HEBREWS: “A Greater Assurance (Hebrews 6:4-12)” 10/8/23
Hebrews 6:4-12 | 10/8/23 | Will DuVal
Imagine with me, if you would, two congregants:
Congregant A is a faithful, passionate participant in corporate worship every Sunday. She has an earnest hunger for God’s word and a genuine love for God’s presence, as evidenced by her private devotional life in the Bible and prayer. She leads a discipleship group, where she tangibly loves and serves her fellow women of the church. Her heart breaks for the lost, and she actively seeks out evangelistic opportunities with her unsaved loved ones. She is one of the greatest sources of personal encouragement to her husband, her pastor, and all who know her.
Despite ALL this, Congregant A routinely questions her own salvation, fearing that perhaps her conversion was insincere, or impermanent. She is frequently afflicted by nightmares in which Satan is dragging her down to Hell, and she spends the rest of the night crying out and pleading with God not to let her fall away from the faith.
Congregant B, on the other hand, is a sporadic, passive consumer of Sunday services. When he DOES attend, he grumbles through the singing, dozes off during the prayers, and multi-tasks on his phone through the sermons. He is not involved in small groups, volunteering, giving to the church, or witnessing outside the church, and there is little evidence that he loves others sacrificially, or that he loves the LORD; he rarely if ever opens his Bible or his heart to God in prayer.
Nevertheless, he believes in God, he knows he is a sinner (although he doubts that he’s half as bad as MOST people out there), and he believes that Jesus died on the cross. And because he prayed years ago and asked God to forgive him, Congregant B doesn’t lose ANY sleep over HIS eternal destination - in his mind, his ticket has already been punched.
Now, MY job this morning is to try and address BOTH of those congregants! Good preaching should “comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable”.
But how could I possibly do BOTH? What passage of Scripture could simultaneously COMFORT the faithful yet fearful believer, WHILE ALSO AFFLICTING (and hopefully therefore AWAKEN!) the comfortable yet coasting poser, the faux-Christian, the “CINO” (“Christian In Name Only”).
Answer: Hebrews 6, vv4-12. When rightly understood, Hebrews 6 is one of the most comforting, reassuring passages in all of God’s word to the genuine, born-again believer, AND ALSO one of the most fearful, convicting passages to the complacent, phony masqueraders.
(And can I just tell you up front - the cruel IRONY of the matter is that if you are THAT terrified of NOT being truly saved - like Congregant A - you almost certainly ARE saved; and conversely, if you are that UN-CONCERNED and SELF-assured of being saved - like Congregant B - you almost certainly are NOT.)
-
SCRIPTURE: Would you STAND… Hebrews 6:4-12:
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
There are THREE massive questions arising out of - and answered WITHIN - this text, which occasion 3 exhortations that we need to hear from this passage. The 3 exhortations are printed in your bulletins (we’ll fill in those blanks). But I want to give you the 3 big questions right here up front:
Can you LOSE your salvation?
Can you be SURE of your salvation? And lastly:
Can you REST in your salvation?
[REPEAT]
And I’m gonna do my best to answer each of those for you, in turn, in the absolute clearest possible terms; this passage is DIFFICULT. And I need to do justice to the God-ordained complexities we find here. But I also don’t want us to lose the forest for the trees. So let me be clear:
Question #1: Can you LOSE your salvation? If you have truly been saved - Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whosoever TRUSTS in Him shall NOT perish, but have EVERLASTING life” (Jn 3:16) - if you have truly done that - TRUSTED in Jesus, as Lord and Savior, and surrendered your life to him in genuine, humble faith, and you have therefore received “everlasting life” from him - the forgiveness of your sins, SALVATION! - can you subsequently LOSE that salvation?
And the absolute, unambiguous, consistent, RESOUNDING answer of Scripture is NO - it is IMPOSSIBLE for a bona fide, born-again believer in Christ to LOSE the salvation, the forgiveness, the eternal LIFE, that Jesus’ blood has PURCHASED for them.
The reason we’re even asking this question, of course, is that vv4-6 here of Hebrews 6, at first glance, sure make it SOUND like you can:
“it is impossible, for those who’ve been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away - it’s IMPOSSIBLE, to restore them again to repentance.”
Now, who are these “THOSE” that the author is referring to? Aren’t they CHRISTIANS? I mean, the’re “enlightened”, “tasters of the heavenly gift,” “sharers in the Holy Spirit” - isn’t that describing BELIEVERS?
