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Your
question about this verse is a common one that many over the years have
asked. To many, this verse
seems to imply that a believer can lose their salvation. However, when one looks at this verse in its context and in
light of the whole teaching of Scripture, it becomes clear that this is
not what this verse teaches. Rather,
Heb 6:6 deals with the responsibility of believers to respond
appropriately to the grace they have been given in order to receive the
blessings and rewards that are available to them in Christ.
In order to get this message across, the writer of Hebrews
reminds them of the loss and danger incurred by those who appear to
participate in the faith, but who in the end fail to embrace the gospel
in a saving way. The
technique used by the author is similar to when I train my own covenant
children to take advantage of the gospel, not only by pointing out the
positive examples in the lives of those who have been trained by the
gospel, but also by drawing to their mind the ultimate folly and end of
those who may appear for some time to be Christians, but in the end
have only gone so far in the matters of the faith, but failed to be
changed by the gospel. In
this verse, there is not a threat to cause believers to fear losing
their salvation, but a lesson drawn from the lives of those who do not
possess eternal life to encourage those who do possess eternal life
toward greater maturity and fruit.
I explain this matter this way… The
doctrine you raise in your question deals with the perseverance of the
saints. As Steele and
Thomas in their book The Five Points of Calvinism put it, this doctrine
deals with the fact that “The elect are not only redeemed by Christ
and renewed by the Spirit; they are also kept in faith by the
almighty power of God. All
those who are spiritually united to Christ through regeneration are
eternally secure in Him. Nothing
can separate them from the eternal and unchangeable love of God.
They have been predestined unto eternal glory and are therefore
assured of heaven.” We
see this truth taught in John 10:27ff
where Jesus himself says “My sheep listen to my voice; I
know them, and they follow me. I
give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one
can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no
one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
Again in Matthew 18:12-14 Jesus says “What do you think?
If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will
he not leave the ninety- nine on the hills and go to look for the one
that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about
that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.
In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any
of these little ones should be lost.”
In fact, this truth is so positively affirmed in Scripture that
believers are spoken of as having already passed from death to
life (John 5:24); as being saved “by Christ” from the wrath
of God (Rom 5:8-10); as being “sealed” with the promised Holy
Spirit, which is the “guarantee of our inheritance” (Eph
1:5,13,14); and as being “perfected for all time” according
to the single offering of Christ (Heb 10:14).
You see, when a believer receives “eternal” life, he
is saved forever, or else it would not be “eternal” life.
That’s what we read in John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.” The
best way to understand this is to realize that we are saved not of
ourselves but through the person and work of Jesus Christ, who
substitutionally stood in our place, and (objectively) outside of us and
our efforts fully accomplished salvation for us.
Since this salvation is accomplished for us, apart from us, and
on our behalf, and because the Father has already accepted the offering
that Christ presented in order to secure and assure our salvation, there
is nothing we can do to lose that salvation.
(If we did not earn our salvation, we cannot lose it) Christ’s
sacrifice has provided for our past, present and future sins, and the
work of God in renewing our hearts and granting us faith will not change
because the calling and gifts of God are irrevocable.
Not only this, but when it comes to our faith and belief, our
hope is not in our own ability to make ourselves believe God with 100%
of our hearts 100% of the time in 100% of all the matters we face, but
in the fact that God’s mercy and grace are sufficient for our
salvation regardless of our weaknesses and faithfulness.
The psalmist writes of this in Ps 73:26 saying “My
flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Our security
in lasting salvation is sure because God, not us, is ultimately the one
responsible for accomplishing, providing, and ensuring our salvation! In
light of this teaching, let’s look now at what the writer of Hebrews
says in Heb 6. In this
passage the author is emphasizing that believers should not take the
grace offered to them for granted and fail to respond to it, but rather
respond in a way that is for our good.
In Heb 5:11-6:3, the recipients of this letter had failed to grow
in maturity and were being exhorted to Christian growth.
The overall discussion here is not whether they might fall from
grace or not, but whether they are responding to grace and maturing in
the faith in continuing in their Christianity
by growing in knowledge and truth.
