“Once in grace, always in grace.” “Once saved, always saved.” “Eternal security.”
These three phrases all refer to the same idea, namely, that once a person has truly become saved, he or she can never become unsaved. Once you are saved, you can never lose your salvation. The first person to teach this doctrine was Augustine (d. A.D. 430). He said, for example, “But now to the saints predestined to the kingdom of God by God’s grace, … perseverance itself is bestowed; … so that by means of this gift they cannot help persevering” (“Treatise on Rebuke and Grace,” Works, 15:103). This teaching continues in all Calvinism and in most Baptist groups.
I believe this is not only a false doctrine, but a SERIOUS false doctrine, for several reasons. One, it can give weak Christians a false sense of security and make them lax in their Christian life. Two, it keeps Christians from recognizing clear signs of apostasy. Three, it causes confusion concerning the genuine Biblical teaching concerning assurance. Four, it causes confusion about the role of free will in the Christian life.
Thus in this lesson I will summarize the Biblical teaching that it IS POSSIBLE for a Christian to lose his salvation. I will do so by examining the three stages in the life of the prodigal son as set forth by Jesus in parabolic form (Luke 15:11-32).
I. First Stage: The Prodigal Is ALIVE IN HIS FATHER’S HOUSE.
This parable is not about evangelism. The prodigal is not first depicted as a lost sinner, but as a full son and heir of the father. In the third stage of his life, when he returned home, he became “alive AGAIN” (v. 24), indicating that in this first stage he represents Christians who are spiritually alive in the church. Here, like the pre-prodigal, we have the free-will choice to STAY in the Father’s house, or to LEAVE.
Referring to people who are already saved, the Bible makes it clear that staying saved is conditional. Here are a few texts that stress this conditionality by the use of the word “IF.” First, see John 15:1-10, especially v. 6. Here Jesus is speaking specifically to his apostles (the eleven). In v. 4 he exhorts them to “abide in Me.” This assumes they are already “in him,” i.e., in a saving relationship with him. But this is a command, indicating their responsibility to STAY in him. Then in v. 6 he says, “IF [note the IF] anyone does not abide [remain, stay] in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” Literally they are “thrown outside.” They WERE “inside,” but because of their choice not to abide in him, they are “thrown outside “—and burned. This is not just a loss of rewards (a la 1 Cor. 3:15), but the burning of the PERSON.
Another text showing conditionality is Romans 11:17-23. Here Paul says that Jews who refuse to believe in Jesus are like branches of an olive tree that are “broken off,” while Gentiles who believe are like wild olive branches that have been grafted into the domesticated tree (the church) and are saved. The lost Jews have experienced God’s severity, and the saved Gentiles have experienced his kindness. But then Paul warns these saved Gentiles that they will continue in their saved state “IF [note the ‘if’] you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off” (v. 22). This is a clear indication of the possibility that salvation can be lost.
Another “IF” text is 1 Cor. 15:1-2, where Paul says the Corinthians will be saved “IF you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” Their present faith will become vain and useless for salvation IF they stop believing. See also Col. 1:21-23, where Paul tells the Colossian Christians they will experience future salvation “IF [note the ‘if’] indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”
We, like the prodigal, are presently ALIVE in the Father’s house. Here we will stay IF we continue to be submissive in faith. God will guard us and keep us, but only as long as we continue to believe. See 1 Peter 1:5: we are “protected by the power of God through faith.”
II. Second Stage: The Prodigal Is DEAD IN A FAR COUNTRY.
In salvation terms, when the prodigal was still in his Father’s house (the church), he was truly saved. When he chose to leave of his own free will, he became truly lost (vv. 13-16). This is equivalent not to a pre-evangelized state but to the fallen-away state. His inheritance is gone (vv. 13-14). He is separated from his father, in a FAR COUNTRY. He is spiritually dead (vv. 24, 32). Is he still his father’s son? Yes, but he is a DEAD son.
Just as the prodigal became dead in a far country, so the Bible speaks of the reality of a Christian’s falling from grace, falling away from the saved state into a state of lostness. Romans 11:22 speaks of Jews who once were part of God’s tree as “those who fell” when they refused to accept Jesus as their Messiah. In 1 Cor. 9:27 Paul speaks of the possibility of even himself becoming “disqualified” in the race toward heaven. The Greek word he uses is adokimos, which means “reprobate” (see Rom. 1:28; 2 Tim. 3:8). In Gal. 5:4 Paul speaks thus to the Judaizers: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” They could not be SEVERED from Christ if they had not once been joined to him; they could not have FALLEN from grace if they had not once been standing in it. Second Peter chapter 2 compares certain false teachers with the “angels who fell” (v. 4), and says they have forsaken the right way and have gone astray (v. 15). See especially vv. 20-21.
