Can I Lose My Salvation?

         The deeper I grow in my knowledge of God, His Word, and the work of Jesus Christ, the more I grow rooted in the doctrine of eternal security.  My eternal security is the result of God keeping me until the day that He calls me home and it is not the result of me striving to maintain my salvation through my good works.  I never earned my salvation and therefore I could never maintain it.  It is God who guarantees the believer’s salvation through the work of Jesus Christ.  We are told in Jude 24 that, "To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy."  God’s power is able to keep the believer from falling away from Him until the day we stand before Him.  In another sense, the belief in the doctrine of eternal security is the belief that God keeps His promises towards us.

         Believers are told in Ephesians 4:30 that they are “sealed for the day of redemption” by the Holy Spirit.  Many of us have memorized John 3:16 which states that God gives the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.  If our eternal life could be taken away then it was never eternal and it was never free.  It could then be defined as merit-based salvation.  Christians who have genuinely repented of their sins and have turned to God for the salvation of their souls can rest in the fact that God will keep them secure to the very end as He said He would.

         One of the greatest verses in Scripture that believers can take comfort is found in Romans 8:38-39.  It states, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Our eternal security is based upon the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.  His blood was never meant to be temporary but it provided cleansing for past, present, and future sins (Eph. 1:3-14).  Our eternal security was promised by God the Father, provided by the work of Jesus Christ, and is secured by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit until Christ returns.  So, if someone asks if we can lose our salvation, the answer should be emphatically NO—not according to Scripture.