Time To Decide?

November 27th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 6:4-6 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

In a controversial passage like this it is important to note what is not being taught. This passage does not teach that salvation can be lost. The author was writing to converted Jews who were a part of the early Church and which consisted of both true believers who had committed their lives to Christ and false believers who were among the believers in the church. The false ones had turned away from Judaism without actually becoming Christians. They did nothing with Jesus; their idleness caused them to become dull. So, pinpointing the audience is key to understanding the author’s intent. After all, in every church in the world today there are both true and false believers. True Christians commit their lives to Christ and live for him. False believers do not. Their end will look something like those that Jesus rebuked in Matthew 7:21-23.

Salvation is a gift from God, a gift He will never take back. God Himself wrote the Book of Life long before the earth and people were even created (Rev. 13:8; 17:8). This book contains the names of all His elect people. That book is not being edited—subtracted from or added to. Salvation is eternal, and it cannot be lost (cf. John 10:26-30; Rom 8:31-39; Eph 1:13-14).

Like a child on the edge of a diving board about to jump for the first time, the Jewish audience the author addressed were in a position where they needed to make a decision regarding their faithfulness to Jesus Christ—to grow up in their faith (6:1-3). Having lived for so long in the OT Levitical system of shadows, pictures, and spiritual ABC’s, these Jews had a tendency toward their old life. But to go back into that life and reject Christ would be a fatal error. The tabernacle, the priesthood, and offerings all pointed to Jesus in His person and work. But these were mere pictures of the Christ, elementary teachings about Him. The writer called them to leave the pictures of Christ and look at the actual man Jesus who is God in flesh.

Consider the Jews to whom Jeremiah prophesied. After giving them ample opportunity to repent and return to God, and after they continually rejected Him, God finally told Jeremiah to stop praying for them (7:16; 11:11, 14; 14:11-12). God was finished with them! Likewise, the Pharisees, having received a first-hand look at the Messiah, blatantly denied Jesus and credited His deeds to the devil (Matt. 12:24). Was this the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (12:30-32; Mark 3:20-30), the eternal sin? This is debatable, but if so, then attributing the works of Jesus Christ to the devil is a clear sign of one who has adequate knowledge for salvation but who forfeits it.

People today who attend an evangelical church regularly are in the same boat. They have been enlightened over and over, week after week. But they fail to commit their lives to Christ. In failing to do so they become dull of hearing and are in danger of shipwrecking their faith.

This passage is not talking about Christians who fall into sin, backslide, and later repent of their sins. Most Christians do that at some point in their lives, sometimes repeatedly. This passage is addressing those who have been adequately presented the person of Jesus Christ and who have supposedly put their faith in Him. But by failing to nurture their faith, they subsequently reject Him as Lord and Christ. Though claiming to have faith in Him, they are in danger of apostatizing—of ultimately falling away from the faith. This includes those who never really make a profession of faith in Christ but who have clearly understood the presentation of the gospel. These folks have no way of coming back to faith once they have rejected Christ outright, after having been given a proper presentation of the gospel.