“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 6:4-6
In preaching the doctrine of Eternal Security, one is almost certain, and some point or other, to be faced with the above verse. Again and again I have stressed the doctrine in this blog because I believe it to be one of the most important, yet frequently contested doctrines of Scripture. So much hangs on this doctrine, the confidence and hope of the believer, the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice and the nature of salvation. The believer can remain confident of his future with Christ because he knows that at no point in the future is he going to nullify his salvation; he knows this because his sins were washed away by the sufficient sacrifice of Christ, a sacrifice that covers past, present and future; he knows this because it is not his actions, whether good or bad, that secure his salvation, but it is the blood of Christ that was shed on his behalf, the work of God, not the work of man. No one can earn salvation by works, no can maintain salvation by works, and no one can lose salvation by works. The soul that has been redeemed by Christ cannot be un-redeemed.
Hebrews 6 is frequently held up as a refutation of eternal security as it does in fact speak of turning away from God. I am familiar with three common interpretations of this passage which I will go over briefly:
First there is the view, commonly circulated in defense of Eternal Security that says those who “turn away” from God in the above passage were never really believers to begin with. Typically, it is asserted that the description of those who were “once enlightened” and have “shared in the Holy Spirit” are those who have come close to salvation, perhaps those who have been intimately involved in church and ministry, seen God at work in people’s lives, known and understood the Gospel message, and yet turn away from it, much like the Pharisees who heard the preaching of Jesus, saw His miracles, and yet hardened their hearts, going so far as to proclaim, on one occasion where they saw him cast out a demon, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons.” Jesus went on to refute the ridiculous notion that Satan would tear down his own works in such a fashion, as well as to proclaim that blasphemy against Himself would be forgiven, but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This is itself another oft speculated verse, but let it suffice here to say that it is the Holy Spirit who works to convict men of their sins and draw them to Christ, and such hard-hearted rejection of His testimony bore such finality that it suggested absolute rejection of God. Clearly the only sin which is “unforgivable” is to live this life without turning to God and repenting, and when a man’s time is over, there is no more forgiveness to be had, only the certainty of judgment. So, perhaps this passage is given as a warning not to ignore the Spirit’s pull on our hearts, not to turn away from the testimony that we know of Jesus, lest we find it is too late to turn and repent. Personally I am not a fan of this view as I feel the context and the stress on sharing in the Holy Spirit, being enlightened and tasting the “goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come”, plus the fact that it refers to bringing individuals “back” to repentance (as opposed to repenting for the first time) suggest that in fact it is truly redeemed souls that are in question here.
Which of course brings us to the common Arminian interpretation, that the passage refers to those who were once saved turning away from God and therefore losing their salvation. On the surface, this is perfectly reasonable. It does seem to me that the passage is certainly dealing with those who have already repented and who are therefore certainly redeemed, bought and paid for by the blood of Christ, welcomed into the family of God as sons and daughters, joint heirs of Christ to God’s goodness, those who have been made a “new creation” by God’s grace (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is of particular interest to me, however, how very few Arminian believers hold that “backsliding” carries with it the weight of certain eternal damnation; certainly they are quick to point out that the passage refers to believers turning away from God, but they are equally quick to skip over the second half of the passage which states that for those who so turn away, it is “impossible” to bring them back to repentance. In many Arminian congregations salvation is often something people seek again and again, coming to God to repent of their “backsliding”. Hopeful and encouraging stories and testimonies are told of those who were once saved, turned their back on God, but then turned again in repentance. Unfortunately, all of that is refuted with cold finality by this one passage which says that no such repentance is possible once they have shared in the Holy Spirit and then turned away.
