Re: Believers Never Die Zip Fall Out Boy
Clotilde Wilks
For a long while I've been thinking of getting a tattoo that says "Believers never die". The reasons being: 1) I'm a huge FOB fan and their songs (especially the ones in the belivers never die album got me through a lot when I was younger).
Obviously, the writer would never expect unbelievers to become teachers of the word! Therefore, his statements must be directed toward believers. So as we move into the passage in chapter 6, we must keep in mind that the author is speaking to believers with a warning for believers.
The writer is describing the consequences of a Christian not "pressing on to maturity" as he commanded in v.1. He defines a Christian in vs.4-5 using a list of experiences. Notice these experiences are common to every Christian but would be unfamiliar to unbelievers. The list mentions becoming enlightened (i.e., coming to know the truth of the Gospel), becoming a partaker of the Holy Spirit and tasting (i.e., experiencing) the word of God and the powers of the Spirit.
Because of the certainty of his faith, a believer who falls away cannot be renewed "again" to repentance. Simply put, there is no second salvation moment for a believer. Our salvation experience of repenting from a life of sin and turning to the Gospel is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Our salvation is secure for eternity, so there is simply no way for God to repeat this process. Therefore, no believer should test the Lord's patience by indulging in a life of sin with the expectation that the Lord will offer a second chance to repent and escape such a lifestyle.
What is the consequence for a believer who falls away? Once again, some interpreters has misunderstood the meaning of "falling away" to imply a loss of salvation, but the Bible uses the term falling away to describe believers failing to achieve spiritual maturity through the study and application of God's word and instead falling away (i.e., returning) to the sinful life they lived prior to faith. This is a falling away of behavior and thought, but it is not a loss of salvation.
The writer uses a parable to illustrate the consequences for falling away. The writer compares a believer who falls away to farm land (ground) that receives rain falling from the sky. Falling rain is commonly used in the Bible as a picture of God's grace extended to men (see Isaiah 44:3; James 5:7). God extends His common grace to both believers and unbelievers (see Matt 5:45), but this parable is clearly describing the unique grace extended only to believers through their faith in Christ.
The writer says that God's rain (i.e., saving grace) falls on (i.e., is granted to) believers, for the purpose of producing useful vegetation (i.e., glorifying works) for the One Who tills the ground (i.e., the Lord). Simply put, the Lord saves Christians with the expectation that we will produce a harvest of good works for His glory (see Matt 5:16). Some believers live to fulfill this purpose while other believers waste God's grace by producing useless works (i.e., thorns and thistles).
These two outcomes are metaphors for the two types of lives believers may choose to live in response to their salvation: either obeying or disobeying their Lord. Some believers devote their lives to serving the Lord and producing spiritual fruit while others become caught up in the cares and pleasures of life, leading them to fall away.
Some interpreters have explained the falling away and the resulting penalty in Hebrews 6 as the consequences for an unbeliever who has been exposed to the Gospel but never accepted it truly. In this interpretative understanding, "falling away" describes a rejection of the truth of the Gospel, while the inability to be renewed to repentance describes a loss of any future opportunity to know the Lord. This conclusion does not fit the words or context of the passage, nor does it fit with the overall teaching of scripture.
First, the Bible never uses the term "fall away" (or apostasy) to describe the actions of an unbeliever. It is always used to describe a believer moving away from God. Simply put, an unbeliever cannot fall away from a faith they never possessed in the first place.
Secondly, we would never say that an unbeliever cannot be be renewed to repentance "again," since an unbeliever by definition has never been renewed to repentance even once. Furthermore, the Bible never teaches that rejecting the Gospel on one occasion eliminates future opportunities to believe and be saved. In fact, scripture teaches that the Lord appoints our day of salvation (e.g., Acts 22:14), so past disobedience is never cause for future disqualification.
Finally, this person's apostasy is said to put the Lord to "open shame." Putting Christ to open shame refers to publicly humiliating Christ among those who respect and honor Him. The Lord cannot be shamed by the actions of someone who does not possess a relationship with Him. The unbelieving world does not esteem Christ, and unbelievers do not possess a relationship with Christ. Therefore, they have no potential to bring open shame to Christ. If it were possible for unbelievers to cast shame upon Christ, then He would be subject to continual shame! Only a believer's actions can shame the Lord within the Church.
Therefore, all evidence supports the conclusion that this passage is warning believers of the importance to press on to maturity in the walk of faith and not to fall back to a life of immature or ungodly living.
In v.8, the writer concludes with a description of the judgment that comes upon the unfruitful Christian: he is "close to being cursed." The believer will never be cursed (i.e., damned), because their sin was forgiven on the cross of Christ. Nevertheless, a life of disobedience leaves them "close" to being cursed in the sense that their lack of good works results in a testimony only marginally better than that of an unbeliever's life.
The writer's conclusion confirms that the person in view is a believer, not an unbeliever, because the writer's statement "close to being cursed" cannot be said of unbelievers. All unbelievers live continually under a sentence of condemnation unless and until they confess Christ. Unbelievers are not "close to being cursed;" they are cursed every day they live in disobedience to the Gospel (see John 3:18).
So what has the disobedient believer placed at risk by falling away? The Bible teaches that disobedient believers forfeit eternal reward for failing to produce good works, as Paul describes in 1Cor 3:
Paul emphasizes that a Christian's failure to serve Christ will results in a judgment of fire that consumes the person's record of useless works. Though his useless works are burned up, Paul emphasizes that the believer himself is still saved in the end by his faith. Here we find Paul agreeing with the writer of Hebrews in teaching that a believer may experience a severe judgment for falling away, though his salvation remains secure.
In summary, the writer of Hebrews is warning that any Christian who does not press on to maturity is in danger of falling away (i.e., returning) to a life of disobedience and unfruitful results. A believer who rebels in this way cannot assume the Lord will grant them another opportunity to turn back from sin and receive a second chance to glorify the Lord.
The answer is this: Christians don't fall in love because a fall is an occasion for sin, and as we all know, true love, agape love, is the opposite of sin. Love that people fall into is of a different sort altogether.
"Look," I said, "no more foolishness. I'm not really interested in Twenty Questions. It's about twenty-five degrees right now, and after I finish digging this hole, I'm going inside, where it's a toasty forty-six, and thaw out." Along with our sewage system, we never did get the insulation up to snuff. We may have loved Jesus the carpenter, but we never did learn the first thing about the construction trade. We couldn't even make fire hot, if you know what I mean.
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
aa06259810