One of the great tenets of the Baptist faith is “once saved, always saved.” That is, a person who comes into a right relationship with God is guaranteed that relationship for all eternity.
There are those who disagree with this belief. They argue that a person can lose their salvation—“fall from grace”—but can also come back to a saving relationship with God.
I had a gentleman in my current pastorate (he has since died and is now with Christ) who used to say the one thing he disagreed with most with Baptist is the concept of “once saved, always saved.” The first time I heard him say that, immediately my defenses were raised and I prepared to do scriptural battle with my church member. I could not and would not let him try to poison my flock with this “heresy.”
He began to explain himself. His complaint is that the concept of “once saved, always saved” is an out for people to assume they didn’t have to live a life devoted to Christ and His teachings. He saw the concept as a “get out of hell” card for people who otherwise had no real interest in Christ. If it was up to him, we would teach that salvation is only secured as we put it into practice. He ended it with one of my favorite passages, taken from the concluding remarks of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
Once I heard my church member’s explanation, I relaxed a little bit, and explained that, while I understood his concern, he had a misunderstanding of the doctrine of salvation from the Baptist perspective. It is our firm belief that the person who has truly proclaimed Christ as Lord will seek to live in such a way as to demonstrate their love for and faith in Christ by following His precepts throughout their life, free in the knowledge that they are secure in His grace, and free to serve Him as He directs.
Findley Edge, in his book, A Quest for Vitality in Religion, said the problem is that too many people in sharing the Gospel, ask, “Do you want to go to heaven?” It is the very rare person who answers “no” to that question. He maintains the more accurate question should be, “From what you now understand of Jesus and His teachings, are you prepared to place your faith in Him and follow those teachings to the best of your ability?” A Christian committed to Christ understands that heaven is not the goal of the Christian’s walk, but faithful submission and obedience is the goal, with heaven as the final reward.
But, there are those of equal devotion to Christ, who do not accept the concept of “once saved, always saved.” And I readily admit there are several passages in the Bible that seem to indicate that “falling from grace” is not only possible but quite common. Oddly enough, most of these passages seem to be found primarily in Paul’s writings.
Falling from Grace
I do not intend to do an exhaustive study of each passage that speak to the issue of possibly falling from grace, but I do want to cover several before looking at a few passages that speak to the security of salvation. As usual, it is important to keep in mind the context of the verse or verses rather than pluck them out of the Bible as proof texts.
“But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel” (Colossians 1:22-23a).
“Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off” (Romans 11:22).
“By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:2).
These are just a few of the verses that speak of the possibility of “falling from grace.” Paul speaks of continuing in the faith—implying that the readers have received salvation—but he also implies that there is the possibility that a believer might not continue in the faith.
More pointed, Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).
Let’s address Paul’s athletic analogy first. Paul was a man on a mission for God. There are times he writes that we should follow his example which, at first glance, seems a bit conceited. But when we consider the man and his devotion to God and to doing God’s will, there really are few people like him. He endured great difficulties in his obedience (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12; 2 Corinthians 11:21-29), and he has earned the right, not to boast, but to show us that we would do well to see him as an example of the Christian faith at work in us.
So what does Paul mean, “I myself will not be disqualified for the prize?” At first glance, it seems fairly clear that Paul is saying he could lose his salvation. But that seems inconsistent with the totality of his writings. Paul seems secure in his faith, and seeks to reassure his readers/listeners that we, too, can be secure in our faith. Therefore, I think in this passage, he is talking about the need to always live the disciplined life of a follower of Christ; there is no time in our walk with Him that we can “coast.” Keep true to the faith until the race is through.
There are all sorts of ways to be disqualified in a race. A runner can run out of his or her lane. The runner could interfere with another runner. Of course, we live in a world where performance enhancing drugs can be detected. The runner can simply quit, step off the track and walk away.
