Are those who have fallen from grace forever condemned?
No. They may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 65
29But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him, for you will search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in distress and all these things have found you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice. 31For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; he will not slacken his hand toward you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
1It shall come to pass that when all these words, the blessing and the curse that I set before you, come upon you, you will return them to your heart among all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you. 2You will return to the LORD your God and hear his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul. 3Then the LORD your God will return your captivity and have compassion on you; he will return and gather you from all the peoples to which the LORD your God has scattered you there. 4If your banished one is at the end of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
14I will restore the captivity of my people Israel; they will rebuild ruined cities and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1Brothers, if a human is also overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness, watching yourself so that you also may not be tempted.
19My brothers, if anyone among you should go astray from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
22And have pity on some who doubt. 23Save others by seizing them out from the fire; and have pity on others in fear, hating even the tunic stained by the flesh.
A believer who has fallen is still within reach of grace. Article IX of the Confession of Faith continues the sentence quoted in the previous question: those who fall "may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness." Article XII of the Articles of Religion, Of Sin After Justification, condemns the opposite teaching by name: "the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification," and those who "deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent" are themselves condemned.
Israel's history is a long record of falling and being restored. Moses foresaw the exile and promised, "from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him, for you will search after him with all your heart" (Deuteronomy 4:29). The promise rests on God's character: "the LORD your God is a compassionate God; he will not slacken his hand toward you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers" (Deuteronomy 4:31). Later in the same book the promise is repeated: (Deuteronomy 30:2) David, having fallen as far as a believer can fall, prayed, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit" (Psalm 51:12). Restoration is God's act; a fallen person is renewed "by the grace of God," and by nothing else.
In the New Testament, restoring the fallen becomes a task for the church. Paul wrote, "if a human is also overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1). James says that "whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins" (James 5:20). Underneath all of this lies the promise of Romans 8: nothing in creation "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).
For a Methodist this teaching governs how the church treats a member who has wandered. The church restores with the gentleness of Galatians 6:1, and the wanderer returns with the prayer of Psalm 51. The door stays open on the authority of Article XII of the Articles of Religion: by the grace of God a person may "rise again and amend" his life.