JESUS SAVES HIS PEOPLE
Part 5 of 6
Doesn't Hebrews 6 Teach Salvation Can Be Lost?
Hebrews 6:4-6 is often quoted to prove that salvation is ultimately up to men to gain and maintain, that it's not true God grants eternal life to an elect people according to His sovereign will. It states:
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
This passage certainly appears to prove that someone can lose their salvation by failing to continue in Christ. It speaks of being made a partaker of the Holy Ghost and yet falling away. However, if we continue a little further in Hebrews 6, we see that this is not actually the case. Verse 9 says,
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation...
You see, as verse 9 indicates, an individual who has truly become saved cannot fall away like those spoken of in verses 4-6. The things that accompany salvation are eternal life and the everlasting inheritance that Christ has secured by paying for the sins of His people, so they cannot permanently fall away as those spoken of in verses 4-6. True, believers may fall into grievous sin for a time, but one who is born of God cannot fall away permanently in an ongoing fashion so that their salvation is lost. They have eternal life in Christ, they have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within them by God's action, they have become born again from above.
More than that, we understand from everything else in the Bible that an individual who merely appears to have become saved can indeed fall away and yet still become saved by God, because the act of falling away indicates he or she had never actually become saved to begin with. You cannot lose eternal life, Christ has covered every single sin of His people. Keep in mind that falling away is a total repudiation of God, it is not simply a matter of falling into grievous sin, which a saved person can do (think of David with Bathsheeba). So in Hebrews 6:4-6, it's not as if someone had been given a new heart and the Spirit of God, given eternal life, just to have all of that taken away. God will never leave nor forsake His true people in that manner (Hebrews 13:5).
So how do we reconcile this? Well, Hebrews 6 is not actually speaking of individuals who fall away. Those who have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost but fall away can only be speaking of a church, a visible congregation, where believers were once found but at some point the church had become corrupt over time. In fact, the Bible declares this will occur on a major scale as we approach the return of Christ. In 2 Thessalonians 2, God very specifically tells us there will be a "falling away" before Christ returns:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto him, That you* be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
Here we see a falling away before Christ's return and the rapture (our gathering together unto Him), where the man of sin (ultimately Satan) is seated or ruling in the temple of God (the visible congregation), being deceptively worshiped as if he is God, even though he opposes God. He is the essence and spirit of antichrist. He has duped people into worshiping him as Christ Himself through his false ministers of righteousness in the churches as we read in II Corinthians 11:13-15:
For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
So, concluding this section on Hebrews 6:4-6, when it comes to the true believers, the elect of God saved by His good pleasure and will, if we are truly born again of God we can never fall away to the repudiation of God nor lose our salvation:
And I [Jesus] give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. [John 10:28]
And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [I John 5:11]
Who is it who has given the believers eternal life in the verses above, so that they shall never perish? It is Jesus Christ, who is God. But there are plenty of warnings (such as Revelation 2 and 3) where God speaks to the churches as having truly fallen away from Him. Sadly, we see this already as many today declare gospels of free-will salvation, health and prosperity religion, charismatic signs and wonders and so on.
Isn't Jesus The Savior Of The Whole World?
I John 2:2 is cited in attempts to prove that Christ died for everyone in the whole world and now it is up to us to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. Again, this is to disprove that Christ directly saves His elect through His elective program. It reads,
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Similarly, I John 4:14 says,
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
What is being taught here is not that Christ died for everyone in the world. Rather, it is teaching that the Father sent the Son to be THE Savior of the world; that is, He is the ONLY Savior of the world. In this there is perfect harmony with what the rest of the Bible teaches concerning Christ and salvation. Moreover, the Bible is teaching that Christ is not only the Savior of the Jews alone, but of the Jews and the Gentiles (the nations of the world). But not all Jews and Gentiles are saved, only those who are elect from all nations. So, salvation is found in Him alone, He is the Savior of the whole world:
Jesus says unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me. [John 14:6]
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. [Acts 4:12]
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus [I Timothy 2:5]
He that has the Son has life;and he that has not the Son of God has not life. [I John 5:12]
So Christ did not make salvation possible for everyone in the world, rather, He very specifically saves His people, having paid for all their sins before the foundation of the world, and He is the only doorway to eternal life:
...And thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins [Matthew 1:21].