The theme of the whole book of Hebrews is the possibility, danger, and foolishness of abandoning one’s faith in Christ. If such abandonment is not possible, the whole book is a sham. See especially 6:4-8, where those truly saved (vv. 4-5) are warned against falling away and needing to be renewed AGAIN to repentance (v. 6).
There is no doubt about it: a Christian who is once ALIVE in the Father’s house may become DEAD in the far country.
III. Third Stage: The Prodigal Is ALIVE AGAIN IN THE FATHER’S ARMS.
Again as a free-will choice, the prodigal is pictured as deciding to repent and return to his father’s household (vv. 18ff.). He was dead in the far country, but now he is ALIVE AGAIN (vv. 24, 32). This answers the question of whether one who falls away can ever return. It shows that this is indeed possible, and this is confirmed by Romans 11:23, which says that fallen ones will be grafted back into the tree AGAIN if they do not continue in unbelief.
Hebrews 6:4-6 teaches the same thing when it is properly translated. Here a common wrong translation unfortunately leaves the opposite impression. This wrong translation says it is impossible to bring the fallen back to repentance, BECAUSE or SINCE they have re-crucified and shamed Christ. These last words, however, are present participles, and should be translated WHILE or AS LONG AS they are re-crucifying and shaming Christ. If they stop doing these things, they can indeed be renewed to repentance.
We conclude that “once in grace, always in grace” is a false doctrine. It is indeed possible for a saved person to lose his or her salvation. But how does this happen? The key is the fact that we are justified BY FAITH. We BECOME justified by faith, and we STAY justified by faith. Thus we stay forgiven and saved as long as our faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning death remains alive. If our faith dies (see James 2:17), we become unsaved.
We can keep our faith alive by avoiding the three situations which may cause our faith to die. One is SUDDEN (SPIRITUAL) SUICIDE, in which a person deliberately renounces his faith in Jesus because of new circumstances in his or her life. This seems to be the decision being contemplated by the recipients of the Book of Hebrews. Second, faith may die through SLOW STARVATION of the soul, in which our neglect of spiritual disciplines and church life deprives our faith of the nourishment needed to keep it alive (see Acts 2:42). Finally we must not allow our faith to be STRANGLED BY SIN, as depicted by Jesus in Matt. 13:7, 22. After conversion, to “deliberately keep on sinning” (Heb. 10:26, NIV) will suck the life out of our faith (see Rom. 8:13).
Full Series
Saved by Grace #1 — GRACE ISN’T FAIR, BUT THAT’S GOOD!
Saved by Grace #2 — SAVED BY GRACE, NOT BY LAW
Saved by Grace #3 — DOUBLE CURSE, DOUBLE CURE
Saved by Grace #4 — SAVED BY GRACE, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
Saved by Grace #5 — JUSTIFIED BY FAITH: THE KEY TO ASSURANCE
Saved by Grace #6 — GRACE VS. GALATIANISM
Saved by Grace #7 — JUSTIFIED BY FAITH, YET JUDGED BY WORKS?
Saved by Grace #8 — SAVED BY GRACE, SAVED IN BAPTISM
Saved by Grace #9 — IS BAPTISM A WORK?
Saved by Grace #10 — SAVED BY GRACE, FOR GOOD WORKS
Saved by Grace #11 — “ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY”?
Saved by Grace #12 — LIVING BY GRACE
During a recent study of Hebrews chapter 10, I stumbled onto Calvin’s commentary on Hebrews and I was much surprised to find that even he allowed for the possibility of one who truly had entered into a saving relationship with God through faith in Christ subsequently to reject that salvation by renouncing that faith. The explanation I hear from those who adhere to what is understood to be Calvinism today for a person who “seemed” to be “saved” and then no longer appears to be is that they never were in the first place. Certainly, there are many other problems with Calvinism, and I’m neither expert nor sufficient scholar to know the full scope of Calvin’s beliefs in this matter, but I was heartened to hear him accept the truth of Hebrews 10 at face value.
Calvin really doesn’t take Hebrews 10 at face value; he takes it in the context of his earlier comments on Hebrews 6. For him, the reprobate – whom God has not chosen for salvation and are therefore never actually regenerate – can nevertheless still receive His grace and enlightenment.
