Can I Lose My Salvation? (Crucial Questions)

by R.C. Sproul

As we struggle through the Christian life, we sometimes wrestle with our security in Christ.

This gets at the issue of the doctrine of eternal security, also known as the perseverance of the saints, which is the P in the famous Calvinist acronym TULIP.

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). Jesus warns those who have come out of false beliefs and embraced the faith not to look back.

To fall into apostasy means to reach a position but then to abandon it.

have fallen from their first profession of faith.

While some will return after a serious fall, some will not, because they never actually had faith. They made a false profession of faith; they did not possess what they professed.

The Apostle John speaks of those who went out from the midst of the communion of fellowship. He said: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).

I recommend at least two responses: first, pray like crazy, and second, wait. We don’t know the final outcome of the situation, but God does, and only God can preserve that soul.

By this phrase, Augustine meant that perseverance in the life of the Christian is not an achievement accomplished solely by human effort, but a gift.

Paul calls the Philippian believers to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).

This is a clear call to labor, to toil, to put forth effort, and this effort is not to be casual, light-hearted, or cavalier. The phrase “fear and trembling” calls attention to the sobriety and earnestness with which we are called to press into the kingdom of God.

Note what follows this exhortation: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (v. 13).

Reformed theologians maintain that the Christian life begins at regeneration, which is the work of the Holy Spirit in quickening us and raising us from a state spiritual death to make us alive in Christ. This is nothing short of a spiritual resurrection, and it is accomplished by God alone, without any human effort.

One side insisted that it is faith alone—not faith plus repentance—that saves; therefore, it is possible to receive Christ as Savior but not as Lord. The other side argued that faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin.

Every day, in the presence of the Father, Christ intercedes for His people (Heb. 7:25). “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,” James tells us (5:16), but no prayer has the same power as the prayers of Christ.

He expresses certainty that Peter will do these things. There was no doubt in Jesus’ mind not only that Peter would fall, and fall abysmally, but also that Peter would be restored.

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.