
But in our faithlessness God still calls to us. His call is not an irresistible call. His call is for us to respond to him, a call of repentance (Acts 8:22; 2 Cor 7:9-10; Heb 12:12-13; Rev 2:5, 16; 3:3, 19-20). If you are worried that you are falling away from God, what is it that is taking your focus off of God? Repent of that. Search out the saints of God who can encourage you day after day.
You do not have to worry about losing your salvation. However, you do have to keep your heart soft to the Spirit of God so that you do not fall away from the living God. God faithfully calls us to repentance. How will you respond?
I am here to help you. Please feel free to contact me if you want direction.
