What does the Bible say about whether or not you can lose your salvation once you are a believer in Jesus?
Once you become a believer you cannot lose the gift of grace and salvation that God has given to you. This is called: the Eternal Security of the Believer, or sometimes we call it: Once Saved, Always Saved.
We know that we can’t lose our salvation because of the clear promises in God’s Word like in Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.“
Our salvation does not depend on what we do. In other words, we could never save ourselves. We don’t do anything good enough to be saved. But, it’s all about what Jesus Christ did for us.
Now here’s the deal. There are certainly many people who say they are Christians, but they have never really stepped out of time and into eternity by putting their faith and trust in Jesus alone for salvation. The problem is not that they have lost their salvation, but that they never had it in the first place. The Bible talks about three different kinds of “security” that we can have about our salvation.
Some people have a false sense of security.
They think they are a believer because they’ve come to church or been baptized or have done good things. Jesus says in Matthew 7:22 that there will be people who call Him, “Lord,” but who never had a relationship with Him. We shouldn’t put our trust in anything but Christ’s ability to forgive and save us.
Some believers think they have conditional security.
These are believers who know Christ, but they think that their salvation is dependent on what they do or how they serve or how faithful they are. What do we see happen in their lives? Usually, they feel a lot of guilt and doubt – wondering if we’ve done enough to truly guarantee that we are saved. We “stay saved” the same way that we “became saved,” by grace through faith alone.
Other believers know they have eternal security.
Jesus said in John 10:28-29, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and He is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me.“
Now, some people think this feeling of security will result in a Christian sinning more, with the feeling that it won’t really matter since they’re going to heaven anyway. The exact opposite is true! When we realize how secure we are in Christ’s love, it gives a sense of gratefulness for His grace and we want to live for Him.
I hope you will hold on to this. God’s grip is much stronger than yours and He will always hold on to what is His!