Does the Bible Teach That Christians Can Lose Their Salvation?

Does the Bible teach that I can lose my salvation? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2626. If you get our voicemail system, feel free to leave your question there. We do our best to review our voicemails each day. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites or email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Sarah calling in from Kansas. Sarah, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi, thank you. My question would be, how can you explain to someone why, after sinning with Bathsheba, God caused David's infant son to die? It just seems like, you know, at reading that, you would think the child is innocent, and how is that just? Does that make sense?

Can you explain the situation to us? Yeah. Sarah, thanks for that question. So, I mean, this was clearly a consequence, a discipline, a judgment, because of what David had done with Bathsheba. I mean, what happened, for those who aren't familiar with that story, David is this king that God calls, a king who generally, right, it seemed like he was righteous, he's doing well.

And then, at one point in his life, he takes a huge fall. He goes after a woman that he sees, takes her as the king, has relations with her. There are some people who would even go as far as to say he raped her. There's arguments that happen about it, but it does seem like, as the king, as the one with all this authority, I mean, it wasn't like she had a lot of options here. And then also, has her husband killed, and is blind to his sin. He's confronted by the prophet Nathan. He comes to his senses, that's described in Psalm 51. But the result of his sin was a clear judgment from the Lord, and part of that judgment was the death of the child that was conceived. And the question is, well, how is that fair?

How is that just? Now, we don't know, of course, the eternal destiny of the child. David says, it seems like David has hope that he is going to see this child again.

The child's not going to come back to me. I'm going to go to the child, which many people, myself included, have gone to that text in order to make a case for the fact that we have hope for our infants who die, or those who die prior to being born, that they're received into the hands of a good and gracious God. As far as providing a justification or something like that, we know that there are consequences to sin. We know that our sin also does affect the people around us.

That's just a reality. I do think of the text in Exodus 20, verse 5, where God is talking about idolatry. He says, You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

I don't know that we could say more than that with regard to this situation. There's that passage in the book of Revelation. I believe it's Revelation, chapter 3, where Jesus is talking about the sin in one particular church and the discipline that he was bringing about. He talked about there in that context also.

There's some debate about this too. This is Jesus' word to say that he's not going to come back to me. He's talking about the church at Thyatira. He's talking about the woman Jezebel, who's calling herself a prophetess, teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality, to eat food sacrificed to idols.

There you have the concept of idolatry again. He says, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent.

I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am huge. The church is the mind and the heart. There's a question there about the children. There are those who embrace her teaching. There's, I think, a strong case to be made for that. But, again, just the reality that sin affects the people around us, and so we have to take it seriously.

I don't think that there's anything that would cause us to say that God is being unjust here, but it just highlights again the devastating nature of sin. Sarah, I don't know that I could say more than that, but I appreciate this question. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. Thank you for having me.

If I could connect them. Well, one is in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 26, and I kind of got, you know, my answer for it. I do teach apologetically a lot, but it says, you know, he who, you know, deliberately keeps on sinning after he knows, has knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice to sin, but, you know, one just fearful into judgment. And I was talking to my wife about that, and the way I explained it to her is that when a person rejects, you know, God's Holy Spirit, and the conviction of the Spirit for salvation, there's no other way to know, there remains the most sacrifice to sin, when you reject that. But I would like to your input on that one, then if I could connect that kind of somewhat with, I've heard people say, the Spirit of God doesn't dwell in unclean temples.

And I, you know, I've read the Bible front to back, side to side, you know, and I hadn't read that scripture, and I've seen some closely related and I understand what they're saying. But I don't think that like, when we sin, like somehow we lose the Holy Spirit, and we got to get resaved and get it back again. That's the case, I probably get resaved several times a day. I feel you, I feel you.

Help me out. Yeah. Eric, let me just say as a brand new believer, that's what I thought happened. I mean, I felt like I lost my salvation, at least twice a day, and my poor pastor, I would go to his office, weekly, unannounced, I'd just show up because I thought, okay, I did it again. I'm pretty sure I lost my salvation.

You know, you don't know the thought that I just had or the way I just spoke to my mom or whatever. And that's a roller coaster. That is a roller coaster that many sincere Christians are on. I've heard it said before, you know, if you could lose your salvation, you just would. And so there's a debate about this, right?

Like, is it possible for someone to truly be regenerated, justified, and still to be condemned? And one of the passages that people will go to is Hebrews chapter 10, to argue for that. Same with also, you're probably familiar with this, Eric, being that you, it sounds like you like to talk about the Bible, teach the Bible, you do some apologetics earlier in Hebrews, right? Hebrews chapter six, you also have another strong warning there.

