Grace For Your Day August 22

August 22nd, 2022

Some Christians are terrified at the thought of losing their salvation. They live in a constant state of fear because they believe that they will wake up one day and discover that their relationship with Christ is over. Some even point to several passages in the Bible to justify their position. One of them is found in Hebrews 6:4-6 which says:

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

Without going into all of the details, the greatest challenge in this passage is figuring out who it is referring to. Scholars have put forth three views:

1). It is referring to genuine Christians who have lost their salvation.

2). It is referring to genuine Christians who were confronted with a hypothetical warning about “losing their salvation” although it could never happen.

3). It is referring to people who are not genuine Christians at all. They just showed some outward signs of life at the beginning but eventually they turned their back on God showing that they were never truly saved to begin with.

I believe that the last view is the correct one because the Bible makes it very clear that you cannot lose your salvation. In John 6:39 Jesus says, “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” The Lord tells us here in unmistakable terms that He loses none of those who are His. If He saves you, then He will raise you which means that He will carry you all the way to the end.

Having said that, however, I do not want to minimize the questions that surround this view. Such as why does the author of Hebrews say that these people “have been enlightened” and “tasted of the heavenly gift?” What does that mean? And why does he tell us that these unbelievers “have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come?” Why such strong language? And why does he state that they “again crucify to themselves the Son of God?” That is a very perplexing statement and it demonstrates that there are a lot of things to wrestle with in a text like this one. It has to be handled carefully which is what we are going to do this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, I will be preaching a sermon entitled “The Scariest Passage in the Bible.” The reason I am calling it that is because Hebrews 6 scares people. It shakes them up because of the ferocity of its language. However, I want to show you that fear was not the intention of the author because the passage right below it says this in verse 9:

But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you.

This demonstrates that the author thought that his audience was truly saved. He just wanted to caution them not to become lazy in the faith. Going back to the beginning of the chapter, he wanted to remind them to “leave the elementary teaching about the Christ and press on to maturity” (verse 1) which is how we are going to approach this passage together.

Beloved, please pray for me as I prepare to teach this week. A. W. Pink once called this text “the fiercest theological battleground in Scripture” and I will do my best to put my armor on as I study it. However, I could use the Lord’s help so please ask Him to give me grace and wisdom in the presentation of it.

The sermon will be recorded and livestreamed on our You Tube Channel for all those who cannot make it in person.

- Jeremy Cagle