Question of the Month-January 2008

Our question this month comes from a member who asks, “Recently, I was troubled and confused while studying Romans 11:21. This passage seems to imply that believers can lose their salvation. Is this a possibility? If not, what does the text mean?”

I really appreciate your thoughtfulness on this passage. It is a great question! Hopefully my brief answer will be of some help to you and others.

There is more theology in Romans 11 than most passages in the Bible. Romans l1 was written by the Apostle Paul to explain what was happening in his day to most of the Jews and the nation of Israel. The Messiah had come and the Gospel was going all over the world through Paul’s ministry. However, while the Lord’s salvation was spreading over the earth, most of the Jews had rejected Him. How do you explain this fact? It is a question people still wrestle with today, both Christians and Jews. After all, if Jesus is the Messiah why don’t the majority of the Jews accept Him?

Now the answer the Apostle Paul gives to the Roman Church is that there was never a time when everyone in Israel was a believer. As a matter of fact, most of Israel throughout Her long history were unbelievers NOT believers. Paul alludes to this issue earlier in Romans 9:6 when he states, “…not all who descended from Israel are Israel”. That may sound shocking to many, but it is true. To illustrate this key point, Paul reaches back into Israel’s history and reminds the Church that in the days of Elijah, most of the nation had turned away from the Lord (Romans 11:2-3). However, amidst this unbelief, there was a “remnant chosen by grace” that the Lord reserved for His purposes (Romans 11:4-5). Paul reminds the Church that the Lord is working the same way in their day as well. A remnant of Jews and Gentiles has been chosen by God’s grace to be a part of spiritual Israel, or what was called the Church in the 1^st century.

Paul uses the history of Israel as a warning to the professing Church. You note I mentioned the word “professing”. Paul is trying to build some humility in the professing Church by reminding them of what happened to Israel. If many of the Jews were not true believers, then it would be possible for that same thing to happen in the professing Church as well. The professing Church would become a mixture of faith and unbelief, wheat and tares, just like Israel. Paul wanted that message to get through to them and avoid what might be some sort of “Gentile triumphalism” that looked down on the Jews or saw themselves as superior. Paul wanted everyone to know that anyone in Israel or the Church was there by grace alone.

This then leads to the verse in question from Romans 11:21 that states,

“For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either”.

Now when Paul tells the Church that the Lord “didn’t spare the natural branches”, he was telling them that just being a physical descendant of Abraham through Isaac was not enough. Salvation was not about ethnicity, but rather about spiritual life and God’s grace through election. Members of the nation of Israel that did not possess true spiritual grace and life were “cut-off” from spiritual Israel. The same thing would be true for the professing Church as well. Church labels or Gentile identity would not save someone in the end. Therefore, if someone claimed to be a Christian, they needed to “make their calling and election sure” (II Peter 1:10). Paul’s warning in verse 21 is an attempt to bring that Biblical truth to light.

With that said, it is important to understand what this passage DOES NOT say. Paul is NOT saying that true believers lose their salvation. The passage is not trying to make that point at all, although it has been wrongly interpreted by many to say just that. Paul is just giving a warning to the professing Church to take a look at their lives and see if they be in the Faith. These warning passages are simply one of the ways the Lord challenges His people to remain sober and serious about their lives. Warning passages are never for anyone but the redeemed. When a passage like this bothers us, it is great witness that we are God’s people because we are spiritually serious about our relationship to the Lord.

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