Youth Q&A

Youth Q&A

Question:

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” Hebrews 6:4-6

When has someone fallen away? Is there a “point of no return”, a line from which, when it is exceeded, there is no turning back to God?

Answer:

One single sin which we agree to in our lives, one sin over which we do not repent, means that we fall. And repentance means that I am sorry for my sin, that I turn away from it and ask God for forgiveness for that sin. The “fall” has two meanings in Scripture.

1.         If we are disobedient to the truth and obey a false gospel. Please read Galatians 5:4-7.

2.         When we give in to temptation and live in sin. See Luke 8:13.

How was that among the Hebrews? They had received every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 6:4-5). But they were in danger of becoming hardened and falling away from the living God by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12 – 13). The deceitfulness of sin was the underestimation of sin and the minimization of grace. Such thoughts as, “I can too sin! That is no problem, Christ died for that.” Thus living openly in sin with the confidence that God will surely forgive me for it. (Hebrews 10:26 – 29)

God draws no line from which there is no turning back. He wants that all people are helped. “He is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3.9). The problem is not God who no longer wants to forgive. The problem is us, who no longer repent. If we stubbornly persist in our sin and not let the Spirit of God punish us and repent, then our heart is hard. And so this sin becomes “a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16-17). It becomes a sin that God does not forgive because we do not repent about it.

Jesus said: “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.” (Luke 12:10) We cannot soften our hardened heart ourselves. We cannot acquire or develop a repentant heart. It is the Holy Spirit that shows us our sinfulness and leads us to repentance. So if we oppose the Holy Spirit, if we despise Him, then there is no one who can lead us out of our hardened heart.

Effectively it means for us: When we see our sin, if we are sorry for it, if we abhor it and want to get rid of the load, then grace is there for us. This is the state to which we are led by the Holy Spirit. That is the position in which God can forgive us. And then we can come to God with full assurance, ask Him for forgiveness and accept salvation by faith.