Hebrews: Chapter 5B-6
October 5th, 2008
Falling Away
Today we are going to talk about one of the most interesting and controversial texts in the book of Hebrews and perhaps even the entire Bible. Is our salvation secure? The Calvinists believe in a concept called the perseverance of the saints. Some other groups refer to this as eternal security. They believe that once you are a Christian you are saved. From the point in which you receive your salvation then you cannot lose it. Is that true? Are we ‘once saved always saved?’ What I want to do this morning is simply answer one question: can we lose our salvation? The book of Hebrews is perhaps the most important book that we have to answer this question. What we find as we move from chapter 5 to chapter 6 is the importance of our spiritual development.
Hebrews chapter 6 may in fact be the most controversial passage in Scripture. Before we get into the text we need to remember one important thing. Who is our audience? Remember this is going to get more and more important as we move through the book of Hebrews. Who is our audience? They are Christians. This is a text written to Christians and a warning that we should take seriously. Our author warns his reads that they must now allow themselves to grow apathetic or to become stagnant. He tells his readers that they are spiritually immature, they are acting like babies and that they need to grow up so that they do not fall into the sin of apostasy. They need move off milk and onto solid food which is what he tells us in Hebrews 5:11-
Heb 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. Heb 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Heb 5:13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
These Christians are not mature. They have not developed as they were supposed to. The author would have expected them to be teachers by this time but he finds that they are still in need of someone to teach them the elementary truths of the Gospel. This church is immature because they have not grown beyond elementary teachings. They have set their foundation but rather than building on that foundation they are trying to lay the foundation again. Our author says we must move forward we must press on toward maturity. Our author pleads with his audience to leave behind the basic teachings and to move on to maturity. He wants them to develop and to grow so that they do not become complacent. They are in danger of Spiritual stagnation and if they do not grow they may slip away. So our author urges them to mature-to grow in the faith and in their relationship with God. Look at what he says in Hebrews 6:1
Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, Heb 6:2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Heb 6:3 And God permitting, we will do so.
These basics of Christianity are important. They are the foundation of our faith. These six things are the Spiritual ABC’s: 1. repentance: notice that this comes before faith. Repentance is to change your mind, if you repent after you have faith you are going back to your old life, we must repent and turn from our old life before following Christ in our new life. 2. Faith-complete trust or confidence in God. 3. Baptism, 4. Laying on of hands which at this time was often combined as a blessing in association with baptism, 5. The resurrection from the dead which is ultimately important because if Christ is not raised then our faith is for nothing and finally, 6. Eternal judgment as an indication that there is a real existence of heaven and hell.
This passage is not an encouragement to forget about the basics but to build on them. You must learn your alphabet before you learn to write. You use the foundation to build on. Why is it so important to mature? If we do not we are in danger of drifting away and becoming lost. If we do not build on the foundation if we do not press on and continue to grow we are in danger of sliding back. In sliding back we are in danger because there is such a thing as apostasy. It is a complete desertion or total walking away from God. This is something that there is no coming back from. So with that in mind our author is going to tell us about this danger of apostasy. Look at Hebrews 6:4-
Heb 6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, Heb 6:5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, Heb 6:6 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.
This text starts off: it is impossible. So we must ask what does the word impossible mean? Odd as that question sounds there have been a number of opinions presented over the years as to what our author means here. Some believe that impossible means really hard. After all nothing is impossible for God. It is really hard for those who fall away to come back to repentance. Or perhaps what is being said here is that it is impossible for men but not for God. However this does not fit well with how impossible is used by our author. In verse 18 of this same chapter it says that it is impossible for God to lie. That does not mean it is really difficult for God to lie it means it is impossible for God to lie. It does not mean that man would find it hard to lie but for God it is impossible. It is also impossible to please God without faith, that does not mean it is really hard to please God. Impossible does not mean really hard.
Well perhaps they are not Christians. They are falling away and thus proving they were never Christians to begin with. This view comes from an assumption that we can judge the true hearts and nature of a man. If they were never a Christian then what are they falling away from? Why even bother saying this at all?
Others have stated that this is a hypothetical warning. If it were possible for Christians to fall away (which it is not) then we should be careful. It is here a warning for Christians but only hypothetical. What? Seriously? Can anyone tell me the purpose of a hypothetical warning? What is the purpose of warning if it is something that could not actually happen? It is a waste of time! It is impossible therefore for those who have forgotten about gravity and floated away to ever make it back to the ground. So be careful that you do not float away or you will never walk again. If this was a hypothetical warning then it would have no value at all.
It is interesting that this word has caused so much controversy in the church. You see some people read into Scripture what they want to see and so they change Scripture to fit with their idea of what it should say. I am going to purpose a very radical understanding of this text. Perhaps the word impossible…means impossible. It is impossible for Christians who have been enlightened and fallen away to ever come back to repentance. Remember that this warning is written to a Christian audience, it only really makes sense then that the warning is for Christians who can fall away.
