CAN I AS A CHRISTIAN LOSE MY SALVATION ? – PART 1
Sakkie Parsons
I would like to share the following question that someone sent me:
Can we as Christians lose our salvation according to Hebrew 6:4-6?
There are many people who say: “How nice – I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour and Redeemer and now I can live my life and no matter what I do, I am on my way to Heaven.”
Here is the difference between the most “once saved, always saved” – theologians’ explanation of the Word, and how I try to preach the Word:
I do not take a passage or text and say this is how it is, if it does not say so and when I do comment, I like to add: “This is how I understand the Word.” I’m not acting smart to come up with all sorts of cleverness. That’s why I read the Word like a child. This is how Jesus want me to read the Word and any explanation I give should ultimately match how I understand the rest of the Word. In other words, I should not try to be clever.
HEB 6:4 For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened…
This is someone who tasted the Heavenly gift. Here I personally understand someone who experienced the loving forgiveness of his/her sin through Jesus’ death on the cross as a reality in his heart – (you can ignore if you like how I understand it) just remember that this person was enlightened and tasted the Heavenly gift.
HEB6:4 … , and have shared in the Holy Spirit,..
This is someone who became partaker of the Holy Spirit.
Here one can clearly understand that the person received the Holy Spirit and in other words that the Holy Spirit lived in the person. If so, the question is necessarily: “Will the Holy Spirit of God dwell in an unbeliever?
Someone who, as I see it, already had in their hearts a wonderful relationship with our Lord, and then we read:
HEB 6:5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
So, here we have someone to whom the following applies:
• The person is biblically enlightened.
• Tasted the heavenly gifts.
• Someone who had the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in him / her.
By the way, the Collins dictionary says of the word ‘participation’ the following:
“Be involved in; join in; take part.”
Now the Word tells me in no uncertain terms, that such a person can become apostate from our Lord and that in such a case, it is impossible to help such a person back to repentance.
HEB 6:6 if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
Now notice what you have just read. The Amplified Bible read as follow:
HEB 6:6 If they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance – (it is impossible) to bring them back to repentance, for (because, while, as long as) they nail upon the cross the Son of God afresh (as far as they are concerned) and are holding (Him) up to contempt and shame and public disgrace.
You cannot bring someone who has never been converted back to repentance – simply because that person has never been converted in the first place.
The author is certainly talking about someone who should have been converted.
Because – it does not matter how you or I understand all the other characteristics of the person presented to us as an example, about two characteristics of this person, there is no doubt whatsoever:
The first is that the person had the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in him/her:
HEB 6:4 … and have shared in the Holy Spirit,..
The second fact that stands out is that the person spoken of here as an example was converted at one time.
Because it is completely illogical to argue that the person was unconverted, or has never been converted, if you read:
HEB 6:6 …If they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance – (it is impossible) to bring them back to repentance
You cannot do something again, if it has never been done in the first place.
Some people want to understand something in a certain way and nothing you do is going to make them change – even if they read it in white and black in the Word.
I have met people who will show you from the Word, by twisting the Word of course, that there are and will be only white people in Heaven. I have even come across people who will tell you and even twist the history of man to show you that the Afrikaner and only the white Afrikaner is the chosen people of our Lord.
I read the Word as our Lord want me to read it:
MAT 11:25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
MAT 11:26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.MARK 10:15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
No one, no angel, no evil spirit and no human can snatch me from the hand of our Lord but I can decide, to put it this way, to free myself from His arms and turn my back on Him and choose to go to hell.
I decide now and every day of my life to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus and keep following Him and just as it is my decision to do so, so it is my decision, if I do not want to do it anymore.
I am not a puppet, I am the image of our Lord and as He is, one of my qualities is that I have a will of my own.
I can also decide any day to take that fatal step and turn my back on Him.
Therefore, one of the things I always remember and make myself attend off and will always proclaim is:
MAT 24:42-44
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, (this shows that one can also be unprepared) for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
I always want to be ready, because, as I understand the Word, I can be unprepared and face a closed door. That is why I preach what I preach, so that others do not arrive at a closed door unprepared because it was preached to them: “Once saved, always saved.”
If we look at the parable of the Prodigal Son with the following thought:
That this man could have used his own will and said; “Everything is just too much for me now” and taken his own life (like many people have done in the past), and he would never have come back to his father – but he used his will to make the decision.
Now also remember, that it is Jesus who tells this parable and as I always say, I now also say again:
If Jesus says something in a certain way, you must pay attention to how He say it.
So, pay attention on the following – nowhere, in what you are going to read now, is there the slightest indication that our Lord’s Spirit has forced him. He looked at his circumstances and he himself made a decision:
LUK 15:17-20
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”‘
20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
There is something else beautiful in what you have just read: How wonderful Jesus show us our Heavenly Father’s love –
This man prepares a whole speech to share with his father what a bad person he really is but because of his father’s great love for him, he never even got the opportunity to deliver his prepared speech.
How extremely sorry one feels for people who do not have a relationship with such a loving Father , because they do not want to accept Jesus as Saviour and Redeemer.
There are many tragedies in this life but there is in my opinion no greater tragedy than this; that Jesus knocks on one’s heart and that person sends Jesus away – because Jesus is the only access to our Father – to eternal life.
Jesus is saying:
JOHN 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
ACTS 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Does this tell us that we must constantly doubt when we sin as a born-again child of God, whether we are saved or not and whether we will one day go to Heaven or not?
I discuss this question in my next ‘Thought from the Word’: “To have the full assurance of hope until the end.”
For now –
I can lose my salvation, by using my own will and throwing it back in the face of my Saviour.
Greetings,
Sakkie