May 31 I Monday

2 Chronicles 13-14

John 12:1-26

“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance.”  —Hebrews 6:4-5

The above passage has been the supporter of those who believe salvation can be lost if we fall away from God, but these verses are actually teaching the opposite. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47 NKJV). To lose everlasting life would be a contradiction of terms. Every Christian is sealed with the Holy Spirit in Christ and their salvation is guaranteed. Jesus affirmed this when He said, “No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:29).

       The theme of Hebrews chapters 5 and 6 moves us to maturity in Christ, which begins with repentance. That is the initial foundation, the starting point. Once we have laid the foundation of repentance, we cannot go back to our pre-repentant days, before we were a Christian. We repent because it is the condition upon which we receive the Holy Spirit, and it is then impossible for us to be unsaved. This does not mean repentance is no longer necessary. We continue to live in humble repentance before God, but we cannot go back to the foundation that has already been laid, because with the inception of the Holy Spirit, we become locked into Jesus Christ.

       Hebrews 6:1 says, “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance....” If the writer would have said, “not laying again the foundation of new birth,” he would have then said, “It would be impossible to be brought back to new birth.” This makes sense, because the Holy Spirit does not enter us twice. We are already made alive in Christ and cannot go back and be made alive again. To illustrate, we are all born into this world on a certain date. We cannot say, “Oh man! My life is such a mess! I’m going to go back and start it all over again.” Both physically and spiritually this is impossible.

       The tragic aspect is that if we do not move on to maturity in Christ, the writer of Hebrews says, “To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace” (Hebrews 6:6). In effect, our lives will then become an insult to the gospel, because instead of glorifying Christ, we are showing ourselves to be no different than an unbeliever. Once we are a Christian, we are saved––our salvation is guaranteed––but the kind of Christian we become will be conveyed in the depth of our relationship with Jesus Christ and our dependence on Him.

Prayer: Dear Father, I am so grateful when I believe that my salvation is guaranteed. Help me to move on to maturity in an ever-deepening relationship with You. Thank You, Lord.