StudyGrowKnow

Say What?

October 23, 2026 at 12:49 PM 2 comments

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I think we can all agree that there are areas of Scripture that are not easy to understand and interpret. The more I study, the more I realize it usually comes down to context and our lack of understanding that actual context within that particular passage compared with the rest of Scripture. I’m going to present one particular passage in this article that tends to be somewhat confusing and go over others in future articles.

The first passage I want to deal with is 2 Timothy 2:11-13.

This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

Let’s break those three verses down to help us understand what Paul is telling Timothy. Here are the four parts:

1. If we died with Him, we will live with Him
2. If we endure, we will reign with Him
3. If we deny Him, He will also deny us
4. If we are faithless, He will continue to be faithful

So it seems that at the outset, Lordship Salvation folks may have a point because it appears at first as though if a believer does not remain true to Jesus, that believer will either lose salvation (Arminianism), if they actually had it, or they never had it in the first place (orthodox view). But is this what Paul is actually saying here? I say a resounding NO and here’s why.

The very first part of the section says, “For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him.” Paul is referring to our new standing in Christ as believers, which he emphasizes in other letters, like Galatians 2:20-21.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

So here, Paul tells us that if we are actually believers, we have already been crucified with Christ (died with Him, 2 Tim 2:11). This is a done deal. It cannot be undone. A believer cannot lose, forfeit or have salvation taken away once given. Why? Because Jesus is faithful.

If we died with Christ, we no longer live as our old Self because Jesus lives within each and every believer and the bondage to our flesh is destroyed. We can still go there, if we choose, but we should choose not to do so.

This is our salvation folks. It is also our justification. These things cannot be undone at all once extended. It is impossible any more than a person can be physically unborn. Even in physical death, that is not being unborn because a person’s spirit is eternal and lives on forever either in hell or heaven after this life.

So let’s understand that because each and every believer has been crucified with Christ, Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 2:11 that because of our death with Christ, we are also alive with Him and will live with Him. Ultimately, this means we will actually and eventually live in His personal Presence when we arrive to eternity.

Now, the next part of what Paul tells Timothy is that if we endure, we will reign with Him. What is this referring to? Ultimately, it is referring to a reward that the persevering believer receives after this life is over. For the believer who continues persevering throughout their life, they do NOT maintain their salvation! This is an onerous misnomer and I cannot stress that enough. The believer who perseveres in serving the Lord until they die will be rewarded with the opportunity to reign with Jesus. Now not every believer will enjoy this because many have and will quit persevering in this life. However, that person does not lose salvation nor cannot be correctly stated that they were not actually saved in the first place. They may not actually be saved, but only the Lord knows that. No one can tell who is or who is not saved by looking at their life. That’s not in our hands. Certainly someone who says they are a believer and not living a life that is scripturally sound may come under church discipline if they attend church. Beyond that, God may send temporal judgment on them. That’s totally His prerogative.

So the first part of the 2 Timothy 2 passage confirms that believers have died with Jesus and because of that, will live with Him in eternity. That is salvation or eternal life in a nutshell. The second part indicates that those who endure will reign with Him in the coming Millennial Kingdom when He physically returns to this earth. Those who do not endure in this life, will not reign with Him, but they will be there and enjoy the Millennium.

Notice the sad third part; those who deny Him, He will also deny. Sounds like Lordship Salvation people have a point here as well, but they don’t. The first part of the passage – verse 11 – confirms that salvation is eternal and can never be lost or taken away. End of that story. The second part speaks of rewards, as in reigning with Him if we endure in this life. This third part is also dealing with rewards, but in the negative.

If a person denies Jesus, and by that I believe Paul means a believer who gets seriously lazy and essentially stops living a life that brings glory to God, that believer is literally denying their Savior and Lord. Maybe they stop going to church. Maybe they stop giving money to the church and stop reading their Bible. Maybe they start hanging out with the wrong crowd and become like the people of that crowd. Maybe they even stop considering themselves a Christian. These things mean that the person is in a state of denial where Jesus is concerned. This happened so often in the Old and New Testaments, it’s not even funny.

King David literally denied Yahweh when he committed adultery and had Uriah murdered. Solomon literally denied Yahweh when he married pagan wives and began worshiping idols with them. King Saul denied God when he ignored God’s rules for the priesthood and thought he could blend being a king with being a priest. No, that was Jesus’ job, not King Saul’s.

Ananias and Sapphira denied Jesus when they lied to the apostles about the money they had kept back after selling their land in Acts 5. These people did not lose salvation. They were temporally judged by God and disciplined.

So the believer today who decides to no longer attend church, no longer hang out with other believers and goes back to a life that God had originally called them out from, is denying Christ. Their internal moral compass is compromised and their heart becomes hardened to God.

So Paul says that Jesus will deny them. What does that mean? It simply means that they will lose rewards they could have earned had they kept persevering and not started living a life of denial where God is concerned. It’s that simple. Those two parts; enduring/reigning and denying Him/He denies us is referring only to rewards, gains or losses. It has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we get to keep our salvation. The very first verse we quoted establishes the fact that our salvation is eternal and Romans 8 fleshes that out for us.

Okay, so what about the last portion of that passage quoted from 2 Timothy 2:13? That certainly sounds as though something ominous is going to occur. It says, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” This actually ties to the part about us denying Him and Him us. The bottom line is that because of His unconditional love for us and the fact that He is truthful, He cannot deny the promises He has made, not only for us as believers, but every promise, even to the nation of Israel.

Wow, isn’t that unbelievably awesome??!! Can I get a hearty AMEN?

Paul is telling us that even if/when we are completely faithless where Jesus is concerned and we even come to a point where we deny Him (maybe even as Peter denied Jesus), He continues to remain faithful to us. It is His nature! But faithful about what? Go back to verse 11 and understand that His promises remain certain! If we have salvation, we have salvation, PERIOD! We will continue to have it because He is faithful and will bring His promises to us to fruition, in spite of how poorly we live out the rest of our Christian lives. He will not rescind the salvation He gives us.

When I stop to consider this reality, my heart is filled with such love for what God has done and is doing! He loves us so much that He will allow NOTHING to condemn us or remove salvation from us. We can do nothing. Satan can do nothing. Our salvation is sure and if this does not make you love God more and more and more, then you are missing the point entirely!

This is what grace does, versus Lordship Salvation. Grace sees His unconditional love to us over and over and over, for as long as we live in this world and into the next. As this truth and reality grows within you, you will find yourself motivated to do for Him what He wants you to do because the “effort” simply stems from a heart filled with gratitude and love for our great God. Lordship Salvation instills a sense of foreboding where God is concerned. It ultimately creates a tendency to live in fear.

We have salvation (if we are believers). We should endure, but if we fail, we do not lose our salvation. We may lose rewards, but not our salvation. If we fall to the point of even denying Him, He will deny us rewards. But the bottom line is this: He will always be faithful to Himself and His promises. Nothing will ever change that.

The more we focus on the truth of this 2 Timothy 2:11-13 passage, the greater our understanding of His love to us will become. To hear Lordship Salvation people tell it, this is another proof text that simply says that a person who denies Him or does not endure, is just another wannabe Christian, but not an authentic one. That is NOT what these verses teach, not even close.

Next time, I want to go over Romans 10:9-11. I hope you’ll join me then and you might be surprised at what Paul is actually saying there. It’s truly fascinating.

Entry filed under: christianity, eternity, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, sanctification, second coming.