Followup Teaching on: Can a Christian Fall Away? Hebrews pt.6 (6:1-12 & 8:9-12)

Today

• I want to dig deeper into the question of whether a Christian can completely fall away?

Hebrews 3

8. do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9. where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
10. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
11. As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Heb 8: I will establish a New Covenant…

9. not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people…
12. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Ezekiel 36:26–7 ,37:26

26. And I will give you a new heart, and a new Spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
26. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them.

Is Our Salvation Eternal?

1. What exactly happens at the moment we are saved?
2. Look at problem passages that seem to be saying the opposite
3. How should you and I respond to this challenge?

John 1

12. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13. who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3

5. Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’
8. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Romans 8

8. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

1 Corinthians 5
Born of the Spirit
= A New Creation

17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

John 10

26. but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.
    • They don’t have a new heart
27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
28. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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.

Ephesians 2

4. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5. even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6. and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Salvation

• A new human spirit born within us
• Belongs to the New Creation
• Created by the Holy Spirit (born of him)
• The very life of God inside us
• Only visible to others by our behaviour
• Since we still have “the flesh”, there is a war
• Very hard for others to know, but ultimately “by their fruits you will know them”

“Problem passages”

• The vine, and the branches who get cut off and burned
• The parable of the four kinds of soil
• Rom 11:20 Israel like branches broken off because of unbelief
• “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”

John 15 – I am the true vine

2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

John 8:31–32 & 15:16

31. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32. and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
     
16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…

Matt 13 – Parable of the four kinds of soil

20. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
21. yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
22. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

Hebrews 6: A different kind of soil

4. It is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5. tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age,
6. and then have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance…
7. 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.
8. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless...

But: Hebrews 6:9–12

9. But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to your salvation.
10. For God is not unrighteous so as to ignore your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints
11. But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfilment of your hope until the end,
12. so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.

Rom 11—Salvation of Jewish people

19. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
20. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.
21. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

The Context:

29. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
30. …you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because…
33. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
35. “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
36. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Philippians 2

12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

• φοβου και τρομου (phobou kai tromou)

2 Cor 7

13. Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.…
15. And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.

Hebrews 4:14–16

14. Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
15. For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
16. Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.