...I lay down my life for the sheep. [John 10:15]
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. [Luke 19:10]
Christ paid for their sins that they might be free from eternal death. The law of God has no more claim upon them because their death sentence for sin has been met by His atonement. Everyone else is left without payment for sin and will have to pay for their own sins and be eternally destroyed. The wages of sin is death, so the unsaved are they for whom Christ did not die so that their sins have not been covered:
...If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night... [Revelation 14:9-11]
...broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat... [Matthew 13:14]
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. [Revelation 20:15]
Sadly, these people will be totally destroyed because their sins have not been covered, they’ve not been paid for. This is why God, through David, writes in Psalm 32:1-2:
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Here we see there are some whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. The implication is that not all are in this category. There are some for whom the Lord will not impute iniquity, but not all. If everyone's transgressions were forgiven, if everyone's sins were covered by Christ, then everyone would be blessed. No one would have their iniquity imputed to them and everyone would have eternal life in heaven because the sentence would have been met in Christ. But this militates against the fact that there are many on the broad way to destruction that leads to death. Christ's atonement is a very specific and direct atonement, you see, that 100% covers the sin of the elect unto eternal life.
The fact is, to say that Christ died for everyone in the whole world and now it’s up to us to choose is really saying that Christ did all that He could do and now it is up to us to contribute our part. It's finally up to us to "accept" Christ's work so that we receive the credit in the end for making that choice. But that is a gospel of grace plus works. It is a gospel that says we have the ability, finally, to save ourselves and the sovereignty to determine if and when we want to be saved.
On the contrary, since God is the source of all good and the heart of man is desperately wicked, there is no one good in himself apart from God who can or will ever choose to follow Christ. Not one of us has the desire nor the ability to change the wicked state of our heart. God must give to us the goodness and the will before we will be inclined to turn to Him:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? [Jeremiah 17:9]
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. [Jeremiah 13:23]
For it is God which works in you both to will and do to of his good pleasure. [Philippians 2:13]
According to God, we are all inexorably on our way to destruction, in rebellion against Him until He gives us new life and makes us born again from above. To say that the heart is desperately wicked means that we cannot do anything about it. The situation is desperate. It is beyond human repair. We grope in darkness and spiritual death and are in need of rescue. So, no one can boast of being a little better than someone else because he or she chose to follow Christ when someone else did not. All we can say is, “I am as wicked and desperate as the next person and it is only by the marvelous grace of God that I am saved. He receives all the glory for delivering me from destruction unto eternal life, as a brand plucked out of the fire.”
Wouldn't God Have All To Be Saved?
I Timothy 2:3-4 is often cited to prove that God would have every individual human being to become saved if only they would choose for Christ. It reads:
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
The phrase “all men” is highlighted to show that God wants everybody to become saved. Similarly, 2 Peter 3:9 says:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
In this instance, the words "any" and "all" are emphasized to illustrate how God desires for everyone to be saved. After a careful look at these verses, can this be so in light of all we've seen so far?
First of all, we must carefully allow the Bible to define who the words "all" and "any" refer to in these verses. Do the words "all men" or "any" mean every single individual in the world, or do they mean all/any of those whom God has planned to save? For example, in I Corinthians 15:22 we read:
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
The first "all" in this verse clearly speaks about every single human being. Because of Adam’s sin, everyone who has come from Adam has died spiritually -- and that includes every single human being. We are all spiritually dead before salvation. But the second "all" can only refer to the believers, to those who are in Christ. As we've seen, we are made alive when we are born again and God has given us a resurrected soul. And since the Bible teaches that many will be destroyed (Revelation 14:10-11), when the Bible says, "even so in Christ shall all be made alive," and when the Bible says the Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," it is referring to all those whom God has planned to save, not to every individual human being.
Looking again at I Timothy 2:3-4, which declares that God would have “all...to come unto the knowledge of the truth”, we find that only those whom God personally teaches will actually be able to come to the knowledge of the Truth:
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto me. [John 6:45]
Therefore, the meaning of I Timothy 2:3-4 is that God will have "all" who are first taught of Him to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth.
Similarly, looking again at 2 Peter 3:9 which says that the Lord is "long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance...", notice this verse says the Lord is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. This means that He is long-suffering toward us the believers, that is, toward the elect of God. He is not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. God is long-suffering with this present evil world of sin while He patiently saves His elect people. This is seen in the opening verse of 2 Peter, in this very context, where it is clear that God, through Peter, is addressing his readers (those who are the "us-ward") who are fellow believers:
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ
So, it is very clear that God is speaking only to believers in this passage, to those "who have obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ," when He says that He is "long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any [of us] should perish, but that all [of us] should come to repentance..." God is speaking about His elect, not about every individual in the whole world.
This is further borne out by the fact that God desires for "us" to come to repentance, for no one can come to repentance except God grant that repentance to His elect:
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth [2 Timothy 2:25]
~~~
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. John 17:9
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