Tough Questions From Christian Teens – Can I Lose My Salvation?

We are answering tough questions from Christian teenagers in this special series. We appreciate the questions and pray the answers will be helpful.

Here’s our next question:

“Can I lose my salvation?”

Great question!

I’ve also heard the question posed like this — “Can Christians lose their salvation”?

Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ. A disciple is both a follower and a learner of someone or some belief system. As Christians, we follow and learn from Jesus.

The word for salvation in the New Testament means “rescue, deliver.” That means the question before us is — “Can I lose my rescue, my deliverance?”

If you’ve been rescued/delivered from something, how could you lose that? One way would be to put yourself in a position to need rescuing and deliverance again. Can a Christian do that? If they can, how many times could they do that in a lifetime? Might a Christian need God to deliver them over and over again?

There are Christians who believe that’s how salvation works. A sinner is saved, then sins again and needs to be saved again. That process happens over and over again throughout life. If that’s true, the only hope a person would have is that God saved (rescued, delivered) them before they died.

Is that how salvation works? Can we lose our salvation over and over again? Do we need to be saved over and over again? If true, what kind of “salvation” is that?

Eternal or Temporal?

What kind of salvation does God give Christians? Is it eternal or temporal?

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:14-17

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. John 10:27-29

Jesus never spoke about giving someone temporal life (temporary life). He said He came to save people and give them eternal life (everlasting life). Eternal life is life that lasts forever.

Jesus always used the words “eternal and everlasting” life” in the positive sense of living with Him forever. Jesus also used the words eternal and everlasting in a negative sense:

eternal condemnation (Mark 3:29)
everlasting fire (Matthew 18:8; 25:41)
everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46)

What we see in the Gospels is that our spiritual and physical life will continue after death. What we have now on earth is temporary, but we will live forever — somewhere.

So, when does a Christian receive eternal life? Do we receive “eternal life” the first time we’re rescued or the last time we’re rescued? If we are saved eternally the first time we’re saved, then we can’t lose it. We can’t lose something that is eternal and everlasting. However, if we are not saved eternally until the last time we’re saved, then we have a big problem. We will have to be saved (rescued) over and over again throughout our life since we don’t know when we’ll die. What happens if we lose our salvation and we die before realizing we’ve lost it? Do we die in our sins as a lost person?

What About The Holy Spirit?

Another problem with believing a Christian can lose their salvation concerns the Holy Spirit.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14

The Holy Spirit comes into our life as a promissory seal, a guarantee of our inheritance in Christ until the final redemption of our soul and body. The word the Apostle Paul used for “seal” was the kind of seal used thousands of years ago to signify ownership and the full security granted by the owner. The authority and power of the seal was based on the authority and power of the owner. Christians are “owned” by Jesus Christ. He purchased us with the price of His blood (e.g. Ephesians 1:7; Romans 3:25; 5:9).

Here are a couple of important things the Holy Spirit does when we are “saved:”

washing of regeneration and renewing (Titus 3:5)
seals us and guarantees our inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:7)

Paul wrote in Titus 3:6 that God poured out the Holy Spirit on us “abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

Think about that picture for a minute. We confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. According to what Paul wrote the Roman Christians — “you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10)

When we are saved the Holy Spirit regenerates us, renews us, seals us and guarantees our inheritance in Christ. What happens if we lose our salvation? Does the Holy Spirit pour out of us, unseal us, unrenew us, unregenerate us and remove the guarantee of our inheritance in Christ? What happens if we realize that we’ve lost our salvation, confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus, believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and are saved again? Does God pour out the Holy Spirit on us so He can regenerate, renew, and seal us and guarantee our inheritance in Christ again? How many times will God do that for us? Seven times? Seventy times seven?

How God Saves

That is not the true picture of how God saves. Biblical salvation is eternal, not temporal. It’s also not dependent on us. You asked, “Can I lose my salvation?”. If salvation is something you do, then I guess you could lose it. However, salvation is something you cannot do yourself. You can’t work for it, you can’t earn it, and you certainly don’t deserve it (same for me). Salvation is a wonderful and gracious gift from God. Here’s the best explanation I can share with you:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in the them. Ephesians 2:1-10

Everyone of us used to be dead in trespasses and sins. We were a spiritual corpse until God saved us. Why did He save us? “because of His great love with which He loved us.” Why does God love us? Because He is “rich in mercy.” God did several things for us in salvation:

loved us
saved us by grace through faith
created us in Christ Jesus for good works that He prepared for us to do “beforehand”
made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

We don’t save ourselves and we don’t keep ourselves saved. God does it all.

The next logical question might be about so many people who claim to be Christians who stop believing in Christ. My question is whether they were ever saved in the first place. If salvation is the gift of God is eternal life n Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23), then I would seriously question someone who said they used to be a Christian. I would ask the question in a loving and compassionate way, but the question needs to be asked.

Another question concerns our behavior. If we are saved and have eternal life, does it matter how we live? It does. In fact, the way we live is one of the ways we know that we’re saved. If we don’t care about the things of God and only see salvation as a fire escape from hell, there’s an excellent chance we’re not saved. Remember the Holy Spirit and what He does when He saves us? He washes (cleanses) us, regenerates us, renews us and seals us until the day when we join Jesus in Heaven. We are “new” creatures. God changes us from the inside out. What’s on the inside will show itself on the outside. If someone is really saved, they will do those things that please the Savior. If they aren’t interested in doing things that please the Savior, that’s a good indication they are not “new” creatures.

Homework

I know the idea of homework can sound like a negative, but please hear me out. If we really want to know what it means to be a Christian, we need to know what God says about being a Christian. The only way to do that and know we’re hearing from the “right source,” is to read and study the Bible.

Here are some Bible verses you may find helpful. Be sure to read the verses in their full context. It’s usually good to read several verses before and after a single Bible verse that someone suggests you read.

Thanks for your question! I hope this helps.

John 1:12-13

John 3:14-18

John 5:24

John 6:20-23, 35-40

John 10:27-29

Romans 5:1-2

Romans 8:28-31, 38-39

Romans 11:6

1 Corinthians 1:4-9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 1:11-14

Ephesians 2:1-10

Colossians 2:13-14

Titus 1:1-3

1 Peter 1:3-5

1 John 5:11-13

[Podcast version]

The Next Question

In the next part of our special series, Tough Questions From Christian Teens, we will look at:

How Do We Know The Bible Is Really God’s Word?

Faith & Self Defense

Building Confidence Through Evidence