Bible Question:
Hi, I would like some help on answering a friend's question. She believes one can loose their salvation and I've been trying to do a study that tells her you can't loose your salvation once you are really born again into the family of God. Can you help? Thanks! |
Bible Answer: Born again again? It is impossible for them to be brought back to repentance. "Those who want to make this verse (Heb. 6:6) mean that believers can lose salvation will have to admit that it would then also say that one could never get it back again." Hebrews 6:4,6 (NIV) (4) It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,...(6) if 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. " . . . logically v. 4 implies that if salvation were to be lost, it would be impossible for that person to be born again, lose it, and then be born again again. This much is clear: whoever openly and consciously rejects Jesus Christ is unregenerate even if he seemed to have been saved ealier." Whether he had lost his salvation or never had it to begin with, "either way, the result is identical." (Note at Heb. 6:4ff, NRSV Harper Study Bible) "The 'impossible' of v. 4 goes with 'to renew them again to repentance.' Those who sinned against Christ in such a way had no hope of restoration or forgiveness. The reason is that they had rejected Him with full knowledge and conscious experience (as described in the features of vv. 5,6). With full revelation they rejected the truth, concluding the opposite of the truth about Christ, and thus had no hope of being saved. They can never have more knowledge than they had when they rejected it. They have concluded that Jesus should have been crucified, and they stand with his enemies. "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have (done all these things in vv. 4-5) and then have fallen away." 'There is no possibility of these verses referring to losing salvation. Many Scripture passages make unmistakably clear that salvation is eternal (compare John 10:27-29; Rom 8:35,38,39; Phil 1:6; 1 Pet 1:4,5). Those who want to make this verse mean that believers can lose salvation will have to admit that it would then also say that one could never get it back again.' (MacArthur Study Bible, Word Publishing, 1997.) |