Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?

Can someone truly saved by Christ later fall away and be lost? What do we do with warning passages, especially in Hebrews, without undermining assurance? In this episode, we walk through Scripture to show how the Bible holds together real warnings, real perseverance, and a very real promise: those whom God saves, He keeps. Your assurance doesn’t rest on your grip on Christ, but His grip on you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hey friends, welcome back to the pod. This is Cameron here with the Recovering Pharisee. In this episode, I want to talk about something that is a very popular topic under the umbrella of Christianity. Most Christians at some point have wrestled with this question. And the question is this can a Christian lose their salvation? Can someone who has believed in the gospel, who has been born again, forfeit their salvation for any reason? This is something many have wrestled with. This is a topic of discussion for centuries. And it's a question that I think usually comes with, you know, a level of uh just pain and personal hardship, whether it's someone individually wrestling with their own sin and temptation and the brokenness of this world, and is questioning, you know, should I have assurance of my salvation? Or, or there could be some other factors as well. And so this is a personal question that, you know, can come with some confusion, some pain, uh, some heartache. And so I want to be of help in answering this question from the Bible. Now, most people asking this question aren't trying to start some kind of theological debate. You know, they're they're wrestling with real issues, they're trying to make sense of their own hearts, their own sanctification, or maybe they know someone they love who professes to be a Christian and has since walked away from the faith. And they're just wrestling with this idea of what do I do with this, this, this scenario, this case study? What where do I put this person who professed faith in Christ, seemed to be walking with him for a time and now has abandoned everything they profess to believe and love about the Lord? And so for many, this is a this is a question that that really hits home. And so let's let's jump in. Maybe you've wrestled with a few questions like, man, I keep struggling with sin and temptation. Is that a sign that I was never truly born again? Or maybe, you know, you feel like, man, I've been walking with the Lord for a good while, but my faith just feels so weak. I feel like my faith should be stronger than what it really is. Is that a sign that I'm not gonna endure to the end and prove to be truly one of God's children? Or you might be wrestling with, man, what about that person in my life whom I knew who professed faith and were attending church, were in the word, were using Christian vernacular, were serving in the church and all these things. Maybe they were leaders in the church, and now they have since walked away from Jesus and want nothing to do with him. What do I do with that individual when they seem to be a Christian? They profess to be a believer, they opened their Bibles, they talked about the things of the Lord, they evangelized and did all these Christian things, and now have departed from the faith with no desire to return. Before we dive into this, let me just say this clearly from the start. This this conversation, this episode is not about winning a theological argument or anything like that. I just want to take a delicate question and do my best to help you who are listening be able to understand does the Bible address this topic? So this is about giving hope to weary Christians. This is about those who are weary in the faith, who are wrestling with assurance of their salvation, or just wrestling with this topic in general, uh, to be able to answer that question confidently from the scriptures. And so just to put all my cards on the table before we even dive into uh the rest of the content of this episode, here's my thesis. Let me just pull it all, pull it all on the table for you. I believe that scripture teaches clearly and confidently that a true Christian who's been purchased by the blood of Jesus, who's been regenerated by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit can never lose their salvation. I just believe that is a black and white teaching of the Bible. I don't think this is some denominational conviction or a certain sect of Christians believe this. I believe that true Christianity clearly in scripture teaches that a truly blood-bought, born-again, redeemed, regenerated child of God can never lose their salvation. Now, let's let's unpack that, okay? But I just want to make that very clear. As I unpack that, I that's not my opinion. That is what I believe the biblical data clearly presents to us. But I also believe when we talk about this uh issue of can someone lose their salvation, I think we're often asking the wrong question. So instead of asking, can a Christian lose their salvation, which I just think built in that question alone is just a faulty premise. But uh I think we're often asking the wrong question because salvation does not ultimately rest on how tightly a Christian is holding on to God, but rather our Christian journey, our perseverance and ultimate glorification is solely determined on God clinging to us. And I think when we ask that question, can a Christian lose their salvation? I think we're reversing