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Can a True Christian Fall from Grace?
How heartening it is to read clear passages like John 3:16 which says that all who believe in Christ will "not perish but have eternal life." John 6:37-40 teaches that Christ will lose none of those given to Him by the Father but will raise all of them up to eternal life at the last day. Romans 8:28-30 declares, “these He justified; He also glorified†showing that no one who is truly justified by Christ falls through the cracks before full glorification takes place. These and other passages like John 10:26-30 are so clear. However, at least at first glance, some scriptures seem to undermine these precious truths. Because the Bible is the inspired word of God, it is consistent throughout. It never contradicts itself. To see an example of this, here's a question (based on Galatians 5:4) and an answer provided by Dr. James White on his blog at www.aomin.org.
Question: How do we explain Galatians 5:4 which talks of people falling from grace?
Answer: Gal 5:4... you have fallen from grace. - This shows that you can receive God's grace and then fall. Quite true: but what kind of grace, and in what context?
These words are addressed to a particular group, as the context shows:
Galatians 5: 2-4...
2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.
4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
So in what way had those seeking to be justified by law "fallen from grace"? The assumption that is usually made is that to fall from grace proves that you once received saving grace; evidently, the same assumption would follow that one who is severed from Christ was once joined to Him savingly.
Aside from the contradictions such a position creates with the plain assertions of Scripture elsewhere, the fact of the matter is Paul is addressing those who were seeking to add to faith in Christ the single act of obedience encompassed in circumcision--clearly the Judaizers were not saying you did not have to believe in Christ, nor were they importing the entirety of the law of Moses (Paul argues their inconsistency at this point as part of his refutation of them); instead, they were adding a select list of things one had to do in addition to faith to be right before God. Paul has already laid out the stark contrast between the path marked by law-keeping obedience and that marked by grace-inspired faith in Christ. One cannot go down both paths.
These men were still seeking their justification, unlike true believers who look back upon theirs (Romans 5:1). They had not yet found peace with God by faith in Christ Jesus alone, and Paul says they will never find it going down the path they are going. They have been severed from Christ not in the sense that they had been salvifically united to Him and now He was failing to save them, but that by seeking to be made justified by something other than faith alone, they were severed from the only true source of life in Christ; they have fallen from grace not that they had been salvifically regenerated and justified and sanctified by grace already, and were now destroying that grace by their beliefs, but that they have fallen away or failed of grace (literally) by proceeding down a path grace has never, and will never, mark out, that path of human cooperation and works righteousness that is so much the desire of the unregenerate heart.
To prove that God's sovereign electing grace can fail to save the elect would require a text far more to the point than one addressing false teachers who are perverting the gospel and thus cutting themselves off from salvation.
Comments
John
I do not disagree with your view that a Christian cannot fall away from his salvation, but I think Galatians is more complex than you suggest. While we cannot know for sure the salvific state of the Galatians who were ‘falling away’, we do know that Paul compared them with Peter’s similar error previously. Clearly Peter was saved so his table fellowship error, which Paul criticised, was a serious mistake which a believer can make. Maybe Peter was not guilty of legalism (if we reserve ‘legalism’ to mean the attempt to get saved in the first place) but maybe he was guilty of neonomianism, which I take to mean a believer’s wrong attitude to the law, an obeying the law to stay saved. This is clearly as deadly as legalism but fortunately God does not abandon neonomianists to their heresy but, somehow, brings them back. Their falling away is therefore not final, but is akin to the ‘fall from grace’ that any and all of us make when, as believers, we still sin.
Richard
Posted by: Richard | October 2, 2006 06:17 AM
It is interesting that people neglect to look to Hebrews 6:4-6, which states,
"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."
We need look no further than this for clear answers to this question. I am not a legalist, I am free in Christ. However, I am not free to sin as I please. Rather to praise and live freely from my sin which I regrettably continue to commit. I will not glorify sin or "throw" my salvation out as an excuse to sin.
Posted by: Chris Brown | December 20, 2006 06:22 AM
Hi Chris,
The Hebrews 6 passage has been addressed on this blog a number of times. Here are some words on this from Vincent Cheung who was responding to someone who said that they still tended to read passages like this as an Arminian:
"... there are a number of commentaries that adequately address Hebrews 6. It is good to read and review them. After that, the struggle is not in attaining exegetical precision with the passage, but it is in the part of you that still tends to read it as an Arminian — as a self-centered rebel — when there is no warrant for it.
Consider the example of John 3:16. It says that whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life, which both Calvinism and Arminianism affirm, but it does not say who will believe or why they will believe. Thus the verse affirms only salvation by faith, and has no relevance to the disagreement between Calvinism and Arminianism until you bring other biblical passages into the discussion. However, many people want to read it as Arminians, and so they think that Arminianism is what it proves. They take the words "whoever believes" to mean something so different as, "Every man has free will, and anyone can by his free will believe in Christ apart from God's foreordination and direct control." I might as well deduce the entire Alice in Wonderland when someone says "Good morning" or "Have a nice day."
Likewise, Hebrews 6 says that whoever satisfies the listed conditions and then withdraws from the faith cannot repent again. Since this is what it says, then this is what it means. Now, we can argue about whether these conditions completely define a believer. We could argue from the example of Judas, who exercised the very powers of the world to come, but Jesus knew from the beginning that he was "a devil." He was never truly converted. However, even this discussion is unnecessary, since it is irrelevant to the main point of the passage. Even if it describes a believer, does a believer actually withdraw? Does it ever happen? The passage does not say. The only mention of this topic points toward the other direction: "Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case — things that accompany salvation" (v. 9). The writer was convinced that at least the original readers would not suffer the fate that he describes. What is it then? The passage cannot be used to support Arminianism, since even the relevance is absent.
