How is it possible to fall from grace if you can’t lose your salvation?
Question:
I have visited your web site and couldn't find the answer I was looking for. There is one verse in particular which I have a hard time reconciling with the rest of Scripture. I know that you can't lose your salvation (John 10:27-29), but how is it possible to "fall" from grace? There are some questions I just can't find the answer to. And if one can not lose their salvation, then wouldn't that mean that no shift in doctrine or lifestyle would be damning to them if they are already saved?
Galatians 5:4 - Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Can you help me understand this, it has been troubling me for some time and I have heard all kinds of strange answers which differ all the time and cannot be backed up by scripture.
Answer:
A common reason that a particular verse doesn't make sense is that we have approached the Scriptures with a preconceived notion. When we run into a passage that contradicts the preconceived notion we forget to look to see whether our original notion was right or wrong.
You state that you know that a person cannot lose their salvation because of John 10:27-29, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand." This verse does teach that no one can force you to leave God. It is an especially important concept when we are talking about Satan. Satan can't make you leave God; he has limited power. However, what you are overlooking is that Jesus did not say that an individual cannot choose to leave God.
This is the foundation of what Satan does to God's people. He isn't allowed to make a person turn their back on God (I Corinthians 10:13), so he tempts people to walk away on their own. He makes sin look so pleasing that the person willingly leaves God.
If it was impossible for a Christian to leave, then Paul was wrong about Alexander and Hymenaeus. "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme" (I Timothy 1:18-20).
Also, the many warnings to Christians in the New Testament not to sin would be wasted space. For example, "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6).
The truth is that a careless Christian can lose his salvation. That is why Peter said, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (I Peter 5:8). There is quite a bit on this web site on this topic.
