Can One Fall From Grace?
The well-known Baptist preacher, Charles Stanley, wrote
a book several years ago titled, “Eternal Security – Can you
be sure?” In this book, he develops the theme that one
cannot fall away after being saved. One thing he advocates
is the notion that a Christian can completely abandon his
faith in God and Christ – become a rank atheist – and the
Lord will save him anyhow. He says, “. . . even those who
walk away from the faith have not the slightest chance of
slipping from His hand.”
Another Baptist by the name of Sam Morris wrote a tract
many years ago in which he noted that all the sins a
Christian “may commit from idolatry to murder will not make
his soul in any more danger.”
Friends, the idea that a Christian can never fall away or
apostatize no matter what he does – from idolatry to murder
to atheism – is tragic error, to put it mildly. The Bible
nowhere teaches such a devilish doctrine. This doctrine is
referred to as “once saved always saved, the “impossibility of
apostasy” the “perseverance of the saints” and the “eternal
security of the believer.” Whatever one wants to call it, it is
damnable error.
Just a few passages will do to prove that the doctrine of
once saved always saved is from the devil and not God. In I
Cor. 10:2, Paul penned to the Corinthians’, “Wherefore let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Why talk about
the possibility of falling, if one can’t? Heb. 3:12 states, “Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief, in departing from the living God.” This scripture
plainly teaches that it is possible to depart from God.
Demas did that very thing. Paul wrote of him, “For Demas
hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:
10). Can one be in love with this present world and still go
to heaven? Not according to James 4:4 and I John 2:15-17.
In Gal. 5:4, Paul penned, “Christ is become of no effect unto
you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from
grace.” Is it possible to fall from grace? Paul plainly said it
is. It is truly amazing that some teach the direct opposite of
what Paul explicitly stated in this passage. The devil has to
be pleased!