Can a True Believer Fall Away?

Yes—and this is where confessional Lutheranism parts ways with Calvinism’s “perseverance of the saints.” The “P” in TULIP says that anyone who falls away was never truly converted. Scripture says otherwise. The seed on the rock “believe[s] for a while, but in a time of testing fall[s] away” (Luke 8:13, NET)—real faith, then lost. Paul warns “the one who thinks he is standing” that he can still fall (1 Corinthians 10:12), and names men who made shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19-20). The Augsburg Confession makes it a point of confession, rejecting those who deny that a justified person can lose the Holy Spirit (AC XII).

This is not a doctrine of anxiety. Faith is lost the way it is kept: through what we do with the Word. Whoever despises and neglects the means by which the Spirit is given drives Him out; whoever remains under the Word is held by Him. The possibility of falling is never meant to make you measure the strength of your grip. It is meant to send you back to Christ, where the keeping is actually done.