It’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “I knew someone who once was a devoted Christian, but now they’ve turned away from God—they must have lost their salvation.” But can such personal experiences really redefine what the Bible teaches about salvation? The truth is, personal stories or feelings don’t change the clear teachings of Scripture. Just because we may struggle to understand how someone’s life took a turn doesn’t mean the doctrine of eternal security shifts. Instead of adjusting biblical truths to fit our experiences, we need to remain grounded in what Scripture consistently teaches about the permanence of salvation.

Certain believers are quick to change how they understand scriptures by basing it on their life experiences. But we should not allow our experience to determine our reading of the text rather, we should allow the reading of the text to be the primary means through which we analyse our experiences. 

What about the person who left the faith? We need to define the situation through the Scriptures. 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us because they were not of us. They went out from us that it might be made manifest they never were of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us.”

The above Scripture clearly states that those who leave or abandon the faith are not saved to begin with. 

The idea that salvation can be lost is simply an accommodation of the human misunderstanding or misconception of the core message of the Gospel.

In other words, just because people can’t figure out what happened in somebody’s life, it does not mean that we can conclude that a true believer could lose their salvation.

Another reason why people have come up with the doctrine that you can lose your salvation is because they never had a strong enough understanding of salvation to begin with. 

The absence of sound gospel preaching has led to many people falsely claiming or professing to be Christians. And when the same false converts leave the church or the faith entirely, people begin to question the ‘audacity’ of the person who left the faith instead of questioning the ‘legitimacy’ of that person’s salvation in the first place.

According to the scripture, if you are truly saved, you will continue in the faith, and if you persevere (don’t fall away), it is evident that your salvation is genuine. However, if a person falls away they only prove that their salvation wasn’t real.

Therefore instead of asking whether a believer can lose their salvation. It is more appropriate to ask, “What does it mean to be a true believer in Jesus Christ? ” or “what is true saving faith?”

In essence, when God saves you, He changes your heart (2 Cor 5:17, Ezek 36:26-27). By giving you new life, he changes your desires. The desire to please God now become a part of your life. Getting to know Him is something you deeply wish to do and you become passionate about His Word. Sin is something you hate and strive to overcome. In other words, genuine saving faith is always the result of  growing godliness and obedience to Christ (James 2:14-26 & 1 John 3:4-10). If that is not your experience, we should truly examine ourselves whether we are in Christ (2 Cor 13:5).