Is it possible for a Christian to lose or forfeit their salvation? Can a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ move from death to life and then back to death? This is no academic question, but one that holds tremendous practical importance for the everyday lives of believers. But let me also clarify something. The question is not about whether or not people people can outwardly profess faith in Christ and then later fall away. That is something Scripture is clear about and something which many reading this (and I include myself) can no doubt attest to. Indeed, I have known or heard of individuals who once claimed to believe in the Lord Jesus, but have since fallen away completely from the faith, or have embraced heretical or unorthodox theologies, thus revealing their true character. Sadly, I can think of at least one person who completely fell away from the faith to embrace heresy. It is a heartbreaking thing to witness.
But what should we make of such people? And is that fate something that we who still hold faithfully to the gospel need to fear? I hope to answer that question in this post. I cannot do a thorough study of the doctrine of perseverance, or preservation of the saints. But I want to explore what is probably the most frequently cited text by those who hold that true believers in Jesus can fall away from the faith and forfeit/lose their salvation (those in the Wesleyan/Methodist and Pentecostal/Holiness traditions are usually representative of this view). That passage is Hebrews 6:4-6. I hope to show that this Scripture does hold out the certainty of damnation for those who fall away from their profession of Christ, but that those who thus fall away were never truly born again. Moreover, the writer to the Hebrews knows that God will keep his readers (and us) from such a fate. Other passages from Scripture will be brought in for further support. In other words, I hope to demonstrate that while a Christian can theoretically lose their salvation, they won't lose it because God will keep them by his power until the end. I also hope to show that the archetypal apostate (that is, one who commits apostasy by leaving the faith he/she once confessed) is Judas Iscariot. He professed faith in Christ and even participated in the ministry, but was never truly converted to begin with. His apostasy was simply exposing him for what he was all along, a thief and a false professor.
Hebrews 6:4-6 says the following, For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (ESV)
On the surface, this appears pretty straightforward. These verses seem to be saying that someone who has experienced true conversion can fall away and be eternally condemned since they can never again be renewed to repentance. But I believe that paying close attention to the context and reading the entire passage leads to a different conclusion. Someone can fall away for sure. But such a person was never truly born again to begin with.
Firstly, let us look at the preceding verses, Hebrews 5:12-6:3: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. (ESV)
The author is rebuking his readers because even though they have been in Christ for a good length of time and should be in positions of teaching others the basics of the faith, they are still stuck in spiritual immaturity! They are still in need of spiritual "milk" instead of "meat." The author goes on to write that they should leave behind elementary teaching and move on to more substantive doctrine and thinking about Christ and the Christian faith. In short, they needed to grow up! And it is in this context that the author warns them of the dangers of apostasy. Those who don't grow up and make progress in their faith will instead go backwards and usually end up leaving the faith altogether.
That said, we still have not really answered the question. Does the author of Hebrews really believe that his readers (both then and now) are in actual danger of falling away? I don't think so. What the author will do next in vv. 7-9 is clarify his assertions in vv. 4-6 by using a farming metaphor, which echoes one of the most well-known parables of Jesus. But in doing so, he gives reasons to believe that what he describes is what happens to false professors; something that will not happen to true believers because God will keep them from it:
For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. (ESV)
Part of the problem with the view that says that true believers can fall from grace and forfeit their salvation is that they do not read the entire passage! In other words, if they kept reading, they would see that the author of Hebrews is not describing true believers who fall away, but rather false professors who refuse to grow up. The author uses the metaphor of crops drinking in the rain, either bearing fruit or not. This is similar to the Parable of the Sower/Soils that Jesus tells (Mark 4:1-20). According to that parable, the seed sown falls on four types of soils: rocky, shallow, thorn ridden, and good soil. Only the last produced any grain. The others showed at best some kind of growth, but are never said to have produced any crop useful for harvesting. In other words, only the seed that fell upon the good soil bore any useful crop. Only this last soil describes a genuine believer. The others represent unregenerate people, including some who appeared outwardly to be part of the community of faith.