the order there and placing the main responsibility of a Christian staying in the faith in our human effort and performance. So let's talk about it. Let's let's unpack this. Here's why this question does matter. This question sticks around throughout church history because it's a very personal question. We, as Western American Christians for sure, we wrestle with a sense of just needing to know things for certain. Like we want, and it's human nature, we want confidence in knowing for a fact. Am I okay? Do I have God's favor? And so this question, it lingers around because it's it's personal. Nobody's asking this question, you know, in a vacuum. So that makes perfectly good sense. But we got to take a step further and say, now let me dive into the scriptures and seek to see does the Lord address this question that that pains me at times? So here's the questions we we tend to wrestle with. So after someone is struggling with a season of sin and temptation, and they might wonder, have I have I forfeited God's love? Have I lost my salvation? Should I have no assurance of my salvation? Or maybe they've reached a point in the Christian walk where they're wrestling with some doubts. You know, they're starting to just ask questions like, well, why do I believe what I believe? How do I know the Bible is true? How do I know that all that Jesus said? How do I know for a fact that these things are true? And they think just that that doubt alone is a sign that maybe I'm I'm not saved. And maybe God is displeased with me because I have these doubts. Or maybe they have, you know, someone wrestling with this question might have watched somebody walk away from the faith. And now that is causing doubts in their hearts and minds and understanding of the gospel and justification and sanctification, perseverance, all these fancy terms we use. And they're wondering, uh, okay, I'm familiar with some of these turns, but I know someone personally who I had all confidence was my brother or sister in Christ. And now they're living in sin and they have turned from the Lord. They want nothing to do with the church and God's word. What do I do uh with people like that? And so we're gonna address all of this in this episode. And often I would say underneath the the this theology of can a Christian lose their salvation inherently is just a fear, just a fear, you know, what if God saves me? But then later on in my Christian walk, if I don't, if I don't perform well enough, he'll give up on me. He'll forfeit his love for me because he's displeased with uh my lack of maturity. I'm not at a level of maturity I think I should be. And so God might give up on me. And that fear, I guess you could say, makes sense if salvation is mostly about the Christian's performance solely. So if all of our Christian walk was primarily based on how well we are performing before the Lord, we're getting A's on our spiritual report card. Well, then it would make complete sense that if we were failing, that God could forfeit his love for us. But the Bible redirects our eyes away from us, from looking inwardly and judging God's love for us based on our performance and our box checking and our good deeds, but rather focuses us to look at God and to have a God-centered understanding of our salvation and then thus our sanctification, perseverance, and glorification. So before we can answer, you know, can a Christian lose their salvation? I think we need to ask, how does the Bible actually describe salvation in the first place? I think that's a better question. So instead of asking, can a Christian lose their salvation? We need to fundamentally understand what is a Christian? What is salvation? How do those things go together? Then you can better assess the question, can a Christian lose their salvation? So let's just start with how does the Bible actually just frame salvation in scripture in the first place? So I believe this question is a shift that changes everything, truly, because the Bible does not frame our salvation. So when God saves us, the the structure of our salvation is not centered around uh how consistent you are in performing for the Lord and checking the right boxes and obeying. Uh, obedience is key to salvation. Don't get me wrong. Uh, the Bible is very clear, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. But our salvation is not framed around your inner spiritual strength. So you staying in the faith is not based on how strong spiritually you are, how strong your your faith is, or anything like that. And it is not solely structured around your clinging on to the father, keeping yourself in the faith. The best way I can illustrate this is I I think of our sanctification and the Christian walk as a child learning to walk. Maybe they've gotten to that point of confidence where they're willing to stand up while their their mom or dad are holding their their little uh hands or arms and holding them upright and they're willing to take those little wobbly steps. That's how I think of the Christian walk. Our journey is progressing, we are maturing and growing and maintaining the faith we profess because God is clinging on to us, not because we are firmly clinging on to him, because we are weak, we are feeble and sinful, and we are prone to wonder and let go, but we can't let go because God holds on to his children and guides us along as we take those wobbly baby steps towards maturity. So if we want to have a more biblical framework to understand the