School of the Foundations of the Christian Faith “The Creator and His Creation.” Lesson 22. Assurance of Salvation. The school consists of 22 lessons. The school’s founder is the Christian Bible Institute.
Now that I am saved, can I lose my salvation?
There is much debate over the question, “Can salvation be lost?” This is primarily because the question is phrased incorrectly. Such questions most often arise when people do not fully understand the biblical teaching about the nature of salvation. When speaking about salvation, Scripture never uses the word “lose.” There are important reasons for this.
Reason 1. The Nature of Christ and the New Nature of a Person Are Inseparable
You can lose only something that exists independently. For example, you take a piece of candy, put it in your pocket, and later discover that you have lost it. Now imagine a different situation: you eat the candy, and its contents, entering your stomach, dissolve there, penetrate your bloodstream, and then reach every cell of your body. The particles of the candy become part of your body. Now, to some extent, they determine what your body is. In such a situation, it would be absurd to ask whether you can lose the candy you have eaten, because it has become part of you.
Something similar happens with salvation. Some people view salvation as something external, such as an airplane ticket in your pocket that allows you to board the flight. In this situation, having the ticket has absolutely nothing to do with who a person is, whether they are evil or good. They simply have a ticket that they acquired somehow. They can lose this ticket or throw it away if they wish.
Biblical salvation is based on entirely different principles. The Bible says that the salvation brought by Christ does not lie in a person’s pocket and does not become part of their body.
At the moment of salvation, the Spirit of God unites with the human spirit. As a result of this new life, the human heart is completely changed. A person’s thoughts and desires change.
To receive salvation, it is not enough simply to change your opinion about something or stop doing something. Jesus Christ spoke about this to Nicodemus:
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth: no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. John 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
The prophets of the Old Testament also spoke about this, testifying to the coming salvation
Jer. 31:33 “In the future I will make this covenant with the people of Israel,” declares the Lord. “I will put My Law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
Jer. 32:40 “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will never stop doing good to them and inspiring them to honor Me, so that they will never again turn away from Me.”
The new birth is an event that takes place through the work of the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell in the regenerated person.
The apostle Paul says:
“Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.” Rom. 8:9
This means that God Himself lives in the regenerated person, uniting His Spirit with the person’s renewed spirit.
Therefore, when speaking about the possibility of changing a believer’s status, we should not ask whether salvation can be lost, but whether the process of spiritual birth can be reversed.
The Bible, when presenting birth through Jesus Christ, nowhere says that a person is born of the Holy Spirit, then dies, and then is born again, and so on. Instead, belonging to Christ’s family is compared with belonging to Adam’s family.
Rom. 5:17 If death reigned through the trespass of one man, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Man, Jesus Christ! Rom. 5:18 Therefore, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so one righteous act resulted in justification that gives life to all.
This text states that everyone descended from Adam will inevitably die, without exception. It goes on to say that if sin has such power and effect, then righteousness
in Christ has even greater power and effect and guarantees eternal life to those who have been born of Jesus Christ.
Reason 2. The Bible’s Teaching on Salvation
The second reason why many problems arise concerning the possibility of losing salvation is that most people do not know the Bible’s teaching about the results of salvation.
When they observe that many people who consider themselves believers sin in their everyday lives, they cannot reconcile the Bible’s teaching on salvation with its teaching on sanctification. For many people, the question of salvation takes the form of the following logical argument—
- Nothing impure can enter heaven (Rev. 21:27)
- Therefore, if a believer allows anything sinful into their thoughts, words, or actions, they perish (lose their salvation).
This argument may in fact be correct, but it is correct only if a person were saved by their own righteousness.
Most people acknowledge the reality that there is no person on earth who is without sin. For sin is not only what a person does or fails to do in violation of God’s commandments, but also what they think.
Some people try to get around this problem by teaching that a believer perishes only when they commit some “major” sin, whereas “minor” sins are not so serious. But another problem arises here: which sin can we consider major, and which cannot? On what basis?
Indeed, Scripture teaches that a person’s salvation is possible only through receiving the absolute righteousness of Christ. That is why the Bible teaches about Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice. On the cross at Calvary, Jesus Christ took all our sins upon Himself and paid the full price for them. At the same time, He gave those who believed in Him His absolute righteousness,
1 Cor. 1:30 Through Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us the wisdom of God, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
2 Cor. 5:21 God made the sinless One bear the guilt of people’s sin, so that in Him we might become righteous before God.
