Grosey's Messages

Difficult Questions: Can A Believer Lose their Salvation?

Hebrews 6:1-12  Deceptively Close Or Definitely Converted?

1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings,  the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Many years ago I was driving along the road near Bombo Beach near Kiama when a sudden drenching cloudburst poured out so much rain.. and there was an elderly gentleman caught in the middle of it. I pulled over and offered him a ride (rather somewhere not to get drowned! When he got in a realised I had picked up a town drunk.  He had a couple of whiskey bottles in his pockets. Well at least I thought, I had a captive audience. The rain was too  heavy to drive anywhere so all we could do was sit and talk. I asked if he was a Christian.  He answered "I most certainly am!" "You're not a Christian" I laughed. "Yes I am I have a card to prove it!"  He reached into his wallet to show me a card that showed he had gone forward 20 years before at an evangelistic service held by John Ridley at Lakemba Baptist church!  "You're a convert of Ridley's?" "I am." "Well you aren't a convert of Christ." I remembered how Evangelist DL Moody had been confronted with a similar situation.

"Mr. Moody, I'm one of your converts." To which Moody replied, "You must be, because you're certainly not one of the Lord's!"

This is the difficult passage of Hebrews.           The difficult passages of Hebrews are those warning passages in chapter 2, chapter 3 chapter 6, 10 and 12. Some reformed folk I know have founded upon this rock and lost their faith. It is important to get to grips with this passage.

Move on to stronger stuff lest you fall away.

John Piper says that the foundational stuff is from their pre Christian jewish heritage. And by continually focussing only on these formularies, they are not going on to Christ, and so they are proving not to have been regenerate and so in danger of perishing.

Mohler writes "To whom does this warning belong? To Christians? To non-Christians? To both? We must understand that this passage comes in the context of a larger argument: we should not neglect so great a salvation. Instead of maturing in their understanding of the greater truths of God, many in this church were neglecting the great salvation offered in Christ. As a result, they were stalling out in their spiritual growth and abandoning the faith.

These Christians needed to move beyond the foundational things and the old covenant of their former Judaism. Foundations are good and necessary for building, but once they have been laid, they do not need to be laid again. The author exhorts his congregation to stop laying the same foundation repeatedly."

In fact continually laying these foundations indicates an addiction to works and ritual religion rather than to Christ Himself.

Now there are a few couplets here. Some think that the passage is from Jewish catechical teaching. Others from early Christian catechical teaching.

I guess the closest we would see is what used to happen in Anglican churches.

Kids would be baptised as infants then every kid would go to Confirmation classes. The confirmation classes would teach the teenager the early principles of the faith.

And then most of the kids in confirmation class would bail and stop going to church.  They had been taught. But not converted.

New Testament scholarship is in general agreement that the six facets of "the elementary teachings about Christ" (v. 1) listed in verses 1-3 outline the primitive catechism used in Jewish churches to induct converts. Thus, we get an intimate glimpse of "the basics," the foundation you would have been taught before being baptized and accepted into a Jewish church 2,000 years ago.

First, you would have been instructed regarding "repentance from acts that lead to death" (v. 1b) — literally, "repentance from dead works," which primarily means, in this Jewish context, turning away from the dead works of the Law and one's doomed attempt at self-salvation. But the instruction would have also included turning away from personal sin itself, which works death, just as John the Baptist and then Jesus had called for (cf. Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:4, 15; Luke 3:8). A Jewish convert, then, had to engage in the sublimely negative act of repentance. Conversion meant a conscious turning away from the old way of life.

Second, repentance was to be coupled with a sublimely positive act of faith — "and of faith in God." Merely turning from dead works would accomplish nothing. Repentance must be joined with faith — a personal relationship of trust in God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt the necessity of faith was hammered home with an exposition of the faith principle from Old Testament Scriptures such as Genesis 15:6 ("Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness") and Habakkuk 2:4 ("but the righteous will live by his faith"). Salvation has always been by faith — sola fide. Thus the first two catechetical basics provided the essentials of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation.

Third and fourth, they were given "instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands . . ." (v. 2). The translation "baptisms" ought to be rendered "washings" or "cleansing rites" (NEB), because it is not the word normally used in the New Testament for baptism. The idea here is that the Hebrew church employed the customary Jewish cleansing rites, as well as the Old Testament customs of laying on of hands, to teach the deeper, ultimate significance of Christian baptism and laying on of hands — namely, the baptism of the Holy Spirit (cf. Matthew 3:11; Acts 1:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13) and also commissioning and empowering for Christian service (cf. Acts 13:1-3). These teachings together amounted to a primary pneumatology, the doctrine of the pneuma, the Spirit.