“For God, it may be said, calls none effectually but the elect . . . The elect are also beyond the danger of finally falling away . . . God indeed favors none but the elect alone with the Spirit of regeneration, and by this they are distinguished from the reprobate. But I cannot admit that all this is any reason why he should not grant the reprobate also some taste of his grace, why he should not irradiate their minds with some sparks of his light, why he should not give them some perception of his goodness, and in some sort engrave his word on their hearts.”
So for Calvin the elect cannot fall away. If someone does, it’s evidence he was not of the elect, and therefore not ever truly regenerate. And that’s the person Calvin says is described later in chapter 10.
I stand corrected. As I read again his commentary on both chapters, he seems to be trying to have it both ways. I quote from his section on 6:4-5 – “Therefore the Apostle does not without reason forewarn all the disciples of Christ to beware in time; for a continued torpor commonly ends in lethargy, which is followed by alienation of mind.”
As you say, he goes on to differentiate between the elect and the reprobate. Coming from my perspective of election based on fore-knowledge rather than fore-determination, I see now I took his words in the context of my own beliefs rather than in the context of his. Thank you.
One more afterthought: perhaps it’s worth saying a fourth way of losing your faith is when you’re trying to gain justification by works (i.e. Gal 5:4 “you’ve been cut off from Christ…”) It seems counterintuitive to put “strangled by works” next to “strangled by sin,” but maybe needs to be really clear that is an option too.
Great article Jack and thanks for doing a super job explaining this.
I think the only thing that might be a little confusing for people is when you talk about the term Falling Away here. The common mischaracterization of “fallen from grace” has taken on the notion of falling into sin, rather than what the verse clearly indicates which is seeking one’s salvation and approval by God through works (i.e the Judaizers.)
To talk about falling away from the Father (through spiritual apathy, active pursuit of a sinful lifestyle or walking away from faith in Christ but not necessarily by looking to good works for salvation) that describes the prodigal son and “fallen from grace” in the same sentence seems to conflate the words “fallen” by the same means with the same results. I don’t I think that’s what you’re trying to do and it may be just a technicality but I think an important difference when understanding the meaning of Galatians 5. It’s a clear rebuke of those who would seek to come to the Father through works rather than a clear rebuke to those whose lives have been in pursuit of sin and complete neglect of the Father.
Thoughts?
Respectfully
I like to pursue fine distinctions, but this one is a bit too fine for me.
You say, “This parable is not about evangelism.” Doesn’t vv. 1-2 seem to make all three parables in Luke 15 about evangelism? Jesus’ audience was “tax collectors and sinners” and the Pharisees and Scribes were specifically accusing Jesus of “receiving” sinners and eating with them. Isn’t this why Jesus responds with these three parables: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and lastly, a lost son? Couldn’t it be “pressing” the interpretation of the parable beyond its intended meaning which seems to be Jesus simply pointing out the value of every “lost” person and the need to pursue that which is lost? I agree with you that “Once saved, always saved” is a false doctrine, but it seems there are many other more direct and incontrovertible scripture verses that do the job of exposing that rather than using this parable. Just a thought I had as I was teaching to my men’s class your great new book “Saved by Grace” – which I really like. The small, condensed chapters make it easy to teach during a 1 hour Bible study! Thanks for all your books and your thoughtful writings.
I guess it depends on how we are using the word “evangelism.” I was using it to refer to seeking lost sinners who had never been saved to begin with. I suppose we could use that term to refer also to seeking lost sinners who had been saved but who have fallen away. The issue then would be–how do we explain their lostness? How do we decide to which category the “tax collectors and sinners” belonged? I think I have made a good case (which would apply to all three parables) that the lost son (or coin, or sheep) had once been in full fellowship with his family, but made a deliberate choice to leave that connection behind. This fits very well with the idea of someone who falls away from his original faith. We should remember that all New Testament revelation, including the teachings of Jesus, is intended by God to apply to all generations of the church in this New Testament era. But whatever we think about this, I would never base my case against “once saved, always saved” on this parable alone. My tactic is simply to use it as a framework for discussing the many other New Testament texts that speak clearly and directly (and incontrovertibly) to this issue. You will see references to most of them in this chapter. I’m glad you find this little book useful.
Yep I agree. We’re on the same page as well. I actually read through the NT specifically to find conditional clauses pertaining to salvation. I don’t remember the exact number but I recorded over 200, and I’m sure I missed a few.
One thing I’ve always wondered is how a person’s name could get put into the book of life and then be blotted out of it if one could not fall from grace. How do Calvinists reconcile that passage with their theology?
Yepper we on the same page God bless