Originally posted by Carson Weber:
Hi Gunther,
To acknowledge that your salvation can be lost does not thereby mean that you trust in your own efforts. We are kept holy and undefiled by the grace of Jesus Christ, which can be rejected through sin.
Our salvation can only be lost by commiting a mortal sin (see 1 John 5) such as murder, adultery, fornication, etc., which entails our free choice to reject the gift of God's grace. This is what the Prodigal Son did in Jesus' parable recounted in Luke, Chapter 15.
To lose one's salvation is precisely the result of losing faith in Jesus Christ. It is precisely the abandonment of trust in him to keep you holy. It is precisely rejecting the free gift of salvation through the action of turning away from Jesus Christ in sin.
You wrote, "I completely reject the idea that a person can lose their salvation. There is not a single text that can support this idea without ignoring or twisting other passages."
Are you kidding with me? Sometimes I wonder if individuals such as yourself actually read the Bible. The New Testament is full of such passages. Here are some prime examples, brother:
Beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. (2 Peter 3:17,18)
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that ... he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19,20)
You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; ... you have fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:4)
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise ... you also will be cut off. (Romans 11:22)
For ... if ... after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the ... knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ... the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire." (2 Peter 2:20-22)
in the body of His flesh through death, to ... present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight ... if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, ... and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Colossians 1:22,23)
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)
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and ... I will not blot out his
name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (Revelation 3:5)
For ... if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there ... no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ... but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26,27)
For we have become partakers of Christ ... if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end (Hebrews 3:14)