Can Christians Lose Salvation: What to do with Doubts

Last week I chatted about how Christians should rightly view salvation. You can read that blog post or watch my YouTube video on the topic.

This week we are going to look at salvation from the perspective of doubts.

Is it wrong for Christians to doubt their salvation? Can Christians lose their salvation?

Just like last week we will be looking to Scripture to answer these questions.

But before we get started, if you haven’t yet, grab my free resource, “A Beginner’s 5-Step Guide to Bible Reading,” so you can start reading the Bible today – no matter what book of the Bible you’re reading in.

Can Christians Lose Salvation: What to do with Doubts

I can remember wrestling with doubts for most of my life. I was saved at VBS when I was 7 or 8 (I can’t remember). And throughout the rest of my childhood into my teens I doubted my salvation.

I wouldn’t even call it questioning from time to time, it was my actual belief. This resulted in worry, stress, and going down from two more times to “make sure” it was real.

Looking back I think I can pinpoint the root of this cycle of doubts, fears, and “sealing it” with a prayer.

My theology on salvation was shallow at best and wrong at worst.

If you haven’t already, go back and read last week’s blog post where I talk about what salvation actually is. We need THAT foundation before we talk about the security of our salvation.

With that being said, let’s dive in.

Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?

Before we discuss our doubts as a Christian, we need to answer the question of whether or not we can LOSE our salvation.

For me personally, growing up, I didn’t doubt because I thought I had “lost” it, I was always worried that I never really was saved to begin with.

Either way, this answer should settle both of these questions.

(I am fully aware this is a hot topic among Believers. I want speak truth with love while using Scripture to answer the question, not my personal opinion.)

John 10:27–30: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will 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 the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

John 17:9-11: I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but  for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in  them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in  your name, which you have given me, that they may be  one, even as we are one. 

John 6:37: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

Romans 8:38–39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Peter 1:3–5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Ephesians 1:13–14: In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Jude 1b: To those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.

Jude 24-25: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, authority, before all time, and now and forever. Amen.

These are just a few verses that specifically point to the inability to lose our salvation. If we look at the entire metanarrative from Genesis to Revelation, we will see that God makes the covenant, God keeps the covenant, and God brings it to completion.

God is the One who Saves.

Ephesians 2:8–9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Here’s the GREAT news! God is the author and keeper of our salvation! God is the One who does the saving. Let’s be honest, if it were up to me to keep my salvation, then I would lose it – guaranteed.

Thanks be to God it is settled on Christ’s atonement on the cross!

Is it Wrong to Doubt Your Salvation?

I can remember when our pastor made this comment, “To be human is to doubt. When we doubt, we need to go to the One who holds our Salvation.”

Hebrews 12:1–2: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Doubting isn’t wrong or sinful. If you’re having doubts, then you need to go to Jesus.

We are called to Examine our Faith

There are other things Scripture sheds light on to consider when we are looking at our salvation.

2 Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

This verse is the one that comes to mind when I think about how we should view our salvation.

Paul tells us to “examine ourselves” and “test ourselves.”

One More Rebuttal about Salvation

One Scripture that should humble every single person is found in Matthew. Here Jesus is speaking when He says this:

Matthew 7:21–23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

People have abused the saying, “Once saved. Always saved.”

Before you go throwing your phone across the room, hear me out.

Scripture is clear that our salvation is sealed. God is the One who does the saving and keeping.

However, in some cultures, we have used this beautiful truth and turned it into a stumbling block.

When the emphasis is put on a prayer or feeling as security of your salvation, errors are sure to rise.

(Plus, we can’t avoid Matthew 7!)

1 John is the perfect letter for us to read in order to know how to examine our faith to “test ourselves.”

Here are just a few verses but I encourage you to go read and study through the entire episetle!

1 John 2:3–4: And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

1 John 2:15: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 3:6: No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 4:7–8: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

One hard truth we need to remember is that just because someone claims to be a Christian, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

Being sincere isn’t the marker if salvation truly happened, it our life being obedient to Chris and perservering to the end.

John also says in 1 John

1 John 2:18–19

[18] Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. [19] 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. (ESV)

In Conclusion

God is the One who saves us. And praise His name for that because He is the only One who can keep our salvation.

We are called to “test ourselves” to see if we are in the faith.

If we love the world more than God, if we make a practice of sinning, if we don’t love others, or if we don’t obey His commandments, then we ought to take a sober look at our hearts and pray asking the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us – bring us to repentance!

I hope this brings some clarity if you are wrestling with your faith.

Make sure to be plugged into a local church and do life with other Believers.

See y’all around,

Shai