Question: Can you loose your salvation.

If the man remains under his umbrella the rain can't get him wet.

If he walks out from under his umbrella he gets wet.

The question is can the Christian loose his faith and start living a worldly carnal existence and still be saved?

Once a person is saved are they always saved?

When people come to know Christ as their Savior, they are brought into a relationship with God that guarantees their salvation as eternally secure. Numerous passages of Scripture declare this fact.

A Christian is a person who has fully trusted in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and therefore possesses the Holy Spirit (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8–9).

The Bible declares that a true Christian will not live a state of continual, unrepentant sin (1 John 3:6).

The Bible also says that anyone who departs the faith is demonstrating that he was never truly a Christian (1 John 2:19).

He may have been religious, he may have put on a good show, but he was never born again by the power of God. “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16).

The redeemed of God belong “to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).

If you are not living a Christian life and have no qualms about it, I would seriously question if you are actually born again.

Nothing can separate a child of God from the Father’s love (Romans 8:38–39).

Nothing can remove a Christian from God’s hand (John 10:28–29).

God guarantees eternal life and maintains the salvation He has given us.

The Good Shepherd searches for the lost sheep, and, “when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (Luke 15:5–6).

The lamb is found, and the Shepherd gladly bears the burden; our Lord takes full responsibility for bringing the lost one safely home.

Jude 24–25 further emphasizes the goodness and faithfulness of our Savior: “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

The Bible teaches that everyone who is born again by the power of the Holy Spirit is saved forever.

We receive the gift of eternal life (John 10:28), not temporary life. Someone who is born again (John 3:3) cannot be “unborn."

After being adopted into God’s family (Romans 8:15), we will not be kicked out. When God starts a work, He finishes it (Philippians 1:6). So, the child of God—the believer in Jesus Christ—is eternally secure in his salvation.

So if your living a life of sin and have no conviction about it, I would seriously question if you were actually a Christian.

Especially if you have been living like that for years.

However, the Bible also contains some strong warnings against apostasy.

These warnings have led some to doubt the doctrine of eternal security. After all, if we cannot lose our salvation, why are we warned against falling away from the Lord? This is a good question. First, we must understand what is meant by “apostasy.”

An apostate is someone who abandons his religious faith. It is clear from the Bible that apostates are people who made professions of faith in Jesus Christ but never genuinely received Him as Savior.

They were pretend believers.

Those who turn away from Christ never really trusted Him to begin with, as 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”

Those who apostatize are simply demonstrating that they are not true believers, and they never were.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24–30) provides a simple illustration of apostasy. In the same field were growing wheat and “false wheat” (tares or weeds).

At first, the difference between the two types of plants was undetectable, but as time went on, the weeds were seen for what they were.

In the same way, in any given church today, there may be true, born-again believers side by side with pretenders—those who enjoy the messages, the music, and the fellowship but have never repented of their sins and accepted Christ by faith.

To any human observer, the true believer and the pretender look identical. Only God can see the heart. Matthew 13:1–9 (the Parable of the Sower) is another illustration of apostasy in action.

The Bible’s warnings against apostasy exist because there are two types of religious people: believers and unbelievers.

In any church there are those who truly know Christ and those who are going through the motions.

Wearing the label “Christian” does not guarantee a change of heart.

It is possible to hear the Word, and even agree with its truth, without taking it to heart.

It is possible to attend church, serve in a ministry, and call yourself a Christian—and still be unsaved (Matthew 7:21–23). As the prophet said, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13; cf. Mark 7:6).

God warns the pretender who sits in the pew and hears the gospel Sunday after Sunday that he is playing with fire.

Eventually, a pretender will apostatize—he will “fall away” from the faith he once professed—if he does not repent. Like the tares among the wheat, his true nature will be made manifest.

The Bible’s warnings against apostasy is to equip the church to identify apostates. They can be known by their rejection of Christ, acceptance of heresy, and carnal nature (2 Peter 2:1–3).

The Bible is clear that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 14:6).

The moment a person truly believes in Jesus Christ, he or she is saved and secure in that salvation. It is unbiblical to say that salvation is received by faith, but then has to be maintained by works.

The apostle Paul addresses this issue in Galatians 3:3 when he asks, "Are you so foolish?

After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"

If we are saved by faith, our salvation is also maintained and secured by faith.

We cannot earn our own salvation.

Therefore, neither can we earn the maintenance of our salvation. It is God who maintains our salvation (Jude 24).

It is God's hand that holds us firmly in His grasp (John 10:28-29).

It is God's love that nothing can separate us from (Romans 8:38-39).

If we are indeed a born again Christian.

Does this mean that a Christian can live any way he wants to and still be saved?

This is essentially a hypothetical question, because the Bible makes it clear that a true Christian will not live "any way he wants to." Christians are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Christians demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), not the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).

First John 3:6-9 clearly states that a true Christian will not live in continual sin.

In response to the accusation that grace promotes sin, the apostle Paul declared, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Romans 6:1-2).

How could anyone who understands God's unconditional and guaranteed love for those who believe, take that love and throw it back in God's face?

Such a person is demonstrating not that eternal security has given him a license to sin, but rather that he or she has not truly experienced salvation through Jesus Christ.

"No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him" (1 John 3:6).

Believers are born again (regenerated) when they believe (John 3:3; Titus 3:5).

For a Christian to lose his salvation, he would have to be un-regenerated.

The Bible gives no evidence that the new birth can be taken away.

So the true question is, "Am I a Christian, or am I not a Christian?"

Something that only you and God can accurately answer...