structure of salvation, I would just highlight three key themes in salvation. Number one is that our salvation is of God's initiative. We are saved because God, the first missionary, as we see in Genesis 3, because God took the initiative to move towards sinners to reconcile us back to Himself through the crosswork of Jesus Christ. So if anyone listening to this is a born-again Christian, you are that because God took the initiative to move towards you in his redemptive work to save your soul. Second, our salvation is structured around God's power. We do not save ourselves in our own power or any other power. We are saved by the power of God, which is found in the gospel. So it was God who took the initiative to save us. It was God who used his divine power to redeem us. And then, third, our salvation is structured around God's faithfulness. The fact that God is holy and unchanging and he keeps his promises and he has promised to redeem, sanctify, and restore his image in those whom he redeems. So the better question isn't can I lose my salvation? I think that's an unhelpful question. I think it's a good starting point, but it's unhelpful in many ways. The better question to ask is, does God ever fail to complete what he started? Does God ever fail to finish what he starts? Because if God is the one who initiates our salvation, if God is the one who promises to complete the work he's begun in his children, whom he used his power to redeem, then can God fail at finishing what he has promised in his eternal decree to complete? So a few bullet points here. So if salvation is uh orchestrated and planned by the Father in heaven before the foundation of time, which according to the Bible it is, if our salvation is accomplished by the Son who came and put on flesh and lived and died on the cross to uh be the propitiation for our sins, and if our salvation is applied supernaturally by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, then our perseverance in the faith, which is just another phrase for finishing to the end, if our perseverance is not mainly about our strength, our endurance, then it's about God's power, God's sovereignty, and God's faithfulness. So notice there, all of this is pointing in what direction? It's not pointing inward, saying, let's look inward at our strength, our maturity, our power, but rather it is uh the word is like leading us upwards, leading our gaze upwards to have a God-centered perspective of our salvation and our sanctification and perseverance. This is why scripture repeatedly points us upward and not inward. We are not to navel gaze and base all of our spiritual confidence on our broken, sinful, weak flesh and faith, but rather we've we look to the object of our faith, which is the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is the object, as I said, of our salvation and God the Father, who is the architect of our salvation. And so let me let me just lay out as best as I can a clear biblical case, which is that God keeps his people. So we're gonna look at some text of scripture here, starting with John chapter 10. John chapter 10 here. Let me get in my Bible here. So in John 10, Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. Now, when you listen to that, that is strong language, right? Because Jesus doesn't say, Well, they won't perish unless they fail and don't work hard enough. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say they won't perish if they just keep it together and do a good job. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say they won't perish if they hold on to the Father and their sanctification and salvation tightly enough. He doesn't say that. He says he uses the word never as a very strong word. He says, they will never perish. That is a promise from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself. And so if Jesus is promising this, then who is more powerful than Jesus to thwart his promise? He uses the word never. Then Paul says later in Philippians chapter one, verse six, Paul says, He, referring to Jesus, he who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion. That sounds like a promise, doesn't it? He will bring it to completion. He doesn't say Jesus might bring it to completion. He doesn't say Jesus is going to do his very best in cooperation with you, humans, to bring it to completion. No, he says he will bring it to completion. Let's look at Romans 8 31 through 39. Many of us are familiar with this passage. Romans 8 31 through 39, Paul says, What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all? How will he not also with him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, he has been raised. He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, because of you we are being put to death all day long. We are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is very important to understand. Paul is explicitly clear, he's even using rhetorical questions there to make his point. There is nothing in existence in the this side of heaven or in the spiritual realm that can ever separate you from the love of Jesus Christ, which includes you. You can't even exclude yourself, separate yourself from the love of Jesus. So just in those verses alone, the Bible is clear that God, those that God foreknew, he also predestined. Those he predestined, he effectually called to saving faith. And those whom he effectually called, he justified in the courtroom of heaven. And those he justified, he will glorify, which