Ambivalent

It's an interesting word ... "ambivalent." We somehow think of it as almost the same as apathetic, but they're actually closer to opposites. Apathy is the absence of feeling. Ambivalence is having feelings ... in both directions. The root is "ambi" meaning "both" (as in "ambidextrous" or "ambiguous") coupled with Latin's "valentia" from which we get our word, "valiant." It refers to being strong. Thus ... being strong ... in both directions. So, "apathetic" is "I don't care which way we go" and "ambivalent" is "I am drawn strongly in both directions." The word describes my feelings on the question, "Can we lose our salvation?" I come down firmly on "Yes ... and no."

I'm not aligned with either side. One side likes to take the Scriptures that say, "Watch out! You could lose it!" and toss them aside in favor of the ones that say, "Nope! Can't happen!" The other side reverses that. Me? I ... agree ... in a sense ... with both. I encountered this view in 2001 when I read a book entitled The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance Assurance. Written by two big names in Christian theology--Thomas Schreiner and Ardel Caneday--it presented a third alternative. They agreed that there are Scriptures that warn that salvation can be lost ... and that it can't. Then, they put them together. The position is that it is possible to lose one's salvation, but ... God is faithful and won't let it happen. They go on to say that the warnings are part of God's method of preventing it. I had the good fortune to have conversations with Ardel Caneday while it was being written as well as after I read it. I got to pick the author's brains, so to speak. In short, they argued that Scripture warns of lost salvation in order to prevent believers from going that way. How? Jesus said He holds His own in His hand (John 10:27-29). Paul said, "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Php 1:6). Jude wrote that God "is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy" (Jude 1:24). So God does it. And God doesn't fail. How does He do it? He does it by His power and work in us. He does it by causing us to walk right. God promised, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" (Eze 36:26-27). The author of Hebrews says that God will "equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever" (Heb 13:20-21). Paul wrote that we work out our salvation by means of God working in us "to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Php 2:12-13).

The position is rightly termed not simply "the perseverance of the saints" but, "the perseverance of God for the saints." God grants repentance (2 Tim 2:25; Acts 11:18) and faith (Eph 2:8-9; Php 1:29; John 6:44, 65) and a new heart (Deut 30:6; Jer 31:33; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 4:22-24). He saves us by sustaining us, not by our effort or ability, but His (Rom 8:13-14; Gal 5:16; Eph 3:16; Col 1:11; 1 Thess 5:23-24). He trains us to renounce ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12). And His work in us is reflected in a new life that doesn't fall away even if it might have been going in that direction (e.g., James 5:19-20). So ... yes, I believe that salvation can be lost ... but ... by God's divine intervention in the life of every single believer to change hearts and lives, it never is.