John 15:1-8 Is Not Talking About Losing Salvation

John 15:1-8, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

Someone asked me recently about something taught in a Bible study they attended. The person teaching said that Jesus was teaching that salvation can be lost in John 15:1-8. That is simply not true dear reader, as I will explain to you in this blog.

First, in the Gospel of John we find the word “believe” mentioned 88 times. But in John chapter 15 we don't find the word “believe” mentioned even once. That is because Jesus is not talking about salvation here, He is talking about discipleship.

Second, the blessed Savior confirms this truth in John 15:8, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” The Lord even mentions the word “disciples” in this beautiful passage of Scripture. One can become a child of God without being a disciple. Jesus said in John 3:7, “Ye must be born again.”

The following excellent information by Pastor Hank Lindstrom (1940-2008) is from the helpful Christian website, Get God's Gift...

THE INCOMPATIBILITY OF THE LORDSHIP GOSPEL WITH THE GOSPEL OF GRACE 

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." ~Galatians 1:8-9 

The importance of this question can't be overestimated in relation to both salvation and sanctification. The message of faith only and the message of commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a false gospel and come under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel. 

"It is an inexcusable error to confront sinners with problems that concern the Christian life and call upon them to make promises regarding them. An unsaved person is never called upon to surrender himself to God. The saving act is in no instance represented as our 'giving ourselves to God'; it is, on the contrary, taking His Son as our Savior." ~Charles Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life; Moody Press, Inc., 1969 (p. 170) 

"The second approach finds faith in the gospel alone an 'easy Believism' and seeks to add something to faith in order to accomplish salvation. To repent is to 'change one's mind,' and to believe is to remove one's trust from that in which it has rested and place it in Christ." ~William Howard, "Is Faith Enough to Save?"; Bibliotheca Sacra, January-March, 1942 (p. 99) 

"This kind of faith is not 'easy believism'. It is not easy to say, 'I can't save myself, I must recognize that there is something wrong with me, and I must seek help from someone else.'" ~Philip H. Hook, "A Biblical Definition of Saving Faith"; Bibliotheca Sacra, April-June, 1964 (p. 133, 138) 

"Eternal life is free. Discipleship is immeasurably hard. The former is attained by faith alone, the latter by a faith that works... the former brings with it the righteousness of God so that a man is 'justified freely by his grace' (Romans 3:24). The latter develops a personal righteousness, based on good deeds, so that a man was also 'justified by works' (James 2:24). The former constituted the believer God's workmanship, the latter fulfilled the wonderful purpose for which he had been created. The former cost man nothing, the latter could cost him everything, including life itself." ~Zane C. Hodges, The Hungry Inherit; Moody Press, Inc., 1972 (p. 114, 115) 

"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." ~Pastor M.R. DeHaan, Hebrews; Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117) 

"For the unregenerate man, repentance is the change of mind whereby he turns from unbelief to faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ." ~Roger Post, "The Meanings of the Words Translated 'Repent' and 'Repentance' in the New Testament"; Master's Thesis, Wheaton College, June 1972 (p. 80)

"There are those who, in their zeal to get people to turn from their sinful ways and receive the Lord, almost put repentance on a par with believing... Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our minds about Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness and deliverance from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken our place personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins, then we're automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in this way without having had to change our minds in some way concerning Him." ~Hal Lindsey, The Liberation of Planet Earth; Zondervan Publishing House, 1974 (p. 136, 137)

"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously made a condition for becoming a Christian." ~Dwight J. Pentecost, Design for Discipleship; Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11)

"Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship." ~Everett F. Harrison, "Must Christ be Lord to Be Savior?-No."; Eternity, September 1959 (p. 14).

"There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc. Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." ~Merrill F. Unger, God is Waiting to Meet You; Moody Press, 1975 (p. 117, 118)

"People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is salvation. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." This is the voice of the newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which one may be saved is to believe." ~Lewis Sperry Chafer, Salvation; Dunham Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46)

SUMMARY

Lordship salvation is where someone teaches that there must be a commitment to Christ as Lord of one's life in order to be saved. Recently there has been a modification of this position to say that willingness to be controlled by the Lord at the time of salvation is all that is required in addition to faith in order to be saved. The message of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a FALSE GOSPEL and comes under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel. Galatians 1:8-9 says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed." If only committed people are saved people, then where is there room for carnal Christians? What kind of dedication must be preached to people, if in order to be saved, they have already dedicated their lives to the Lord?

Where do you stop if you start adding something else to this which is the gospel revealed in the Bible? Look at what God says about adding to the revelation of Jesus Christ (gospel), "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book (Revelation 22:18)." The Bible plainly declares that we are saved by faith, and not by works. Where does it say this? Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." What are you trusting in to get you to heaven?

* Written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom

The moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God who can read your mind knows, saves YOU and gives you the Gift of God, eternal Life.

