A much argued theological question is whether or not a Christian can lose their salvation. Because our salvation is the result of grace, the Lord’s wonderful grace, and not because of our works, or anything we can do, in my opinion it seems doubtful that once we are covered by the atoning blood covenant of Jesus, there is nothing we can do to cause us to lose that wonderful grace.

There is a wonderful story told by the Lord Jesus in Luke 15:11-32. It is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Most of us are familiar with the story, but in summary, a son of a wealthy man demanded his inheritance, left home and partied his money away. With his money gone, he was forced to take a humiliating job just to eat. The son determined to return to his father and ask for a job as a servant, because he felt that he was no longer justified to be called a son. But upon his return, his father immediately welcomed him as his son, not as a servant.

Brother Charles Stanley, in his book Eternal Security, comments on the parable. The young man had clearly abandoned and dishonored his father. It would certainly not seem unreasonable that he felt unworthy to be called a son. Brother Stanley points out that the father did not see things that way at all. The father’s first emotion was not anger, or disappointment. It was compassion, because the young man was still his son! Upon first sighting, the father ran to him and kissed him and had him adorned again as his son.

In the parable, there is no indication that the father/son relationship was ever broken, but rather only the fellowship between them. The son was literally lost to the father. The father did not know where his son was. Then he was literally found. This is not being figuratively lost and found, it was literal. What a wonderful picture of our Heavenly Father’s unending love and concern for us, told to us by the Lord Jesus!

The repentant lost son was re-established back into the family fellowship with great celebration. There is no hint of rejection by the father. The Lord Jesus told three parables in Luke chapter fifteen that illustrated the joy of finding that which was lost; the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In the stories of the lost sheep and lost coin there were expressions of joy in Heaven over the repentance of one sinner.

Here, there was opportunity for the Lord Jesus to point out that a lost child was lost forever, but He did not. With the lost son, the father expressed joy that his son, who was (figuratively) dead, is now alive; he was lost and is now found. This, I believe, is an expression of the joy of our Heavenly Father when a lost child of His returns to Him. And this amazing theological truth was spoken directly from the authoritative lips of the Lord Jesus!

Praise His name, always, for our wonderful, eternal salvation!