Do the Scriptures teach that once a person is saved he
then cannot be lost? There are several religious organizations that
teach this
doctrine. It is known by several different designations:
“Once saved, always
saved”; “Once in grace, always in grace”
or “The impossibility of apostasy.”
Read what a preacher of a prominent denomination wrote several years
ago:
We
take the position that a Christian’s sins do not damn his
soul! The way a Christian lives, what he says, his character, his
conduct, or
his attitude toward other people have nothing whatever to do with the
salvation
of his soul. …All the prayers a man may pray, all the Bibles
he may read, all
the churches he may belong to, all the services he may attend, all the
sermons
he may practice, all the debts he may pay, all the ordinances he may
observe,
all the laws he may keep, all the benevolent acts he may perform will
not make
his soul one whit safer; and all the sins he may commit from idolatry
to murder
will not make his soul in any more danger. …The way a man
lives has nothing
whatever to do with the salvation of his soul. (Sam Morris)
Most folks that I know who hold to the doctrine under
discussion will not go to the extreme that Mr. Sam Morris has gone.
However, if
one holds a position, he must be ready to accept the consequences of
that
position, and Mr. Morris’ statement is the true consequence
of the doctrine of
the impossibility of apostasy. What do the Scriptures say? Do they
address the
subject at all? The answer is ‘Yes.”
There are many passages that deal with the subject;
however, we will confine our study to only two. Others will be cited on
request. In Hebrews 6:4-6
we
read: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift,
and have become partakers of the
Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the good word of
God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to
repentance,
since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to
an open
shame.” Please notice the words and phrases that I have
bolded. They had been
enlightened. Paul, in Colossians
1:13,
told the brethren there that they had been “delivered out of
the power of
darkness…” They had “tasted the heavenly
gift.” The heavenly gift is salvation (cf.
Ephesians 2:8-9)—“it
is the gift
of God…” They had become partakers of the Holy
Spirit. In Acts 2:38,
Peter told the audience to “repent and be
baptized… for the remission of sins,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” They had
tasted (partaken)
the good Word of God. Peter stated, “Since you have purified
your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren,
love one
another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of
corruptible
seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides
forever”
(1 Peter 22-23). “…if they fall
away…impossible…to renew.” The
“if”
always implies the possibility of an action. Notice that they
“fall away.”
There is a difference in falling and falling away. One may fall while
on board
a ship, pick himself up and go on about his doings. However, if he
falls away,
he is in the ocean and lost. The use of the word
“renew” also has importance.
Each of us gets renewal notices for magazines. This tells us that we
need to
renew what we already have. These people of whom the writer speaks had
once
been in a state of repentance, a condition of salvation, but because
they had
fallen away, it was impossible to renew them to that state.
In 2 Peter 2:20-21
we read, “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of
the world through
the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled in
them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
For it
would have been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness,
than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to
them.” Be
sure and read the entire context of this statement. These people had
escaped
the pollutions of the world, were again entangled, making their last
state
worse than their first. They had fallen from grace.
