“Coming Back To God”

Friday, November 06, 2020

     Once you lose your salvation, can you get it back?  I always heard of "back sliding" or something.  Once it's gone, is it forever gone, or can you be forgiven and regain your salvation?  If everyone sins, then doesn't that mean that sinning alone won't cause you to lose your salvation?  If that's the truth, what will?

Sincerely,
Sliding Forward

Dear Sliding Forward,

It takes more than just sin to lose your salvation – it takes a lifestyle of intentional sin… and yes, those that fall away can come back to God.  Let us give you an example.  In 1 Cor 5:1, the apostle Paul rebuked the church at Corinth because there was a member in that congregation that was committing fornication with his father’s wife – definitely a sin.  The man knew it was wrong, accepted that it was wrong, and still continued to live that lifestyle.  Paul said the church needed to rebuke him and withdraw from him (1 Cor 5:13).  That is what losing your salvation looks like…  choosing intentionally to live a life away from God’s will and not attempting to correct your faults.  If we are trying to correct our lives and change, God will forgive us even if we fail over and over again (Lk 17:3-4)… but when we stop trying, we’ve broken the faith.

Now let’s deal with a Christian that falls away from God and then wants to come back.  We’ll use that same man in 1 Cor 5:1 as our example.  Paul later wrote a second letter to the Corinthian church, and in it, that wayward man had repented of his sin, and Paul told the Corinthians to forgive him and reaffirm their love for him (2 Cor 2:6-8).  So, the moral of the story is that even those who fall away can return to God once more.

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