Thus, everyone who enters heaven will do so solely as a result of Christ’s righteousness, not their own human righteousness. The Epistle to the Hebrews says:
Heb. 10:14 By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being sanctified.
But if this is so, does it mean that a saved person can sin and remain at peace because they will enter heaven anyway? Would this be permission to sin? No! The apostle Paul said that he was also accused of this heresy. Rom. 3:7.
This is impossible because a born-again person differs from unbelievers precisely in that sin is contrary to their new nature. Whenever they sin, they always seek to be delivered from sin. This is stated very clearly in the First Epistle of John, where the author speaks about the qualities of a true Christian:
1 John 3:9 Everyone who is born of God does not love sin, because God’s seed is in them. They cannot live a sinful life because they are born of God.
A person born of God cannot live in sin because of their new nature. Such a person may sin in a particular situation (1 John 2:1), but because sin is unnatural to their new, divine nature, they will certainly seek deliverance from it,
Prov. 24:16 though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but calamity destroys the wicked.
Thus, the difference between a born-again person and an unregenerate person is the desire to live without sin. Whoever has the nature of Christ can never rebel against God, because Christ is God. When a Christian comes under the influence of the flesh, their spirit will immediately seek to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13). But if a person has fallen and does not want to get up, if they are indifferent to whether they sin or not, this means that such a person was a Christian in words only, not in reality. John speaks of such people:
1 John 2:19 These antichrists went out from us, although they never truly belonged to us. If they had really belonged to us, they would have remained with us. Their leaving us shows that they did not belong to us.
Here, the apostle directly confirms that a person who abandons the Christian path was never truly born again.
The Holy Scriptures say in many places that a true Christian who knows God as their Father, opposes sin, and follows Christ can rely fully on Christ’s righteousness and therefore be completely confident that the Lord will preserve them to the end. This is stated in many places in the Bible (John 6:37; 10:26–30; Rom. 8:29–39; Phil. 1:6).
Assurance of Salvation
Another question may arise here: How can you be sure that you are born again?
Scripture tells us about several signs of the new birth.
1. Saving Faith
The first sign of the new birth is saving faith.
1 John 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the one born of Him.
The word faith is used in Scripture in various senses; however, when speaking of saving faith, it always means acknowledging the complete authority of the object of faith and submitting to it in obedience.
In practice, this means that a born-again person is someone who has acknowledged God's absolute authority and God's right to determine their life. Therefore, they seek to obey Him.
A born-again person is someone who has denied themselves and humbled themselves before God, acknowledging their complete bankruptcy and absolute need for a Savior (Luke 9:23). That is why the apostles said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Test No. 1 — Have you given your life to Jesus once and for all, renouncing your rights over your life and acknowledging His right to direct it? If so, you have one of the signs of the new birth.
2. Hatred of Sin
The second sign of the new birth is hatred of sin. As stated above, a born-again person is someone who has a divine nature. Therefore, they react sensitively to everything that is contrary to God (1 John 3:9).
As they come to know God, they love Christ more and more and seek to imitate His character. Philippians 3:7–11.
This does not mean that he never commits sin (1 John 1:8–10), but his life is characterized not by sin, but by a desire for righteousness.
Test No. 2 – Is there a hatred of sin and a desire for holiness in your life? If so, this is evidence that you have been born again.
3. Recognizing God as Father
The third sign of being born again is recognizing God as your Father.
Romans 8:15 You have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out to God, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:16 The Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
This means that those who have given themselves to Christ and in whom the Spirit of God lives know that God is their Father and that they are His children. Whatever their circumstances, they continue to seek the Father.
Test No. 3 – Is there, deep in your heart, a desire for God as your Father and a desire to fellowship with Him, without whom you cannot live? If so, this is another sign that you have been born again.
Based on these principles, a Christian can be absolutely certain that he is saved (1 John 5:13). This confidence is not in himself or his achievements, but in Christ and His righteousness.
Review questions:
- Name two reasons why we can be confident that a born-again person will not lose his salvation.
- Does living rightly save a person?
- Can a believer live comfortably in sin?
- How can you be sure that you are born again?
Source: Christian Bible Institute
