Hebrews 6:4-6:

Hebrews 6:4-6: "For it is in;possible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame."

 

Someone recently asked me what this passage means.  I decided that I will put my response on this blog, since I haven't put an entry here for a couple of days, and since we recently discussed another passage in Hebrews in connection with this week's lectionary reading.  People generally get into difficulty on this passage in one of two ways.

 

Some people think that perhaps the passage means that if they sin as a Christian, especially if that sin is willful and in full awareness of the wrongdoing, salvation might be lost, and they might be in peril of their eternal life.  This fear seems to come more often from those who were raised with a concept of God that was very frightening and terrible.  It is clear, however, when we read the body of Scripture both in the Old and New Testament that this cannot possibly be the interpretation.  The sins of King David are well-known.  The apostle Paul confesses his own sins and shortcomings in various passages of the epistles, particularly in Romans 7.  And a reading of 1 John will confirm that, while a Christian certainly is not permitted to sin habitually, none of us is without sin.  The "falling away" referred to in these verses of Hebrews 6 does not refer simply to committing sin, but to a denial of Christ, a rejection of the Christian truth.

 

But this brings us to the second and more common and more difficult misinterpretation of the passage.  What about a person who makes their profession of faith in Christ and then denies the teachings of the faith.  Can that person not be recovered? Do we not teach the final perseverance of the saints, or the doctrine commonly referred to as "eternal security?"

 

I certainly do teach and believe in the doctrine of the perseverance, or, as R. C. Sproul refers to it, the "preservation" of the saints.  I do affirm eternal security.  I believe that there are many who go forward at a crusade or make professions of faith, and give the appearance of receiving Jesus Christ, who get caught up in an emotional experience, and then deny or leave the faith.  It's not unlike the seed that were sown on the various types of soil, with varying results.  There are people who get a taste of being part of the body of Christ, who have a subjective experience, but who never truly acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only Mediator between God and man, and the Son of God.  They never really affirm what the Scriptures teach about God and Christ.

 

Another way to express what I'm saying would be this:  It is impossible for a person who truly receives the Holy Spirit and is adopted into the household of faith, ever to fall away.  Their sins are already forgiven.  They are already acquitted of all charges against them for all eternity.  God does not change His mind.  He will preserve His elect to the very end.  So if a person who once seemed to be in Christ should fall away and renounce Jesus or reject the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, that person was never really a Christian to begin with. God will not lose any who truly belong to Him through Jesus Christ.  On this point, the Scriptures of the New Testament seem clear, and the Scriptures of the Old Testament give us illustrative foundational truth.  Romans 8-11, along with many other Scriptures, are helpful in this area.  I think also of Ephesians 1.  It is very important to observe one of the primary principles of reformed Scriptural interpretation--namely, to let Scripture interpret Scripture.