means there's no missing link Christians. There's no spiritual dropouts where they're in the club and then they just drop out of the faith because they didn't work hard enough. There's no one in the faith who is, quote unquote, almost saved. Either Jesus sufficiently atoned for your sins and redeemed you with his blood, or he did not. You cannot forfeit that kind of love. I mean, Paul is covering all bases in those passages. He is saying there is nothing in existence that can take a Christian away from the love of God. There is nothing in the created order, there is nothing in the spiritual realm, not even Satan himself, not your own sin, not one given temptation, nothing, anything you can imagine, it doesn't matter what it is, nothing can separate you from the love of God that he showed you in his son, Jesus Christ. So with that all being said, friends, if someone could lose their salvation, one of three things would have to be true. Number one, Christ had to have failed on the cross. If you could truly lose your salvation, then Jesus' death on the cross was not sufficient to atone for all of your sins. And secondly, then if you could lose your salvation, then the Holy Spirit has abandoned his sanctifying work in his people. If the Spirit's job is to illuminate God's truth to us and to apply it to our lives, which is sanctification, to progressively mold us more to the image of Jesus, if we can lose our salvation, then the Holy Spirit has just retired. He just has given up and decided, you know what, I sanctify them up to a point, but now I'm fed up. They're not working hard enough. So I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna depart and move on to somebody else. No, that's that's there's nothing in scripture that teaches that. But third, if we could lose our salvation, this would have to be true, which is God's a liar. God has gone back on his word, he has broken his own promise. The Bible tells us repeatedly that God desires to redeem a people called the church, to sanctify that church, and to ultimately glorify that church and that they will persevere to the end. God keeps those whom he saves. If we can lose our salvation, if we can forfeit our own salvation, well then God has gone against his word. And that makes us more powerful than the Lord. Think about that. Do you really believe that your sinful choices, your lack of maturity, whatever we want to say, do you really want to say that your choices are more powerful than the promises of God? If God has judicially declared you justified before the courtroom of heaven, saying that I will forever think of this person as forgiven, that I have applied the righteousness of my son to this individual so that the righteousness of Christ is theirs as if they lived a holy and perfect life. Do you really think that your weakness as a struggling Christian can thwart the promises of God? May it never be so. So none of these, my point here, none of these are biblical options. The real question behind the question of can a Christian lose their salvation is what is salvation? What is a Christian, and how do those go together? Now, but Let's be honest, this doctrine doesn't get challenged in the abstract. Okay. This isn't, you know, a topic primarily for theologians and scholars and Christians who like to geek out on this stuff to just read a bunch of books on this stuff. Like this is this is real life. You know, these are these are questions people wrestle with uh internally in their own walk with the Lord. Or as I said earlier, they know somebody who professed faith and is no longer walking with the Lord. And so these are people who made professions of faith, people who were active in the church, the people who were even, I mean, let's just be honest. There are men who have led churches as pastors who have shipwrecked their faith and abandoned the faith and are no longer walking with the Lord. Uh, authors of books that have helped many Christians, and now they don't even believe the things they wrote in those books. So they look sincere for a good time, for a season. And then they walked away from the Lord and the church and sometimes decisively and sometimes in anger, you know, they have left loud, so to speak. And the question becomes well, how do we think about those people? Did they did they lose their salvation? Or what what do we do with that? I think on this topic, on this topic, scripture gives us a even clearer and harder answer. So 1 John 2.19 says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. Think about that. John is addressing this very topic, a group of Christians who seem to be of the faith, who were of the the Christian community, using the same vernacular, serving the Lord, doing all these things, and then they departed from the faith. And John is saying they went out from us, but they were not of us. That's not a statement meant to make us smug. Uh, it's meant to make us sober, to realize the danger of self-deception. So here's a great passage, Titus 1, 15 through 16 says this to the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. In fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled. They claim to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. Listen to verse 16 again. They claim to know God. So they're professing to know God. They profess, He's my God. I lay claim to the benefits of the cross. I identify as a born-again Christian, I follow Jesus. They claim to know God, but they deny him with their works. That