{"id":28854,"date":"2023-11-21T22:00:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hebrews-5_1-14-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-11-14T12:13:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T19:13:21","slug":"hebrews-6_1-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hebrews-6_1-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it possible to lose your salvation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hebrews 6:1-12<\/strong>\u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Hebrews\u00a06:1-12.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Hebrews\u00a06:1-3 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And God permitting, we will do so.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-3:\u00a0\u00a0Just before this, the writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0rebuked his readers for failing to mature spiritually.\u00a0\u00a0As part of telling them to grow up, he mentions six topics that are foundational for every Christian to understand:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
  1. The first is \u201crepentance from acts that lead to death\u201d (v1), meaning the importance of turning from our sin (including our tendency to want to earn our salvation by our own good works) and turning to God.<\/li>\n
  2. The second is the importance of faith (v1).<\/li>\n
  3. The third is the importance of baptisms, referring to water baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit (v2).<\/li>\n
  4. The fourth is \u201cthe laying on of hands\u201d (v2), probably referring to how every believer is called and commissioned to serve God.<\/li>\n
  5. The fifth is \u201cthe resurrection of the dead\u201d (v2), referring both to Christ\u2019s resurrection and how those who trust in Christ have the hope of resurrection and eternal life after we die.<\/li>\n
  6. The sixth is eternal judgment, the truth that God is a just judge and will ensure that justice is served in the end.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    What can we learn for this?\u00a0\u00a0To grow as a Christian, these\u00a06\u00a0basic, elementary teachings must be at the foundation of what you believe.\u00a0\u00a0From there you can go on to build other truths from God\u2019s Word on top of this foundation.<\/p>\n

    Hebrews\u00a06:4-6\u00a0(NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
    \n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
    \n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age,
    \n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.<\/em><\/p>\n

    On verses 4-6:\u00a0\u00a0Some consider these verses, which are really one sentence in Greek, to be the hardest passage in the New Testament to interpret.\u00a0\u00a0Is this passage saying that if I sin after I become a Christian it is impossible for me to come back to God?\u00a0\u00a0Keep in mind the type of situation the writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0is talking about here.\u00a0\u00a0The writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0is warning his readers about the specific situation where a person comes to faith in Christ but then \u201cfalls away\u201d (v6); in other words, that person came to faith in Christ but later consciously decides to abandon the faith.\u00a0\u00a0This is known as apostasy, or in Jesus\u2019 words, blaspheming against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:29).\u00a0\u00a0Whatever term you want to use, it\u2019s the situation where a person once received Jesus in their life but then their heart becomes so hardened that they later on say, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in Jesus as my Saviour and I refuse to believe in Jesus as my Saviour\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0If that remains their attitude until their dying day, there is no salvation or eternal hope for that person.\u00a0\u00a0That person is effectively doing what the high priests and teachers of the law who crucified Jesus did: calling Jesus a liar and a false teacher.\u00a0\u00a0In this way they crucify Jesus all over again and give Jesus a bad name.<\/p>\n

    Don\u2019t misunderstand these verses as saying that if you commit\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0sin after you receive Jesus, then you will lose your salvation.\u00a0\u00a0These verses are addressing the specific situation where someone doesn\u2019t\u00a0lose<\/em>\u00a0their salvation by committing just any sin, but rather where someone consciously and voluntarily\u00a0leaves<\/em>\u00a0their salvation by emphatically and repeatedly renouncing Jesus as their Saviour and never repenting of that decision.<\/p>\n

    Hebrews\u00a06:7-8 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
    \n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.
    \n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.<\/em><\/p>\n

    On verses 7-8:\u00a0\u00a0Here the writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0uses a farming analogy to illustrate what he is talking about in verses 4-6.\u00a0\u00a0When you place your faith in Jesus and use what God has given you for His glory, your life is like land that drinks in the rain and bears good, useful fruit.\u00a0\u00a0You will be blessed (v7). But if you place your faith in Jesus and then later renounce that faith, the opposite will happen: you will end up living a life that ultimately rejects Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Your life will be like land that receives the rain only to produce worthless thorns and thistles and is just asking to be burned up and destroyed (v8).<\/p>\n

    Hebrews\u00a06:9-12 (NIV)<\/strong>
    \n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case–things that accompany salvation.
    \n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
    \n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.
    \n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.<\/em><\/p>\n

    On verses 9-12:\u00a0\u00a0The writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0clarifies his reason for writing all these sobering warnings. It\u2019s not because the writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0has given up on his readers. Much the opposite, he says, \u201cwe are confident of better things in your case \u2013 things that accompany salvation\u201d (v9).\u00a0\u00a0He comforts his readers, saying that God has seen the love they have shown to others because of their faith in Christ.\u00a0\u00a0He encourages them to \u201cshow this same diligence to the very end\u201d (v11), believing that perseverance will \u201cmake your hope sure\u201d (v11).<\/p>\n

    What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

    1.\u00a0\u00a0Those who truly love you will, when necessary and always with loving tact and wisdom, speak the truth in love to you, even when it\u2019s hard to hear.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So may we have a teachable attitude toward others.\u00a0\u00a0As Psalm 141:5 says, \u201cLet\u00a0a righteous man strike me–it is a kindness; let him rebuke me–it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it.\u201d<\/p>\n

    2.\u00a0\u00a0For those of us who have placed our trust in Jesus, may we not become lazy or passive in our walk with God, but may we persevere and \u201cimitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised\u201d (v12).\u00a0\u00a0As Paul says in Galatians\u00a06:9, \u201cLet us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up\u201d.<\/p>\n

    Father, thank You for the way You persevere in loving us, how You don\u2019t give up on us, even when we give up.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that You are always willing to take us back no matter how many times we sin against You.\u00a0\u00a0May our hearts be soft toward You the way Your heart is soft toward us. And may we persevere in loving others and trusting You the way that You persevere in loving and trusting us.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n

    Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

    Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Hebrews\u00a06:1-12.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

    Hebrews\u00a06:1-3 (NIV)
    \n1\u00a0\u00a0Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,
    \n2\u00a0\u00a0instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
    \n3\u00a0\u00a0And God permitting, we will do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    On verses\u00a01-3:\u00a0\u00a0Just before this, the writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0rebuked his readers for failing to mature spiritually.\u00a0\u00a0As part of telling them to grow up, he mentions six topics that are foundational for every Christian to understand:
    \nThe first is \u201crepentance from acts that lead to death\u201d (v1), meaning the importance of turning from our sin (including our tendency to want to earn our salvation by our own good works) and turning to God.\u00a0
    \nThe second is the importance of faith (v1).\u00a0
    \nThe third is the importance of baptisms, referring to water baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit (v2).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28857,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28854\/revisions\/28857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}