Well, that’s certainly one interpretation. There are really THREE main ways of understanding these verses, and specifically, the identity of these “once-enlightened”, now unrestored FALLERS:
And the FIRST is “ACTUAL APOSTASY”: these are Christians who at one time genuinely believed in Jesus, and thus had “tasted the heavenly gift” of SALVATION, and shared therefore in the INDWELLING of the Holy Spirit, but then subsequently APOSTATIZED and abandoned their faith, and they have therefore now LOST their salvation. That’s one interpretation.
The SECOND is what we might call “HYPOTHETICAL APOSTASY”, which proposes that this passage DOES refer to Christians who could hypothetically abandon their faith, but because they ARE truly believers, and the Bible IS so absolutely, unequivocally, abundantly clear that Christians DON’T lose our salvation, we know these “enlightened, gift-tasting, Spirit-sharing” believers COULD “fall away”, but they WON’T. And according to this interpretation, the whole reason the passage is HERE is to WARN those of us who are believers, who are at times tempted to fall away, AGAINST doing so, by painting a picture of the danger of apostasy in the strongest possible terms.
Now, I want to pause and explain why I don’t think EITHER of those interpretations will do.
Isn’t it a little SILLY, to imagine the author of Hebrews spending valuable INK and PAPYRUS describing “hypothetical Christian defectors”, if he knew FULL-WELL that no such person would ever EXIST?! It’s a case of “have your cake and eat it too” exposition - well, the language seems to describe genuine believers, and yet we know they cannot fall away, so this whole passage must just be a theoretical, imaginative exercise. I don’t think so.
But what about “ACTUAL apostasy”? I have emphatically declared that it’s impossible - that believers can’t lose our salvation - but is it TRUE?
Let me try and PROVE it to you. And in doing so, let me offer you three quick but powerful principles for interpreting ANY passage of Scripture:
First, we always need to let Scripture interpret Scripture. Jesus said, “The Scriptures cannot be broken” (Jn 10:35). ALL Scripture is God-breathed, therefore NONE of it contradicts any OTHER passage of Scripture, or else God would be a liar.
Second, more specifically, we interpret more obscure passages in light of more CLEAR ones. All Scripture is equally God-breathed, but all Scripture is NOT equally unambiguous. So if we are unsure on the interpretation of one passage, we need to go to other, more clear-cut passages that help shed LIGHT on the complex text.
Lastly, CONTEXT IS KING! We must always consider a Scripture’s context - “a text without a context is a pretext for a PROOFtext”; it’s an excuse to make the text say whatever you WANT it to, and then build a whole theology out of one dubious interpretation.
So in light of all that, now, I want to just READ you - I don’t have time to UNPACK each of these passages, but fortunately, these are so CLEAR that they don’t NEED much explanation - so I’ll just READ you TWENTY unambiguous passages that anchor us in the glorious truth of what we call the “perseverance of the saints”: that TRUE Christians - and by the way: I keep emphasizing words like “true”, “genuine”, “bona fide”, “authentic”, “REAL” because 2.6 BILLION people CLAIM to be Christians, but of course CLAIMING to be a Christian doesn’t actually MAKE you one, and the actual number of TRUE Christians is exponentially SMALLER than that - But for the TRUE Christians, for my “Congregant A”s here, those who ironically FEAR their falling away and thereby give evidence their election, let me just read you these 20 passages, and I encourage you to let them FLOOD your heart this morning with God’s supernatural, heavenly PEACE; with the blessed ASSURANCE of your salvation:
Jer 32:40 (OT promise of God’s coming, unwavering salvation) - “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.”
Jn 5:24 - Jesus promises “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. [Not WILL have… not MIGHT have… He HAS it! And] He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
Jn 6:39-40 - here’s Jesus again: “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. 40 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 10:28-29 - Jesus, our Good Shepherd, promises: “ I give [my sheep] eternal life, and they will NEVER perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me,[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”
Rom 8:30 “those whom [God] predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” [to “glorify” is to “make PERFECT”, and according to Romans 8, God has ALREADY done it, past tense - from God’s point of view, the believer’s glorification, perfected sanctification, that will occur ONLY when you arrive in heaven - it’s AS GOOD AS DONE! WHY?? Because…]
Rom 8:38-39 “I am sure that neither death nor life… will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Nothing that this life could possibly THROW at you, if you are a true believer, could EVER separate you from the love that God has for you in His Son Jesus. WHY?? Because…]
Rom 11:29 “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” [Unalterable is God’s GIFT of salvation, His CALLING you to Himself; God doesn’t CHANGE, and his gifts and promises don’t change, especially concerning salvation.]