You do not need anyone to pray over you, or pray for you, because this is between you and God in heaven. Because of your new trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ you are now a child of God. Before you trusted in Jesus, God was your creator but now and forevermore he will be your father.

You are saved in a moment of time, because you are trusting in the true Savior now, not working your way to heaven day by day which is not even possible.

Once saved you can never be lost, for any reason. This is because you were born spiritually the moment you put your trust in Him. Just like your physical birth which brought you into this human world, your spiritual birth gave you a new spiritual life that is permanent. You were born-again, made righteous and holy in Gods eyes. In fact you have the righteousness of God himself, your are sinless and perfect in God's eyes now and that's why you can enter into a perfect heaven.

My favorite saying is:

God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved.

You MUST put ALL your trust in Jesus to be saved, trust in the blood that He shed on the cross, trust that He is God in the flesh, trust that He made the complete payment for your sins, not just part; He paid for ALL of your sins (past, present, and future)! Trust that He rose again from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights, and in return for this trust, He gives YOU Eternal Life. All false Christians put part of their trust in Jesus and part of their trust the Church and part of their trust in themselves. If you put 99.99% trust in Jesus and 00.01% in something else, you will go to hell. It must be 100% trust in Jesus and what He did and 0% in you or your church! This information in critical... (grace always cancels works!) You are going to hell if it's by your works or you are going to heaven by Gods grace. It's as simple as that.

So I guess the question comes down to who are you trusting. Are you trusting yourself to get to heaven by being a good person and giving lots of money to your church or are you trusting Jesus, the lamb of God, that was slain for the sins of the world to get you to heaven? You receive the Gift of God (Eternal Life) as soon as you stop trusting in yourself, your church, your synagogue, your mosque, your money, or any other works and put your trust in Him and Him ALONE, Jesus Christ, Yeshua, The King of Kings, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Alpha and Omega, the Mighty God.

False religions are everywhere and they will find you, the one true God and His plan of salvation must be found.

If all this makes sense to you and you would like to trust Jesus as your personal Savior right now then tell the Mighty God in Heaven of your decision to trust Jesus Christ as your only hope of heaven. Tell Him that you are no longer putting your trust in your actions, or your church, or your church membership, or in your money, or in your Rabbi, or in your synagogue or your Mosque but that you are putting all of your trust in Him and the shed blood of the cross to pay your sin debt. Thank Him for doing it for you! Thank Him for giving you the Gift of Eternal Life that He paid for with His life. There is no greater deed than that of laying down your life for another.

Will you trust Jesus as your Savior right now, the one who shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary to pay for all your sins?

Sinners Prayer

Lord, I admit that I'm a sinner & I don't understand a whole lot about the bible, but I do believe that Jesus Christ died & paid for my sins in full, by His death & shed blood on the cross. I trust right now the He died for me, was buried & rose again from the dead and will live forever more. I trust Jesus Christ right now to save me, to be my savior, to forgive my sins & to give me the GIFT OF GOD Eternal Life. Amen

By reading this sinners prayer aloud, you are putting your trust in God and His plan of salvation. You are not saved by saying this prayer, you are saved the moment your mind made the switch from trusting in yourself to putting your COMPLETE TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST. That moment may have been five paragraphs up on this page or that moment may have been on another one of our pages. You will not feel any different, but you will be changed and changed for the better forever. Once you have trusted Jesus as your savior and received his gift of eternal life, this gift can NEVER be lost. You can NEVER go to hell for ANY reason. Your past, present and future sins were paid in full the moment you put your trust in Him. You are blameless and Holy in God's eyes now and FOREVER. If you have eternal life today what kind of life will you have in five years? ETERNAL! What kind of life will you have in ten years? ETERNAL!! What kind of life will you have in 50 years? ETERNAL!!! God does not give probationary life or temporary life, His gift is ETERNAL LIFE! Thanks be to GOD!

Why be good, now that I am assured of going to heaven? Because God's law of sowing and reaping still applies to you and me. You will reap what you sow. You will reap more than you sow and you will reap later than you sow. If you drink alcohol like a fish, you will reap a diseased liver. If you smoke like a chimney everyday, you will reap lung cancer. If you rob, murder, and steal you will reap a life in prison. You will reap what you sow. I guarantee it! Now that you are saved, when you do good things you WILL be rewarded here on earth and in Heaven. And when you do bad things you WILL lose rewards that God had planned on giving you here on earth and in Heaven. But you will NEVER lose your guarantee of going to heaven. That can never be lost for any reason!! You have God's word that your salvation can never be lost for any reason. You did not earn salvation and you do not work to keep salvation! Eternal Life, salvation, being born again, becoming a child of God, was, is, and always will be the GIFT OF GOD.

Remember: If your not saved forever... you are not saved!

