Is a backsliding Christian still saved?

In order to answer this question, I must point out that backsliders are of two kinds. There are those who have never got beyond a mere profession of Christianity. Brought under religious influences, they have taken the place of believers in Christ, and in all sincerity imagine that they are on the way to heaven. But there has been no divinely wrought conviction of sin in their souls; their consciences have never been ploughed up by the power of God's Word; to true repentance and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ they are entire strangers. In spite of their profession they are what they always were, unregenerate sinners. Sooner or later, perhaps, the religious life upon which they have entered becomes irksome to them. They feel that they cannot live up to the profession that they have made. Old tastes and desires reassert themselves, and little by little they slide back into their former manner of life and are looked upon, by those who once believed them to be real Christians, as backsliders. Like the sow of which we read in 2 Peter 2:22, their washing did not go deeper than the surface; outwardly reformed, they had never been transformed into Christ's sheep, and their turning again to the mire of sin is only what might be expected.

"Will a believer be saved, no matter into what course of sin he may fall, and die in?" A true believer will, infallibly, be saved; but we consider that salvation includes, not only full deliverance from the future consequences of sin, but from the present power and practice thereof. And, hence, if we find a person living in sin, and yet talking about his assurance of salvation, we look upon him as an antinomian and not a saved person at all. "If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." The believer may fall, but he will be lifted up; he may be overtaken, but he will be restored; he may wander, but he will be brought back because Christ is able to save to the uttermost, and not one of His little ones shall perish.

Backsliding is failure in testimony and practical Christian living, resulting in a believer walking in a way dishonouring to the Lord. For such, sad as it is to backslide, there is a road open to restoration by true repentance and confession. We read,

A clear distinction must be made between apostasy, and backsliding. Backsliding is a word which only occurs in the Old Testament, but, alas! we see many, backsliding, believers in the Christian profession today. Such are invariably dissatisfied and wretched in the secret of their own hearts. They deplore their folly and weakness, and cling tenaciously to the fact of their conversion.

Is restoration possible for a backsliding child of God? Surely it is. God says,

Many a believer has followed in the footsteps of Peter, the backslider, but no true child of God has ever gone, nor can go in the way of Judas, the apostate. Backsliding is not renouncing Christianity, but failing in that holy separateness of walk which God expects from His children. Peter was a backslider, and one for whom the Lord prayed, and on whom the Lord looked (Luke 22:32, 61). That touching look of grieved and injured love broke the heart of the poor backslider. "Peter went out, and wept bitterly."

What about Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus? Here we must point out the important difference between a backslider and an apostate. Peter, in self-confidence yet real love for his Master, vowed that he would face prison and death for his beloved Lord. Yet at the accusation of a servant girl he denied his Master with oaths and cursing. Peter sinned, but his faith did not fail (Luke 22:31-34, 61-62). How easily we can commit such sins! However, in the darkest hour, in moments of the fiercest temptation, the weakest faith always clings to Christ even while the lips may cruelly deny him. A true believer may go down into terrible depths of evil and thus lose his joy and usefulness, but there is one thing he cannot do: he cannot, like Judas, give up Christ. The new nature which God gave us when we were born again will not allow it.

Sad to say, many new-but-true believers needlessly worry about being lost. They sometimes use the sin of Judas and his tragic end as an example. Many believers have followed in the steps of Peter in denying that they know Christ. But no true child of God has ever gone, nor can go, in the way of Judas, the apostate, and give up Christ. Backsliding is not renouncing Christianity, but failing in that holy separated walk which God desires of His children for their blessing.

Carefully distinguish between the backsliding of real believers, such as Peter and Lot, and the real falling away of apparent believers, such as Judas and Simon Magus.

An apostate is one who professes to believe and receives all the outward privileges of Christianity, yet with no divine work in his soul, and so later he gives up Christ. Thus Judas, an apostate, sold his Master, but Peter, a backslider, temporarily denied his Master.

Let us also remember that it is not necessary to break down publicly in order to be a backslider. We can be backsliders without denying the Lord with oaths and cursing, for Scripture speaks of the backslider in heart (Proverbs 14:14).

Nevertheless, for our encouragement let us remember that, whether we have backslidden openly or in heart, every backslider will be restored, though it may not be until a deathbed. Then again all restoration commences with the Lord. The wandering sheep would never return if the Lord in His grace did not go after His sheep. David says, "He restores my soul". Naomi says, "The Lord has brought me home again". Blessed be His Name, He will bring us all home at last.