Can't a believer walk away from Christ?
John 10 and 6, Romans 8, and the Spirit's seal.
The short answer Settled
No. Christ's sheep shall never perish. No one can take a believer from Christ, and the believer cannot undo it himself.
The promise is about the sheep
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand" (). Jesus does not only say that no one can snatch them. He says they shall never perish. The Greek puts two negatives together, the strongest denial it has. The promise covers every way a sheep could be lost, wandering off included.
He said the same in John 6: "the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (), and the Father's will is "that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day" ().
Nothing can separate
"Whom He justified, these He also glorified" (). No one drops out between the two. Paul lists everything that might separate a believer from God's love: "neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (). The believer is a created thing too. Nothing in him, his own choices included, can separate him from that love.
Sealed
"Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance" (). A believer's sin grieves the Spirit, but the seal stands: "do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (). Jesus promised that the Spirit would "abide with you forever" ().
The usual objection
No one else can take a believer from Christ, but he can walk away himself. Jesus' promise is to sheep who "follow Me" (). A person who stops believing is no longer one of His sheep. If falling away could not happen, the warnings of Scripture would be empty.
Jesus describes His sheep as following, but He does not make the promise depend on it. "They shall never perish" is about the sheep, whatever happens. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful" (). The warnings are real, and question 6 showed what they threaten: discipline, lost reward, shame at His coming. None of them is eternal life.
The words behind it
| Word | Where | Form | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| οὐ μὴ ἀπόλωνται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ou mē apolōntai eis ton aiōna, "they shall never perish" (Strong's 3756, 3361, 622, 165) | Two negatives with aorist subjunctive | The strongest denial Greek has, said of the sheep themselves. | |
| μὴ ἀπολέσω ἐξ αὐτοῦ mē apolesō ex autou, "I should lose nothing" (3361, 622) | Aorist subjunctive, negated | None the Father gives is lost. | |
| οὔτε τις κτίσις ἑτέρα oute tis ktisis hetera, "nor any other created thing" (3777, 2937, 2087) | Noun with adjective | The list leaves nothing out, the believer included. | |
| ἀρραβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμῶν arrabōn tēs klēronomias hēmōn, "the guarantee of our inheritance" (728, 2817) | Noun | A first payment that binds the giver to pay the rest. | |
| ἐσφραγίσθητε εἰς ἡμέραν ἀπολυτρώσεως esphragisthēte eis hēmeran apolytrōseōs, "you were sealed for the day of redemption" (4972, 2250, 629) | Aorist passive indicative | The seal holds until that day. |
No textual variants affect the conclusion.
This study checks the Greek Received Text against the Majority Text, and the written Hebrew against its traditional reading. If a difference could change a conclusion, this note explains it. Otherwise it says that none does.