is very important. Now, number one, keep in mind, if 1 John and Titus, and we can look at other verses, but if this stuff was being addressed in the early days of the church, then this is not a new issue for Christians in churches, Christian communities, okay? If Titus has to say this, it already was an issue in his day and age in which people professed to know God and love him and serve him, and yet their lies betrayed their profession. And this is where I believe Matthew 13, the parable of the soils, is immensely helpful. So if we can just one more time turn in our Bibles there, Matthew 13. Many of you are already familiar with the parable of the soils, but Matthew 13 is helpful because Jesus, in his own words, addresses this starting in verse 1. It says, On that day Jesus went out to the house and was sitting by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down while the whole crowd stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying, Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sows, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn't have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn't deep. But when the sun came up it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty-nine times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen. Now, this is a very helpful parable on this topic of can a Christian lose your salvation? Because Jesus tells a story about a, you know, we're Westerners, many of us are not from a rural farming agricultural society, but we we understand planting seeds and how that whole process works, right? And Jesus gives the interpretation of this parable. Now, we don't have time in this episode to break do a whole entire in-depth Bible study on this parable, but the here here's the interpretation Jesus gives. He says, the seed being planted is the word of God. So the seed is being planted, the word of God is being implanted in these different soils, and the difference in in the outcome is not the difference in the seed, it's the difference in the soil in which the seed is planted. So, for example, in this parable, there are four soils, and each are communicating a spiritual reality. So the first is the hard soil. So again, the seed of the word is being planted, but in the hard soil, that's the the word, the seed of the word, it never penetrates to a heart level. It's rejected outright. So this is when we, you know, plant the seed of God's word, and those who are unbelievers hear it and they have no interest and they reject it outright. The second soil is the rocky soil. This one matters for our conversation in this episode because Jesus says this person, they actually receive the word with joy. They hear the teaching of the Bible and the gospel and they receive it with joy. They respond quickly to it, and they even outwardly appear enthusiastic, but there's a problem. With this person, there's no root. The seed of the word doesn't take root. It just sparks a little bit of external joy and excitement and enthusiasm. So when persecution or hardship and suffering comes in that person's life, they walk away. They fall away from the Lord and his church. And notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say that they have lost eternal life. He doesn't say that they lose salvation if you go read the rest of the interpretation Jesus gives. He says that they never had root in the first place. The third type of soil is the thorny, uh the thorny soil. This person grows for a season. All right. For a time, there's external fruit and growth, but the word is slowly choked out by the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of earthly riches, or just their fleshly desire for things other than Jesus. They they find treasure in everything but Christ. So again, even in this scenario, there's external growth from at least a human perspective, but it's not with true fruit. It's interest in the things of God without endurance. And then, fourth, there's the good soil. This is where the seed is planted on good soil, which bears fruit. Not perfect fruit, but it bears fruit. And it's not instant fruit, it is persevering, enduring fruit. It's lasting fruit. These are those who hear the implanted word, the seed of God's word planted on their hearts. It lands on good soil. They believe and they endure to the end. So this parable, Jesus is making it clear. Those who walked away, who did not have good soil, so to speak, they didn't lose their salvation. They gave proof that they never had it in the first place. So when someone permanently walks away from Christ, the question isn't, did that person lose their salvation? A better question to ask is, was that person ever a Christian in the first place? When the gospel came to them, when God's word came to them, did it take spiritual root in good soil that was implanted into their hearts, regenerated them, which would have led to endurance and perseverance to the end. So when we talk about these things, we we gotta we gotta also address just how does sanctification, Christians struggling with living in a broken world and assurance of salvation, like how do these things intermingle? Because this is where many Christians, I think, get confused and even deeply discouraged and spiritually depressed. They think, well, if I if I'm still sinning in some of these same ways, if I if I still am struggling, maybe that's evidence that I'm not saved because I shouldn't be struggling the way that I am. And I get that. That is a