Why it is Impossible for Born-Again Christians to Lose Our Salvation
God IS a Relationship – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “Relationship” is what brings Him His greatest pleasure. He loves it so much He decided to create more relationships; thus, He created His angels to have a personal relationship with Himself and with each other. He loves them and they love Him back. In order to “love,” you “have” to have the ability “not” to love, which simply means free will. Each angel was created by God “directly” and created perfect without sin. They are created “saved,” obviously, and are created inside eternity.
However, Lucifer, God’s most highly created angel, with his free will decided he also wanted to be like God. He wanted to be worshipped, and his pride was the first sin ever recorded. This resulted in him rejecting God and the best that God had to offer in heaven. His influence with the other angels was so strong that approximately one third of the other angels followed him in rejecting God and the best that He had to offer. They “fell” from God’s grace and have no plan of redemption, no way to be right with God again due to falling from “inside eternity.”
Obviously, God was tremendously disappointed this occurred but also knew this would occur, since God knows all things. It was then that He decided to do something vastly different. He wanted to create a “different type” of sentient being – the human race. Angels are also sentient beings “but” the Bible says we humans are created in “God’s Image;” it does not say that about the angels. This may not sound like that much of a huge deal but it’s the biggest deal God has ever done, as we will see in a moment.
God also did something He had never done before. He created a “physical universe” with “time” in it. God is eternal and does not need “time.” Time is temporary. It has a beginning and it has an end.
Why would God do this?
For one reason – God “knows” the human race He is going to create on earth will sin and fall from His grace and have to be separated from Him for all of their lives on earth. Human sin not only means every human being is born with a sin nature but also means the whole universe is tainted with sin. It’s like putting one drop of ink in a bottle of pure water and all of that water is now tainted with that ink.
God created the angels and He created the human race for one reason – His pleasure through a personal relationship with Himself and with each other. Because He knows every human being will be born with a sin nature, and be born “lost,” He had to make sure that human beings are not born “inside eternity” but are born inside “time.” This means the whole universe was created for a major reason – to give us humans “time” to come to know God and have a personal relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
God is perfect and without sin. Any sentient being He creates He expects and even demands they, too, be perfect and without sin. Oops, that is “impossible” for human beings who are born with a sin nature. How in the world can we be perfect and without sin? We can’t. The only person who can make this right is God Himself.
Salvation
The number one “essence” of relationship is love, and Jesus says there is no greater act of love than a man lay down his life for another. We will see how important this is in a moment.
When God enters into a personal relationship with anyone, whether it be a nation like Israel or each individual, the “first” thing that has to be dealt with is sin. The Bible says sin is so abhorrent to God that it always brings death – both physical death to our human body and also spiritual death to our spiritual body. However, to solve the sin problem, God set up what we call His law of atonement ( Salvation ) where He will allow an innocent “sinless” substitute to die and shed their sinless blood to pay the price for the sins of another.
But how is that possible?
No human being has sinless blood to shed and pay the price of atonement for another. With the nation of Israel, this could only be accomplished in one way – animal sacrifice. Animals are not created in God’s image; thus, their blood is “sinless.” For 2,000 years or so, God allowed millions of animals to be sacrificed to pay the price for the sins of Israel in order for them to have their personal relationship with God.
Does the Bible say “specifically” that animal blood is sinless?
No, but what it does say is only man is made in God’s image, and it is man who is responsible for the original sin and causing all human beings to be born with a sin nature. This means all other life on the planet that is “not” made in God’s image is sinless such as animals, birds, fish, plants, etc.
All of nature feels the effects of sin, and all of nature groans because of sin according to Romans 8:22. And it should go without saying that God could not and would not use “any” blood for atonement purposes that was tainted with sin. Thus, this helps explain why animal blood has to be sinless.
The only human ever “born” without a sin nature is Jesus. That is why Jesus could not have a human father, because the sin nature is passed down through the seed of the man vs. woman – Gen 3:15.
With God as His Father, Jesus is fully human and yet born without a sin nature and could qualify to be our perfect sinless sacrifice to pay the price for our sins. He is also fully God; and this means, as God in the flesh, God the Son, out of love for mankind, sacrificed His life on a cross to give us His righteousness and take on all of our sins., and give us our salvation We can never ever thank Him enough for that.
God gave Israel the law, and one purpose of the law was to show the people that no one can keep all of the law; thus, they need a Savior. The animal sacrificial system was setting the stage for the day when God Himself would step out of eternity and become a human being through His Son, Jesus, in order that God Himself would be able to die on a cross and pay the price once and for all for our sins with His sinless blood.
God provided the “ultimate” act of love by dying in our place and accepting ALL of our sins upon Himself. He did not do this so that every human being is “automatically” saved. He did this so that NOW it is “possible” for each human being on the planet to be able to enter into a personal relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Salvation is God’s free gift to the human race. All we need do is put our faith and trust in Jesus – that He paid the price for our sins; and now, in God’s eyes, we are perfect and sinless for past, present and all future sins.
By repenting of our sins and asking the Lord to come into our lives to save us and be our Lord and Savior, God has done the most incredible thing He’s EVER done; Salvation!
He makes us “born again” by coming into us and indwelling us with Himself through the Holy Spirit. We are now “connected” to God and have become a “part” of God in a small way. This is why earlier I said that being created in His image is a “huge deal,” because God has “never” done this before. The angels are not connected to God in this way. God does not indwell the angels with His Holy Spirit. Why would God do this?
Let me ask you a question. Is it easier for an angel who is created by God in heaven to be “saved” and to be perfect and without sin, or is it easier for a human being who is created separated from God on a sinful earth and with a sin nature to be saved?
This is obviously a rhetorical question. God is invisible to us, and for many this makes it impossible for them to believe He is who the Bible says He is or even that He exists. For this reason, the Bible says that the angels “rejoice” whenever any person becomes a born-again believer.
It appears that, due to all humans having to live our whole lives separated from God in a sinful world and in a sinful condition, God knows how hard it will be for many to come to know Him through Jesus. Thus, He is willing to share Himself with us and to allow us to be connected to Him in a unique way—for those of us who embrace Him and become His born-again children.
Now, BACK to the title of this article. The most dangerous thing to all angels is their free will. With it they can reject God and fall from His grace inside eternity as one third have already done. The most dangerous thing for every human being on earth is, guess what? Our free will also, because with it we determine our “eternal destiny in terms of – do we enter into a personal relationship with God through Jesus and become saved forever or reject Jesus and be lost forever?
There is a difference of opinion in Christianity today as to whether it is possible for someone to lose their salvation. Let’s think about that for a moment. Is it?
In John 6:39, Jesus says, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given me.”
It is impossible for any born-again believer to ever lose their salvation for this reason: First, God knows the future and knows everyone who will be saved. Do you think it possible the Holy Spirit could come to indwell someone and then in the future, for whatever reason, that person could turn their back on God and reject their salvation?
That would mean the Holy Spirit would have to “leave” that person’s body and would be equivalent to the Holy Spirit saying, Oh, I didn’t know you were going to do that. I have to leave now. Sorry, I made a mistake. God does not make mistakes; thus, once the Holy Spirits enters us, He stays with us forever since we are now connected to God.
There are only two ways to be lost forever to God – to fall from His grace “inside eternity” like one third of the angels did or to enter eternity with sin without Christ and have to spend eternity in hell separated from God.
Hmm… since free will is the most dangerous thing there is for angels and humans, this might make some people nervous. I am born again and I used to wonder what would happen if I somehow “goofed up” in eternity with my free will and I sinned somehow. Would I be like the angels who sinned and fell from eternity? No!
Thank the Lord, that is 1000 percent impossible for one simple reason. We are CONNECTED to and a PART of God. We will still have free will but, just as God would never sin, we will never sin in eternity. We will be able to “love” like God loves through our connection to Him. By the time the 1,000-year millennial reign of Christ is over on earth, there will be BILLIONS of people who will be connected to and a part of God.
We can only speculate as to what eternal life with God will be like, because of our connection to Him. But we do have this assurance from God Himself in 1 Cor 2:9:
“However, it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard and what no human mind has conceived – the things God has prepared for those who love Him’” (NIV). We cannot begin to imagine how wonderful and incredible everything will be.
It seems obvious to many that we are living in the end times and just might be the generation that will experience the return of Jesus for His bride, the church, and His Second Coming to begin His 1,000-year millennial reign on earth.
How exciting to think we just might be the generation that could be raptured and taken up immediately to be with the Lord forever. And how exciting it is to know that we are connected to Him and belong to Him forever, and will never lose our salvation.
Maranatha, Lord Jesus.
David Cogburn