I could say, "If God dies, then the earth will also disappear," or something to that effect. The statement is certainly true. But will it ever happen? Is it even possible? It would be pure lunacy to infer from the statement, "Therefore, it is possible for God to die." The statement does not address the topic at all. Now, we could argue that the words "if God dies" contain a categorical error, rendering the phrase meaningless, but other than that, the statement makes an important point, that God is the sustainer of all things, and that all things continuously depend on him. This is what it implies, and one cannot read more into it unless he does so by force."
Posted by: John Samson | December 20, 2006 10:18 AM
You made a mistake on John 3:16 King James Bible Says should not perish not will not parish or can not perish.There are conditions upon conditions in Gods word.Please check it out
Posted by: Chris Hookland | August 29, 2009 11:46 PM
Chris, I was not quoting the KJV, but interpreting the original Greek which makes it clear that it is impossible for a believing one to perish. The word "should" in English is not a particularly good translation in this particular verse as used in the KJV as in English the word "should" can contain the idea that something ought to happen but that it may not necessarily happen. This is NOT what the original text means in any way at all.
This is all confirmed by modern translations such as the NASB which says "shall not perish", the NET as "will not perish", and the NIV as "shall not perish".
God's love for the world is seen by the giving of His Son so that all the believing ones will not perish but instead will have eternal life.
Posted by: John Samson | August 30, 2009 12:20 AM
IF a christion lives a sinful life like lying cheating in marrige is he still going to Gods kingdom?
Posted by: Chris Hookland | September 13, 2009 10:32 PM
John 6:39 - And this is the will of him who sent me, that I SHALL NOT lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
John 8:12 - I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will NEVER walk in darkness, but WILL HAVE the light of life.
God's will will always be done, b/c its God's will. And it will certainly be done through Jesus b/c Jesus is God. If it is God's will for Jesus to lose no one that has been given to him than that is that.
Generally for me anything that makes God bigger is correct. What kind of God would God be if he could gain our hearts and we could still choose something else? God is God, he is perfect no one can take a true believer, one who believes with his heart and his actions and not just with his mouth, from God.
It's like the argument of whether we choose God first or He chooses us first. God opening our eyes so that we can see the truth and choose life over death is so obvious to me. God's salvation for us becomes that much greater and God's glory that much greater.
Matthew 11:25
John 6:44 - No one can come to me UNLESS THE FATHER who sent me DRAWS HIM.
If God did not allow us to see truth we would never choose it. Who would choose the life of a Christian...no one unless somehow they knew God's way was better, how can we know without someone opening our hearts and minds to it? We cannot.
God initiates our salvation not only with Jesus's death but also by opening our eyes to the truth of our shallow lives without Christ.
I mean really how much more clear can it be?
Posted by: Cody | April 13, 2010 11:04 PM
So are you telling us that if a person confessing to be a Christian and saved by our Lord Jesus, ignores their responsibility to live Godly lives as a testimony to Him. That they will still go to heaven?
I’m sure you are aware what Paul wrote to Believers “Christians†in 1 Cor 6:9;
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders.
He is addressing people that are cheating on their spouses, living in Fornication, and the “So-called†Saved Homosexuals. The Word is for Believers not unbelievers. So is he simply judging and Condemning the infidel? I think not!!! If Christ came back while we willfully live in Sin, this passage tells us NO ONE that is in these types of sin will enter in. The Word tells me and all Christians that a willfully wicked "Christian" would be included in that group and suffer the fate of the unsaved. After all even when we are Christians we have the "Free Will" to sin and sin cannot stand before or be anywhere around our God. And we know the Holy Spirit cannot live in an unclean vessel, therefore, the Spirit would Have to depart from a willful sinner until such a time they repented and sought after Jesus once again. Remember
“NARROW†IS THE WAY. How you are telling it… Just accept Jesus once and go on sinning YOU ARE SAVED so it doesn’t matter how you live. In Essence the absolute opposite you are saying "WIDE IS THE WAY???" The WORD says different.
Posted by: Tim | September 28, 2010 10:39 PM
TO follow up. It is my Beliefe that We are willfully accept salvation. And we can willfully reject it by our actions and ignoring the Word.
Posted by: Tim | September 28, 2010 10:43 PM
Tim,
If you were addressing your comments to me, let me respond by saying "No, that is not what I am saying at all." You have misunderstood me completely. A genuine Christian is one who will show forth the fact by his actions, because the one redeemed is also indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who goes to work on sanctification in the believer's life. But the actions (works) play no part in the justification for salvation is "not of works lest any man should boast" (Eph 2:8, 9). Holiness is the fruit not the root of our salvation.
Posted by: John S | September 28, 2010 11:25 PM
Shalom,
Could you please be so kind as to explain Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21 and Luke 8:6, 13 in relation to your suggested theology on ‘Eternal Security’?
Likewise, with respect to St. John 6:67, did Jesus require His twelve disciples to exercise their individual ‘free will(s)’ and make a choice regarding their continued discipleship?
Your response to my concern will be most appreciated.
Thanks,
barney
Posted by: barney | October 20, 2011 01:47 PM