CAN SALVATION BE LOST?

CAN SALVATION BE LOST?

Your friend’s view is that because scripture says you have to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2: 12), then you cannot be sure of being saved until you get to heaven, and may be lost in the end! In reply, I begin by stating that no one can understand Christianity or the grace of God unless he sees that man is not only a sinner, but that he is lost. The judgment of death is upon every child of Adam, and it is in the Man who bore the judgment which rests on man, and who was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, that every one who believes in Christ is found. In Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive. If you do not see the distinction between the first and the second man you will never understand what the grace of God is in its fulness. He has cleared away the man that offended, and has brought in the Man of His pleasure. Hence we read, Every one in Christ is a new creation. This could never be lost. “All things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5: 18). Peter says, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1: 9). God has given us salvation; we have to work it out in our daily lives. As to the passage brought forward where Paul says, “Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9: 27), “Castaway” refers to his preaching — that he would not get his reward if he was not a profitable servant. We get the same idea in John 15: 2. “Every branch ... that beareth not fruit he taketh away”. It has not to do with your safety for heaven, but with your service for God in this world. It is not to get salvation, but to bear the fruits of salvation.

‘Returning sons He kisses,
And with His robe invests;
Eternal love dismisses
All terror from their breasts.’ (184:3)