The Hebrews Paradox Series

Eternal Security

The Problem of Hebrews

This is the fifth and final message in this series dealing with Eternal Security or the doctrine of ‘once saved-always saved’. I trust you’ve found the previous four to be both informative and reassuring.

We’ve examined the truth in Romans 5 about how God actually saves us, by taking us from Adam’s line and placing us in Christ. That alone is grounds for perfect confidence in our eternal Salvation!!

But there are, nevertheless, certain passages which, unless thoroughly understood, still tend to cause anxiety among many troubled souls - not the least of which are those found in the book of Hebrews. So I trust we can, in this message, put our minds at rest once and for all.

While Romans assures us that salvation is by grace - and obtained by faith alone, certain passages in the book of Hebrews seem to suggest something quite different! Let's read out two or three examples:

The first one is from the King James rendering of Heb.2:3, where the translation itself gives rise to anxiety.

It goes like this:

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation…?

At first glance, it does sound like there's a heavy price to pay if we ‘mess up’ or fail to live up to our potential!

Now we move on to Hebrews 6:4-6, where it gets even worse! Here the writer says:

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, [5] who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age [6] and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Sounds ominous! And clearly these must have been believers, mustn't they? After all, they had been enlightened and shared in the Holy Spirit. And evidently they must have repented at one time - a repentance they apparently couldn’t repeat if they fell away!

How much clearer does a passage need to be? Surely the doctrine of 'once saved -always saved' gets torpedoed right here!

And finally, what about Hebrews 10:26-29?

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, [27] but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. [28] Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. [29] How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Deliberately sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth - for such a person there is only judgment to look forward to!

Of course, if this passage proves that - then it proves too much! It would patently contradict what is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture - in particular, the truths we’ve already discussed in reference to exchanging Adam's headship with that of Christ’s and the fundamental truth of being in Christ as opposed to being in Adam.

And this presents us with a real paradox. While we may differ in our interpretations of certain passages - and while these interpretations may be sometimes wildly contradictory, one thing we must agree on is that the Bible cannot contradict itself. In fact, this widely-accepted assumption has led to a principle of hermeneutics (or interpretation) called "the analogy of faith" that states the following:

"No scripture can be taken in such a way as to render it in conflict with what is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture."

So this begs the question: how should we interpret these passages in Hebrews?

The solution to this dilemma is actually a relatively simple one! Remember the three golden rules of real estate? Location, location, location! Well, the three underlying principles for correct interpretation of any Bible passage are as follows: Context! Context! Context!

I can't emphasize this enough!!

If you don't take the context of each passage into consideration, then you’re likely to find enough material in any given book of the Bible to apparently fuel a storm of false cults and various heresies.

A handy little rhyme I was introduced to some time ago, goes like this:

If in this book you choose to look,

Five things observe with care:

Of whom it speaks,

To whom it speaks,

Why, when and where.

A closer examination of the book of Hebrews will make clear that our problems with its interpretation arise when we take both the book itself - and sections within the book - out of their proper context. Understand the context and the problems in these passages will vanish like a mist in the clear daylight of the New Testament revelation.