I have no desire that anyone should find themselves in the place of being afraid that God will no longer hear them should they cry out to Him, for scripture certainly teaches that no sin is so great that God will not forgive; “’Come now, let’s settle this,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.’” (Isaiah 1:18) There is no point, while breath remains in a man, that we can say he has gone beyond repentance. So long as a man feels the tug of the Holy Spirit, the guilt and weight of his sin upon his shoulders, it is not too late to turn to God and receive forgiveness. Nevertheless I maintain that an Arminian who holds that losing salvation is possible and that Hebrews 6 teaches this doctrine is altogether inconsistent in their treatment of the passage because they fail to hold that such “backsliding” is permanent. Indeed, an Arminian must already be fearful of their standing before God, knowing that, although they could not earn their salvation, they most certainly must maintain it (and who can trust in their own faithfulness in the future, when we know how weak we are in the present?), and yet now this is added to it: that if at some future point, in their own frailty, they should turn from God, such turning is permanent. Indeed, the Arminian stands saved from Hell, and yet he remains on the very edge of it, always one step away from falling into its fiery depths, always with the fearful knowledge that man, no matter how faithful in one moment, is always so fickle as to be unfaithful in the next. God save us all from the cruel “assurance” that the Arminian gives us of salvation!
There is yet another interpretation of Hebrews 6:4-6 that speaks more comfort and with more consistency. It is to this position that I hold: that yes, Hebrews 6:4-6 is in fact speaking of a redeemed believer, and that yes, it is in fact speaking of them losing salvation and also having no repentance left having done so. It is just that, in context within the passage, the chapter, and the greater testimony of scripture on the matter of salvation, this passage is an illustration of an entirely different truth which the writer of Hebrews is attempting to convey to his readers. Consider what is written in verses 1-3 of Hebrews 6:
“So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.”
This is how the writer begins his statement, which goes on with “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened…” the “For” connects this passage to the previous one. In fact, if one goes even farther back, to the end of Hebrews 5, it will be discovered that the author is rebuking his readers for being infants in their theology and knowledge of the scripture. He states in Hebrews 5:12 that “You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word.” You can feel the frustration in the author’s words. Imagine, if you will, a professor preparing a group of seniors for an exam, only to find that they have no grasp of the most elementary concepts that they ought to have learned as freshmen. Imagine him pacing at the front of the class, rebuking the students that everything they are going over is purely review, that they ought to know the material, ought to be able to tutor other students. So it is in Hebrews: when the author writes “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again.” He is not downplaying the significance of the doctrine of salvation, the vital importance of the crucifixion of Christ; rather, he is rebuking them for never passing beyond this point, for not growing in knowledge but remaining fixed at the very beginning like children repeating the first grade over and over again. They ought to be teaching these fundamentals to others, not constantly having to re-learn it for themselves. It is in this context that he makes his statement about the loss of salvation.
It is entirely possible, given the context, that the writer was in fact speaking to a group of people who believed that salvation could gained, then lost, then gained again. I do not speak this dogmatically, but it certainly seems to fit the text, as the author goes from stressing that they already ought to understand salvation and shouldn’t have to “start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God”. That they were “starting again” with these basic doctrines suggests that they themselves failed to grasp them and were beginning once more at the absolute beginning of repentance and faith. It certainly sounds a lot like many Arminian believers who find themselves seeking salvation anew for fear they had lost it. Rebuking them, the author goes on to say that if such a thing were to happen, repentance would be impossible, damnation the only future for one who had been redeemed and yet turned away from God.
To backslide in the Arminian sense of being a believer and then turning away from and losing that salvation would be like a second fall of man: the new creation unmaking itself, taking the Christ who was crucified on its behalf and crucifying Him a second time, this time to its damnation. Such an idea is ridiculous: you did not earn your salvation, it was a free gift from God. In like manner, as it was free, you are not now making payments on it, as though it were in fact a loan. The writer is stressing that they have already been taught salvation, that they ought to understand it, and that their constant “reapplying” this doctrine, never moving past it, reveals that they are still infants in their thinking: you have salvation and don’t need it again; indeed, even if it were possible to lose it, it is not a thing that can be re-obtained anyway, so move forward!
Throughout the book of Hebrews the author stresses that the believer should have confidence before God, because God is the guarantee of our salvation. Indeed, even after making these statements about the loss of salvation, in verse 9 the author states that “Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.” The author was making an important point, a point that is as much about the permanence of salvation as it was a rebuke of their childish thinking on the matter. Indeed, small is the confidence a believer could have before God if in fact every moment found them one step away from falling from grace, and that without remedy.
Far from asserting that it is in fact actually possible for the believer to fall away, the author lays instead a foundation for complete and total confidence in God, stating, in Hebrews 6:17-20, “God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.”
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