IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO RENEW THEM
For the longest time I have wanted to research Hebrews 6:4-6 to confirm for myself if this applies to you and to me, those who have received grace and the gift of salvation. If we fall away? Can we even fall away? These questions have come up many times in our Bible study sessions, most say we cannot fall away, a few others seem support the prospect that a saved person can fall away and be lost forever. Here is the scripture as the NASB reflects:
(Heb 6:4) For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
(Heb 6:5) and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
(Heb 6:6) and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
Jesus is recorded in John 10: 27-29 saying:
(Joh 10:27) "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
(Joh 10:28) and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
(Joh 10:29) "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
A very important question is then posed, and answered here:
(Rom 8:35) Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
(Rom 8:38) For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
(Rom 8:39) nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Unless I have missed something, scripture tells me that our wondrous gift of salvation is permanent and forever. The evidence of this is repentance, true repentance (the change made in us by Christ).
Since this is so, once drawn by God, once delivered, once accepted, we are His forever! Who then are those that have tasted of the heavenly gift? Partook of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God?
Biblical history and even today the landscape is littered with those of great intellectual abilities who have studied deeply the Gospel. Despite these studies, understanding, and even embracing the very tenants of the Word of God, they keep this knowledge sequestered as an intellectual only product, never once opening themselves to the spiritual. Promising but never committing. Accepting through the head and not through the heart, the soul. Salvation (conversion) never being had;
(Heb 10:26) For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
(Heb 10:27) but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.
I think I now understand Hebrews 6: 4-6 and its relation to those who failed to repent, to change, to accept with the spirit and not just with the head.
It would seem that when God offers His gift, there may not be an unlimited period of time for redemption. That topic will be a study for another time.
Have you read your Bible today? All of this and more is in The Book!
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