Being a Hero
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, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance … Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case – things that accompany salvation Hebrews 6:4,5,9
The first part of this passage is well known as a “proof text” for being able to lose one’s salvation. But, in context, the writer is both encouraging and warning his readers and says quite clearly ‘we are confident of better things in your case – things that accompany salvation’ (6:9).
Why the warning then? ‘We want you to show the same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised’ (6:11,12).
If your mind is made up about the question of salvation’s impregnability, please take off your “mind made up” glasses and read the passage again. Note what it does say and what it doesn’t say.
Like the Jewish Christians addressed in Hebrews, you might be facing pressures that could potentially cause you to let go of Christ. You might have hung on as long as you felt you could, but now wonder if there’s reason to hang on any longer.
There is! You’re amongst the great heroes of the faith. It wasn’t easy for them either. They didn’t pray a simple prayer and have everything fall into place for them.
We might read ‘Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crop’ (James 5:17,18). But this doesn’t tell us what Elijah went through between the first prayer and the fulfilment of the second (1 Kings 17 and 18).
Abraham was 75 years old when God first promised blessing through his family – meaning he would father a son to carry on the family line (Genesis 12:4). How long did he wait for the fulfilment? ‘Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him’ (Genesis 21:5). Every one of those 25 years involved strong and sometimes severe testing.
‘We … want you … to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised’ (6:12). It mightn’t be easy but this isn’t the time to give in or give up. God has much more for you than what you’re seeing now. Continue to believe. God is faithful. You will see ‘what has been promised.’
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