Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Hebrews 6:1–12
“It is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened . . . 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” (vv. 4–6).
Reformed theology confesses the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which says that those who have true saving faith in Christ cannot fall away fully and finally. Instead, they will persevere in trusting the Lord until the very end and receive the full inheritance of salvation. This doctrine is based on many passages. Romans 5:1 says that those who have been justified enter a permanent peace with God, not a cease-fire that can erupt back into a full-on war with our Creator. Romans 8:28–30 tells us that all who are justified will be glorified. Philippians 1:6 indicates that God completes His good work in those in whom He begins it. John 6:35–44 explains that all those who have been given to Jesus by the Father will look on Him in faith and will be raised up on the last day. We could give other texts, of course, because the Reformed doctrine of perseverance is well established in the Scriptures.
Our Reformed understanding of perseverance seems to make Hebrews 6:1–12 a tricky passage. After all, the idea that it is impossible to restore to repentance those who have fallen away (v. 6) at first glance seems to imply that one can truly believe in Christ for salvation and then fall away from faith, never to return. How can this be reconciled with other biblical passages on the perseverance of the saints?
A common approach is to note that the author of Hebrews is not necessarily talking about someone who entered a state of salvation before falling away. Instead, the text is referring to those who join the visible church and experience many of the blessings that are associated with being in the church—fellowship with Christians, seeing the practical wisdom of Christian moral teaching, evidence of God’s responding in a supernatural way to prayers, and so on. Such individuals experience many external benefits but are never truly converted, so their falling away is not a case of a true believer’s losing his salvation.
In verse 9, the author writes, “Though we speak in this way, yet in our case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.” This is encouraging, as Dr. Sproul writes: “This causes me to breathe a sigh of relief. I can just hear the author acknowledging that he’s speaking in a certain manner, which is not the normal manner; he’s saying that he is persuaded of better things about his readers.” Even in this warning passage, we find assurance that God will always be faithful to His covenant promises to His people.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Although this is a difficult passage, we know that it does not mean that true Christians will fall away from Christ fully and finally. God preserves all of His children in the faith, and the Holy Spirit will use the warnings of Hebrews 6 and other texts to move us to trust in Christ so that we will persevere to the end.
For further study
- Isaiah 33:22
- John 10:27–30
The bible in a year
- 2 Samuel 17–18
- Luke 21:1–19
- 2 Samuel 19–23
- Luke 21:20–22:23