Losing My Religion

The debate has gone on literally for centuries. Millennia, in fact. Can you lose your salvation? "Well, of course you can!" one side asserts confidently while the other is aghast. "What? Of course not!" So, like gunfighters in fabled Westerns, they grab for their swords (okay, the metaphor doesn't quite work ... give me a break) and start slinging verses.

"Hebrews 6 speaks of those who fall away and cannot be restored to repentance!" (Heb 6:4-6) "Jesus said, "I gave them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of My hand'!" (John 10:28) "Paul said you must test yourself to see if you're in the faith!" (2 Cor 13:5) "Paul said he was confident that He who began a good work in you would bring it to completion!" (Php 1:6) And each "round" pings harmlessly off well-built defenses because the goal is not unity or understanding, but positioning. That is, so few are seeing, "Wait a minute, if these are both in Scripture, don't we have a genuine contradiction???"

I think the question goes farther back. How are you saved? "Oh," some might say, "I was saved by being good." You might lose that salvation. "No," others might counter, "I was saved apart from works, but I continue to be saved by my faithfulness." You might lose that salvation. You see, when it depends on us, it is entirely possible that we can lose it ... because we are not entirely dependable. And the biblical tension around that concept is clearly present. As much as it depends on me, there is a constant concern about retaining that salvation. In fact, it's pretty sure that salvation will be lost. (And according to Hebrews 6:4-6, if it is, that loss is permanent.)

If, on the other hand, I'm saved as a gift (Eph 2:8-9), then that's an entirely different proposition. If I'm saved apart from works (Rom 3:28), then that's a different concept. Many like to change tracks in the middle. "I'm saved as a gift but maintain it on my own." If that's so, it cannot be said that we're saved apart from works, since those works maintain that salvation.If someone gives me gas for my new car and I drive on that, when I have to put gas in on my own, I'm no longer operating on that gift; I am supply the fuel that makes that car go. That's not "saved apart from works."

There is, of course, another question in here. What is salvation? It's not a thing; you don't have it in a basket that you might misplace. It includes eternal life, but if you can lose that eternal life, how is it eternal? Salvation accompanied by eternal life is not a thing, but a condition. It is a condition we cannot cause, so it is a condition we cannot interrupt. Either we are saved as a gift apart from anything we might do or choose (John 1:13; Rom 9:16, 18), or we are not. If we are, then the texts that warn us to work out our salvation and examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith are aimed at our own efforts while the texts that refer to God's work (which never fails) show a trustworthy God that saves first on the basis of His grace and not our actions and saves continuously based on His grace and not our actions. This salvation is sure. This version says to you, the saved, that you must "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Php 2:12) with an eye toward the reality that "It is God who is at work within you both to will and to do His good pleasure." (Php 2:13) If we don't hold both in proper tension, we lose something important. If we do hold them in proper balance, we can actually have assurance.