In fact, that’s what the writer of Hebrews illustrates for them
in vv. 7-8 stating “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it
and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives
the blessing of God. But
land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of
being cursed. In the end it
will be burned.” Here,
there is not the threat of one type of ground changing into another type
of ground (i.e., a believing heart turning into an unbelieving heart)
but the warning and encouragement that failure to favorably respond to
the grace given them has consequences.
We can fail to respond to the truth of God by failing to be moved
by the need to respond to it, by undervaluing it’s purpose and place
in our lives, by becoming too comfortable or complacent in this grace,
etc. The ultimate point
here is here is not to cause the recipients of this letter to lose their
confidence and fear falling into grace, but to stir them to greater
faithfulness by setting before them the example and judgment of those
who fail in continually receiving the heavenly grace to produce fruit. One
key to understanding this verse is found in v. 9 where the writer says “Even
though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better
things in your case – things that accompany salvation.” Here the writer is saying that because they are believers
(and believers do not fall away from grace and continue in deliberate
ongoing sin) he is confident that this will NOT be the case for them,
for there is grace “that accompanies salvation” that ensures that
this will never take place for the elect.
The writer could not possess such confidence if indeed it was
common for believers to fall away from grace and fail to persevere. Next,
in vv. 4-6 the author
writes “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, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because
to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and
subjecting him to public disgrace.”
The key phrase to note here is the phrase “if they fall
away”. There are many
ways to taste the heavenly gift and share in the Holy Spirit, etc.,
without being converted. Think
of the parable of the seed that falls along the path.
(Luke 8) Each type of ground actually receives the seed, but only
that which is good soil produces a crop.
The same is true of people (and “professers” of religion) Many will hear the word and appear to accept it for awhile,
but if they fail to produce fruit and if they fall away, they prove they
never belonged to Christ to begin with.
The true believer will not “fall away” because the seed takes
root and therefore the believer cannot go on (deliberately) sinning and
(deliberately) behaving as if God’s truth were of little to no value
in their lives. Matthew
Henry says the writer of Hebrews here “shows how far persons may go in
religion, and, after all, fall away, and perish forever.”
But this is to fall short of a right relationship with Christ and
with the truth. Henry goes
on to say “Persons may taste religion, and seem to like it, if they
could have it upon easier terms than denying themselves, and taking up
their cross, and following Christ.
In the same vein, Dr. Simon Kistemaker puts it this way
“The author does not say anything about restoring a hardened
sinner; what he refers to is the impossibility of removing sin because
the person sins deliberately.” Calvin
says “He is referring to a complete falling away from the Gospel, not
one in which the sinner has offended God in some one part only, but in
which he has utterly renounced His grace.”
So, the warning is this – if you and I want to receive the
blessing, we must be cautious to heed the message of Scripture (act on
its teaching, soberly consider the truths, learn and walk in the way of
righteousness, repent of our sin, etc.)
On the other hand, to hear the word and to go on continuously not
responding favorably to the word ultimately brings into question whether
we have been saved to begin with or not.
It is not enough to know what God requires and then fail to do
it. The blessing comes to
us as we respond in faith and obedience to his call to righteousness and
obedience in our lives. If
we keep on sinning (willfully), then it’s not a question of whether we
might fall from grace, but whether we were ever a believer to begin
with. That is not to say
that if there in ongoing sin in our life, that we are to spend an
inordinate amount of time questioning our salvation.
Rather, we are to take the truth of God, examine our hearts,
repent of our sins, and where we find our hearts hardened and not
wanting to repent, going back to the cross and pleading the grace of God
for a new heart, for a spirit of repentance, for strength to follow thru
with that which we know he requires of us.
Therefore,
in the end, this verse (v. 6) is not dealing with “believers” who
fall away and lose their salvation never to be able to be saved again;
but it sets before believers the example of those who receive and may
participate in portions of God’s grace but repudiate Christ’s
lordship and salvation to their own ruin, in order to persuade and
motivate believers to live according to and take advantage of the grace
and knowledge they have received. |
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Answer: