The unconditional love of God for His children
The convincing power of the Holy Spirit

There is a long-standing debate: Does God secure our salvation completely and permanently once we accept Jesus, or can we fall in and out of relationship with Him based on our behavior?

To answer that, we have to look past the theological arguments and ask what best fits the character of a loving God. In the end, it comes down to a simple question: Do we continually have to earn our position as His child, or does He love us even when we fall?

The Core Truth: God Draws and Sustains
Key Concept: God is 1) perfectly able to draw to Himself those He has chosen, and 2) perfectly able to sustain them. He doesn’t lose anyone He decides to draw to Himself. He is perfectly capable of convincing us to come to Him and perfectly able to convince us to stay with Him.

The Ultimate Model: The Parent-Child Relationship
God built the parent-child relationship into our design on purpose. It is the core concept that differentiates Christianity from every other belief system. While human parents are flawed, God is a perfect Heavenly Father:

• He loves us unconditionally.
• He may give blessings and consequences to guide us, but they are always rooted in nurturing maturity.
• A loving and wise parent never looks at their child and says, “You are not my child today because you did something bad.”

The Real Source of Security
A common fear is: “What if my faith isn’t strong enough? If I slip up too many time, will I lose God’s love for me?”

The deeper scriptural promise is that your security doesn’t rely on your fragile grip on God; it relies on His grip on you. The Bible describes salvation as a “guaranteed seal” placed on us by the Holy Spirit. God views the redemption of His children as a finished blueprint. He began a good work in you and He is faithful to complete it.

In Summary
God is not constantly evaluating your daily behavior to decide if you belong to Him at this exact moment. Instead, like a perfect parent, He is patiently nurturing and maturing you.

• He chooses His children.
• He loves them unconditionally.
• He continually draws them back when they stumble.
• He is completely all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful, and He is fully capable of keeping you secure to the end.

Because there are some that teach you can lose your salvation, we have a fairly complete list of the relevant Bible verses.  Look through them if this is a topic you want to dive deeper into.

Verses used to support you can lose salvation:

• Galatians 5:4  “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”  Remember that Christians in the Galatian region were mostly Gentiles with no deep history with God, no Canon (Bible including New Testament) and few experienced teachers on what Jesus did and the Gospel message.  They were being infiltrated by Jews that wanted to add requirements of The Law to the core Gospel and these Christians we mostly ill-equipped to handle the arguments.  Paul needed to clearly differentiate between being justified by “The Law” and by “Grace”.
• 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 short list of people that practice immorality, greed, drunkenness, etc. will not be saved.  There is no indication that this passage implies that these are Christians.  Verse 9 starts with “the unrighteous that will not be saved” and then verse 11 differentiates Christians who have been saved.
• Luke 15:11-32 Prodigal son “was lost and is now saved” (v32)  But the father never declared the son was no longer in the family, just that the son had wandered away in actions and attitude.  The prodigal also never stated that he rejected being a family member.  This immature son apparently just wanted to chase after carnal dreams.  To some extent, all of have something we chase after that is not part of the two greatest commandments.  It could be things like hobbies, sports, etc.  There are many things we likely value too much that distract us.
• 1 John 5:16-18 there are sins that lead to death (mortal sins).  But v18 says that God protects His own from continuing in sin.
• Matthew 24:13  “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”  This verse is talking about the persecution and deceit in the end times.  “Can lose salvation” perspective is that these people were saved and then fell away.  But a better interpretation would be to compare to the seeds that fell on hard or rocky soil that never had it (Matt 13:3-8) or to the people that God says to depart because He never knew them (Matt 7:21-23)
• Matthew 24:44 “Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”  This passage is a list of people that are either prepared or not prepared when Jesus or their earthly master returns.  When you look at v37-41, it is about people that are saved or are not saved without implication about the not saved having been previously saved.  There are people today that say they will think about things of God someday, but not now.  Verse 44 is telling these people to deal with God now because you don’t know when your time is coming and that it might be without warning.
• Romans 11:22-23 Jews were cutoff, but can be grafted back in.  We were grafted in, but can be cutoff again.
  • Jews, as a nation, were cutoff for unbelief (v23), but can be grafted back in if they believe as a nation.  The grafting back in represents their restoration as a nation back into God’s focus of work on this nation and the related blessings.  This is addressing the nation of Israel, not individuals and their personal salvation.  For example, the prophets warning Israel of their unbelief did not lose their personal salvation.
  • Also, as mentioned in the second paragraph above, God still intends to graph Israel back in again.  Like the prodigal son, they have never lost their status a God’s favored nation – they just went into dispersed exile.
• John 20:23  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”  This passage is not very clear on what the forgiveness covers.  For example, in Matthew 18:15-20, the church discipline passage, it talks about restoring a person.  But doesn’t necessarily mean that is addressing their salvation.  They may have never been saved.  It is unlikely that the Apostles can take the role of Father that not even Jesus had (Ephesians 1:3-5 and John 6:44).
• 1 Corinthians 9:27: “But I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”  This section (chapter 9) of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is about him defending his Apostolic ministry since people can come into that group trying to discredit his teachings.  This is not a verse about salvation.
• 1 Timothy 5:8: “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” This letter to Timothy is providing instructions on behaviors within the church.  The church should be beyond reproach compared to the unbelieving standards of life.  The verse actually contrasts a believer having this behavior (“worse than an unbeliever”) rather than putting the person into the group of unsaved.
• 2 Timothy 2:10-13 “…If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him …”  This section of this letter to Timothy is about being a good soldier / worker for God, not salvation.  Verse 11 does address salvation.  Verse 12 & 13 address our tendency to stumble at times such as when Paul confronted Peter in Galatians 2:11-14.  It says there that Peter stood condemned, but that didn’t mean that Peter had lost his salvation.

Verses used to support you cannot lose salvation:

• 1 John 5:16-18 there are sins that lead to death (mortal sins).  But v18 says that God protects His own from continuing in sin.  This would indicate the mortal sins are by those that are not God’s children.
• Philippians 1:6 He who began a good work in you will complete it.  This verse puts the proper emphasis on who sustains us.  We are battling our flesh and are imperfect.  Does that mean that we are constantly at risk of losing our salvation.  No loving and wise parent is constantly evaluating their love and acceptance their child based on the child’s attitudes.  They love their child regardless of if they mess up or not. There may be rewards and consequences, but even those founded in their unconditional love for their child.
• Ephesians 1:13-14 This letter is written to the church of Ephesus were Paul spent much time before his final stops in Jerusalem and then Rome.  Paul was now in prison in Rome and wanted to remind them on key Christian concepts.  The first half of the letter is a reminder of key Gospel concepts and the second half is about the call to action that should result.  In these two verses, he clearly reminds them that salvation includes a guaranteed seal by the Holy Spirit.  Again, it is God that seals us, not our fragile faith.
• 1 Peter 1:3-5 Another passage indicating that it is God who seals us, not our fragile faith.
• John 10:25-30  My sheep know my voice and follow.  “I give them eternal life and they will never perish (v28).  Another important example of it is God that sustains us, not ourselves.
• John 6:44  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” Again, God draws us, not us figuring things out.  And Jesus says He WILL raise them on the last day.
• John 6:37  “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Again, the Father determines who will be saved, not our fragile and imperfect reasoning and faith.
• John 3:16 “whoever believes HAS eternal life” no qualifier about “depending on their state of belief at the time of their death.
• Romans 8:33-39 A list of influences that cannot separate us from God.  But does that mean we cannot reject Him on our own because a change within us…  Not a rock solid passage for this question.  That said, the extension of this to include we are not able to reject Him would be the equivalent of inclusion of many of the verses on salvation being also used for falling in and out of salvation.
• Romans 11:29  “…regarding election…the calling of God is irrevocable”  while this passage is talking more about the future calling of Israel back into the fold, this principle pulled into that discussion is a general principle not limited to just this topic.
• 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. More support for God is perfectly able to draw us to Himself and perfectly able to sustain us.

Verses indicating never really saved:

• 1 John 2:19  “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”
• Hebrews 6:4-6  “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”  The key word here is “tasted”.  Tasted is not “consumed”.  If you were a wine connoisseur and were going to wine tasting, you would do your homework on the expected wines ahead of time.  Then, you would “taste” the wines to see which wine(s) you are going to choose.  Some ice cream places will let you get a small sample of an ice cream before you commit to one.  Many people have heard the gospel without actually understanding it because the Holy Spirit has not yet given some level of actual understanding.  But once someone has actually come to an understanding at a level only the Holy Spirit can provide, they are then at their informed accept or reject decision.  They have tasted, not just heard about, the Gospel.  If they reject at that point, they rejected Christ’s death and committed the unpardonable sin.
• Matthew 13:3-8 Parable of the sower.  The seed on the hard and rocky grounds were never saved.  It is up to God whether or not they actually understood by way of the Holy Spirit (see Hebrews 6 notes above).
• Matthew 7:21-23  People to whom God will say, “Depart because He never knew you.”  Is this the scariest verse in the Bible???  These people think they were believers and apparently did not have anyone around them that saw they were not and were able to communicate that to them.

Verses differentiating between someone stumbling and someone falling:

• Romans 1:32 After a sample list of sins, some of which could be considered mortal, it emphasizes “those that practice or approve”.  That is different than stumbling or being tempted which we all do to some extent — likely more than we realize.
• Romans 7:14-25 Paul does what doesn’t want to do and doesn’t do what he does want to do.  We do too, but are likely less aware than Paul who, as a former Pharisee, was very sensitive to personal attitudes and motives.

Verses used to support salvation by faith alone:

• Galatians 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
• Ephesians 2:8-9 salvation by grace through faith, “not our own doing“.