Why is this true you might ask? Because if a person is not sure that they are saved TODAY / RIGHT NOW it means that they are still trying to be the savior! They can't be sure they are going to heaven because they don't know what sin's they may commit next week, next month or next year. We who have trusted in Jesus alone, can have comfort knowing that all our sins have been paid in full on the Cross of Calvary (past, present, and future sins). Jesus has already died for my sins so I don't need to pay for any sin I have or will commit in the future because Jesus already paid the price in full with His blood. So called Christians who say that you can lose your salvation because of suicide or murder or falling away from the church don't have a clue what the Bible says and clearly have not trusted Jesus ALONE!

Biblical Salvation is forsaking any other means of salvation but Christ and casting ourselves fully upon Him for eternal life.

The Gift of God, Eternal Life can never be lost once possessed for any reason. John 6:39, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should LOSE NOTHING, but should raise it up again at the last day." You have God's promise that once you put your trust in Jesus you can never be lost for ANY reason whatsoever.

"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29). Again, God is telling you that this Gift of God that you have just received is without repentance. He can never take His gift back for any reason, no matter how bad you get, or how bad your sins are it is not possible. God would have to cease to exist for that to happen because He cannot lie.

SOURCE: Lordship Salvation » How to get into Heaven

In John chapter 15, I believe Jesus is simply saying that believers who don't mature to win souls are rendered ineffective for God. Some Bible students make the mistake of assuming that the word fire here in John 15:6 means “hell,” but it does not. We know that this word cannot be referring to Hell, because it would violate other plain passages of Scripture. I really like what Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) said: 

“A good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one.”

The entire Gospel of John teaches over and over again that we are saved by BELIEVING on Jesus Christ. For example: John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” It would be absurd to wrestle John 15:1-8 in a foolish attempt to teach that saints who don't go soulwinning lose God's gift of salvation. By the way, I knew instantly when I was told that someone taught this garbage that they are a Charismatic, Assemblies of God or Pentecostal of some sort.

All Charismatics preach three major heresies:

1. They speak in demonic, jibber-jabber, unknown, tongues
2. They believe that God's gift of salvation can be lost.
3. They teach and practice divine healing on demand.

May I say, the inspired Holy Bible teaches in James 5:14-15 that the prayer of faith will heal the sick, if it is God's will to heal. There is no guarantee of divine healing. All faith-healers are frauds! Benny Hinn is a fake! Pat Robertson is a liar! Oral Roberts was a con man! Only the prayer of faith can heal the sick, and not some religious entertainment venue that bilks naïve victims out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The Bible calls such ill-gotten money “filthy lucre.”

The following helpful chart is something that I put together, contrasting the miracle of tongues which happened on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two; versus the carnal speaking in tongues which the Apostle Paul rebuked, which was going at the carnal church at Corinth in 1st Corinthians 14.

View Full Chart Size

View Full Chart Size

As we can see from the preceding comparison and contrast, the speaking in tongues going on today by Pastor Joseph Prince, Bill Hamon, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Oral Roberts and other Charismatic false prophets is of the Devil. ALL public speaking in unknown tongues done today is witchcraft!!! The Biblical miracle of tongues was ALWAYS for soulwinning, so that lost people could hear the Gospel to be saved.

In John 15:1-8, Jesus is simply saying that a believer who does not mature to bear fruit is as a useless branch that is gathered by men and burned. Jesus didn't say that this is about Hell. Jesus didn't call this a parable, so we must not assume that it is. This is NOT a parable! Jesus didn't say that backslidden or immature believers are cast into Hell. Jesus said in John 15:6, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Carefully notice that Jesus said a man is cast forth “AS” a branch. The Lord is using a vine, branches and fire as an illustration, not a factual bad thing that will happen to you!

In 1st Peter 5:8 we read, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” Is the Devil a literal lion? No. Does the Devil literally eat you like a hamburger? No. Does he devour you like a lion does his prey? No. The Devil renders you totally ineffective to serve God. Jesus called Peter, Satan. Was Peter literally Satan? No. So we see in John 15:1-8 that Jesus is the vine. He is not a literal vine! We are the branches. The Lord is using an illustration. This is not a parable. If we fail to mature in Christ to win souls (which is what the parable of The Sower And The Seeds is about in Luke 8:11-15), then we are useless to the cause of Christ. Jesus said in John 15:8 that only when we become soulwinners can we truly be His disciples. ...

Luke 8:15-16, “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.”

It would be very wrong to conclude that John 15:1-8 teaches salvation can be lost, when there is no indication whatsoever that this is the case. Not one verse in the Bible mentions any saint ever losing God's gift of eternal life. That speaks volumes! Beware of false prophets who wrest the inspired Word of God to their own destruction, and the destruction of those who follow them (2nd Peter 3:16-17). You simply cannot trust the theology of a Charismatic!!!