legitimate thought and a legitimate struggle, but scripture and church history give us a far more honest picture of this dilemma. Sanctification is a real progressive process, but it is imperfect because there remains corruption in every single part of us. And because of that, the Christian life is described as warfare. We are warring against our sinful flesh, our indwelling sin that still remains, that is constantly seeking to gain a foothold in our hearts to lead us to wander away from the Lord. And when I say wander away, I don't mean walk away from the faith. I just mean to deceive us into finding our joy in anything but Jesus. That is an ongoing Christian struggle. And if you if you're wrestling with sin as a Christian, if you love Jesus and you feel guilty and broken over the fact that I am still failing in these areas where I feel like I should, I should have conquered this, quote unquote, by now. I should have victory over this by now. I I should, I don't want to be struggling with these things. I would just say to you, welcome to the club. Welcome to Christianity. We are all broken sinners trying to help other broken sinners faithfully follow Jesus. But the Christian life was never promised to be easy. It is a emphasis on a progressive process of being molded slowly over time, more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. But it is a war. I mean, think about some of the language the New Testament uses of the flesh warring against the spirit and how the spirit wars against the flesh. These things are in the Bible to help us understand what our Christian experience will be like. Even my man Paul made it clear, he's like, man, the things I see in the Bible I agree with and I want to obey, but I find at the same time my flesh wanted me to do the very things I hate. So praise God, we're in good company. If an apostle struggle with that himself. So, Christian, just know if you're fighting sin, if you're fighting temptation in sin, that is not evidence against your salvation. It's evidence you have salvation. You are agreeing with God's word and his spirit that this thing is sinful, this temptation is evil and wants to lead me away from Christ, and I don't want to do it. So here's the key. Although remaining corruption may prevail in you for a time, God graciously supplies continual strength by his spirit to help us persevere. That regenerate part does not overcome, not instantly, not easily, but we will overcome one day, certainly at our glorification. And that is the beauty of the Christian walk, the fact that God in his sovereignty uses our remaining corruption, our indwelling sin, our weakness and struggles. He sovereignly uses that struggle to actually make us more holy, to make us hate our sin more, to make us wiser about temptation and the deception of our own flesh and the enemy, and to better love and appreciate his grace and love towards us. Now, I know with these topics, uh, someone is likely who's a good Bible student is gonna say, Well, Cam, what about the warning passages in Hebrews? Don't they teach that a Christian can truly forfeit their salvation? Good question. And most would be leaning towards Hebrews chapter six, verses four through six. So let's just go ahead and look at this together. The text says, For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God's good word and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away. Now, when you read that, you think, Cam, these passages are serious. And I would say, you're right, they are serious. They're meant to be. They are inspired by the Lord to be very serious warning passages. Now, I can't do a deep dive on this, but here's here's some things that I would say Hebrews warns real believers about. Uh it's uh Hebrews warns about drifting away from the Lord, says, don't do that. Hebrews warns against hardening our hearts to the Lord, to where our conscience is seared and you know, conviction of the spirit begins to weaken and wane. Hebrews warns us not to throw away our confidence and to hold fast in the faith. Now, that passage I just read, though, is not teaching that a Christian can ultimately lose their salvation. Again, wrong question. Here's what the warning passages in the Bible are doing. So I'm not just focusing on Hebrews 6. I'm just wanting generally encompass what are the purpose of warning passages in the Bible. These warnings are not saying, hey, don't do this because you might accidentally lose your salvation if you're not careful. That is not what those passages are teaching. What they are saying is if someone abandons Christ permanently, if you have permanently abandoned Christ, they show that you never truly belong to him. You are an apostate, if we could use that fancy theological terminology. But here's the crucial insight when we're talking about the warning passages of scripture. And you please don't miss this. God uses warnings in the Bible as a means of keeping his people in walking with him. God uses warnings as a means of keeping his people. Let me just illustrate this from the Bible. So in Acts chapter 27, there's the story where the apostle Paul is on a ship, and this ship and its passengers run into a very violent storm. And an angel tells Paul, every person on this ship will survive. That is a promise. And an angel was sent by God to deliver God's message to Paul. The promise was, you guys will survive. However, when you read the story, the sailors, out of panic, they try to escape in a lifeboat. And