1 Cor 1:8 “[our Lord Jesus Christ] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of [his coming]” Because…
Eph 4:30 “you were sealed [with the Holy Spirit] for the day of redemption.” [Now that’s different than “SHARING in the Holy Spirit”, in Hebrews 6, and we’ll get to that. But you can’t be UN-sealed; you can’t be UN-born again…]
Phil 1:6 “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” [He will complete your sanctification, you're growing in Christlikeness, when you are at last GLORIFIED - “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”]
1 Thess 5:23-24 “may the God of peace sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless… He who calls you is faithful; he will surely DO it.”
2 Thess 3:3 “the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”
1 Pet 1:3-5 “[God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope… to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed…”
And 1 Jn 2:19 “if they [the folks who CLAIMED to be Christians but “fell away”, and LEFT the faith; if they…] had [truly] been of us, they would have continued with us.” But instead, their leaving proves that they never really truly belonged; they weren’t “of us”, they didn’t belong to the family of FAITH, God’s adopted children.
Now I know what you’re thinking: what about CONTEXT? Noticeably absent from the list so far are any passages from HEBREWS - what if our author here simply disagrees with the rest of the Bible on this doctrine of the “perseverance of the saints”. Well, I’m glad you asked, and if you were counting, you’d realize we’ve only hit 14 of the 20 passages I promised you. And I’m gonna John Piper explain why the next 4 or so of these passages preclude a “losing your salvation” interpretation of Hebrews 6:
Heb 6:7-8 [the immediate context for vv4-6, immediately following them, we read:] “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those… receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless…”
Piper explains (“When is Saving Repentance Impossible?”, 1996): “So the picture is not of a field that had life and vegetation and then lost it. The picture is of two different kinds of fields — one is fruitful and blessed; the other is barren and cursed.”
Or how about the NEXT verse - Heb 6:9 “yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.”
Piper explains: “the writer believes that they have salvation and therefore will have the things that always accompany salvation: persevering faith and fruitfulness. He does not believe that fruit-LESS-ness and apostasy accompany salvation. Better things do.”
Or we can back up to Heb 3:14 “we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
Piper explains: “perseverance in faith proves that you became a partaker in Christ [in the FIRST place]. Which means that if you do not persevere in faith, it does not show that you fall out of partaking in Christ, but that you never became a partaker in Christ.”
Or flip ahead to Heb 10:14 “By one offering [God] has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified”
Piper explains: “to become a beneficiary of the perfecting, justifying work of Christ on the cross is to be perfected in the sight of God forever. This reality suggests that Hebrews 6:6 does not mean that those who “re-crucify Christ” were once really justified by the blood of Jesus and were really being sanctified in a [true] spiritual sense.”
And I’LL just add two ADDITIONAL passages from Hebrews: 6, vv17-19 [for NEXT week…] “when God desired to show… the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath… it is impossible for God to lie… we have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” - God’s promises are UNCHANGEABLE, guarantees, oaths, he doesn’t LIE; you can take it to the BANK - our hope is ANCHORED in Christ; our SALVATION is anchored in Him.
And finally: Heb 13:5 “[God] has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ” “Behold, I am with you…. HOW LONG? ALWAYS” (Matt 28:20).
AMEN?! Are you convinced, that genuine Christians cannot lose our salvation?
Good. So who’s Hebrews 6:4-6 talking about then? Interpretation #3: this is a case of “MISTAKEN IDENTITY”. Those referred to in the REST of 1 Jn 2:19 - “They went out from us, but they were not of us… they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (1 Jn 2:19) 1 John 2… Hebrews 6… are talking about “CINO”s - “Christians In Name Only”. Fake Christians.
Sure, they were “enlightened” - John 1:9 declares of Jesus “The true light, which enlightens EVERYONE [same verb], was coming into the world.” It doesn’t mean Jesus “gives saving knowledge to” everyone; Jesus said “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil”. But we KNOW good from evil, even those who choose evil, only because Jesus “enlightens” us.