So is it possible to lose your salvation? According to the book of Hebrews it is. It is possible for a Christian to turn their back on God and walk away from Him and the life that only He offers. That is why it is so important for us to keep God as the focus of our lives. That is why it is so important that we grow and develop in our Spiritual maturity because it is possible for us to lose our salvation. Let me clarify something though. I have met some people who were overly frightened by this text. Your salvation is not a set of car keys that you can put down somewhere and forget where they are. Oh man…where did I put my salvation? Did I leave it in the car? Is it in my other coat pocket…o man where is it?
Apostasy does not happen accidentally. These people who fall away from God are people who have experienced a real relationship with Him. They have experienced His love, His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, and His salvation and then having experienced those things they have turned their back on Him. How do we know this? Verses 4-5 spell it out for us. These are people who have been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, and shared in the Holy Spirit. These have to be Christians. The Holy Spirit is a stamp, and identifying mark of Christians. If these people shared with the Holy Spirit then they have to be Christians. It is impossible for these Christians who have fallen away from God to be restored to salvation.
It is important then to understand what is meant by fallen away. In Scripture the only time this word ‘fallen away’ is used is here in Hebrews 6. This word is a nautical word that is having to do with the sea. It is a word that was used by Greeks to refer to a ship that was lost. A ship that was sailing was dependent on the stars to guide them. Being lost is not the same as having drifted off course. The word the author uses here would be like if you were on a ship that was on the ocean and there was a storm and the sky was overcast so you could not see the stars and the storm has blown off course so you have no idea where you are. How can you make corrections when you do not know where you are or which way you need to go? You can’t. A ship that was lost at sea was doomed. This was a word used for a ship that was lost and could not correct itself even if it tried. This text is not describing an accident, it is describe apostasy. You see you cannot lose your salvation in the sense that you forget where you put it. You can however willingly deliberately shipwreck it. When you shipwreck your faith there is no going back.
This text is a warning that it is possible to get into a situation from which there is no return. You can ignore the Spirit of God’s pull on you to the point where it can no longer reach you. The reality of this truth should be warning enough for us to be careful to make sure that we do not drift or slide away. Apostasy is possible. It is possible to get so far from God that you will never come back to Him.
Now this is not talking about sin. This is not a demand that we must never fall short or never make mistakes. Our author here is not referring to our struggles with sin. He is not saying that if you have a hard time controlling your temper, or that your appetite is too strong that you are somehow in danger of losing your salvation. Sin is sin and we all struggle with it. We can never be perfect and this text is not demanding that we be. We will all struggle with sins in our lives and we will all give in from time to time. That does not make it right that is just the way it is. We are imperfect people because our bodies are still tainted with sin. We do not have to be afraid that because we lost in our struggle sin more times than we would like that we are in danger of losing our salvation. Hebrews 6 is not a charge to make yourself so good that you save yourself. It is a warning against turning your back on God all together.
The danger that we face is not that God stops loving us or that God stops trying to save us. The danger is that we walk so far away from Him that we cannot hear His voice. The impossibility is not with God, it exists with man. When we turn completely from Him we will never want to come back to the faith. The danger of apostasy is when we intentionally deliberately shipwreck our faith. It is when we divorce ourselves from God by completely departing from Him.
As Christians there is a line. There is a point of no return where we reject Jesus to the point where we separate ourselves from Him fully. It is impossible for someone who separates themselves from God completely to come back to repentance for to do so would be to ask Jesus to climb back on the cross again. “I know this didn’t stick last time but if you die for me again let’s see if it will work out on round two.” We must pay more careful attention so that we do not drift away. We must press on so that we do not slide back into apostasy and shipwreck our faith. Verse 11 shows us how to avoid apostasy in our Spiritual lives:
Heb 6:11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. Heb 6:12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
It is when you become Spiritual lazy looking for the least that you can do to get by that you need to worry. It is when you trying to push the envelop of what is acceptable or see what you can get in away with that you are in danger of falling away. The real danger is not that there is a certain amount of times you can be forgiven for sin before God says “I’ve had enough with you”. The real danger is when you try to dance with the devil and you refuse to act on your faith and to put forth the effort it takes to mature. You see apostasy comes not from God being done with you but from your deciding that you have had enough of God. When you walk away from Him completely it is impossible for you to come back.
Sometimes before you leave the country you are supposed to get shots or vaccinations to prevent disease. These inoculations are often mild forms of the disease that we are given so that our bodies build up immunities or antibodies to that disease. In our Spiritual lives it would appear such immunities are also possible. For us as Christians to walk away from the gospel, having experienced its goodness and the salvation of God is to make ourselves immune to God’s call in our lives. It is not that we can sin to the point that God can’t save us. It is that we can walk so far away that we cannot hear God’s call.
If we keep working and striving to make ourselves like the Son of God then we have nothing to worry about. If your goal and constant effort is to glorify God and to follow Him through your life then you need not fear. The very fact that you worry about falling away from God is an indication that you have not fallen yet. Hear this message not as a threat but as warning. If you hear God’s voice, if you feel the pull of the Spirit of God on your life do not ignore it. We press on to take hold of God’s promised rest. We must not fall back, we must not fall away. We must learn to focus our hearts and minds on God and in so doing we prevent ourselves from drifting in the wrong direction.
