One of the perplexing questions raised among Christians is the issue of security. Is it possible for Christians—that is, genuinely converted, regenerate, Spirit-baptised Christians—to fall away?
Some would say no. And they would point to the many, many promises found throughout the New Testament which declare in unambiguous terms the commitment of God to keep his people. Here’s a short list of them:
- And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (Jn 6:39, 40)
- For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified…[nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:29, 30, 39)
- God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability… (1 Cor 10:13)
- [We] were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance… (Eph 1:13-14)
- …he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion… (Phil 1:6)
- Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. (Jn 5:24)
Note all the past tenses. It’s a done deal. These many promises have rightly given believers great comfort. God has me. I am safe in his hands. My security is a sure security because it is dependent on God’s determination to fulfil his promises.
But wait. There are also many passages in the New Testament, addressed to followers of Christ, which warn of the dangers of falling away. And none are so concentrated or intense as those in the book of Hebrews. There are five of them.
“Therefore we must pay much close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it (Heb 2:1). “See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God (Heb 3:12). “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God” (Heb 10:26-7). “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?” (Heb 12:25). And of course, the highly contentious chapter six – “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.” (Heb 6:4-6).
But it is not only the book of Hebrews. Other passages to consider include Matt 24:12-13, Mark 13:13, Luke 9:62, 1 Cor 10, 1 Cor 15:1-2, Col 1:22-23, 2 Tim 2:11-12.
What are we to make of these warnings, especially in light of the strong words of assurance pointed to earlier?
Some so hold the assurance passages that they dismiss the warnings as clearly not meaning what they appear to mean; that is, they are not warnings about a loss of salvation (but reward); or they are not addressed to genuine Christians (but the ‘almost a Christian’). This is often done to protect the unity of thought of the Bible. Because the Bible is written (ultimately) by the same author we rightly expect unity of thought. There will not be any ‘out and out’ contradictions. If a passage appears to contradict another it will appear that way because we haven’t understood it rightly, not because it actually is a contradiction.
But there are some warning passages that are so clearly warnings given to genuine Christians, that it is very difficult to read them in any other way but meaning what they plainly mean – as genuine and real warnings to Christians about a loss of salvation. A number of the warnings in Hebrews fit into this category. They are given in the first person plural. That is, the author includes himself in the warnings. “We must pay attention, … lest we fall away”. “We have come to share in Christ only if we hold our original confidence firmly to the end”. And chapter ten, how will we escape “if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?”. And indeed, the more contested warning of chapter six seems very clearly addressed to genuine believers, given the way these people are described. The way the author of Hebrews uses the words “tasted”, “share in”, “enlightened” strongly suggests he is speaking of a genuine Christian.1 And most significantly the language of “repentance” in v6 is very clearly referencing a genuine believer. If this person falls, “it is impossible” to bring them “back to repentance”.
And these don’t appear to be idle threats. God is not in the business of issuing pretend warnings. These can’t be reduced to a kind of hyperbole that has no substance, like a parent warning a child that if they make such a face and the wind changes they will be stuck with that face forever. The ‘stuck face’ is not a real possibility. It is merely a scare tactic to achieve a desired outcome. If it works, it is only because the child doesn’t realise the warning isn’t real. This cannot be the character of the warnings in Scripture.
These warnings must be real, and have substance. As one hard-core reformed theologian has said “… these are seriously meant.” And, “They prompt self examination…”.2
Exactly.
These warnings are real. Otherwise, they lose their power the more we are assured we are a genuine born again believer. That is, the more convinced we are that we are chosen by God the less relevance and power the warning passages have in our lives, because, as many have clumsily insisted, based on a simplistic understanding of the assurance passages, a genuine born again believer “cannot get themselves unsaved”; or “even those who walk away from the faith have not the slightest chance of slipping from His hand”.3 These expressions seek to protect one truth of the NT, but do it at the expense of the warning passages. And these clumsy expressions are pastorally devastating. They actually endanger the very assurance passages that are such an important part of the biblical picture (more on that in a moment).
This is not at all to suggest that our salvation is dependent purely on our human ability to withstand temptation and stand firm in the faith. If some reject the warning passages, others fall into the equal and opposite error of rejecting the assurance passages. Doing this leaves us with no security as believers apart from our own strength of will to keep ourselves. This is perceived to have the advantage of making Christians take seriously their responsibility to live for Christ, but over time it turns living the Christian life into a desperate task. It makes my ongoing security dependent on my own meagre resources. Ultimately, it even undermines the foundation of our salvation as coming to us by grace alone.
Solving our problem
We therefore seem to have a problem. We have two different statements: one assuring Christians that God will keep them to the end, and one warning Christians of the dangers of falling away – that are real and well meant. Can we reconcile these seemingly contradictory passages? I believe we can and I believe the reconciliation brings to light a glorious insight into the way that God deals with us. There are still some mysteries but the fact is, whether or not we can reconcile them, we are bound to hold both truths with equal fervency. Calvin modelled this. “We are taught … that call and faith are of little account unless perseverance be added …” (Institutes, III, XXIV, 6).
The key to understanding the way in which these two truths stand together is found in answering the ‘how’ question: How is it that God keeps us to the end?
Those that emphasise the first truth (God keeping us) can sound as if they mean God will keep us no matter what we do, or actually state this in exactly those terms. Our security is of the kind that we could not fall even if we wanted to. This suggests that the way God keeps us is without regard to our will, and even despite our will.
We might illustrate this understanding of God keeping us safe by comparing his protection to a fence erected around a high platform. It is impossible to fall, even if we wanted to jump. There is a force outside of us that stops us, without regard to our desires or efforts.
