Falling Away?

 Read Hebrews 6

 

Imagine waking up each day to incredible pain. You treated the pain yesterday but you have to deal with it again today.

Some of you don’t have to imagine that. It’s a daily deal.

Imagine having beaten cancer only to find out it’s back. That stinks. Here we go again.

Imagine having been brutally attacked by thugs. You have broken bones. Your body nearly bled out. Your vision was blurry for a long time, but you finally got better.

Now here come those thugs again and this time they have knives and tire irons.  Once was enough.

Some of you are thinking, M1911, .45 caliber will take care of them, but you remember that you loaned out your trusty weapon yesterday and don’t have a backup on you.

You don’t want to go through another beatdown, but you do.

A month later, it’s the same thing all over again. Not all your breaks and bruises have fully healed.

You might be wondering if I have taken a job writing for Netflix or Prime or one of those that produce some binge-worthy series, but that’s not the case.  It’s just analogy.

For what?

For crucifying Jesus again and again and again. Who would do that?

Pray it’s not you.  The counsel for those who would reject the salvation of the Lord having tasted God’s Kingdom is not something of which we want to have any part.

Just as the rebellious will not enter God’s rest, neither will one who falls away from God’s salvation be allowed back in. Ouch! That’s some mean stuff right there.

What happened to once saved, always saved?

This part is a might prickly. Some refer to it as the Devil’s favorite scripture. Can a believer fall away?  Sin, yes, we get that. We still sin but are we still sinners or a new creation?

If we are going to try out best to understand this scripture, you have to set aside your doctrine and view it through the lens of Jesus.  Remember in the first chapter, I challenged you to read this entire book looking through the lens of Jesus?

Messiah.

Savior.

Lord.

King.

Priest.

Intercessor.

Promise Keeper.

Way Maker.

Miracle Worker.

God who is in his very essence Love.

We have instructions about confessing when we sin, so God knows that we will sin even in our redeemed state. There is an eye has not seen and ear has not heard state where sin won’t be a factor, but for now, it is.

But can we lose our salvation?

It appears that the author might have used some hyperbole to get the attention of the Hebrew readers who would not fall away to paganism or atheism but to the rote rituals of Judaism.

We should consider this verse literally and as hyperbole as we seek to understand what is a stern message in any case. Here’s the thing about when Jesus used hyperbole.  The truth even in hyperbolic form is still the truth.

What?

If your eye offends you, then pluck it out. The same for your hand. Cut it off. Now, here’s the bottom-line truth part. It is better to get into heaven missing one eye than to miss the boat altogether.

It is better to come into the kingdom of heaven with the nickname Stumpy than not to get in at all.  It’s hyperbole, but it’s truth nonetheless.

The message over these past few chapters has been about moving forward. Christ surpassed Moses and the Law given through him. We must move forward in Christ.

The foundation has been set in repentance and baptism and the laying on of hands. It is time to move from the salvation that we received to the fullness of that salvation.

We must build upon the foundation instead of  laying the foundation again and again. That’s like crucifying Christ time and time and time again.

Look forward. Move forward. Quit looking back. Here are some words that are coming soon. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

You have repented of your sins.

You have received Jesus as Lord.

You believe that God raised him from the dead.

You believe that his death took away your sin.

The righteousness of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world has been imputed to you.

You believe that in the resurrection of the Lord is the promise of your resurrection.

You have this fantastic foundation. Stop rebuilding it and start building upon it.

If you have tasted the goodness of the Lord, how could you go back to the law for your salvation?

The apostasy addressed here is not going over to Baal or some other false god, but returning to a life of recurring sacrifices required by the law.

 How do you build upon this foundation that we know in Christ Jesus?

In the practice of your faith.

By living a life governed by love.

By not growing lazy in your salvation.

This part will sound very familiar. How do we build upon the foundation that we have in Christ Jesus?

By taking his yoke and learning from him.

By putting his words into practice.

By trusting the promises of God.  A promise can have no greater assurance than to be from God.

There comes a point where every infant needs more than milk. They need meat.