So a couple of things. What is the sin, the sin that's being talked about in Hebrews 10, if we go on sinning, you know, willfully? I think it's apostasy. He's writing a group of Christians who are turning their backs on Jesus and going back to the sacrificial system of the old covenant.

And so what they're doing is it's not just like they're struggling with some pattern of sin in their lives. They're denying Jesus altogether. They're saying his sacrifice was not sufficient. We got to go back to the blood of bulls and goats of the old covenant. And Jesus says, look, the author of the Hebrews says, if you reject this sacrifice, there is no other sacrifice. He just highlighted the fact that the blood of bulls and goats aren't going to save anyone.

There isn't another sacrifice. And so this is not talking about just, I think, struggling with a general pattern of sin or a habitual sin. This is talking about casting away your confidence in Jesus. In both instances where you have those strong warnings, both in chapter 6 and in chapter 10, he provides an encouragement after the fact. In chapter 6, verse 9, he says, Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, Beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. Okay, and then in chapter 10, towards the end, he says, But, verse 32, recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those who were so treated.

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay. He's talking about the coming of Christ. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But, and this is how he concludes that whole section, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

And so the call is to have faith here. It's not you're going to lose your salvation by your works or something like that. No, it's these people are turning away from Christ, committing the sin of apostasy. And then there's the broader question or the bigger question of, well, does that mean that they were saved to begin with? And my view is that a person can have a really close relationship to the church, can experience the sacramental life of the church. They were enlightened, baptized, they were partaking of the Lord's Supper, they were really close to the gospel. And yet, they didn't embrace it for themselves.

They didn't lay hold of it. And so there are a lot of warnings here, but I don't think that this is teaching that an individual can lose their salvation, that they can be one time justified, and then after a period of struggling with sin, they're just condemned. The call here is to cling to the gospel, to cling to Jesus, and praise God, I believe, that Jesus clings to us, that he keeps us, that he causes us to persevere in faith. And so I appreciate your question, and Eric, may the Lord bless you.

And let me just go back to you really quickly. You mentioned, there was a second part of your question there, what was the other text you brought up? I was talking about, I heard a lot of people say this, I'll just leave out what group, but they say the Spirit of God doesn't dwell in an unclean temple.

That's right. And I've read that Bible back to front, front to back, and searched deeply. I've seen some closely related, I understand that we have the temple of God, and he dwells in us, and other things of that nature, and that exact scripture, I'd like to see one show me that, and I haven't seen one yet, but I kind of get what they're getting at, but I don't agree with that. I think that when we sin, and the Holy Spirit is like, we have a war going on between the flesh and the Spirit all the time. When we walk in the Spirit, we don't carry out the desires of the flesh, those desires are still there. And it's not like the Spirit just leaves us and comes back once we get back right. It's almost like putting the Spirit of God in the back seat.

Leave the driving of me today. And I've got them here, and it's still there, convicting them. Let me just say on that really quickly, the question is, do we lose the Holy Spirit when we sin?

And I would say the answer is no. Paul said in Ephesians 1, verse 13, In Jesus 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. So if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. I don't think you're going to ever lose the Holy Spirit, but you can grieve the Holy Spirit, and that's exactly what the Apostle Paul goes on to say just a few chapters later. In chapter 4, verse 30, he gives the exhortation to the same church, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Now, how do you grieve the Spirit? It's by sin. He says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. So when we don't do those things, we're grieving the Spirit, the same Spirit that has sealed us for the day of redemption. Paul doesn't say the seal is broken, he's gone, but we do grieve the Spirit. I think we can experience that sense of having grieved the Spirit, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but then also that sense of spiritual dryness that comes for us as Christians when we're rejecting what God has called us to do, and we know it.

There is that withering that can take place. That doesn't mean that the Spirit has abandoned us or that Christ has abandoned us. It's a form of discipline that God uses to bring us to repentance.

And so that's what I would say about that. And the fact of the matter is, as believers, we're always going to continue to struggle with sin. So the person who says, Well, the Spirit of God doesn't dwell in unclean temples.

Well, what do you mean by that? Yeah, I understand what you're getting at, but if you mean as a Christian, you need to be perfect. You need to be without sin so that the Holy Spirit will live in you. None of us would be the temples of the Holy Spirit. That language comes from the book of Corinthians, and who were the Corinthians? As Paul is addressing, your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Were the Corinthians perfect?

No. Read the book of Corinthians. No, they were not perfect.