Often the phrase “once a Christian, always a Christian” is understood in this way. It is often, (though not always), taken to mean that God keeps us by this ‘fence’ method. There is nothing I could do to lose my salvation. I am locked up by it, even so far as to be held against my will. This understanding of how God keeps us makes it impossible to read the warning passages as genuine warnings. They must not mean what they seem to mean. They are idle threats.
However, the Scriptures are very clear. What we do does matter. God doesn’t keep us safe against our will or without regard to our will. We are his only “if indeed we hold fast our confidence” (Heb 3:6), “if we continue in our faith” (Col 1:23).
The work of the Spirit
What we do matters. And yet it is also true that God has promised to keep those that are his! How?
There is an answer that not only does justice to the two seemingly contradictory truths mentioned above, but it also brings them together in a harmonious whole that reveals a wonderful insight into the nature of our relationship with God.
God keeps us by two complementary things. The first is an external work of his Spirit. The second is an internal work.
The external work is the work of inspiring the words of warning – the Scriptures. The internal work is the work of enlivening our will, empowering our hearts to take heed to those warnings such that we keep ourselves in God’s love.
In contrast to the fence in the illustration above, it might be said that God keeps us safe on the platform by erecting warning signs, (not a fence), that spell out the real danger of stepping off the edge. He then works within us by his Spirit to empower our will to take heed to those signs so that we keep away from the edge.
The critical thing here is that we are not kept against our will, or without regard to our will. We are not kept safe by a fence. The sober reality is, if we disregard the signs we will fall. Our only hope of remaining safe is to take heed of the warnings and keep ourselves from the edge. However, the wonderful promises in Scripture assure us that this desire in us to take heed to the warnings is actually the inner work of the Spirit complementing his external work of inspiring the warnings.
We are kept safe by God. Our ability to stand before him on the last day is 100% his work. I can trust him entirely to keep me to the end. I can rejoice in this truth. But it is necessary to know that he keeps me to the end by making me take heed of his warnings and so remain in his love (“keep yourselves in the love of God”, Jude 21).
An important insight
This is a crucial insight. A simplistic engagement with the assurance passages that suggests or even goes so far as to state that a Christian simply can’t fall away no matter what they do, actually removes the power of one of the gifts of God to keep us – the real and well-meant warning passages.4 If we end up dismissing these as of no relevance to a genuine born again believer, then we remove one of the things God uses to keep us from falling off the edge – the warning signs he has by his Spirit, erected to keep us from falling.
And, more, there is something more glorious in God’s sovereign protection of believers than a simple magic fence that stops us falling. God works in us through his Spirit by his word so that we are alive to him and his concerns. He works in us to keep us safe by opening our eyes to see what he sees. He creates followers, (through a ministry of his word by his Spirit), who love what he loves and so participate with him in his desires. He desires that we live godly, holy lives, unfettered by the deceitfulness of sin, which so entangles and destroys. His Spirit does this by drawing our attention to the Spirit’s word, the Scriptures.
The glory of the reality of the warnings is that they remind us that God has made us alive in Christ. We are no longer dead to the things of God and so enslaved to our own passions and so bound up to death. God now calls us friends. He works in us sovereignly as participants. He calls on us to heed his words as people who can now see the power of them. He works in us to grow in maturity such that we love what he loves and hate what he hates and so keep ourselves— knowing all the while it is him who works in us to keep us! (Phil 2:12-13).
There is an enormous danger in continuing with a simplistic “once a Christian, always a Christian” stance. Ironically, in a desire to uphold the sovereignty of God in our salvation, some run the risk of denying the very means by which God sovereignly keeps us from falling—the seriousness with which we are to take the warning passages. We assure people there is no need to take heed of the signs because there’s a fence out there on the edge that will ensure we can’t ever fall—even if we wanted to. Many therefore live unconcerned about the dangers and so fall into the very danger the warning passages were given to guard us against.
A unity in the things of God
There is no secret to life with God and being kept in him. We continue to live in Christ in the same way we came to him—by heeding his word. The Christian life, (if it is to be the mature Christian life), is to be soaked in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. As we hear these words, cherish them, dwell on them, heed them and trust them, so the Spirit of God deepens our Christ-like character, so we love what God loves and hate what God hates.
But there is a further unity of thought here. There is a unity between our work and the work of God’s Spirit. How do we bring the Spirit to bear in our lives? By giving ourselves to his word (remember that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, Ephesians 6:17). In other words, the connection between God’s sovereign work by his Spirit and us, is dependence on the word of God. It is as we hear, heed and trust the Word that the Spirit works in our lives to bring us to maturity, free us from sin, deepen our relationship with the Father and sovereignly bring us to the end. Relying on the Spirit is experienced by hearing, heeding and trusting his word.
Andrew Heard 2021
This is an edited version of an earlier article which was published in The Briefing, August 2003.
Footnotes
1. ‘tasted’ is used at 2:9 to describe Jesus’ experience of death. He didn’t just have a taste of death, he fully experienced it. ‘Shared in’ is used at 3:1 to say we share in the heavenly calling. ‘Enlightened’ is used in 10:32.
2. Louis Berkhof Systematic Theology, p548. Important to note that he says these words in the context of noting that this is speaking “from the side of man”. As he rightly also notes, no true believer will fall away. But as I continue to argue, the important and critical question is ‘how’ does this God ensure that no true believer falls?
3. Todd Friel; Charles Stanley.
4. I’d offer that the strong expressions of the impossibility of the elect falling away in documents such as the Westminster Confession ch 17 are not suggesting the idea of a fence, but rather considering the security of a believer from the divine side of things. That is, God won’t let any chosen child of his fall. And so in this sense they “can’t” fall. But it is incorrect biblically to apply this ‘can’t’ woodenly, in such a way that our human will is irrelevant.