“For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened – those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come – and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing Him to the cross once again and holding Him up to public shame.” (Hebrews 6:4-8 NLT)
This is a frightening and difficult passage on many levels, but, like the whole of Scripture, is more easily understood in its original context. In Hebrews 6 the author is teaching about spiritual growth and maturity. Believers in Jesus were experiencing severe persecution, many to the literal loss of their lives, but some, in an effort to save their lives, denounced their hope in Jesus, and walked away from their faith. The above words were written to describe the seriousness of such a decision.
However, it also opens the door for us to consider the fate of those who walk away from Jesus under less demanding circumstances. Is there no hope for ANYONE who once walked with the Lord, but for whatever reason decided to walk away?
There are at least three considerations when someone walks away from God. First, we can write them off as “never saved” in the first place. Second, we can say while they walked away from God, God never walked away from them, their salvation is still intact, they didn’t “lose” their salvation, thus their home in heaven was never in jeopardy. Or, third, we can recognize people of faith who once genuinely and sincerely walked with the Lord, but because of circumstances of life, change their mind and, like those to whom the Hebrew writer referred, “they turn away from God,” and therefore forfeit their home in heaven.
The man who led me to Jesus, who loved and served Jesus faithfully for many years, was drafted during the Viet Nam war. He went through boot camp, but refused to go to war, instead he went to Canada and lived out his days there. In that process he walked away from God. He divorced his wife, became a womanizer and never looked back.
In his later years as I sought to speak to him about the Lord, he told me: “those words (my words of Jesus’ love for him and willingness to forgive him) no longer register with me.” Is the Lord going to force my friend to spend eternity with Him? I don’t believe He will violate his or our will to do that. I can’t imagine, and don’t find anything in Scripture that says the same free-will we exercised to walk into our relationship with Him can’t be exercised to walk away.
In such a circumstance a person doesn’t “lose” their salvation, they set it aside willfully. Think with me. Logically it doesn’t make sense to me that the Lord gives me the right and the will to receive Him, but not the right and will to reject Him after I’ve “received” Him.
That’s what happened in the first century, it’s what happens today and has happened in every century between. People make decisions to follow Jesus with every intent to never look back, but things change, whether it’s a literal threat to their life, or a different lifestyle. The question then becomes, based on the passage above, when that happens, does it mean they can never come back home to their heavenly Father?
Let’s look at this more closely in tomorrow’s post.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 