Can salvation be lost?

 BY Argie Simonis 

There are five conditions that one must meet in order to fall outside of Divine Grace, or else fall away of one's salvation:

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

If they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." Hebrews 6:4-6

Let's take a closer look:

1. They must be enlightened. Here it speaks of the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus to us (John 6:44 and 65).

2. They must have tasted the heavenly gift. I believe this speaks of the gift of salvation:

"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" Eph. 2:8

In other words, unsaved people cannot "lose" what they never had. There must be a supernatural conversion, not just a religious exercise.

3. They must have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. This speaks of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. People who have not received the Holy Spirit cannot "fall away" (Hebrews 6: 6).

4. They must have tasted the good Word of God. I believe this speaks of revealed knowledge from the Word of God. Not just intellectual knowledge, but the knowledge that God supernaturally reveals the truth from His Word.

5. "powers of the world to come". Here it is obviously talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and supernatural power (1 Corinthians 12: 5-11). It speaks of those who have worked in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and have seen the power of God manifested through them.

These five conditions basically describe mature Christians, something the author urged  readers to do earlier in this letter (Hebrews 5: 11-13).

The author said that immature Christians could not reject their salvation. They are like the minors in our society who would like to give up their families. Because children lack maturity, they often do not know what to say. For example, many children have been upset and said that they wish they were not children of their parents, but belonged to someone else. But they are not legally charged. But if they did the same as adults, the law would support them.

Likewise, these verses say that immature Christians will not be held accountable for blasphemy against God. Indeed, the Apostle Paul said that he was forgiven for blasphemy because he did it "in ignorance and in unbelief" (1 Timothy 1:13).

Verse 6 clearly states that once people deliberately reject the Lord and have enough maturity to know what they are doing, as described in verses 4-5, it is impossible for them to be saved again. There is no longer any sacrifice for their sins. Jesus have dealed with their sins once. And if they reject this, He will not die again for their sins.

These verses do not teach the loss of salvation every time we sin and that every time we must repent and return to the grace of God. They declare just the opposite. If people deny their salvation, they can never recover from it.

So if you are worried that you have "lost" your salvation, be sure that this has not happened, because the Spirit of God continues to bear witness within you about Him. People who reject their salvation, means that they have already seared their conscience (1 Tim. 4: 2) and the Lord leaves them alone, stops convicting them, delivering them to a rebrobate mind (Rom. 1:28).  There is nothing worse than having the living God leave you alone to your own fate! But He will never force you to spend an eternity with Him against your will.