Paul starts rallying them up and warns them if they leave this ship, we will not be saved. Now, did Paul contradict God's promise? Because God promised everyone will survive. So what's Paul doing? No, he's not contradicting God in that situation. The warning was the means God used to fulfill his promise that everyone would survive. So the promise didn't come true apart from warning, but rather through the warning. So that's how Hebrews works. The warning is meant to keep you in the faith. God promises, hey, I will never leave you. No one can snatch you out of my hands. These are clear promises throughout the Bible, right? And then God warns us: don't drift away from me. Hold fast to the faith. Persevere in the faith. Think of the warnings in the Bible as guardrails for the faith, not threats. God is not like a deity in the sky just waiting to, you know, enact punitive punishment to kick people out of, you know, his household, so to speak, because you've rebelled against him. No, the warnings are guardrails. It's God saying, to enjoy the fullness of my love and favor and grace and mercy towards you, you must stay within these guardrails. If you cross over those guardrails, if you step over those boundaries, there are consequences that are detrimental to your soul. So true believers, when we hear the promises of our God and those guardrails, those warnings, they motivate us to stay clinging to Christ. But false believers will ignore those guardrails, step over those boundaries, and completely walk away, then making visible an internal spiritual reality, which is they don't truly follow Jesus in the first place. So let me speak more directly and pastorally to some of you who might be listening who have wrestled with this question. If you hate your sin and you feel weak spiritually, if you often repent of your sin, but you still stumble, but your desire is to follow Jesus and to show your gratitude towards him. If your faith feels small and puny, hear this clearly. Your assurance of salvation is not found by endlessly examining your performance. Your assurance is found by looking to Jesus Christ and his death on the cross on your behalf, because the word of God teaches very plainly and clearly that Jesus Christ is so sufficient of a savior that he saves to the uttermost. There is nothing you can do humanly to rob yourself of your own salvation, to forfeit God's love for you. And praise be to God that when Jesus purchased you on the cross, he didn't put a down payment down on your salvation. He didn't put something on it. He didn't say, Well, I'm gonna save them 75% of the way, but they gotta, they gotta, they gotta make up the rest themselves by their good deeds and performance and making sure they don't commit a specific sin. No, Jesus saves sufficiently. He atoned for all of your sins, past, present, and future. So weak faith in a strong Savior still saves. Let me just say that again. Weak faith, weak, struggling faith in a strong, sufficient savior still saves to the fullest. So your perseverance is real, but it is a derivative performance, uh perseverance, I mean. Your endurance is one of God faithfully working in you to do his good pleasure, he will finish what he started in you. You cling to God because God is clinging on to you. So a few closing thoughts here. So, can a Christian lose their salvation? The Bible answers that question with a unanimous absolutely not. I don't believe this is even a debated issue. I don't think those who would even disagree with me really have a leg to stand on because the biblical data is explicitly clear. God is the author and finisher of our salvation, not ourselves. So because salvation does not rest on human strength, human effort, it rests on divine faithfulness, and God is never changing. He does not go back on his word. Because those whom God saves, he keeps. Those whom Christ redeems, he helps to persevere. And those whom the Spirit regenerates, he also sanctifies and has promised to one day glorify. This doctrine isn't meant to make us careless, it's meant to make us confident, to walk boldly with the Lord, knowing I am secure because of the blood of Jesus. This shouldn't make us proud. It should make us grateful. Uh, the doctrine of perseverance shouldn't make us passive, but rather make us hopeful. And if you're clinging to Christ today, even with trembling hands, because you're you're constantly aware of how feeble your faith is, how immature you are, or you're not at the level you think you should be, don't you think Jesus knew all of that before he even went to the cross on your behalf? God knows our weaknesses. And as a matter of fact, you're far more weak than you think you are. You're far more evil and broken than you think you are, and yet Jesus still loves you to the fullest. He still spilt his righteous blood to purchase you as his own so that you can be a daughter or son of the king for all eternity. And to echo Paul's words again, praise be to God, that there is nothing in existence that can separate you from the love of God. So can you lose your salvation? Absolutely not. A better question to ask is can God go back on his word and not finish what he promised to finish in his children? So I hope this is helpful. And again, as Christians, we all struggle. The goal is to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, to resist sin and temptation, but ultimately our justification rests in the crosswork of Jesus Christ, not our performance. God bless.