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Can You Lose Your Salvation? part 1
What about unconfessed sin?
Those who subscribe to a temporal salvation always appeal to unconfessed sin as the reason for a believer’s condemnation – apparently, God saves those who have confessed every jot of sin two seconds before death. Here is the catch; you don’t know every sin you have committed. Surely you may know some, that you can confess, but what about those sins you commit without knowing, and will never know? In reality, no one will ever know or remember every sin they have committed. Then it means no one will be saved because everyone will die with some unconfessed sin one way or the other – Do you see the problem?
However, let’s try to refresh our minds this way; you are saved by God, through faith in Christ. That salvation includes repentance, or let’s call it, confession. During that process, I don’t confess by naming every sin I ever committed because I don’t remember every sin. Rather, I confess who I am – a sinner. The issue is not really what I did, but who I am before the Holy One. Therefore true repentance unto salvation is not confessing every sin I did, but it’s a confession of the condition of my soul – I am a wretched man pleading for forgiveness. Whatever it is Lord, just wash me and make me a new creature! This is what we see with the tax collector in Luke 18:13; he didn’t bother naming every sin but he only acknowledged the condition of his soul by simply saying, “God have mercy on me a sinner.”
Following that is the process of salvation. Christ forgives once and for all; past, present and future. This is where many of us have a misunderstanding because we imagine Jesus to only forgive my sins that I confess now, leaving me to deal with my future sins on my own. Do you think that is true? The sins I will commit next year, were they not forgiven the day I got saved? If that is the case then it means salvation is temporal. It means we need to be re-saved again and again every time we sin until we get saved for the 10000th time, seconds before death. That is not salvation at all!
Again I write this; the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to wash away all your sins that you have, and will ever commit in your lifetime. The past sins, the present sins and the future sins; are all forgiven once and for all, the moment you believe in Christ. The promise of the Gospel is that whoever believes in Christ is instantly given eternal life. It does not say, “We will give you eternal life if we first see that you have confessed every sin before dying.” Dear friend, please get this; every sin, confessed or not has already been taken away the moment you trusted in Christ! The work of Christ is complete and perfect; you don’t need to keep getting saved because you are once and for all justified; dressed with the righteousness of Christ and declared righteous. Therefore it doesn’t matter what sin you committed five seconds before death; it was included with all the other sins that were washed the day you came to Christ. Did you learn that?
One more question; once we are saved, is there a need to keep confessing our sins every time we come to prayer? Answer; yes. Regular confession of sin by the ones who are already believers is necessary, not for the sake of salvation (we are already saved) but for the sake of sanctification. As we grow in Christ, being more conformed to the image of Christ, sin must lose its power. Therefore we confess it every time because we want to destroy that sin in our lives – so that we can better fellowship with our Saviour. It’s a way of saying, “Father, I lied yesterday, please forgive me and give me power to never lie like that again, because I want to glorify you in every area of my life” – something like that nje.
What about those who fall away?
Having gone through the verses that advocate for eternal security, I must be honest enough to point out some verses that teach that there are some who fall away from the faith. One example is the disciples of Jesus who went back in John 6:66 or the branches that are connected to the Vine only to be cut and thrown to the fire according to John 15:2. In fact Hebrews 6:4-6 warns that it is impossible to bring someone back if they fall away after having tested the heavenly gift. Million-dollar question; how is it possible that Jesus said He loses none of His sheep yet there are some who fall away from Him on their way to destruction? You see that already we have two opposing ideas in one Bible.
Knowing that Scripture does not contradict itself, we must combine these two ideas by this application; those disciples who fall from grace permanently are proving that they were never true disciples, to begin with. This is well supported by Hebrews 12:6-8 which reminds us that true sons are disciplined back to the path whenever they temporarily fall away. On the other hand, those without discipline altogether, are illegitimate children (were never part of the family). Indeed they might live their whole lives thinking that they are part of the family, even behaving like the true sheep but in reality, they were never His – as evidenced by the absence of the hand of discipline from the Father. Hence if you can turn your back against the Christian Faith, and continue to go back without return until you leave this world, then you were never a true sheep of Jesus. True believers can fall into sin for a season, only for their Shepherd to hunt for them and bring them back home. Now I understand!
This is the end of our time together. Remember that we learned that Christ does not give us a two-year guarantee salvation, then it expires and we find ourselves in hell. On the opposite, true salvation is eternal and permanent. This is never an excuse to sin freely because those who are truly saved have the desire to please their Saviour. Therefore, to you who is truly saved I say; you don’t have to live the next moment with constant dread of losing your salvation, rather, rejoice and have peace because Christ will keep your salvation until the last minute. If you sin, He is faithful to discipline you and bring you back to the faith. Can I hear an Amen?
Sinothi Ncube
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