ALONE WITH GOD------

CAN THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH BE LOST?

   Let us use some common sense as well as proper scriptural interpretation. The spiritual birth is the receiving of the Spirit of Christ. So to state it plainly: the birth is the Spirit and the Spirit is the birth. Can one lose the Spirit of Christ? If so, he has lost his birth, he has fallen from grace.

1. This possibility is taught in Christ’s statements. Note the direct statements of Christ. “Ye (born again believers) are the salt of the earth: but if the salt (Christian) have lost his savour (grace) wherewith shall it be salted (saved)? it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out (destroyed), and to be trodden under foot of men”—Matt. 5:13. The point of comparison between the disciples and salt shows the power of salt (grace) will prevent corruption (backsliding). The intimation that without this power the salt is wholly useless was to excite them to a careful preservation of the sacred power (grace) instructed to them lest they lose this grace out of their hearts. The very fact of Jesus using salt as a comparison was to show that salt to be true salt had to possess this saving and preserving power. But that there is the possibility for salt to lose this power, so it is possible for one who has been saved to lose, or fall from grace. The casting forth is a figure of the spiritual destruction of the backslider.

“Salt is good; but if the salt have lost his savour wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill: but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”—Luke 15:34–35. “And ye (disciples) shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth (holds fast faith) to the end shall be saved (preserved from destruction)”—Matt. 10:22. This shows that if one fails in time of persecutions he will be lost.

2. It’s possibility is taught in the parables of Christ. The possibility of one who has been saved falling from grace and being eternally lost is taught in the parables of Christ. The parable makes this clear. “And the Lord said, who is that faithful and wise steward (Christian), whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But if that servant (Christian) say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat (become unchristian), the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and become drunken (sinners); The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and an hour when he is not aware, and will cut asunder (cut him off) and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers (lost, fallen ones)”—Luke 12:42–46.

The parable of the vine and the branches (John 15:1–16). Read all, but note carefully, “If a man abide not (continue not) in me (Christ) he is cast forth (cut off) as a branch, and is withered (dead) and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (destroyed).”

The foolish virgins is another clear example of the possibility of losing the grace of God out of the soul and being eternally lost. These were all virgins (Christians), all had lamps (light).

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom (Christ). And five of them were wise, and five of them were foolish.… And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; (meaning end of the world) go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil (grace) for our lamps are gone out”—Matt. 25:1–2, 5–8.

It is evident they were once lighted. These persons had at one time hearts illuminated and warmed by the presence and love of Christ. But they had backslidden from the salvation of God, and now they are excluded from heaven, because, through their carelessness, they have let the light in them become darkness, and have not applied in time for a fresh, experience of the salvation of God.

“The door was shut. “ Dreadful and fatal words, no hope remains. Nothing but death, or the coming of Christ can shut the door but death may surprise one in his sins and then despair is his only portion.

3. It is taught in the warning of the epistles. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (from grace, backslide)”—1 Cor. 10:12.

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity, but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness (holiness); otherwise thou shalt be cut off”—Rom. 11:22.

“For if after they have escaped the pollutions (sins) of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (been saved) they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known (become Christians) the way of righteousness, than, after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire”—2 Peter 2:20–22.

“The pollutions of the world,” meaning sin in general. Things that infect, pollute, and defile. The world is here represented as one large putrid marsh, or corrupt body, sending off its destructiveness everywhere, and in every direction, so none can escape its contagion, and none can be healed of this great curse and epidemic disease of sin but by the mighty power of God. Now through (in) the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

It is clear these sinners spoken of here were one time soundly converted. But if, after having been healed (delivered), and so having escaped sin, and get entangled, enfolded, enveloped with them, then the latter end will be worse than the beginning.

The soul that has been converted to God, having had all its powers and faculties redeemed from sin, is now re-polluted, is more capable of iniquity than before, and can bear more expressly the image of the devil. Having fallen into deplorable lower condition spiritually, with less hope of ever being recovered, liable to greater punishment, it would have been better for them not to have known this high and holy state of grace.

As applied here in the scripture, it is very expressive. The poor sinner having heard the gospel of Christ, was led to loathe and reject sin; and on his application to God for mercy, was washed, or cleansed from his unrighteousness. But he is here represented as taking it up again, what he had before rejected, and defiling himself in that form, which he had been cleansed. Here is a sad proof of the possibility of falling from grace, and from the high degree of holiness.

These had escaped from the sin that was in the world. They had experienced true repentance, and cast off their life of sin. They had been washed from their filthiness, through the blood of Christ, yet, after all, they went back, got entangled with their old sins, swallowed down their formerly rejected lusts, and wallowed anew in the mire of corruption. It is no wonder that God should say “The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” Reason, nature, and divine justice says it ought to be so.

But how dreadful is this state. How dangerous when the person has abandoned himself to his old sins. Yet it is not said that it is impossible for him to return to God, though his case be deplorable, it is not hopeless. The sinner may yet be clean, and the dead spiritually may be resurrected. Because he was one time saved does not assure him eternal salvation. This is based solely on the backsliding one returning, and adhering strictly to God’s conditional plan for redemption.

Salvation does not destroy man’s free moral agency, nor make a machine out of him, but leaves him the power of choice. He can choose evil and fall from grace the same as accept Christ and choose grace.

When Christ enters the soul He is its light, its life, its birth, and resurrection, changing its nature, desire, state, location, condition, living, and service. This high and holy state will be maintained as long as one lives by God’s conditional laws of spiritual life clearly taught throughout the Bible. To rebel against, and become disobedient to Christ and His word will grieve Him, cause His departure from our soul. Since Christ, and His Spirit brings about all that has been stated scripturally concerning the spiritual birth, for Him to depart, means: The spiritual birth is lost, and the soul reverts back to the deplorable, depraved state it was in before being converted. Yes, it is biblically, and experimentally possible to fall from grace.