They may have “tasted the heavenly gift” - many of the times that verb, “tasted” is used in the NT, it’s in connection with the LORD’S SUPPER. So possibly, the author of Hebrews is alluding to these former church attenders having partaken in the communion meal… before they fell away. Not all who eat the cracker and juice with us this morning will feast eternally at the Lord’s table in Heaven.
They may have “shared in the Holy Spirit” (v4); so did King SAUL, in the OT (1 Sam 10:10); the Spirit of God and prophecy rushed upon Saul. But he was never SEALED with the Holy Spirit, and he fell away. So did JUDAS, in the NT! In Matthew 10, Jesus sent his disciples out to perform miracles & cast out demons, including Judas. And yet later, he would betray Jesus and fall away.
They may “have tasted the goodness of the word of God” - so did King Herod (Mk 6:20). He loved listening to John the Baptist preach. But enjoying a good sermon won’t SAVE you, friends.
These fake Christians may have even “tasted… the powers of the age to come” - perhaps like Judas they TOO performed miracles, cast out demons. But Jesus warned us: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons… and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matt 7:22-23).
No, these are NOT true believers. Notice the author’s shift in the pronouns he uses: from the 1st and 2nd person (“we” and “you”) just before in vv1-3, and immediately afterward in vv9-12… to 3rd person pronouns (“those who”, “they”) here in vv4-6. He’s hinting at the fact that they don’t BELONG - they are OUTSIDERS; they were NEVER truly “of us”.
And for those who fall away, he warns, “it is impossible… to restore them again to repentance”. Michael Kruger notes (86): “There is a certain kind of rejection of God which leads to God giving a person over to their sin. This is a very scary idea, described in Romans 1:28 - “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind .” People are so bent on their sin that God allows them to have their own way.” Jesus called it the “unpardonable sin” in Matthew 12: blaspheming the Holy Spirit. When God, the Holy Spirit, opens your spiritual eyes - “enlightens” you! - to BEHOLD Christ for who he truly is, and you REJECT him nevertheless. There’s no coming back. At a certain point, God will give you OVER to your own hardening of your heart against Him.
So let those who have ears HEAR: “TODAY if you hear His voice, do NOT harden your heart!”; TURN from your sin, TRUST in Jesus, and BE SAVED, TRULY saved!
Do not “hold Jesus up to contempt”; don’t “RE-CRUCIFY him to your own harm”; otherwise you’ll be just as guilty as the Pharisees who crucified him the FIRST time, in THEIR hardness of heart.
So what’s the exhortation for us with point #1? We must Beware our BACKSLIDING. (vv4-6) Do you recognize that if God removed his grace from you - his sustaining grace - from YOUR life, for even a NANOsecond, you would make total SHIPWRECK of your faith. You would apostatize in a HEARTBEAT! You would “fall away”. The only thing keeping ME from turning my back on Jesus THIS MORNING is God’s grace at work IN me. And you and I need the humility to admit our utter DEPENDENCY on the Lord to sustain us ALL the way through the finish line. NONE OF US is immune from the possibility of “falling away” and thereby PROVING that we never truly belonged to him in the first place, like Judas.
But here’s the encouragement: for every Judas, there’s a PETER. Peter denied Jesus too. He even got called “a devil” like Judas too. But there’s a WORLD of difference between “falling”, and falling AWAY. Every Christian stumbles. We have ALL been guilty of turning our backs on Jesus, at times; but the TRUE disciple will always turn BACK to Jesus, in time. Repent, and recommit. Don’t be a Judas; be a PETER.
Question #2: Can you be SURE of your salvation? Can you KNOW you’re a Peter, and NOT a Judas?
Answer: YES! Vv7 & 8 now say: “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”
How do you know whether you’re a true believer, or just a CINO?
Exhortation #2: Check your CROP. (vv7-8)
Jesus put it this way: ““Beware of [FAKERS]... You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire… 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven… Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matt 7:15-21)
Now, here’s the TRICKY part about that: Jesus ALSO acknowledged that when it comes to SPIRITUAL thorns and thistles, vs spiritual fruit, it can be really DIFFICULT to DISTINGUISH the REAL fruit from the FAKE! And he told 2 parables to that effect.
