Can a Christian Fall Away and Be Lost?

The Bible says that God saves us “according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). How rich is God’s grace? It’s no overstatement to say that the riches of God’s grace are inexhaustible, because Paul claimed that Jesus’ riches were “unsearchable” (Ephesians 3:8). There will never be a time when someone comes to the wellspring of God’s grace in Jesus and comes away empty. No sin is so black that God cannot forgive; no life is so broken that God cannot fix.

Some people are so convinced of the power of God’s grace though that they assume that it will be given automatically or unconditionally. While a few take that so far as to assume that everyone is going to be saved no matter what they believe or do, there are more who simply assume that any person who becomes a Christian will never be able so to sin as to be lost.

If you know of someone who believes this or you are working through this issue yourself, I want you either to ask or consider this question: why doesn’t the New Testament end at the book of Acts? It’s reasonable to assume that God would want us to know how our salvation was made possible, so He gave us the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. It’s also reasonable that He would want us to know how to obtain that salvation, so He gave us the account of how people did that in the book of Acts. However, if it were impossible to fall away, why didn’t the Bible just stop there?

The fact is that there are several passages in the New Testament that reveal that it is possible for a Christian to fall away and be lost. One of the clearest is Galatians 5:1-4. Paul warns that it is possible for a Christian who is “free” to be “entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1). All a Christian must do is religiously observe some practice from the Law of Moses like circumcision. Paul said that practicing part of the Old Law religiously makes a person “a debtor to keep the whole law” (Galatians 5:3). Three powerful things result for such a person: 1) “Christ will profit you nothing”; 2) “You have become estranged from Christ; 3) “you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:2, 4). As inexhaustible as Christ’s grace is, it is possible to fall away from it.

Another clear passage is 2 Peter 2:20-22. Peter speaks about those who “have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Who could he possibly be talking about but saved Christians (2 Peter 2:20)? However, he then says these Christians could become “entangled again” in those same pollutions and be “overcome.” Not only would this result in them being lost, but he also describes this state as “worse… than the beginning,” i.e., before they became Christians. He compares such behavior to a dog eating its own vomit or a washed pig returning to the mud (2 Peter 2:22).

It’s clear that the New Testament after Acts serves the needed purpose of guiding Christians and helping them to stay saved. In fact, in addition to the two books we’ve already considered (Galatians and 2 Peter), nearly every New Testament book after the book of Acts either gives a warning against falling away or an example of someone who fell away. Consider the following passages:

• Romans 11:16-22 – Paul warns that the Gentiles who had been grafted into God’s spiritual plant could be “cut off”
• 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 – Paul warns that even he, an apostle, could become a spiritually “disqualified”
• 2 Corinthians 12:21-13:5 – Paul talks about Christians who have “sinned” and again speaks about the possibility of being “disqualified”
• Ephesians 5:5-7 – after warning about those who had no “inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God,” Paul warns about being “partakers” with such individuals
• Philippians 2:12-16 – Paul warns that if the Philippians did not “work out” their “own salvation,” his labor amongst them could be rendered “vain”
• Colossians 2:8, 18 – Paul warns that the Colossians could be cheated of their “reward”
• 1 Thessalonians 3:4, 5 – Paul knew it was possible for the tempter to tempt the Thessalonians and make his work among them “vain”
• 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 1:8-9 – Paul talks about withdrawing from brethren who walk “disorderly,” having earlier said that those who do not obey Jesus’ orders will be “punished with everlasting destruction”
• 1 Timothy 4:1-3 – Paul describes in detail a widespread departure “from the faith” that would occur sometime after he wrote Timothy
• 2 Timothy 2:16-18 – Paul talks about individuals who had “strayed” from the truth” and who could “overthrow the faith of some”
• Titus 3:9-11 – Paul talks about rejecting those who have been proven divisive and who are “warped,” a term which speaks of someone who has become perverted or corrupted rather than someone who has always been that way
• Hebrews 10:38, 39 – Hebrews is full of warnings about falling away and reasons not to do so; in this passage, the author talks about those who “live by faith” but “draw back to perdition”
• James 5:19, 20 – James states that someone can wander “from the truth”; this person is “a sinner” and needs to be saved “from death”
• 1 Peter 4:12-19 – While the backdrop of this reading is “fiery trials,” Peter affirms that Christians can suffer in sin (v. 15) and warns about those who attempt to stand judgment as sinners (vv. 16-17)
• 1 John 5:16 – a brother in Christ can commit a sin “leading to death”
• 2 John 9-11 – a Christian can fail to “abide in the doctrine of Christ” and as a result “not have God”
• 3 John 9, 10 – Diotrephes, a Christian, is cited as an example of someone who “does evil”
• Jude 5 – The Israelites are held up as an example of those who were “saved” but who were “afterward destroyed” as a warning to Christians
• Revelation 3:14-22 – like several of the churches and individuals amongst the seven churches, Laodicea received a warning in a very vivid picture of being vomited out of Jesus (v. 16)

This list is not exhaustive; I’m only attempting to provide a representative example from each of the New Testament books. The only book missing is Philemon, a short epistle which as best as I can tell wasn’t written for the purpose of providing such examples or warnings.
 
Clearly falling away from salvation is a very real danger! Christians, never take the grace of God for granted, but instead, choose to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).  

-Patrick Swayne 
patrick@tftw.org