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Evanescent grace suggests there is a temporary grace that God gives, but it fades with time. The word evanescent means “tending to vanish like vapor” (Merriam-Webster online). Some apply this term theologically to make a case for a believer’s ability to volitionally lose salvation. He had the grace of God, but it was evanescent.
But is God’s saving grace evanescent? Is it temporary? Can it be lost? We do not believe so.
Those making the case for evanescent grace may appeal to verses like Matthew 24:10 where Jesus speaks of those in this world who “fall away” (ESV). Jesus likens these “believers,” guilty of eternal treason, to trees lacking firm roots in Mark 4:17. The author of Hebrews 6:1–6 (most likely Paul) says it this way:
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
How must we understand the context of Hebrews and Jesus’ words, because Scripture elsewhere focuses on God’s unconditional love for us (1 John 4:19). What about His foreknowledge of us before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20), His effectual calling (Matthew 22:14), and His election (Ephesians 1:4)? What of the rebirth (John 3:3), the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and God’s ability to secure salvation with a power beyond our own (1 Peter 1:3–6)? What about Jesus’ promise that no one can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28) and the impossibility of anything or anyone to separate us from His love (Romans 8:31–39)? All of these passages counter the notion of evanescent grace.First, remember that Hebrews is characterized as the “Jesus is Better Than” book. The author systematically makes the case that Jesus is superior to the angels, Aaron, Moses, the priesthood, the Sabbath, the patriarchs, the temple, the sacrifices, and so on. The author’s audience is the unbelieving Jews who, having the elementary teachings in the Old Testament—the shadows (Hebrews 10:1)—miss the substance: Christ. Even the disciples walked with Jesus throughout His ministry and missed the substance of Christ until He rose from the dead and re-explained it to them (Luke 24:27).
The Israelites tasted the heavenly gifts of God throughout their history (Exodus 16). They shared in the Holy Spirit (e.g., Samson in Judges 14:6), the Word of God (Exodos 19:25), and the powers of the coming age of Christ (Exodus 7—11), yet the author of Hebrews warns them, this is not saving belief. Christ is. It would appear that those who professed to be believers but later fell away did so because they believed in false premises—or they had never received Jesus as Lord and Savior in the first place (see 1 John 2:19).
Second, consider the symbols or images of our salvation (e.g., birth, new creation, being in Christ). We believe these images of grace demolish evanescent grace better than any other argument. What role did anyone have in “choosing” his way into or out of his own birth? Who can unmake a new creation not made by human hands (2 Corinthians 5:1)? Perhaps the most convincing evidence is that the Bible speaks over 270 times about our being “in Christ.” The truth is that “you have been raised with Christ,” and He is “seated at the right hand of God. . . . Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1, 3). What man, woman, or child can reach up into heaven, steal himself back out of Christ, and declare, “I lost my salvation”?
First Peter 1:3–6a speaks of our salvation in a way that precludes any idea of evanescent grace. Peter speaks of salvation as past, present, and future (emphasis added):
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice.
God caught us (past salvation), keeps us (present salvation), and completes us (future salvation)! He does so by shielding us with His power. To say in some way that God can lose us minimizes His power and ignores His Word. Peter reminds us that trusting Jesus is grounds for secure and eternal rejoicing.Evanescent grace is not grace at all. The teaching of evanescent grace obliterates our security in Christ and casts doubt on the foundation of our joy. Praise the Lord, His grace is not evanescent; we have “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade . . . kept in heaven for [us]” (1 Peter 1:4).
