by Bobby Holloway
Did you know that some people think that the Bible teaches that a child of God cannot fall away and be lost? We think the Scriptures teach that a child of God can quit serving God and be lost. Both of those concepts are not correct. Which one is?
Those who believe a child of God cannot be lost appeal to several Scriptures, and one of them is 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.” Notice the tense of the verbs in those verses. Jesus did not say the sheep “heard” my voice or that they “followed” me. The point is that the hearing and the following must continue. What if one stops hearing and stops following? Someone says, “He cannot do that.” Why not? The teaching there does not say that he cannot LEAVE the Father’s hand. It says no one can snatch him away. John 5:24 is another passage that is used to support this doctrine. “Most assuredly, I say to you he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and SHALL NOT come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Once again Jesus did not say “heard” the word and “believed” in God. It does not take place at one point in time and thus has no need to continue. What if someone quits hearing the word and believing in God and Jesus? Does God remove our ability to choose when we become Christians? Nowhere in the Scriptures are we taught that becoming God’s children makes us robots without freedom of will.
Someone says, “It does not matter because once a person becomes a child of God, he will always be a child just like in a physical family.” That gave me some pause the first time I heard it. The illustration was that once I was born into my father’s family I would always be a part of it regardless of how I behaved. God’s family is the same way, is the argument. That is a nice illustration, but what about the inheritance? We are “heirs” of God (Romans 8:14), but God can disinherit. Just as surely as an earthly father can disinherit a son who remains a son God can do the same thing. Does he ever do it? Read on.
Here are some passages that teach that a child of God can be lost. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” (Hebrews 6:4-6) The description in verses 4 and 5 is unmistakably of a saved person, but he fell away and could not even be persuaded to repent.
Galatians 5:4 says, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” That statement is addressed to children of God because one cannot fall from grace unless he is within God’s grace.
There is another verse, John 3:36, that shows the harmony among these four passages. “He who believes on the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son SHALL NOT see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Can the one who does not believe the Son become a believer? You know he can. People preach to unbelievers, those who have not expressed faith in Jesus, all the time. The believer shall not come into judgment (John 5:24), and the unbeliever shall not see life (John 3:36). The unbeliever can become a believer, and the believer can become an unbeliever. That is the explanation regarding those passages. If you noticed, I capitalized the words “shall not” twice in this article. Which of those shall nots is stronger? The believer “shall not,” and the unbeliever “shall not.” They are equal in strength. Both can change because they have freedom of will.
We sing a hymn that contains these words, “Would you have Him save you so that you need never fall?” The key word is “need.” God can save us so that we need never fall, but as long as we have free will, He cannot save us so that we cannot ever fall. “We shall reap in due season if we faint not.” “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life.” What if we do faint; will we still reap? What if we are not faithful unto death; will we still receive the crown? Those passages in Galatians 6:9 and Revelation 2:10, respectively, indicate that there would then be no reaping and no crown. The Bible teaches that a child of God is a secure believer, but it also teaches that a believer can cease to believe.
We must persevere; God will help us, but He will not force us.