I recently attended my 35th high school reunion and was greeted by a beaming, hulk of a man. In our younger days, he was just as fit and boasted a national champion wrestling title along with several state honors. Watching this guy perform was like observing a horizontal ballet death-duel. If a match ever went more than a few seconds, it was only because he allowed his opponent to get up just so he could practice and take him down again.
Often, we Christians consume scripture, but do not wrestle with it. Ever read a verse and think, “I believe God’s words, but something doesn’t settle with me about how I understand this”? That’s the Holy Spirit inviting you to get on the mat and wrestle with Him. Ask Him for clarity, and don’t turn away until you receive it. When doing so on this topic, here are three items to consider:
1. In Context
Many quote scriptures and ignore surrounding context. Doing such would be like saying, “Matthew 5:29 says you should gouge out your eye,” without ever explaining the surrounding context, nor the metaphorical nature of this exhortation. Outside of context, we’d all be blind. Such selective plucking of words from scripture is misquoting God.
2. A Stumbling
Many scriptures used to proclaim that salvation can be lost aren’t referring to that at all. Instead, they speak of Christians who temporarily stray, or those who claim they’re Christian but aren’t, or who profess to be sheep but instead are wolves. Similarly, these scriptures can speak of actions which are not the losing of one’s salvation, but rather are a stumbling from the path, a falling away, a veering to the right or the left, a drifting apart, or simply a temptation. If our eternal souls could be redeemed by God just to be condemned to hell again, none of us could be saved.
3. The Game
Salvation is not the finish line. It holds eternal importance, but only gets us onto the mat and in the competition. The contest is sanctification, and unlike my classmate’s matches, sanctification lasts a lifetime. Many of the exhortations purported to imply that salvation can be lost simply describe a stumble in the struggle of sanctification.
But don’t take my word for it. Wrestle with the Holy Spirit regarding any scripture you believe contradicts permanent salvation. And now, let’s look at one:
Hebrews 6:4-6
This scripture, often quoted to support salvation can be lost, is instead a foundation stone which confirms its permanence. The irony! First, consider its context: it resides in the middle of an overarching exhortation by Paul to spiritually immature believers, challenging them to grow up. We’ll start a little further back to understand the setting.
Chapter 5
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
My paraphrase: “You guys are spiritually immature. You should be on solid food by now, but you’re still nursing babies.”
Chapter 6
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.
My paraphrase: “So now we’re going to leave this baby food behind and chew on some real meat.”
Cue spiritual discernment, because what comes next speaks of maturity!
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
My paraphrase: “This is impossible. It’ll never happen. A mature Christian will not fall away just to be brought back. Why? Because then they’d be hurting Christ and shaming him. Mature believers won’t do this.”
Also, notice the use of the term “fall away”, which is completely different than losing salvation. What logic can draw a line between “fall away” and the eternal consequence of a Christian rejecting the faith and being condemned to hell? It is a thin scribble at best. Instead, it’s more logical to interpret this falling away as a stumbling from which one can repent, such as King David. He was king even though he sinned. God rebuked, disciplined, and corrected him, but He didn’t revoke his kingship. Likewise, the prodigal son was declared a son even while he was feeding pigs. And when he repented, his father confirmed this status.
Can a mature Christian fall away from the faith? These verses say No.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8 but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
My paraphrase: “People that receive blessing from God and do good are mature. They are of God, and will be blessed. People that do bad things aren’t God’s. They’re going to be cursed.”
9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.
My paraphrase: “But we know you guys will grow into mature Christians, so we know you’ll do good things, because these things accompany salvation.”
Note how the phrase “things that accompany salvation” implies that what was spoken previously does not accompany salvation. Thus, the “falling away” back in verse 6 does not accompany salvation. But what follows does.
10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
My paraphrase: “Guys, keep growing up, exercising faith and patience, and you will inherit God’s promises.”
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
My paraphrase: “God swore His promise by Himself. God cannot lie. Those of us who fled to lay hold of the hope of God are anchored, sure and steadfast, held behind the veil where Jesus entered. Our salvation is secure. God cannot break His oath.”
The Whole Council of Scripture
Now, suppose someone interprets Hebrews 6:4-6 the opposite way, that we can lose our salvation. Carry that logic throughout the passage and what does it say? “…it is impossible…if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance…” In that case, it says a onetime Christian who turns away from the faith and loses their salvation cannot be saved again. Even if they want to. Even if they repent. It would render the parable of the prodigal son meaningless. The Shepherd that left the ninety-nine to seek the one would be wasting His time. The one is gone! Lost! It is unable to be brought back!
But thanks be to God, because such an interpretation does not agree with the whole council of scripture.
Salvation is Permanent
Receive it. Rest in it. Grow in it, and through you God will produce new fruit that accompanies such status.
Without this promise I would be eternally lost and deeply distraught.
“If God’s moral judgment differs from ours so that our ‘black’ may be His ‘white’, we can mean nothing by calling Him good; for to say ‘God is good’, while asserting that His goodness is wholly other than ours, is really only to say ‘God is we know not what’. And an utterly unknown quality in God cannot give us moral grounds for loving or obeying Him. If He is not (in our sense) ‘good’ we shall obey, if at all, only through fear — and should be equally ready to obey an omnipotent Fiend. The doctrine of Total Depravity — when the consequence is drawn that, since we are totally depraved, our idea of God is worth simply nothing — may thus turn Christianity into a form of devil-worship.”
C.S. Lewis, “The Problem of Pain.”