Before I quote those verses and seek to explain them, we must remember that God’s Word will never contradict itself. God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). If He makes something perfectly clear in one verse, yet another verse seems to contradict it, we must ask the Spirit of God to reveal this “seeming contradiction to us.” In most cases, those who see a contradiction fail to see its true meaning by “examining the CONTEXT” in which the verse is found.

Let’s begin with 1 John 2:1-2, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” John calls believers “my little children” which means he is writing to those who have been “born again” through faith in Christ (see John 1:12). The words “little children” is the Greek word TEKNIA and it means “born ones.” The moment a sinner repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ they are born again into God’s family and there is no such thing as being “unborn” for God will never disown any of His children. In 2:12 John writes, “I write to you, little children, because YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU for His name’s sake.” The believer’s sins have been cleansed/washed away in the blood of Christ as we see in 1 John 1:7 and Revelation 1:5, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin…To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” These verses are clear, are they not? God saw all the sins we would ever commit and He laid them on His Son (Isaiah 53:6) and then Christ was judged for our sins so we could be forgiven (Isaiah 53:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18, and Acts 13:38-39). We call this “JUDICIAL forgiveness” because God has JUDGED our sins for all eternity and thus “there is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) Yet each believer still has a sinful nature (Romans 7:13-20) and can commit a sin. If we do sin, Jesus Christ is our Advocate (Helper) to restore us back into fellowship with God the Father. We always remain God’s children, but we can forfeit our fellowship with Him through sin and we must confess that sin to be restored (see 1 John 1:9).

Now let’s look at Hebrews 10:26-28, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has TRAMPLED THE SON OF GOD UNDERFOOT, COUNTED THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT BY WHICH HE WAS SANCTIFIED A COMMON THING, and insulted the Spirit of grace.” I must admit, this sounds like it could contradict 1 John 2:1-2, but if we look closely AT THE CONTEXT, we see this is NOT speaking of one who had truly believed on Christ for salvation and forgiveness, but one who had merely professed to believe and then abandoned their profession of faith. In essence, they had SAID they believed Christ died for them and shed His blood to wash away their sins, but at some point, they turn around and SAY “I don’t believe Christ died for my sins and I don’t believe His blood is of more value than any other man.” In short, they commit the sin of APOSTACY. Now let’s read 10:38-39, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone DRAWS BACK, My soul has no pleasure in him. But WE are not of THOSE who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” A true believer “may sin” but he will never “draw back to perdition” by abandoning his faith and trampling the Son of God underfoot. The true believer, who is born again and in the family of God forever, will continue in the faith to the end of his life (see 1 Corinthains 15:1-2 and Colossians 1:23).

Finally, let’s read Hebrews 6:4a, 6, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened…if they FALL AWAY, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” Here too we have a passage which SEEMS to teach that a true believer can “fall away” and lose their salvation. Yet as we just saw in Hebrews 10, this is the case of one who had heard of the “LIGHT of the gospel” and for a while professed to believe it, but eventually, they too abandon their faith and speak shamefully of Christ. This is NOT a true believer but a false professor who became an APOSTATE; they were never born again and forgiven of their sins because they had never really trusted in Christ and His finished work on the cross. When this happens, they are “at the point of no return,” for they will never again be enlightened by the gospel since they have rejected it and are on their way to perdition (hell) just as those in Hebrews 10. Now let’s read verse 9, “But, beloved we are confident of better things concerning YOU, yes, things that accompany salvation.” True believers are now addressed and comforted with the assurance that they would never “fall away” by rejecting Christ. Again, they could still sin, but the possibility of abandoning their faith in Christ is impossible. They will “continue in the faith” for this is one of the “things that accompany salvation.”  (DO)  (682.5)