Some Things that are Impossible with God!
Meditation for the week of January 29, 2012
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if 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. Hebrews 6:4-6
This is a difficult verse for those of us who believe in eternal security, that is, we believe that once we are saved through faith in the Lord Jesus, we can never never be lost. I personally believe in eternal security for a number of reasons. One is that eternal life is received by faith in the Lord Jesus, and it begins at the new birth and not at death. Eternal life is a life from eternity and a life for eternity. It has eternal qualities and it has eternal quantity. It is everlasting.
Another reason that I believe in eternal security is that my faith is not in my faith but in the Lord. What He has promised me will never change. I believe that two plus two makes four and nobody will ever convince me that two plus two makes five. I also believe that Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again the third day to save me. I believe that because God tells me that and my God does not lie. That is something that it is impossible for Him to do. Because of God’s promise, no one will ever convince me that Christ did not die for my sins. That promise is an unchangeable fact.
Another reason that I believe in eternal security is that I do not believe in salvation by works. I am saved by grace and I am kept eternally secure by grace. I am not saved by grace and kept safe by my own efforts. Depending on my own efforts or even in my own “believing” to get to heaven would leave me unsure of my eternal destiny. Isaiah tells us not to look to ourselves by to Christ to be saved (Isaiah 45:22). When I look within myself or at myself, I will never be sure that I am saved. When I get my eye off myself so that I can look to the Lord to be saved, I can be sure that my eternal destiny is secure.
I could give other reasons for my confidence that I will never perish (John 10:28), but the problem is that Hebrews 6 seems to indicate that I could fall away and be lost eternally. How do I answer that?
First of all, the verse is written to Jews who may or may not be saved. When the author uses the term brother, in many cases he is talking about a Jewish brother who may or may not be a Christian brother. Hebrews explains the excellencies of Christ to Jews who may have heard the Gospel but who do not fully understand the Gospel message. I believe that many of his readers were not saved. Now we know that the Jews as a nation were once enlightened, they tasted the heavenly gift (manna), they partook of the Holy Spirit who led them through the wilderness and who dwelled in their wilderness tabernacle and in their kingdom temple. They had experienced the good word of God through their prophets. They had experienced some of the blessings of the ages to come in the reigns of David and Solomon. But not all in the nation that had those blessings were “believers” individually. Jude says, “But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe (Jude 1:5).” The Jews had all these blessings nationally and if they individually fall away from what they could have in Christ (not from what they did have), they can never be saved. The author likens this falling away to a new crucifixion. It is rejection of the only way of salvation. The Jews were like the child of Christian parents. Because they have seen the blessings that their parents have and have been taught the truth, they are without excuse if they reject Christ.
It is impossible to be saved if we reject Christ, because He is God’s only way of salvation. There is no place for a change of mind that leads to salvation if we refuse to accept Christ as our Savior. This verse then is teaching that those who trust Christ are saved eternally, and that those who reject Him are lost eternally. Since Christ is the only way of salvation, it is impossible for a Christ rejecter to be delivered from the eternal consequences of rejecting the Lord Jesus.
Bruce Collins