Are you a goody or a baddy?

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 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.  Hebrews 6:4-6

I became a Christian when I was 15 and, even before I went off to study theology, I used to get involved in quite intense discussions with friends about matters of Bible interpretation.

One question we used to debate was: Once a person has been saved, is it possible for them to lose their salvation? Not surprisingly there were two main schools of opinion: we didn’t actually refer to them as “goodies” and “baddies”, but that was pretty much what it amounted to…

The goodies (ie, “us”) were the ones who said No. It was inconceivable that someone who has been born again could be unborn again! If God has adopted someone as his child, how could that person ever be unadopted! No! – “once saved, always saved” was the motto. (These people might be called “Calvinists” after the French reformation leader, John Calvin, 1509-1564.)

The baddies (ie, “them”) were those who said Yes. Human beings are gifted by God with free will, and the sad fact is that some who seem to be true Christians do indeed make the decision to go back on their faith and deny it. (These people might be called “Arminians” after Calvin’s most prominent opponent, Jacobus Arminius, 1560-1609.)

Well, there’s plenty of scope for discussion there! – and the debate is still alive up to the present day. (And, of course, it’s far, far, far more complex than my summary suggests.)

Most Christians, once they have come to faith, just get on with the business of living the Christian life. And quite right too. Life is too busy and too pressurised to spend time fretting about matters over which fine Christians on both sides – including many brilliant theologians - can’t agree. Just enjoy being a child of God! Just relish the new status faith in Christ gives us! Just aim every day to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to live for God’s glory! Yes, of course!

But then as you get to know your Bible you are bound at some point to find yourself reading the passage I’ve put at the top: Hebrews 6:4-6. There’s no denying that it seems pretty severe, and taken at face value it certainly suggests that we can indeed lose our salvation (there’s another passage in the same vein a chapter or two later, in Hebrews 10:26-31).

Whoever wrote the Letter to the Hebrews was obviously very concerned that some Christians he knew from a Jewish background were in danger of turning back to their Jewish practices. (It’s clear that persecution or the fear of persecution was never far away, and that may have been the reason; so we shouldn’t be too hard on them.)

So the letter as a whole amounts to an urgent running plea – as if to say, “Don’t do it! Your earlier Jewish faith was based on all sorts of wonderful things, including the scriptures God inspired (what we call the Old Testament). But it was only ever intended to lead to something far better! And that ‘something far better’ is right there in Jesus, God’s Son, and in his death on the cross and his resurrection. How can you possibly consider turning your back on that? How can you even dream of such a thing!”

Paul had a similar agonising experience with some of his converts in Galatia. His letter to them is full of the same sort of plea – in one striking phrase, indeed, he tells them that “you… have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

So what are we to make of people who seem to be true Christians but who subsequently deny their faith?

The stock answer was: Well, such people were obviously never true Christians in the first place. Perhaps they had some kind of faith, but it was never real “saving faith”.

That, of course, is possible. But if you digest slowly what Hebrews 6 says about these people, the idea that they were not true Christians is a bit hard to take - they have been “enlightened”; they have “tasted the heavenly gift”; they have “shared in the Holy Spirit”; they have “tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age” (verse 5).

They don’t sound like merely “nominal” Christians! It’s hard to avoid the feeling that that stock answer is in fact an attempt to wriggle out of the plain meaning of the text.

Mmm… Could it be that the baddies aren’t so bad after all! Could it be that the us/them, goodies/baddies split isn’t quite so clear-cut?

I have no easy answer to the question. All I know is that Hebrews 6:4-6 and other similar passages are there, and they’re not going to go away!

At the very least they stand as a warning to us that the ultimate test of true faith is perseverance.

Do any of us need that warning today?

Loving heavenly Father, thank you that though I am a sinner, I am a forgiven sinner, a true child of God, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Please save me from any hint of complacency, and help me to understand that the true test of faith is perseverance to the very end. Amen.