They were a mess, actually. And many of us are, too. Frankly, we need the help of the Holy Spirit and praise God that he fills us and empowers us to follow after Christ. So, God bless. Hey, Eric, thanks so much for your call, for listening to Core Christianity. And Adriel, thanks for that great clarification on that passage. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You can email us anytime if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, doctrine or theology. Here's the email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com.

Let's go to Lynn calling in from Illinois. Lynn, what's your question for Adriel? Yes. I was wondering, I keep hearing people talk about that you have your own guardian angel. Is that true? Lynn, thank you for that question.

I mean, something, right? This idea of guardian angels seems sort of common in culture. The question is, is this biblical?

And there are a couple of passages to go to. The first one is in Matthew chapter 18, Lynn. In verse 10, Jesus said, See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Here, the context was him talking about temptations to sin, not causing one of the little ones to stumble. And he says, they're angels. He's attaching angels to these little children. And the other text that I would just want to bring up here is what the author of the Hebrew says in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 14. In the context, he's talking about how Jesus is superior to the angels. He says in verse 5, For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my Son, did I have begotten you? And so he's emphasizing, as the book of Hebrews does over and over again, the superior nature of Christ, the Son of God, here comparing him with the angels.

But then he makes this comment about angels in verse 14. He says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? And so the angels, they listen to the command of God. They're sent out by the Lord to serve, to serve who?

To serve God's children, the people of God, those who are going to inherit salvation. And so I think by extension, we can look at those verses and say, yeah, the angels do have this sort of guardian function. There are other texts that we could look at in the Old Testament that seem to indicate that there are angels, even over regions of nations in particular. You see this in the book of Deuteronomy.

You see this also in the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 10. So they do seem to have this sort of protector-guardian type role. They're ministering to those who will inherit salvation, whether each of us has our own particular specific guardian angel. I don't know that we could go that far, but I think we do want to be able to say, to affirm, there is an angelic world out there. There are good angels and there are bad angels, and the good angels are sent out to minister on behalf of, on behalf of those who are going to inherit salvation.

They're at work in the world today, even though we can't see them. And we ought to be aware of that and pray and say, Lord, send your angels out into the world to protect your people and to minister to your people and to protect us. And so I appreciate that question, Lynn, and hopefully that provides some clarification.

Those two passages are Matthew chapter 18, verse 10, and Hebrews chapter 1, verse 14. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Angel Sanchez. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I do want to mention that we are a listener-supported ministry. We count on people just like you to stay on the air. We don't get money from a church or denomination.

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Hi, Adriel. So I just wanted to kind of set this up. We have already talked about in the past believers that dabble in the world just on the subject of music.

We talked about that. So Christian artists go into secular music, and I'm kind of obviously, in my part, thought of immediately Matthew 6.24, obviously loving one and completely despising the other. And from the approach of, I'm going to give the artist Chris Tomlin working with a very secular, party driven country artist named Lady Antebellum collaborated on a few songs. I don't know who went to who. I would assume Tomlin probably went to Lady Antebellum and said, hey, what do you guys think about a collaboration?

Or if vice versa, if Lady Antebellum went to Chris Tomlin and would say, well, coming from Chris Tomlin saying, well, I completely hate what you do. Obviously, you're talking about drinking relations and things of that nature. Would you connect John 6.24 to the collaboration with the world? Because I've already had this answered question a few times as far as.

Let me just try to get to it with the time that we have left. So the first thing I would say is James says friendship with the world is enmity with God. You can't be a friend of the world and be a friend of God at the same time. And what he means by that is we have to be careful that we're not compromising as Christians, that we're not letting the sinful ways of the world shape how we follow Jesus. Is it possible to collaborate with those outside of the church on a number of things, even I think music?

Yeah, absolutely. Now, what you have to watch out for is, am I being shaped by the world or am I shining as a light for Jesus in the world? There are some people in the world who see that and they're encouraged. They glorify God in heaven is what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. There are other people who they persecute you.

They think you're crazy for the things that you believe as a Christian, but it's not as black and white. We have to think about, as I engage the people around me, who is forming and shaping who? Now, with regard to that text in Matthew chapter 6, what's highlighted there is not being greedy for money. In other words, not living for money. And so if the reason we do collaborations is because of a deep lust and longing to be rich and to have a lot of money, and we're not thinking about the glory of God, well then, yeah, maybe that could be applicable. But I think it's much broader than that. Jesus in verse 24 says, no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other or will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

And we know that money is at the center of so much of media and entertainment. And so this is one of the areas where we have to be cautious and careful and trust in the Lord. God bless. .