Disowning Christ

Denying allegiance to Jesus in the face of torture or death at the hands of violent anti-Christians might be how some envision disowning Christ to look like.  But there are other, less forceful ways to disown him.  A portion of 2 Timothy 2 makes it clear that disowning Jesus means the sinner will be disowned by him.  Of great relevance to the subject of losing salvation, this excerpt from the Pauline epistles is in perfect alignment with the teachings of Jesus in Matthew, as will be highlighted.  The extended context, though, could be misinterpreted by the adherents of "eternal security" to mean the opposite.  Elsewhere in the Bible, it is quite apparent that there is no absolute promise of infallible salvation status no matter what a person does.  This is also clear from 2 Timothy 2 itself, particularly verse 12 about disowning Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:10-13—"Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.  Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we will endure, we will also reign with him.  If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself."

Does verse 13 contradict verse 12 by stating that if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, despite how he will disown us if we disown him?  Or does it clarify that even if one is disowned by Christ or God, one can still remain saved apart from restoration to God?  Neither.  Only one verse prior, Paul says that if we disown Christ, he will disown us.  The individual Christian can forfeit their salvation by disowning Christ or God, yet the individual's faithlessness does not mean Christ will likewise disown those who have not joined in this sin, remaining faithful to them as they do to him.  In this regard, Paul's is absolutely consistent with the teachings of Jesus himself.  Affirmed by the very words of Christ is the doctrine of mutual disowning as described in Mathew 10.  Disowning Jesus receives an automatic dismissal from salvation:

Matthew 10:32-33—"'Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.'"

As a quick aside, note that Jesus once again distinguishes between himself and his Father; conventional Trinitarianism is logically impossible and Biblically heretical.  Now, if a committed Christian disowns Jesus, no matter what obligatory or positive things they have already done or abstained from, according to Matthew and 2 Timothy, that Christian will be disowned by Christ and by extension Yahweh.  And if God and Christ disown someone, that person would have to be excluded from eternal life and killed, more specifically in the second death of the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15), unless they repent (Isaiah 55:6-7, Ezekiel 18:21-29, Matthew 12:30-32, 2 Peter 3:9).  Yes, how could God and Jesus disown someone in the ultimate sense and then casually grant them immortality when they have not met the condition of righteousness, repentance, or commitment to God and Christ?

They have no salvation.  As with a select handful of topics, the Bible can seem to have verses teaching both that salvation can be lost by sin and that it is permanent and irrevocable, but it is apparent upon thoroughly, rationalistically examining isolated and collective passages without making assumptions that people can indeed be saved and then fall from this status and potentially regain it all over again.  In the book of Ezekiel, God emphasizes that past righteousness never exempts someone from current guilt if they sin (33:12-16; once again, 18:21-29).  The righteous person who sins has become wicked; the wicked person who repents and does what is just has become righteous.  One's current standing is by logical necessity one's current standing (a ramification of the intrinsically true, self-necessary law of identity), and while not all sins are guaranteed to disqualify a person from salvation they otherwise would have, there is no guarantee that one remains saved when one sins.

This is actually in accordance with pure logical necessity: someone who errs severely has erred, no matter how perfect they previously were.  It would be irrational and unjust to pardon them on the basis of past moral success, for by their own actions, they have shifted their status.  Yet many people identifying as Christians in my country want to feel or be secure in their salvation no matter how stupid, how hypocritical, how philosophically neglectful, and how intentionally sinful they choose to be.  God could only refuse to dismiss them from his presence by showing partiality, something that is contrary to his nature (Deuteronomy 10:17, Romans 2:6, 11) as described throughout the Bible and something that could only be unjust.

Sinning while still possessing salvation is possible without forfeiting it, though it Biblically incurs lesser reward after the resurrection (Matthew 5:17-19, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15).  Other sins might be extreme or repetitive enough for God to revoke someone's salvation, with the possibility of them regaining it by means of repentance.  Total ideological and unwavering moral perfection are not required to become or stay saved; repentance and commitment are required, lest one die after the resurrection in the second death and then, by virtue of not existing, lose all opportunity to repent:

Ezekiel 18:21-23—"'But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all of my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die.  None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them.  Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live.  Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord.  Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?'"

Revelation 20:12-15—"And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Another book was opened, which is the book of life.  The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.  Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

Disowning Christ is simply an easy, distinctive way to be renounced before and consequently by God.  Disregarding God's Son to the point of casually or viciously denying affiliation or allegiance makes the sinner deserve to be disowned themself.  Based upon Matthew 10, there is no exception for someone who disowns Christ or by extension God, the greater being (John 14:28), after having served God and Christ.  Based upon the likes of Ezekiel 18 and 33, falling into callous, unrepentant sin of any sort can remove someone's salvation in genuine Christianity.  Whoever disowns Christ will be disowned unless they repent, and someone who leaps into evil will not necessarily be exempt from future judgment if they were righteous beforehand.  There is no inherent security in one's salvation.  From day to day, one must finish the race, as Paul says (2 Timothy 4:7).  The totality of an unrepentant sinner's past righteous deeds by itself will not spare them from losing their salvation any more than having never before committed a capital sin like kidnapping (Exodus 21:16) in the past means someone does should not be executed for what they have done now.