The first is the parable of the 4 soils, found in Matthew 13. A sower scattered seed. Some fell on HARD ground, and never even took root. The author of Hebrews addressed those with HARD hearts, who refuse to even LISTEN to the word of God, back in chs 3 and 4; remember: his example was rebellious ISRAEL in the wilderness.
But other seed fell on ROCKY or THORNY ground. Both of which initially sprouted and grew up, only to be “choked out” later by persecution, or the pleasures of the world, respectively.
THAT’S who the author of Hebrews is addressing now in ch6, vv4-6. It’s not enough for the gospel to take ROOT in the soil of your heart; those roots have got to go DEEP enough and STRONG enough to withstand BOTH the hardships AND the temptations of this world, such that your crop will remain fruitful all the way to the END, and “receive a blessing from God”.
But you can’t always tell - or EVER tell - which of those plants is TRULY promising, just from its initial growth.
Just a few verses later in Matthew 13 (vv24-30), Jesus told a SECOND parable, that of the WEEDS. Very similar. Again, a man sowed good seed. And again, some of it took root and sprouted. But this time, the man’s ENEMY came and sowed WEEDS, right alongside the wheat. So the farmer’s SERVANTS came to him and asked him: “Should we UPROOT the weeds?” And he said, “No, just let them BOTH grow for now, and at HARVEST time, I’ll sort out the wheat from the weeds,” the real Christians from the fakers.
Jesus was warning us against putting too much stock in OUR ability to discern the FAKERS, “lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them”. He doesn’t want PASTORS, for instance, turning into professional FRUIT inspectors who think it’s our job to kick folks out of His church - JESUS’ church - just because SOME fruit takes a little longer to BLOSSOM. “Just let them BOTH grow for now”, he says, “and I’LL sort it out MYSELF at the JUDGMENT,” harvest time.
I have baptized folks I wish I hadn’t. I gave validity to their initial profession of faith, when their fruit in the years SINCE (or lack thereof) STRONGLY suggests they were never truly saved. At least not YET. Or is their fruit just taking longer to GROW? You see the difficulty? So Jesus says: “Let ME sort it out.”
At least in the case of OTHERS’ fruit. But, when it comes to YOUR OWN fruit, he says, you absolutely need to “check your crop”.
How do you KNOW if you’re saved? 1 John 5:13 answers that question more directly than any other passage in Scripture:
“God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his SON. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. [And then v13…] I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
We really can KNOW that we have eternal life, friends, if we KNOW Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, through saving faith in Him. “It is by GRACE you have been saved through…?” FAITH.
But the follow-up question that Hebrews 6 seeks to answer here is: “Okay, but how do you KNOW that you really HAVE saving faith?” If our assurance of faith comes only through knowing JESUS, then how do you KNOW that you KNOW him?
And the answer to THAT question is: “you check your crop”. Good trees don’t produce thistles, and bad trees don’t make figs.
1 John ALSO answers that follow-up question. Yes, 1 John 5:13 says “We know that we have eternal life when we have the SON”, Jesus; but how do we KNOW we have the Son? 1 John 2:19 answers: “you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” (1 Jn 2:29) You’ll know them, you’ll know YOURSELF, by your fruits. Your righteousness. Your OBEDIENCE to the Lord. Are you GROWING in faith; healthy trees GROW, and in time, bear FRUIT.
“But Pastor: Isn’t that WORKS-based salvation?”
Only if you confuse the FRUIT with the ROOTS. Our works are the FRUIT of salvation, not the ROOTS.
Catholicism says “Jesus + Works = Salvation”
The BIBLE says “Jesus = Salvation + Works”
The WORKS have gotta be there either way. But they are NOT the CAUSE of our salvation, friends; they are the CONSEQUENCE of it.
If you’re standing outside a house, you know there’s a fire burning in the fireplace inside if you see SMOKE coming out of the chimney, right? The smoke didn’t CAUSE the fire; it is the RESULT of the fire.
Now, like Jesus’ parables pointed out, someone COULD just be running an artificial FOG machine from inside the house. And it can be difficult to discern the difference between real smoke and artificial FOG. But nevertheless, the best indicator that there is a REAL FIRE burning for Jesus, in a person’s HEART, is the smoke. [I didn’t necessarily intend that as a slight against the mega-church, and their fog machines, although they are definitely one of the chief exporters of fake fruit today!]
But lastly: Can you REST in your salvation?
