Can You Lose Your Salvation? “Once Saved, Always Saved” vs. Finishing the Race
Few doctrines stir as much heat as “once saved, always saved.” I was literally at work the other day when one of my coworkers started talking about it and asking for opinions, since he was helping disciple a young man who was struggling with this issue. For some believers, eternal security is the bedrock of assurance: if Christ saves you, He keeps you to the end. For others, Scripture’s warning passages knock us in the head sober clarity: genuine believers can fall away by freely rejecting the very grace that once saved them. In this piece, I’ll will do my best to fairly summarize both positions, present the strongest biblical case for each, and explore the pastoral implications. Cards on the table right away, though, I am convinced that Scripture teaches that a true believer can, by ongoing, obstinate unbelief, forfeit salvation. God does not revoke human freedom at conversion; as with Adam and Eve, who walked with God and yet chose sin, some disciples tragically choose self over the Savior.
Now, with that preamble out of the way, let’s get on to the meat and potatoes.
The eternal security view (often called OSAS or “perseverance of the saints”) holds that all who are truly regenerate will infallibly persevere. God finishes what He starts; the Good Shepherd loses none of His sheep. On this view, warning passages function as means God uses to keep the elect persevering, not as predictions that the elect will finally fall.
The conditional security view asserts that salvation is a living union with Christ that must be maintained by faith; God remains faithful, but He does not override human freedom. Apostasy is not an accidental stumble; it is an ongoing, deliberate repudiation of Christ. Scripture’s warnings are not hypothetical scenarios; they describe a real possibility that believers must resist by abiding in Jesus.
The best biblical case for “once saved, always saved”
When presenting a position, the best thing you can do is “steelman” the position. That is, present it in its strongest, most charitable, and believable light. This is what I will be doing for this position, because many godly Christians hold it with deep reverence for Scripture. Jesus promises in John 10 that His sheep hear His voice, He knows them, they follow Him, and He gives them eternal life (“no one can snatch them out of my hand… or my Father’s hand”). Paul writes in Romans 8 that those God foreknew, He predestined, called, justified, and glorified; nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1 speaks of believers sealed with the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance, and Philippians 1:6 anchors confidence that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” First John 2:19 is often decisive for this view: those who depart “were not of us,” so their departure reveals they were never truly born again. Together, these texts paint a picture of divine initiative and keeping: salvation is God-authored and God-guarded.
Within this framework, warning passages are pastorally effective because God uses them to secure the saints. Like guardrails on a mountain road, their function is preventative. The elect heed the warnings; those who do not were never truly in saving union with Christ. Assurance is grounded primarily in God’s promise and Christ’s intercession, not in fluctuating experience.
The best biblical case for “you can lose your salvation”
Now the other side of the coin. The warning passages do not read like hypothetical signposts; they read like real cliffs. Hebrews 6 describes people who have been “enlightened,” have tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of God’s word, yet can fall away in a way that is devastating to recover from. Hebrews 10 warns that if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, only judgment remains. Second Peter 2 speaks of those who “have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior,” but become entangled again; their “last state has become worse than the first.” Jesus Himself teaches in John 15 that branches “in Me” that refuse to abide are cut off and thrown into the fire. Paul admonishes Gentile believers in Romans 11 to continue in God’s kindness, “otherwise you also will be cut off.” He disciplines his own body lest, after preaching to others, he himself be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:27). Galatians 5 warns that those seeking to be justified by the law have “fallen from grace.”
In these texts, the subjects aren’t casual spectators; they share in genuinely salvific realities (illumination, the Spirit’s gifts, union “in Me,” escape from corruption) yet face the possibility of forfeiture through unbelief and persistent rebellion. Salvation is not a fragile mood, but neither is it an unbreakable contract independent of living faith. Grace is covenantal; covenants have promises and conditions. The New Testament consistently binds assurance to abiding, a persevering, trusting attachment to Christ expressed in repentance and obedience. In other words, God’s faithfulness is never in question, but our response can tragically change.
