Although there are many views concerning whether or not a believer who sins after being saved is truly saved, we must see what is the truth according to the Bible.
1. “Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:5).
In this verse the apostle clearly indicates that a believer who sins after being saved can suffer punishment and loss but that he also will not lose his salvation. Sins do not result in the loss of our eternal salvation, even if we experience God’s discipline and punishment. Paul says that the sinful brother in Corinth should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh as a punishment so that his spirit and soul could be recovered and saved in the day of the Lord. Sins committed after our salvation do not result in eternal perdition but they can result in suffering in this age.
2. “Eternal salvation”; “By no means perish forever” (Heb. 5:9; John 10:28).
The Lord accomplished an eternal salvation for us. Furthermore, the Lord Himself is the source of our eternal salvation. Therefore, when we received the Lord and His salvation, we received an eternal salvation. The Lord’s life is also eternal. Consequently, when we obtained His life, He said that we would by no means perish forever. According to the Lord’s clear and assured word, we will by no means perish forever once we are saved. We should not allow any other opinion, even our own, to cause us to be concerned that committing sin after our salvation will result in our eternal perdition. The Bible speaks of eternal salvation. Therefore, we should believe that we are eternally saved. The Lord said, “By no means perish forever.” Therefore, we should acknowledge that we will by no means perish forever.
It is regrettable that many people teach that a believer will perish if he sins after being saved. They base this teaching mainly on Hebrews 6:1-8 and 10:25-31. This teaching, which is based on an improper understanding of these verses, openly contradicts the word of the Lord that a person who believes in the Lord and receives the Lord’s eternal life will by no means perish forever. This teaching is not according to the principles of the Bible and the nature of the Lord’s eternal salvation. The word of the Bible does not contradict itself. The Bible would not say that those who believe are eternally saved and will by no means perish forever and later say that a believer is no longer saved and will perish if he sins. The Bible does not speak of a believer perishing if he sins; it speaks only of a believer being punished if he sins.
The emphasis in Hebrews 6:1-8 is on the matter of a believer’s growth in life after his salvation. When we grow, we can be useful to God and blessed by Him, but if we do not grow and our condition is not proper, we can be punished by God and suffer loss. Growth requires that we leave the word of the beginning of the teaching of Christ’s salvation. This beginning involves repentance from dead works and faith in God. Repentance and faith are basic teachings. When we were saved, we received these basic teachings; that is, we repented and believed. If we want to grow, we do not need to return to these basic teachings and lay another foundation. The foundation has been laid. If we stumble, we do not need to repent for the sins that we committed prior to our salvation and believe again. Instead, we should be brought on to maturity (v. 1). If we fall away from the Lord’s teaching after we are saved, having been enlightened by God, having tasted of His heavenly grace, having gained His Holy Spirit, having tasted that God is good, and knowing the powers of the age to come, we simply need to get up and go forward. We do not need to return to our initial experience of Christ’s salvation and repent of sins that have already been forgiven. We do not need to start over because it is impossible to even do this. After we have repented and believed initially, we do not need to repeat these experiences. Even if we wanted to repent and believe again, this would be an impossibility because God has already forgiven us of those sins. This can be compared to the impossibility of a person being born of his human life a second time. When a person falls, he simply needs to get up from where he fell and go forward from there. He does not need to start from his birth again. Even if he wanted to do this, it would be impossible for him to be born a second time. It is regrettable that many Christians who sin after their salvation think that they need to go back to the position of a new believer by repenting and believing again. When they do this and then fall again, they again try to go back to the beginning to start all over. Since it is possible for believers to commit sins, they are never able to leave the starting point in order to go on and grow to be useful to God. They are like a field that has received so much rain that it grows more thorns and weeds than useful vegetables. This uselessness brings in God’s punishment because they have no capacity to be used by God. They are saved, and they will be eternally saved, but they will experience a salvation that must pass through the fire, that is, through punishment that causes suffering and loss. First Corinthians 3:15 speaks of this when it refers to a believer being saved yet so as through fire. A field that grows useless things often is burned, but the field itself is not destroyed. Only the useless things growing in it are burned. Hebrews 6 does not speak about eternal perdition for those who sin after being saved. It speaks about receiving God’s punishment for not being brought on to maturity after our salvation.
Hebrews 10:25-31 was written to Hebrew believers who were returning to their Jewish background and environment. Although they were Hebrews, Israelites, who had previously worshipped God in the Jewish religion according to the law of the old covenant, they had believed in Jesus and were serving God in the church according to the new covenant. But they also were being persecuted by those in Judaism because of their belief in Christ. They also esteemed the offerings and rituals that God gave to their forefathers in the old covenant. It was very difficult for them to put aside these things, and with the added persecution of Judaism, they were faced with the temptation to return to Judaism to worship God according to the law of the old covenant. Thus, the apostle wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews to tell them that God had annulled the old covenant (8:7, 13). He pointed out that all the offerings in the old covenant were types of Christ. Since Christ came and accomplished an eternal redemption, there was no need for offerings according to the old covenant; the old covenant was over (9:9—10:18). He charged them not to return to Judaism to worship God with offerings according to the law of the old covenant but to assemble and serve God together with Christians according to the new covenant. Once this truth is known, a believer is willfully sinning when he ceases to assemble and serve with other Christians according to the new covenant and goes back to Judaism with its sacrificial types of Christ’s redemption under the old covenant. In effect, he is returning to a covenant that God has ended through the coming of Christ and His redemptive death. Thus, if he goes back to Judaism to worship God with offerings, he will not only lose the new covenant blessing but will also be punished by falling into the hands of the living God (v. 31). Going back to offer the blood of bulls and rams for redemption is also a treading on and a despising of the Son of God, because it treats His blood as something common, like the blood of bulls and rams. Furthermore, abandoning the new covenant insults the Spirit of grace (v. 29) because the Holy Spirit, no doubt, inwardly operates and forbids such a return to Judaism. For this reason, he will receive a worse punishment. This passage in Hebrews 10 does not say that if we willfully sin after being saved, our sins are no longer forgiven, and we are no longer saved; it says that once we know God’s will according to His new covenant, we should follow it or be prepared to suffer punishment.