Fifth and sixth, the converts were given instruction regarding "the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment" (v. 2). Both doctrines were known in the Old Testament (for resurrection cf. Job 19:23-27; Daniel 12:13; for judgment cf. Genesis 18:25; Isaiah 33:22; Daniel 7). But in the New Testament these subjects take on massive significance, with Jesus Christ at their very center. Jesus is the resurrection — "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies" (John 11:25). Jesus is the judge — "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10). The doctrines of resurrection and judgment served as an induction into the Christian doctrine of last things, eschatology.

This particular passage focuses on the impossibility of restoring to repentance those who were once enlightened and partook of the goodness only God can offer. Who are these people who were "once enlightened" and "tasted the heavenly gift"?

The first option is that these people are genuine followers of Jesus Christ. They truly repented of their sin, were united with Christ, and were active in the body of believers. Then they fell away. If understood this way, the passage is a dire warning that many genuine Christians will fall away from the faith. Scripture, however, rules out this interpretation. The Bible repeatedly tells us that God keeps us (John 5:24; Rom 8:39; 11:29; 1 Cor 1:6-8; Phil 1:6; 2 Thess 3:3). In 1 John 2:19 and following, John describes apostates who had left the church. In leaving the faith, they showed they were not truly part of the faith in the first place.

When interpreting difficult texts, it is imperative that we look at other, clearer texts. Scripture is unified and does not contradict itself. Therefore this warning is not addressing Christians losing their faith because other passages say genuine faith cannot be lost. Rather, those who leave and apostatize never really had true faith.

The second option is to read the passage as a hypothetical warning (cf. Matt 24:24). This is a rhetorical technique used by the author to offer an ominous warning of something that cannot actually happen. Nevertheless, because of its grim consequences, it incites believers to cling to Christ and to grow in grace. The problem with this interpretation is that this passage is not talking about something hypothetical.

The third option, which is the most faithful way to interpret this text, is to read this passage as a real warning. However, it is not a warning for the truly regenerate. Rather, it is a caution for individuals who have tasted the things of Christ but have not become genuine Christians. The author describes the people here as "those who were once enlightened." Many people hear and respond in a positive way to the gospel, but they do not truly believe it. They may know many things about the gospel, but they are not truly Christians. They have "tasted the heavenly gift." That phrase is a very strong expression. Blessings come to Christians, and these people have received some of those same blessings. They may even have demonstrated some of the gifts of the Spirit.

Those who fall away are not true believers, but rather men and women who only appear so. They are people who have received a thorough exposure to the gospel — for example, the catechized Jewish believers of the preceding verses — and have made an ostensible profession of faith and have been received into the fellowship of God's people. However, at a later point they have abandoned their profession, even becoming opponents of Christ.

The reasons I hold to this interpretation are as follows: First, the participation in spiritual realities of those who "fall away," though they have been "enlightened" and "shared" and "tasted" the things of God, parallels the privileged experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness who fell away and died in unbelief. As part of the covenant community, the fallen Israelites had placed blood on the doorposts, eaten the Passover lamb, miraculously crossed the Red Sea, observed the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, tasted the miraculous waters at Marah, daily ate manna, and heard the voice of God at Sinai. But their hearts were hardened in unbelief, and they fell away from the living God.

1. The Proximity of the Deceptively Close  

 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away

The third descriptive phrase is that they "shared in the Holy Spirit." This means they have demonstrated some of the new life attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit. They show signs of regeneration and even a commitment to identify with Christ and with his people. In other words, they look like believers. The last phrase, that they "tasted God's good word and the powers of the coming age," show that these people understand the gospel. Yet even in their understanding, they do not have true spiritual life; thus, they fall away.

John 16: . 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8  And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10  concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11  concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Matthew 7: 21  "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23  And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

2. The Peril of the Deceptively Close  

and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

How are we to understand this warning?

First, we are told that they have fallen away. In falling away, they returned to their former state of Judaism. The question then becomes, Can a Jew who converts to Christianity and then repudiates Christ as they go back into Judaism come back to repentance again? The answer is no. At issue is more than just going back into Judaism. We have all known people who made public professions of faith in Christ, got involved in a church, showed signs of Christian growth and maturity, and yet ultimately fell away. They are not ignorant. They know who Christ is and what he offers, and they still reject him. In their departure, they were "recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt." To fall away from Christ is to pour contempt on him, which is equivalent to crucifying him all over again.

The Lord told the parable of the four soils. "A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

18  "Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.  22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

The second and third soil types are the people warned about in Hebrews 6. They receive the word of God but ultimately produce thorns and thistles.

Through the author's choice to include this agricultural metaphor at the end of this warning, the Matthew 13 connection is apparent.  More importantly, it reinforces the sobering warning Jesus gives in the parable of the Weeds. Under pressure, under persecution, or just when distracted by the allure of the world, many who once claimed Christ will go back to the world. Jesus is clear that these people never actually received salvation. John also affirms, "They went out from us, but they did not belong to us" (1 John 2:19).