The writer here is challenging his readers telling them that they have been on formula for long enough. It’s time to chew on something solid. It’s time to take your faith and build upon your salvation. It’s time to move forward.

Image an infant that never matures enough to eat solid food.

Imagine an infant that never learns to walk.

Imagine an infant that never learns to talk.

Imagine having to take care of this person even though God designed them to grow and learn and build and produce good fruit.

Imagine  being that person.

What’s the point of Jesus dying on the cross to atone for your sins if you keep desiring the sinful life? What’s the point?

I have offered this provocation before in different contexts, but here it is in the realm of Hebrews.

Why do we want to go to heaven if we keep wanting to do things our way instead of God’s way?  Why do we want to live forever if we are not interested in what God has in store for us?

What’s the point?

Is it once saved, always saved? I am confident that it is.

Is discipleship a challenge? Absolutely!  It is a challenge and then some, and it comes with stern, sometimes impossible warnings.

So when we sin, transgress, or somehow just miss the mark, we are not called to repent and seek salvation again. We are called to confess with the Spirit of God pointing us in that direction.

We are called to confess because the word of God judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. That’s not just on our way to salvation. That’s throughout our salvation.

We may sin and confess so much that we wonder if we are saved, but as long as God’s Spirit is working in us, an we confess our sin, we should never doubt our salvation and we should respond with great passion in our discipleship.

We get back in our race with more gusto than before we missed the mark. We are still growing in God’s grace. We are being sanctified, and that is a process.

And having tasted God’s goodness, we might be tempted to throw in the towel but we are not able to fall away from the God who loves us so much.

I am sure that this account is not politically correct in our modern world, but once upon a time on an operation called Bold Guard in Europe, I led a company of Marines for an exercise that lasted a couple of weeks.

It was time to backload on the ships and we were staged waiting for our turn. A young, black Marine dropped his rifle. He was close enough that I had to say something.

He smarted off.  If you didn’t know, you don’t get to be disrespectful to officers.

My gunnery sergeant started for this young Marine and I could tell that this was not going to be pretty.

I grabbed the gunny and held him back. I said, “We will sort this out aboard the ship.”

That would give the young Marine a little time to think about what he had done, and it would keep my gunnery sergeant out of the brig for thrashing a young Marine.

So, the day came and this young black Marine was standing in front of me in the small company office space we had on the ship.

You might wonder why I keep mentioning that the Marine was black.  That’s simple. I turned him white, at least for a minute.

When the Marine had dropped his rifle and smarted off to me, he—like the rest of us—was tired. I didn’t want to take his money or his rank or his liberty.

C’mon, we just finished an exercise in Denmark and Germany. It was time to pull into port and turn the Marines loose on Europeans somewhere. I think Rotterdam was scheduled as our next port.

I just wanted to make a point with this young man. Master your weapon and your attitude if you want to make it in the Corps.

So, after talking about what the gunnery wanted to do to him, I said, “Maybe, I should just do that myself.”

I can forcefully project my voice when needed. I did.

I did not realize until just then, just how scared the young Marine was. He went flush. His color was gone. He was pale and about to pass out.

He didn’t. I say that I turned him white, but he was colorless.

I didn’t take rank or pay or liberty, but I had him carry his rifle with him everywhere he went for the next two days until we got to port.

He was a Marine. He messed up but he was still a Marine and needed to stay that way.

I just wanted to let him know that he didn’t want to forsake the calling that had been entrusted to him as a Marine. I might have pushed the limits of what was acceptable, but sometimes you push those limits when you don’t want to see someone you care about go down the tubes.

We get a similar warning in this part of Hebrews. But we are not lost. We have not fallen away. We have not forsaken the calling that we have as Christians.

God’s Spirit is irresistible to us. We can fall short but we can’t fall away.

We are a new creation. The old creature wants his job back, but we have been made new. There is no going back.

We can miss the mark again and again, but we don’t go back to Square One. We confess and get back into our race of faith.

God’s goodness is too powerful. His grace has reached beyond our sins and God is not kicking us to the curb.

God disciplines those whom he loves, but once he has claimed us, we will not be lost to him.

Amen.