You might have had the unpleasant experience when one of your Christian mates stops coming to church or youth group, turns away from God, stops following Jesus and goes back to living life their own way.
Sometimes it can happen just for a season of struggle, but other times, it looks permanent. You might be upset that you won’t be seeing them as much, and feel concerned about some of the decisions they are making. While you continue to love them unconditionally and encourage them to come back to God, you may still have some big questions:
‘Will they ever turn back to God?’, ‘Will God forgive them a second time around?’, ‘Will they still be going to heaven?’, ‘Are they still forgiven even though they don’t call themselves a Christian anymore?’.
All these concerns are summed up in the question: ‘Can a Christian fall away?’ At face value, it seems a very obvious ‘yes’ simply because many of us have friends who appear to have done just that. But on a deeper level, when we ask that question, what we’re really asking is: ‘can someone who believed in God and trusted Jesus to save them, ever lose their salvation?
People have many different answers to this question
Some, who believe in ‘salvation by works’ would say “Yes, because the way you live and the good works you do decide whether or not you go to heaven.” However, it isn’t the way we live that decides whether we go to heaven or not – it’s whether or not we have trusted in Jesus to save us. (If you haven’t heard of being ‘saved by grace’ read Ephesians 2, or this article.)
Others might say “Yes, even though God forgives us our sins as a free gift it’s up to us to work hard to make sure we grow more holy and don’t fall away back into sin.” Paul wrote Galatians to correct a similar teaching, and he called that kind of thinking foolish. Of course, Christians are to avoid sin and strive to grow in holiness, but our sin doesn’t change our standing with God. The foundation of our relationship with God is the perfect sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. To think that my ability to sin is more powerful than Jesus’ ability to save is foolish!
Unfortunately, there are some who would try to take God’s promise for granted. They might use slogans like ‘once saved, always saved’ as a license to live however they like and still go to heaven. Some call this ‘grace abuse’, and the Bible is pretty clear that is not the kind of faith that saves. Rather, a heart that has been saved by grace is one that is transformed by the Holy Spirit, and as a result seeks to live a godly life. Good works are not necessary to get saved, but being saved by faith in Jesus will always bring about change in someone’s heart and actions.
So, where does all of this leave us with our question about falling away?
If someone appears to have fallen away, it might mean that deep in their heart of hearts, they had never really given Jesus control of their life or trusted completely in Him to save them. I believe these are the people Jesus referred to in his parable of the sower when he mentioned the seed scattered on the stony ground. These people appear to become Christians and for a season are very enthusiastic about God, the Bible and doing good works but their faith never really takes root and they end up falling away.
Maybe they changed their behaviour to fit in at church or youth group, but maybe it wasn’t from a heart that sincerely loved God and was being transformed by the Holy Spirit. These are the people Hebrews 6 is talking about when it mentions people who fall away. They ‘tasted’ what life in God’s family is like and even ‘shared’ in some of the benefits the Holy Spirit brings to believers and were ‘enlightened’ by leaders and teachers who explained and showed to them what it meant to be saved, but in the end, they turned away.
It could mean that they had never really understood the gospel message at all, and need to be loved and encouraged back to God. In that case, you now have an opportunity to help them really understand the gospel for the first time, and they have an opportunity to really put their trust in God for the first time.
Regardless of what answer you might have to hypothetical questions about falling away, the opportunity to watch someone return to God is something you don’t want to waste. No matter how bleak it looks, only God knows their heart. Our job is to keep praying for them and loving them, trusting in God’s promises.