The same thing is happening here in Hebrews 6. There are those who are outwardly associated with the Christian community, even experiencing in some measure the power of the Holy Spirit upon and around them (but not necessarily in them). But they bear no fruit. Their end is to be burned. They experienced many of the blessings of the Kingdom of God by their proximity to believers, but because they never bore a crop useful to God, they showed their true nature as unregenerate people by falling away. If they had been true believers before, they would have born fruit and remained within the Church (1 John 2:18-19). The Lord is very clear that those who are truly in him do bear fruit and are sanctified further by the Father so that they may bear even more fruit (John 15:1-2). So, if we are talking about true believers who fall away and lose their salvation, then there has to be a category for those who bear fruit but then stop bearing fruit. But there is no such category in the New Testament. People either bear fruit and are among those who are saved, or they bear no fruit whatsoever, and are among those eternally condemned.
More than this, the key to interpreting this passage as I have is found in verse 9: Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things - things that belong to salvation. The writer is basically saying, "This falling away from Christ won't happen to you! It is unusual to have to speak this way, but as serious as falling away is, it won't be your fate!"
Another key to this interpretation is found in the parallel passage in Hebrews 10. There, the writer, having spent time expounding on Jesus' New Covenant death and his eternal priesthood, again warns of the dangers of apostasy:
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:26–38)
But once again keep reading! In verse 39, immediately after the passage above, the writer again clarifies his statement, But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. The writer is again saying that this awful falling away from Christ, which would and does lead to eternal condemnation will not be the fate of his readers nor of us today! No, true believers will be preserved and persevere until the end. The Lord Jesus promises it (John 10:27-30), and the letters of the New Testament promise it (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Yes, if his readers fell away from Christ they would be condemned and forfeit salvation. But they won't fall away because God will keep them from it. It isn't so much that a true Christian can't lose their salvation. It is that a true Christian won't lose their salvation because of God's power working in them (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Those who profess faith in Christ, but then fall away and commit apostasy are the spiritual descendants of Judas Iscariot. Judas was not only a disciple of the Lord Jesus, he was one of the Twelve Apostles. He was one of the closest followers of Jesus. He professed faith in Jesus, heard Jesus teach, traveled with him, and even performed miracles of deliverance in his name (Luke 9:1-6)! There was every outward indication that he was a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus. But he was not. Even as he ate, drank, and walked with Jesus, even having charge of the financial assets of the Lord and his disciples, he was a thief, a liar, and ultimately a traitor. John records that Jesus knew all along that Judas was a fraud, Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. (John 6:70-71). Elsewhere, John records that Judas was a habitual thief, stealing from the common purse which was meant to support the ministry of the Lord and his disciples. Judas, in a fake show of piety, objected to the lavish expression of worship which Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, offered to the Lord Jesus in the form of pouring expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus, But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.
Judas was an apostate. He fell away from the faith. He betrayed Jesus in an act of treachery so serious, that Jesus said it would have been better for him to have never been born (Mark 14:21). But he was not someone who had genuine faith in Jesus, bore fruit as a believer, but then subsequently fell away and lost a salvation that he once truly possessed. No, he was always an unregenerate thief, who falsely professed faith in Jesus, using his position as a leader in the community of Christ's disciples to pilfer from the common money bag, and enrich himself. His act of treason against Christ only confirmed outwardly what was already true of him inwardly. The same is true of apostates today. Their eventual outward denial of Christ merely makes obvious what was already true of their hearts all along. They were never genuinely believers in Jesus, only fakers.
Yes, it is true that to fall away from Christ leads to eternal condemnation in hell. In fact, it is even worse to fall away from a faith once professed than to have never professed it at all (2 Peter 2:20-22). But when the whole of the Bible's teaching is considered, even those passages which seem to indicate that a true believer can fall away and forfeit and lose the salvation they once possessed are correctly understood to be teaching that such were always false professors. They were never truly changed inwardly to begin with. God made a promise in the New Covenant that he would put the fear of him into the hearts of his people, precisely so that they would not fall away and be destroyed (Jeremiah 32:40). We can be sure that those who have truly undergone the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit will be preserved by God's power and will persevere in faith until the end, and receive eternal salvation. Amen.
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