Can a Christian Lose their Salvation?

Listening to David Jeremiah this morning, I was taken aback by something that he said.  He was preaching from Hebrews 3 and when he got to verse 6 he said that he wanted his listeners to pay special attention.  Hebrews 3:6 says "but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house-- whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."

Dr. Jeremiah indicated that this scripture has been misinterpreted by many as meaning that you can lose your salvation if you do not hold firm until the end (18:58 mark David Jeremiah 7-13-12, I would encourage you to listen to the entire sermon) .  I have never believed that anyone can lose their salvation and I know that this is a sensitive issue.  But when he was preaching and said that this doesn't mean that we have to "hold firm until the end" in order to be "saved", I was taken aback.  Judging from his past teachings, I will go on record and say that he has never taught that we should not "hold firm until the end" but based on this particular lesson, a novice or unbeliever would hear that and could interpret it as "all I have to do is make this confession and then I can go back to what I was doing before salvation interrupted me." 

This particular scripture says that we are Christ's house...the church if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.  What does this mean.  What is our confidence and what is the boast of our hope?  Our confidence is that all those that believe in Christ will be given eternal life.  Dr. Jeremiah preached that eternal life starts immediately when we accept Christ, not when we die.  I agree but it is semantical in my opinion because you can't really live eternally while in the flesh so the true meaning of eternal life is life after death- where the inner man lives forever long after the flesh has perished.  Our hope is tied to the exact same thing.  Hebrews 6:19 says that this hope (in Christ and the inheritance of eternal life) is an anchor for the soul and that it is sure and steadfast.  The steadfastness results from God's oath to fulfill the promise of his purpose and God's inability to lie- therefore we who believe are encouraged to take hold of the hope (expectation/anticipation) that is set before us!

We must hold fast to the hope that if God said it, if God promised it, God will deliver on the promise.  The ones that do not hold fast are the ones that Jesus will tell "depart from me, I never knew you."  Nine times in the book of Hebrews the writer warns the readers of "falling away" [Hebrews 2:1, 3:12, 4:11, 6:4-6, 10:26, 10:39, 12:1, 12:25, 13:9].  Here is the crux of my argument and what I believe the bible is saying to us.  Can you lose your salvation, no.  Can you walk away from your salvation, yes!  Walking away indicates a lack of faith which in turn, creates a totally separate problem because Hebrews 11:6 says "without faith it is impossible to please God."  Hebrews 6:4-6 says that those that have once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and THEN (emphasis added) have FALLEN AWAY, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify the Son of God and put him to open shame.  This verse is very telling in that while we cannot lose our salvation, we can walk away from our faith thereby nullifying our salvation.  What this verse is saying is this, if you choose to walk away from your faith, you are crucifying Christ a second time because his initial sacrifice was not good enough for you!

This is why believers are encouraged to hold fast to the hope that Christ promised.  That hope is centered on the following: regardless of the conditions of our lives here i.e. the hardness of our struggle, the harshness of the world around us, the constant specter of death, the destruction of the moral system and the systematic desensitizing of Christians to God's holiness- we are to hold fast to this confidence that things will not be this way forever because Jesus will set everything right in His own time and when the Father calls for His return! 

Holding fast to our confidence is OUR responsibility as Christians.  Holding fast to the gospel that has been preached to us (1 Cor 15:2) is OUR responsibility.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must not slip into unbelief thereby nullifying our confession of faith.  I am not talking about doubt, I am talking about fully experiencing Christ and then walking away.  A simpler way to put it is to renounce our faith.  What repentance is there for a person that was there, close to Christ and a follower of Christ that falls away?  None.  If there is no repentance then it follows that there is also no forgiveness of sin because to this person, the one that quits on the road to eternity, Christ's sacrifice is not enough.  What he did the first time in forgiveness of sins would have to be done again simply because this person went BACK to being an unbeliever after being a believer previously.

I love Dr. Jeremiah and his teaching but I disagree that we do not have to hold fast or hold on until the end.  I am not saying that there won't be mistakes and that we will live lives of sinless perfection.  What I am saying is that if Jesus says the one that endures until the end will be saved, no man that places his hand to the plowshare and keeps looking back is fit for the kingdom of God, if any man wishes to follow me he must deny himself, pick up his own cross and follow me...if these statements came directly from Jesus, He is not talking for his health.  He expects us to be all in, not wavering and vascillating back and forth between holding fast to our confession and letting that same confession go at any given time.  Maybe it is not our salvation that we have to hold on to, but we have to hold fast to the promise of God that all that believe will be given eternal life.  We have to hold fast to this hope because without this hope, without this expectation, we will be miserable and we will not stay the course.  One piece of evidence of our salvation should be our unwavering faith in the promise of God that we will one day be rescued from all unrighteousness and all sin by living with Him for all eternity in a new heaven and a new earth!  Eternity should guide our thoughts and we should live with eternity in mind at all times.  In His letters to the seven churches of Asia in Revelation (see chapters 1-3), Jesus told each of them, in some form or fashion, to hold fast what they had which was the promise of life and life more abundantly.  

It is my prayer that on this narrow path, when you get weary, pray to God for strength.  The Holy Ghost, also known as the paraclete or helper or comforter or encourager was sent to, among other functions, to give us strength in times of weakness.  He was send to guide us into all the truth.  He was sent to pick us up when we feel like walking away.  Remember this, God's promises are on His time and not our time.  I encourage all of you to actively hold fast that which is true- Christ is coming back to take all believers to our true home, one that is eternal and not made with hands.  This alone is comfort for the Christian in spite of all of the attacks of the enemy and in spite of the fallen condition of the world.  God bless and hold on until the end.