Can grace be taken away?

One of the many questions address in the recently published: Is forgiveness really free? And other questions about grace, the law and being saved.

This is a question which worries many people for two reasons. First, we worry about family and friends who once were professing faith and have since walked away from the faith. Was their faith genuine? Will they one day return?

Secondly, we are worried because we know how weak we are. Could I commit some sin that might jeopardise my salvation? What about the great warning passages of the book of Hebrews, which seem to imply that we are hanging on to our salvation by the skin of our teeth? Am I “once saved, always saved”?

The best way to respond to this question is to focus not on ourselves but on the faithfulness of God. What is God like? He is faithful to his promises, and he has given us the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we will receive everything he has promised his people (Ephesians 1 v 13-14). He has not spared his own Son, but has rescued us at great cost (Romans 8 v 32). We should then have confidence that he is committed to his own word. This is, in fact, the message of Hebrews: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”. (Hebrews 4 v 16)

But the author also reminds, cajoles and warns his readers: “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10 v 35-36). Why would he need to do that, if their salvation was secure?

It is because these warnings and reminders are the very way in which God spurs us on to keep trusting Christ to be saved.

As a pastor, it is the person who is quite “laid back” about their salvation who I am most worried about—since they clearly do not really understand the value of what they have been given. The confidence that Hebrews speaks about is not a confidence that we are saved because of some past decision or prayer of commitment; but rather confidence in God, and that also means a right fear of him.

Can grace be taken away? The right answer is not “yes” or “no”, but: God is faithful: cling onto him with all your might.

Michael Jensen pastors St Mark's Church, Darling Point in Sydney Australia. This is an extract from his newly released book in our Questions Christians Ask series entitled: Is forgiveness really free? And other questions about grace, the law and being saved.