Question:
Once a person is
saved, if he back-slides, then will he go to heaven?
Answer:
Whosoever has been
saved, i.e., voluntarily and with a
true heart, has repented of his sins, accepted
the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal savior, has asked
for forgiveness of his sins from Him, and has submitted
his life to Him, only that person will go to heaven by the grace of God – but only God knows
the actual spiritual condition of man, therefore it is
only God who can decide on who will go to heaven, and who will not.
According to God’s
Word, the Bible, it is very clear and firmly established that salvation is
forever, i.e. is eternal. The writer of the epistle to
Hebrews, writing about the Lord Jesus Christ’s work to provide salvation to
mankind writes, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things
which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal
salvation to all who obey Him,” (Hebrews 5:8-9). The Lord Jesus also said that He will give eternal life
to all who believe in Him (i.e. an endless and
indestructible life for all eternity, eternal life) and at the same time also
assured that no one will be able to take the saved ones out of the Lord’s, or
God’s hands (John 10:27-29) – this
statement of the Lord has very serious and extremely important implications. On the basis of this promise from the Lord, to
lose one’s salvation implies that, somehow Satan has been
able to snatch away the saved persons from the Lord’s, or God’s hands, and
taken possession of them again. If at all somehow this
were to be possible, it would mean that three impossibilities have become
possible – first, that Satan is more powerful than God; second, that the Lord Jesus spoke a lie, He
gave a false assurance that no one will be able to take away a saved person
from the hand of the Lord or of God; and third, that the
Lord does not know about Satan’s power or His own power, or God’s power; He is
just saying things without any basis! Since any and all of
this is an absolute impossibility and can never happen, therefore
it is evident that any person who has been saved, on the
basis of John 10:27-29 can never ever lose his salvation. And since those who are saved are no longer under any
condemnation (Romans 8:1), therefore
those who are actually saved, will most certainly enter heaven, whatever
be their state of maturity in faith and standing in spirituality.
But it is only the
Lord God who knows, who is an actual Christian Believer and who is not. For example, take Judas Iscariot; he was called to be a
disciple by the Lord, he stayed in fellowship with the Lord, he learnt from the
Lord, he too went for preaching in the power and instructions from the Lord,
along with the other disciples, and along with the disciples he too preached
the gospel, he too did miracles, but in the end he was called ‘the son of
perdition’ and ‘the only one lost’ (John
17:12), and went into eternal destruction. The Lord
Jesus towards the end of His Sermon on the Mount had said that not everyone who
calls Him ‘Lord’ will enter into heaven, even though they may have abundantly
preached, worked miracles and done other remarkable works in the Lord’s name – the Lord called all such works as ‘iniquity’ – and made it
clear that only they will enter heaven who are obedient to God and work
according to the will of God (Matthew
7:21-23). Therefore on the basis of the evident behavior, preaching, and
works of any person we can never say for sure that all those who claim to
believe in the Lord and everyone who preaches or works in His name, is actually
a saved person! Paul also cautioned and exhorted that
Satan and his angels come as angels of light and apostles of Christ to deceive
people (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15).
Therefore it is only God who knows the fact of a person’s being saved, and only
He can decide, and does decide, about a person’s being saved or not.
The Bible also
says that there will be Christian Believers who truly repented and came to the
Lord with a true heart, they were really saved, but they did not do anything
that could be considered worthy of being rewarded by the Lord. At the time of
judgement when their works are evaluated, they will surely enter heaven because they are
saved, but will enter empty handed, without any rewards, and remain so forever
for all eternity (1 Corinthians 3:9-15). Like for everyone else in the world, even
the Christian Believers will face judgment on the basis of their works, rather, the beginning of judgement will be with the Christian
Believers (1 Peter 4:17-18), but the judgement of the Christian Believers will
not be for their salvation, but for giving them eternal rewards based on the
evaluation of their works – salvation is not based upon works, but rewards are
based on works. Salvation is only by the grace of God through repentance from
sins and coming to faith in the Lord Jesus; not through any works of any kind,
nor by fulfilling any traditions, or rituals, or carrying out religious observances of any kind (Ephesians 2:1-9).
There are many
such people who after coming into the Christian Faith, for some reason or the other, back-slid
or fell away from the Faith, but the Lord in accordance with His promise (Hebrews
13:5) did not leave or forsake them. Sooner or later, through some way, Lord
brought them back into the Faith, and subsequently they were used mightily for
the Lord, and through their witness and example of returning back into the
Faith they became a source of encouragement and courage to others who were weak
in, or had fallen away from the Faith. If we look at it from our current context,
then the time when the Lord Jesus had taken the penalty of the world’s sins
upon Himself, at that time we had no physical existence. Also, nowhere is it
written in the Bible that the Lord took upon Himself and suffered the penalty
of only those sins of the people which they had committed before coming to the
Lord – i.e., the sins they had committed before being saved; and the Lord has left the remedy of their sins
committed after their being saved in their own hands, by virtue of their works
– this is an impossibility – how can a part of salvation
be dependent upon the grace of God, and the remaining part be based on the
works of a person?
The Lord has paid in full, the penalty
for all the sins of all the people committed in their entire life-time, at
whatever time in the history of the world they have existed. He
has made available not a just partial but the complete way
out from the deadly consequences of every person's entire sin burden of their entire
life-time; now there is nothing left for any person to accomplish
by his own efforts to live a saved life. When the Lord has
taken upon Himself all the sins of every person, from their birth to their
death, has paid in full for them, then which sin is left that will hinder the person from entering heaven? Is his sin of
back-sliding or falling away from the Faith not a part of the sins of his
lifetime, the price for which has already been paid in
full by the Lord?
And if, supposing, having been cleansed
on being saved, a person is able to maintain his life pure and sinless by his own efforts, works, and abilities, then
he could have done the same before being saved as well – then the Lord's coming
has been in vain; rather, the sinful, mortal man, actually has
become greater than the Lord God! Since if this were possible, then man merely by his works, can accomplish that
for which the Lord had to leave heaven and come down as a man to earth, suffer ignominy and torture, and had to sacrifice
His life – this is an absolutely inconsistent and impossible contention! Moreover, which saved person can
in all honesty say that since salvation, he has never – physically, mentally, or in thoughts, ever committed any sin? The Apostle John says: “If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If
we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8, 10) – take note that though he was a saved person and an
Apostle, yet, through the use of the word "we"
he is including himself amongst the sinners referred to in this verse. Therefore
what difference if any is left between those who have back-slid or fallen away
from the Faith, and those who haven't? The one falling
away has also sinned, and those who are still in the Faith, they too have
sinned or do sin – and since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), therefore
both of them are in a similar situation, and both are justified before God not
by their works of any kind, but solely by the grace, forgiveness,
and love of God, and both are made acceptable for entry into heaven through the grace and forgiveness of God.
Therefore for
those who have back-slid or fallen away from faith, instead of criticizing and
condemning them, we should
pray for them; and we should leave their returning back
into the Faith and being useful for the Lord in the hands of the Lord, to be
accomplished according to the time and plan of God.
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