Perhaps it comes as no surprise that I love doctrine. I love studying what the Bible teaches and learning to apply it to my life and use it to affect the lives of others. I can clearly see how God used the growing of a deeper knowledge of doctrine to exponentially increase my affections for Jesus Christ. Doctrine is important for every Christian. We should all want to see its value and pursue understanding for the sake of knowing Christ and bearing fruit for the Gospel.
This might get nerdy, but bear with me! It is my hope that by the end, we will all have grown in an understanding of why it is important to not just know a few Bible verses but know the deep intricacies and riches of the doctrine taught in the Word of God. If you’ve never considered this before, I urge you to immerse yourself in the deep truths of Scripture prepared to grow in love for your Lord and Savior.
To quote my brother, Shai Linne, “Here’s a controversial subject that tends to divide, for years its had Christians linin’ up on both sides.” Hebrews 6 is one of the most controversial chapters in the New Testament. It has had “Calvanists” and “Armenianists” at odds with each other since the early church. There has not been an era of Church history when this issue was not debated at great length.
Here is the question that has caused so much division: Can a believer lose his or her salvation? Hebrews 6 seems to answer in the affirmative. Consider these verses.
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.
Hebrews 6:4-6
Maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal. It’s just one sentence after all! It isn’t even a paragraph! It’s not even the beginning sentence or the concluding sentence of the paragraph! It’s imbedded in the middle of a paragraph that talks about crops and baptisms and spiritual maturity.
But it is a huge deal. What you conclude from this one sentence will drastically affect what you conclude about 1. God 2. You 3. Your salvation. If you conclude that losing your salvation is possible, then you must also conclude that you have a major responsibility to keep yourself in God’s good graces. You must conclude that God is limited in what He can do to save you from your sins. He provided Jesus as a means, but you have to do the work to receive Him. When you look at the implications, eventually you must say that if you can lose your salvation then there must be something you can do to gain it or keep it once you’ve received it.
I hope you are seeing how this leads to all sorts of problem, salvation by works being at the top of the list of dangers. By making the claim that you can lose your salvation, all of a sudden you can potentially “reason” yourself into a false Gospel. All because of one little sentence!
Now I don’t begin to think that what I’m saying is easy to deal with. I have debated this issue for several months with a good friend and brother in Christ. But the fact remains that this doctrine is of critical importance and we need to think rightly about it. But don’t take my word for it! Be like the Bereans and check the Scriptures to see if what I’m saying is right!
So since I’ve pointed out the position I believe to be erroneous, I suppose you’d like to see how I’ve concluded that the opposite must be true. I believe Scripture teaches that all who are saved are God’s elect and that all of God’s elect will persevere to the end and be saved.
I want to make three observations. First, salvation belongs to the Lord (Psalm 3, Jonah 2). Second, the only part we play is the need of salvation. Third, the Gospel cannot function properly unless we have a humble view of ourselves.
If anyone ever had knowledge of where redemption comes from, it would be Jonah. As he was sitting inside the belly of a great fish, he triumphantly exclaimed, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” Jonah saw his great need and knew that he had no ability in himself to do anything about it. If you want to argue that being in the belly of a fish is different than salvation, read Jonah’s psalm in chapter 2 and provide convincing evidence that words like “Sheol” and phrases like “you brought up my life from the pit” don’t speak of a greater deliverance than Jonah’s physical predicament.
Probably the most convincing verses in all of Scripture come from Ephesians 2. Verses 8 and 9 speak of salvation very clearly.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
This is not your own doing….not a result of works. Salvation is the gracious gift of God who stepped down from Heaven, became man, revealed Himself to the world, died a gruesome death, rose from the dead to prove His innocence, and ascended to Heaven to live forever as King of kings and Lord of lords. In other words, salvation belongs to the Lord!
The Bible is clear that we have a great, infinite need of redemption. We have sinned against a holy God who is just to punish that sin. We stand condemned before God’s infinite and eternal holiness and righteousness. And we can’t utter one single word or do any amount of good deeds to lessen our guilt.
That’s what we bring: the sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross.
Maybe someone will say, “But what about the people I’ve known that used to be Christians and now don’t want anything to do with Jesus Christ?”
To that I respond, in the same way that all of God’s elect will persevere until the end, all those who are not God’s elect will eventually fall away because they never had true saving faith in Jesus Christ. Consider the parable of the sower in Mark 4. The seed falls on four different types of ground. Three of the soils bring forth growth, but only one soil continues to nourish the plant and produce fruit.
There indeed are other Scripture that appear to speak of losing one’s salvation (Colossians 1:23 is the biggest “if” statement I’ve found), but when examined in light of the context of Scripture as a whole, I don’t believe that they teach the potential of losing salvation. There are too many verses that seem to oppose that idea. One example is found in 1 John 2:19
They (antichrists) went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
If they were of us, they would have continued with us. If these antichrists had been true believers, they would have remained steadfast until the end and proven to be God’s elect.
Before ending with my third observation and application, I want to ask one question that has often come to my mind while thinking through this doctrine. It comes from 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
And John 3:3
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
If salvation requires new birth, how can that new birth be undone once it has happened?
We can consider Nicodemus’ question to Jesus. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Is man responsible for his first birth? Did Jesus give a bad example to speak of salvation? Do we have something to do with our second birth into the family of God? Once we are born, do we somehow have to do anything to remain by blood a part of that family?
I argue that once we have received by faith the free gift of eternal life by putting our trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and clothed in righteousness for all eternity, which is an act of God from beginning to end. We were born because God chose to give us life. We remain in God’s family by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And yet, Scripture makes it clear that we must be diligent to pursue holiness and live in a manner worthy of this great price that Jesus paid for our lives. 2 Peter 1 tells us that the only way to ensure that we never fall away and perish is to grow in godliness. It seems that if we forsake our responsibility to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel it might very well mean that we never received Christ in the first place!
That should cause a shudder to go down your spine! No one claiming to be a Christian wants to be that person to whom Jesus says, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” And yet many will be in that camp come Judgment Day.
God-given humility is what allows us to realize and reckon with the fact that we have nothing to offer. We can’t measure up. God won’t accept our sacrifices or good works as a means of atoning for our sin. Humility puts our faces in the dirt and gives us hearts that cry out to God for His salvation. There is no other way. Chew on that sentence. There is no other way.
And it is in this exact moment that the Gospel soars in to rescue us. When we see our situation as hopeless…when we see ourselves as rebels…when we cry out to God, He hears us. And He responds with Good News. “I sent my Son to die in your place! Do not fear my wrath. It has been taken care of. I love you!”
Only the Gospel puts our situation in its true light. Find a religion that has answers for all of our problems as individuals and as a people. Only the Gospel points us to the sin in our hearts as our ultimate problem. And only Jesus Christ provides the ultimate solution and lasting satisfaction that we are all longing for.
Thank God that He did not leave us to our own will and logic! He had a plan set in place before the foundation of the world, and He is faithfully drawing countless people into right relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ. All those that are born again will be preserved to the end because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is what Scripture teaches, and the writer of Hebrews wasn’t disagreeing.
God of grace,
May we be people who love doctrine. Not because knowing doctrine is an end but because it is the means to having a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank You that Your Spirit teaches us all things. If we lack wisdom, we only have to ask and You will provide. You are so gracious. Thank you for Jesus who gave His life for ours. How desperately we need You.
For the glory of the Blessed Christ…
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