Summer Scripture Series: Trust God's Promises
This week, we continued our Summer Scripture series, where Pastor Robbie and others are going through the Book of Hebrews, verse by verse, to bring out their immediate meaning. This process of ‘exegesis’ is important to bring out the originally intended meaning of the author to their original audience!
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Pastor Robbie spoke out of Hebrews 6:4-20 (ESV) saying, ‘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. and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 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. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and produces a crop useful to those whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned’
Continuing in verse 9, ‘Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 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. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.’
Continuing in verse 13, ‘For when God made a promise to Abraham since he had no one greater by who to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 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, 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. We have this as a sure ad steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’
He begins by stating, ‘Now, this section of Scripture has been debated, fought over, and argued for 2000 years. I am going to do my best to guide us step by step through essentially a theological minefield. This whole passage really touches on one of the most difficult and complex issues to understand—this issue of salvation and the security of the believer.
It is a difficult issue, on the one hand, because we read this text which seems ominous, seems scary - BUT on the other hand, if there is one thing clear about salvation in the New Testament, it’s that it is nothing like your car keys, your sunglasses, or my kid’s stuffed monkey every single night at bedtime—you can’t lose it. Our salvation isn’t our own church, because we are not our own, but instead, we belong to God. ‘Jesus’ isn’t property that we can misplace; we don’t own him, he owns us.’
Let’s read verses 4-6 again, and then lets walk through three ways we can potentially understand those verses. I want to be fair and present the three arguments, and then I’m going to share the rest of the message from one of these options based on my understanding, based on my studies, and based on my conviction and discernment as I believe the Lord has led me.
Option 1) True Believers Who Fall Away - There are some who see this group as actual genuine Christians. They would hold that God supplies grace to those who are trusting Him, but the ultimate perseverance of any believer depends on the cooperation of his own free will. Therefore, any Christian whatever his state, is capable of falling away and the condemnation that we read about.
Option 2) True Believers Who Fall Away but as a Hypothetical Situation - Some might argue that the author is taking the “what if” line of thinking. If salvation is through Jesus alone, and one “tries” Christianity, then walks away, what else is there for them?...there is no hope! Hypothetically speaking.
Option 3) Professing Believers Who Fall Away - The argument here is that the people the author is speaking about are not true believers, only ones who “appear” so. They have seen that the Lord is good, they have been around other believers, and may have even seemingly demonstrated some of the fruits of the Spirit - but they were never Spirit-filled, and thus never true believers. They were visitors, not permanent residents.
Now before you freak out on me, church, there is a big difference from falling away and falling into sin. Judas fell away (that’s apostasy); Peter fell into sin (he backslid). Categorically different things. We’ll come back to that before we’re through today.
Through my study of this passage and many other passages in Bible, because how many of you know that to study a topic in the Bible, you don’t just look at a single verse out of context, you look at everything the Bible has to say about a particular topic - and in this case, the Bible has a lot to say about our security in salvation, which is why I could not lean into Option 1. I don’t believe the author is intending to mean here that true believers are falling away from God and that their hearts are being hardened so as to never return. Here’s some of what the Bible says on the topic - consider verses such as Romans 8:29-31; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; Phil. 1:6; John 6:37-39; Eph. 4:30.
I don’t believe it could be the second option either. There are other reasons that include the language of the passage, the tense of words used, and so on, but I’ll give you logical reasons. If it were hypothetical and both the author and the audience knew it, the power of the argument would be lost. When I tell my daughter IF you do that one more time, THEN I’m going to spank you - but both she and I know that I have no intention of spanking her because I’m a big pushover, that warning is useless. Furthermore, if the author knew it was hypothetical but the readers thought it was real, then the author’s integrity would be in question. So that leads us to the last option. Option 3.
The point of these texts is not that you can be born again and then un-born-again. It’s not that you can be regenerate, that is, spiritually raised from the dead, and then spiritually die again. Those who believe in losing one's salvation should also realize that this section of Hebrews is not talking about losing and regaining faith, but instead renouncing it so as to never be able to regain it. The point is that we will see people who seem to be part of God’s Kingdom, who prove by their leaving that they are not.
Can I help someone again that might be freaking out in their seats as I talk about this? For those who think that they’ve committed this sin of apostasy - If you’re concerned about it, that tells me that you have not committed it and that you are absolutely still capable of repentance. Can I also say this, God alone knows the point of no return. We as believers should never consider anyone beyond his reach and we should continue to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with all, sharing the love of Christ with all, even if someone seems to have apostatized. We don’t give up hope and we don’t assume what’s in someone’s heart no matter what their mouths and actions say.
So if there is this sin, this sin of apostasy, which is so bad, so heinous, so terrible that your heart will be hardened toward the Lord - then what do I do to ensure that doesn’t happen? How do I stand strong instead of falling away? You MOVE! You have to continue to move toward God. If you have never given your life to Christ, continue to move toward him. If you are a believer here, continue to move toward him. He says show earnestness, be convicted and act on that conviction; he says don’t be sluggish, what’s the opposite of sluggish - moving at a fast pace! Working! Serving! Loving! It is in love that we move away from apostasy, whether you agree with me on my understanding of this passage or not, sprinting the other way is a logical way to avoid this pitfall. I believe that you can’t sincerely love the saints and be moving towards apostasy or even complacency or spiritual sluggishness at the same time, any more than you can stand up and sit down at the same time.
Is he calling you to come today? Are you hearing this gospel message today with fresh ears and a willing soul? This gospel promise is the promise of God, sworn on God, to bring us to God. He doesn’t just want to fix us, he wants to change us into a new creation, one that is safe and secure in Him, our souls anchored to the Father.
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Summer Scripture Series: Trust God’s Promises - Even in the face of potential apostasy in a community, the promise is sure and steadfast! What promise? That we have a great and an immortal High Priest forever, who has passed into the holy of holies in heaven—behind the curtain, the Temple veil—to intercede on our behalf and to bring us there through union with himself.
Main Scripture Passages: Hebrews 6:4-20; Romans 8:29-31; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; Phil. 1:6; John 6:37-39; Eph. 4:30
The Importance of the Promise: Those who are in Christ with a sense of concern surrounding their faithfulness necessarily suggests the presence of that which they desire to keep - trust in God’s Promise.
The Reality of the Uncomfortable: The reality is that there are people in every faith community that are not ‘true believers’, yet we are not the ones who necessarily determine who those people are - that’s God’s Job.
The Danger of the Warning: This is a firm, sobering warning. It’s a warning that probably leaves most, if not all, of us in a position of self-examination; if someone could fall away who has experienced all of those things, wow, this is a warning that we cannot ignore.
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