One fault with man making doctrine for God is that such doctrines often don't match reality. An example of this conflict is found in the teaching prevalent among our denominational friends regarding the security of our salvation. Since much of the religious world teaches that once we are saved, we can never be lost, what do we make of those who clearly depart from the faith and become fully engrossed in sin again? How do we reconcile his life with passages that say Christians are to follow Christ's commands (1 John 3:10)? The answer most denominational folks will give you about such a person is that "they were never saved in the first place." At first glance, it seems this is simply a tiptoeing around the issue of "once saved, always saved," but is this what the Bible teaches? What shall we say about such a man? Was he ever saved?

First, let's clarify our discussion. We're not speaking here of the occasional sin that the Bible tells us pops up in the lives of Christians. Sin is a reality, even after we have been cleansed by Christ's blood, because we are not perfect. John says "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"(1 John 1:8-9). Notice that he does not tell us that our sin proves we were never saved, nor does he tell us our hearts were insincere in coming to Christ. Rather, he tells us we must deal with our sin by appealing to God, and He has promised to cleanse us if we confess. God does not want us to sin, but acknowledges it happens and gives provision to remove such sin from the lives of His people.

However, the Bible does speak of some that depart from the faith. They do not stumble in occasional sin, but reject the Lord and return to their sinful ways. Were they ever saved? Peter describes some who "if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse than the beginning"(2 Pet 2:20). They had escaped the pollutions of the world, then returned to them. To punctuate the point, Peter gives an illustration: "A dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire"(2 Pet 2:22). Were they ever saved? Yes! Were they then lost? Yes! The fact that these departed from the faith and their hearts became corrupt does not mean their initial salvation was insincere or ineffective. What of the Galatians? Paul says they "have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace"(Gal 5:4). They had been in Christ, but were now estranged because of their rejection of Christ. They had been in grace, but now were fallen from it. The Bible says that Simon the sorcerer "also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip"(Acts 8:13), yet just a few short verses later, Peter tells him "your heart is not right in the sight of God"(Acts 8:21). Some say Simon was never saved, yet the Scriptures clearly declare he believed and was baptized, only to stumble as to be lost. Myriads of more passages could be marshaled to prove the point: we are told to "beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God"(Heb 3:12), and read of Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Tim 1:19-20) and Diotrephes (3 John 9-11) becoming unfaithful. At no point does God hint that the problem was with their initial conversion, but instead He says the problem was their lack of faithfulness afterward! Is it any different today?

This is a dangerous doctrine because it encourages insecurity about our salvation. How should I feel when I sin? The Bible says I should grieve (2 Cor 7:9-11) and confess my sin (1 John 1:9), repenting and praying for forgiveness (Acts 8:22). Yet if this doctrine is true, I should also begin to question my initial salvation, shouldn't I? If sin means I was never saved, do I need to start over? And since sin is a continual struggle for Christians, how do I ever know I'm saved and not just deceived? Rather, God wants us to know that if we obeyed from the heart (Rom 6:17), we are right with Him. Our obligation now is "do not let sin reign in your mortal body"(Rom 6:12), meaning we must be careful in dealing with sin lest we depart from the faith like those we read of in the pages of the New Testament.

Yet we still have not gotten to the root of the issue: saved people can be lost. There is simply no excuse for disobedience to God's will. If we continually reject Him, we will be lost (Heb 10:26-29). No amount of rationalizing and wordplay will change that. Rather than making Christians question their initial salvation and judge the motives of others, why can we not teach "by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments"(1 John 2:3)? Why can we not teach Christians to remain faithful lest they be lost? Why can we not teach what the Bible says?

Rather than doubting the motives and salvation of others, let us "exhort one another daily…lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin"(Heb 3:13). Let us remove sin from our lives and pray to our Father for forgiveness. Let us remember the danger of hardening our heart and departing from God. Let us never allow others to ask the question about us, "Was he ever saved?".___Jacob Hudgins