Cuz maybe this isn’t works-based salvation, but if the most important thing is that fire in the fireplace, and if the SMOKE is the necessary PROOF that there really is a fire burning, doesn’t that mean it’s the CHRISTIAN’s job to constantly be stoking the fire? Can we ever REST?
And the simplest answer we get to THAT question, is: “NO AND YES”.
In one sense, NO - we NEVER stop stoking. Just LOOK at how much spiritual ACTIVITY there was in this little Roman church in vv10-12; their pastor commends their…
“WORK”, v10.
They're “love that [they’ve] shown for [God’s] name”. And how DO we show GOD our love for HIM? 1 Jn 4:21 - by loving God’s PEOPLE
V10 here: by “serving the saints”.
V11 - he not only commends their current fruit - their work and love and service; he also COMPELS their FUTURE fruit: “we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope [all the way] until the end”. “Never stop STOKING” that fire of your affection for God and His people. THAT’s how you can be FULLY assured of your HOPE, that you’re truly SAVED: if you make it to the FINISH line. We know that “we have come to share in Christ, IF [and ONLY if] we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb 3:14). Keep a tight GRIP on Christ. Don’t ever get “SLUGGISH”, v12 says. Sure, the life of faith is a marathon. But the best way to ensure you FINISH the race is to keep up the PACE; don’t ever stop to WALK, cuz you’ll realize how much EASIER that is - Listen: Jesus never promised that following him would be EASY; actually just the OPPOSITE. “Wide and easy is the path that leads to DESTRUCTION. But narrow and HARD is the path that leads to LIFE.” But friends: it’s WORTH it; HE, JESUS, is worth it.
So v12: “imitat[e] those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Find some fellow runners who are just far enough AHEAD of you in the race that you can PACE off them, who PUSH you and INSPIRE you to keep running, even when you start cramping at mile 16. And the author will RETURN to that theme in ch11 - the famous “Hall of Faith” chapter - where he’ll offer us some exemplars to imitate: Abel, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, etc.
So on the one hand: NO, we don’t ever REST. Exhortation #3 - we need to Confirm our CONFIDENCE. (vv9-12) We can be CONFIDENT in our salvation ONLY when we CONFIRM it by our actions. Yes, it is faith ALONE that saves us; but the kind of faith that TRULY saves us is NEVER alone. True faith will result in salvation… AND WORKS. So CONFIRM it. Don’t rest. Paul said, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12), he said, “I worked harder than ANY of [the other apostles]”, to CONFIRM, to PROVE my faith in Christ (1 Cor 15:10).
But there is one other MASSIVELY important facet of the kind of faith that truly saves that we cannot MISS here: not only is saving faith always WORKING faith; saving faith will also ALWAYS come from GOD HIMSELF. The faith TO trust in Christ is ITSELF a grace, a gift, from GOD. Otherwise, faith would become just another WORK: “you’ve got to believe HARD enough… trust Jesus unwaveringly enough… in order to be saved”. No - we cry out in humility: “Lord, I believe, HELP my UN-belief!”
“Jesus, if my salvation is ultimately dependent on MY ability to cling hard enough to YOU, I know my grip will inevitably slip; I need YOU clinging on to ME!” God - I need to be able to trust - to REST - in YOUR promise that YOU are stronger than ALL, and that NO ONE can snatch me out of YOUR hand!
So Paul FINISHES Philippians 2:12, that I just read, by saying on the one hand: YES - “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [but on the OTHER hand, don’t ever forget…] it is God who works in you”. Paul finishes 1 Corinthians 15:10 by saying: Yes, “I worked harder than any of them, [btu then he REMINDS himself:] though it was not I, but the grace of God that is within me.”
And friends: we really can REST in HIS grace. In GOD’S work in us. A.W. Pink put it this way: “[The kind of faith] God rewards is only what He Himself has wrought within us: it is the Father’s recognition of the Spirit’s fruit” (An Exposition of Hebrews, p327).
One final passage, to try and pull it all together: Philippians 3:12. Paul writes: “Not that I have already obtained [my eternal reward] or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ”
Brothers and sisters: our ultimate assurance comes from trusting that Christ Jesus has made us his own. And BECAUSE we have that blessed assurance, let us press on to APPLY his salvation to every single corner of our lives.
We HAVE been saved, we ARE being saved, and by God’s grace - His SUSTAINING, preserving grace - we WILL be saved in the end.
Amen.