Happily, Hebrews does not end with this warning. The author assures believers that he had to write the warning for the unbelievers in the church needing to hear it. Pastorally, he is not seeking to put insecurity in the hearts of Christians. Believers who are faithfully following Christ's commands can be confident in their salvation. If we seek assurance of our faith, we will find it by doing the things faithful Christians do. We will grow out of the elementary things and into maturity.

These are sober words indeed. The statement "it is impossible" is unavoidable; indeed, as the first word in this whole passage it is greatly emphasized. This means that people in the church can "fall away" by repudiating Christ, and that "it is impossible to restore [them] again to repentance" (Heb. 6:4). Those who have come to a true knowledge of the gospel, who have experienced the phenomena of salvation by means of their participation in the church, but who ultimately turn their back on Jesus Christ, cannot afterward be restored to repentance. That is the unavoidable statement of this passage.

How do people "fall away"? They fall away by doing what the Israelites did in the desert: by removing their trust in the Lord, repudiating his authority and the salvation he offers, and denying him worship. The verb here is in the aorist tense, which in the Greek normally signifies a completed past action. So we have a decisive break that happened and is now accomplished. In the case of these Hebrew Christians, it is likely that apostasy would mean a return to Judaism and therefore a denial of the saving significance of Christ's life and death, an action that was ominous in its terrible finality.

We see why it is impossible to restore such a person: "They are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt" (Heb. 6:6). To reject Christ after having come to knowledge of the gospel is to say, as the Pharisees did, that he should be put away, that he is guilty as charged, a threat and enemy worthy of death. To repudiate Christ is, in effect, to take up hammer and nails and beat them into his hands and feet, to make common cause with those who crucified him, to mock him like the soldiers who laughed and sneered, "He saved others; he cannot save himself" (Mark 15:3 1).

Interestingly, the writer here shifts to the present tense ("are crucifying"); this represents a present and persistent state of affairs. What happened in the past has led to a present state of the heart analogous to the attitude of those who crucified Jesus in the first place, and that present state makes a future return impossible.

It is tempting to conclude that what is being said here is that people who are rejecting Christ cannot be saved because they are not repenting. But this is a point so obvious that it hardly bears emphasis. Instead, the point is that the people described here are not able to repent and return to faith in Jesus unto salvation because of the hardening effect of their apostasy.

The Greek text does not say, "It is impossible for those who ... fall away, to be brought back to repentance," as the New International Version reads. Rather, as the English Standard Version more accurately puts it, "It is impossible to restore again ... [those who] fall away." We are not able to restore them, but that doesn't mean that God cannot.  My grandmother.. a church warden. But fell away particularly into gambling.  She kept resisting the gospel. I gave her many books over many years. All unread. Until one day at the age of 93, the Lord led her to a true salvation in Christ. 

3. The Picture of the Deceptively Close

7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

What matters is not whether or not rain falls upon the ground, for God sends rain on the good and the evil (Matt. 5:45), just as he does his saving Word. It is the presence of fruit that ultimately tells the tale. Similarly, Jesus said, "A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits" (Matt. 7:18-20).

disgraceful

unfruitful

One class of people described by the statements in verses 4-5, people who have knowledge and an experience of spiritual reality, is children who grow up in the church. How easy it is for them to reproduce verses and slogans they have been hearing all their lives, either to keep their parents happy or to merit their praise. But we must look for fruit in their lives, fruit issuing forth from their profession of faith. We must challenge them to give evidence of a heart commitment, to grow and advance in the faith, which is their only safety. I have noticed that if an adult is a truly vile and blasphemous hater of Christ and Christianity, it is often someone who was raised in the church and whose rock-hard heart is described by this passage. Let us therefore pray diligently for our children and set an example not of spiritual hypocrisy but of real and attractive faith.

Our passage ought furthermore to cause us to reflect upon what passes for evangelism in our time, and especially upon revivalism. The goal, it often seems, is simply to place people's names on a list, to increase the size of the congregation in the name of eternal security, to pat ourselves on the back and move on to the next "convert." When such people later repudiate Christ, whom they have never really known, they are left far worse off than they were before.

Reasons why you cannot lose your salvation

The Fact of Your Assurance

9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

The Foundation Of Your Assurance

The Person Of God 

He made the promise. He made the oath to save you.

The Purpose Of God

The Pledge of God

The Priest of God.

His Unique Authority to save   7:24

His Unchanging Ability to save 7:25

His Universal Adequacy to save

7:23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Like Matthew 13 Parable.

6:9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.

3:14  . 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

10: 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

13: 20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Ultimately, nonbelievers in the church will repudiate Christ and go back into the world. True believers, however, will be motivated to move forward in their faith and claim Christ as King until the end.

18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.