Imagine an Olympic race, when a runner, leading the race, decided to pull up just short of the finish line. In such a race, by the time he would have discovered his mistake, he would have finished well off the mark and not qualified for the finals or, if he had made it to the finals, would not have medaled.
So, what I think Paul is saying is that we should not take our salvation for granted, but we should always be prepared to live it through. Consider the ramification of what Paul is saying if it is possible to fall from grace. Look at all he had done up to that point, and consider all that he was to do before he died a martyr’s death in Rome. He walked in faith, he walked in obedience, at no thought for his own wishes but always seeking and doing God’s will. To think that someone like Paul could, at the last moment, fall short and spend eternity away from God, is beyond the realm of God’s love and actions.
So let’s address the other verses that I used to introduce this segment. The gist of Paul’s words seem to be to assure the believers of their position in Christ—firm and secure if they continue in their faith. In many of Paul’s writings, the word “if” could also mean “since.” I believe that’s the case in the Colossians verses. The passage in 1 Corinthians 15 is a warning to a church that was not exactly an example of Christian living. The issue addressed in that particular chapter is whether or not Christ has been resurrected. A person who doubts the resurrection is probably not very strong in their Christian faith, and such a person may be one who has never held firmly to the gospel preached, having an intellectual interest only. Finally, the Romans passage seems generic in context. God, in general, cut off the “limb” of the nation of Israel in order to graft in “limbs” of Gentile believers. It’s generic, and if a person who hears the gospel but rejects it, they too will experience the sternness of God, just as the nation of Israel did. Remember that the Church at the time of Paul’s writing was made up of Jews and Gentiles, each of whom had come to a personal relationship with God through Christ by placing their faith in Him. Those branches were grafted onto the tree and would not be cut off. The branches being rejected are those who may have heard the Word but did not accept it.
The Danger of the Idea of Falling from Grace
There are a couple of things that stand out as a warning to those who wish to believe that it is possible to fall from grace—to be saved, only to walk away from the free gift of grace in Christ Jesus.
If one is to embrace that doctrine, then that person must also embrace the doctrine of salvation by works. The obedience that Jesus speaks of in John 14:23-24 is an obedience that acts out our faith because of the love we have for the Father and the Son and the fact that we have come to see that His ways are the best and the only way.
The person who is never secure in his or her salvation is someone who performs the acts of obedience out of a sense of obligation and of earning God’s favor and credit. This is alien from the gospel message: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The entire book of Galatians is written to counter those who suggested that a true Christian is not only a person who embraces the teachings of Christ and has a faith in him, but also obeys the Mosaic Laws. Paul is very strong in his firm belief that grace alone saves us.
James tells us our faith is confirmed by our works, not the other way around, which seems to be a contradiction to the “fall from grace” doctrine. John stresses in his first letter that our faith is built upon a right relationship with the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit—we act in response to our faith, not to continually seek to earn God’s favor.
Such a faith is one on a slippery slope. We know that God’s standards are high. If we can fall from grace, how can we every really be sure that we are achieving God’s standards? How can we ever really be sure of anything? Rather than a faith that has hope and security, such a faith results in uncertainty and legalism. In my mind, such a doctrine stresses the “God is out to get us” mentality, a testimony of God that does not stand the test of the Bible. Even in the Old Testament, God is always extending His grace and love toward those who fall short. Look at Adam & Eve, Abraham, Moses, David. Look at the Prophets. The books of the prophets are warnings for the people to repent. That is not the act of a God who is constantly looking for ways to “zap” us, but a portrait of a God whose love is vast and long-suffering. It is the consistent portrayal of God from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22.
But more importantly, the writer of Hebrews has a very clear message on what happens to those who fall from grace.
“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace” (Hebrews 6:4-6).
If a person could fall from God’s grace, that person would be eternally cut off from God because we cannot re-crucify Christ. His sacrifice at Calvary was a once-only event, enabling all who believe to remain in Him.
(c) 2017 Glynn Beaty