WHY THE WARNINGS?

The concept of "Once Saved, Always Saved" is another one of those beliefs that many Christians hold onto strongly while incapable of building a case for it from Scripture.

And I understand the appeal of the idea. I knew a mother who lost her 20-something son late one night when this young man, drunk and on foot after his girlfriend kicked him out of her car, wandered into interstate traffic. At his funeral, she told of her hope that his trip to the altar when he was 9 years old meant that God had welcomed her boy into paradise. 

Now I certainly believe that God will prove to be more gracious than many of us expect. And I believe that it's possible that a heart might be turned - or re-turned - in the final moments of life with no living witnesses but the Lord. And I understand why a grieving parent would put inordinate weight on a childhood trip to the altar.

BUT there's got to be a good reason why Scripture repeatedly warns against ...

• Falling away (Hebrews 6:4-6)
• Departing from the faith (1 Timothy 4:1) 
• Turning away from the faith (Matthew 24:9-13 and Hebrews 3:12-14)
• Being cut off (Romans 11:20-22)
• Shipwrecking our faith (1 Timothy 1:18-20)
• Failing to remain in Jesus, the Vine (John 15:1-6)
• Falling from grace (Galatians 5:4)
• Wandering from the truth (James 5:19-20)
• Being salt that loses its flavor (Matthew 5:13)
• Or being so lukewarm that Jesus spews you out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16)

Colossians 1:21-23a reads as follows:

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 IF indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.

That "IF" makes the statement a conditional.

When it comes to salvation, the security we have is that God will never chase us away, not that we will never succumb to the temptation to wander away ourselves.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. They shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” John 10:27