My own reading is that freedom (i.e., free will) truly continues after conversion. God does not save us by abolishing our will; He heals and elevates it. We are not puppets before or after baptism. Think of Adam and Eve: they enjoyed unmediated fellowship with God and still chose disobedience. Likewise, believers who have genuinely tasted grace can, over time, choose to harden their hearts (Hebrews 3–4). Apostasy is not a single lapse; it is the calcifying of refusal. That is why Scripture pleads, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
However, I must also say that each approach does have a unique pastoral approach that must be touched upon. A pastor coming from one or the other theological backgrounds will have differing approaches to perseverance.
If you embrace eternal security, you’ll urge weary saints to rest in Christ’s finished work, to put more weight on God’s promise than on their performance, and to treat warning texts as God’s ordained medicine that preserves the elect. You’ll emphasize assurance as a stabilizing force for holiness rather than a license to sin, and you’ll interpret deconversions as evidence of prior non-regeneration, calling prodigals to what may be their first true repentance and faith.
If you embrace conditional security, you’ll still preach deep assurance, but you’ll refuse to sand down the edges of texts that warn believers. You’ll counsel struggling Christians that stumbles do not equal apostasy; the issue is the direction of travel. Repentance is not starting over from zero; it is re-entrusting yourself to the Savior who welcomes prodigals. You’ll take seriously the means of grace (Word, prayer, sacraments, fellowship) as the ordinary ways God sustains perseverance. And when someone drifts into obstinate unbelief, you’ll say what the New Testament says: turn back today, because real loss is possible, and real restoration is offered now.
All that is well and good. But this article would be incomplete without addressing pushback against the position I hold, that of conditional security.
People will say, What about John 10 and Romans 8? I affirm them wholly. Nothing external can wrench a believer from Christ’s grasp. The question is whether a person can, by ongoing unbelief, walk out of the hand they were once content to rest in. Those passages deny external separation, not the possibility of self-chosen apostasy that other texts warn against. What about 1 John 2:19? In some cases, departure does reveal counterfeit conversion. But it need not explain every case. The New Testament speaks of both false starts (the rocky soil) and real participation followed by ruin (2 Peter 2; Hebrews 6; John 15). The pastoral task is to discern wisely, not to collapse all categories into one.
What about the Spirit’s seal (Ephesians 1)? A seal marks ownership and guarantees inheritance; it does not erase all covenant conditions. Paul himself goes on to warn believers not to grieve the Spirit and to continue to the end. The same apostle who exults in God’s keeping power also pleads with Christians to stand firm because our ongoing trust is the appointed way that power keeps us.
Where does this leave anxious believers? With a double gift: a robust assurance anchored in Jesus, and a bracing realism about the human heart. You do not white-knuckle your salvation; you abide in a Person who is faithful and kind. If you’re tender and fearful, let the promises speak louder: Christ is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him. If you’re drifting or dabbling with sin, let the warnings wake you like a trumpet, because judgment day is never far away. They are not there to steal your joy; they are there to guard your soul.
Practically, this means staying close to the means of grace. Keep Scripture before your eyes and in your mouth. Pray honest prayers that confess sin quickly and receive mercy gladly. Meet Christ at the Table with repentance and faith. Walk with a church that knows your name, and consent to be shepherded and corrected. When you stumble, run toward the light, not away from it. Spiritual security grows in community; isolation is tinder for unbelief.
What I urge you to remember is this: you can walk away. Not by accident, not because God fails, but by a tragic, persistent refusal that ends in unbelief. I do not say this to unsettle the humble. I say it because the apostles say it, and because the same apostles also say that God is faithful, merciful, and mighty to keep those who keep on coming to Him. Assurance is for the penitent, not the presumptuous. Warnings are for our protection, not our paralysis.
So here is the invitation: abide. Take Jesus at His word. Keep saying yes. If you feel your heart cooling, say so to Him and to a trusted brother or sister today. The Father delights to rekindle what fear and sin have dimmed. And if you hold to eternal security, I bless you as my sibling in Christ; keep reminding the rest of us that God finishes what He starts. But as I read the whole counsel of God, the way He finishes is by enabling us to continue, freely, faithfully, and finally, in the grace we first received.