Can a person loose their Salvation?
Answer: By Brian Swaim
This is a very good question. Many people today are under the impression that once a person is saved, he can never lose that salvation, no matter what they do. This is not taught in the scriptures; in fact, the exact opposite is taught. Let us examine the word of God to see exactly what God says on the subject.
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12) Recently at a volleyball game of mine, I was discussing this very topic with one of my teammates and he claimed that this verse was referring to someone who thinks they are saved but really were never saved. If we examine what the word "fall" means, we will see that to fall you must first be standing. No one can fall from somewhere they are not. If you're already on the ground, there is nowhere for you to fall. If falling were impossible, the Holy Spirit would not have warned us not to fall.
Paul was preaching about the way to heaven using the analogy of a race in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. He talks about how after we run the race we can win the prize which is heaven. In verse 27, he writes, "but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." Paul was saved, no doubt, and was also an apostle of Christ. Paul knew it was possible for him to fall, so he buffeted his body. If it's possible for an apostle to fall, surely we can!
The Bible teaches that if we stop believing we will fall from grace (Hebrews 3:12). In Galations 5:4, Paul is writing to the church in Galatia. The church is not the building, but the body of Christ, we are forced to conclude that the Galation church was saved. In Galations 5:4, Paul writes, "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified." The word "severed" means "to cut off or separate." If something is severed, then it has to have been attached. In other words, Christians who were part of Christ were severed or cut off from Him.