Let’s begin by citing a few verses that CLEARLY teach us that a true believer in Jesus Christ “CANNOT lose their salvation.” For once we see the truth of our eternal security in Christ, we will know that other passages which SEEM to teach otherwise, must be teaching us something else. God cannot contradict Himself because He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE….Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My words and believes in Him who sent Me HAS EVERLASTING LIFE, and SHALL NOT COME INTO JUDGMENT, but has passed from death into life….My sheep hear My voice, and I GIVE THEM ETERNAL LIFE, and THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 3:16; 5:24, 10:27-28). These are clear, are they not? The believer in Christ HAS ETERNAL LIFE and WILL NOT PERISH! If there were conditions to be where we could lose eternal life, the Lord would have said so. And think about it, if one has eternal life, IT MUST BE ETERNAL! It is not “probationary life with strings attached”; it is the very life of God (which is eternal!) freely given to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior (Romans 6:23 and John 20:30-31).

Now let’s look briefly at the passages in question, beginning with Hebrews 6:4-6, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the Holy Spirit, if the 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.” I capitalized the words “fall away” because they are key to understanding this passage (which is often quoted to teach that one can “lose their salvation”). To “fall away” is to “apostatize” which means to “deny what you had formally said you believed.” This is speaking of those who had been convicted of sin, and had even made a profession of faith in Christ, but in time they reversed course and denied the Lord Jesus as their Savior. In doing so, they “put Him to an open shame” by basically teaching He was just “another good man, but not the Son of God who died to save sinners on the cross.” These “mere professors” had come so close to being saved by having the LIGHT of God’s word given to them and had even seen the POWER of the Holy Spirit performing miracles. They had TASTED these things but had never really SWALLOWED the truth of God’s salvation through Christ. Jesus said, “Unless you EAT the flesh of the Son of Man and DRINK His blood YOU HAVE NO LIFE IN YOU” (John 6:53). Judas Iscariot is a classic example of this, for he had never truly believed on Christ by appropriating the death He would die on the cross for him. He “fell away” and proved he was never a genuine believer by “betraying the Lord for 30 pieces of silver” (John 13:18-30 with Matthew 26:14-16, 47-50). Now let’s read verse 9, “But, beloved, we are confident of BETTER THINGS CONCERNING YOU, YES, THINGS THAT ACCOMPANY SALVATION.” The things mentioned in verses 4-6 will not be true of those who are truly saved! A believer may commit a sin at times and “lose the joy of their salvation” but they will never “become an apostate (fall away)” by rejecting and denying the Lord Jesus as the Savior of sinners. We must distinguish between “mere professors” and “genuine believers.” The former will “fall away” but the latter will never “fall away.” We see this truth clearly in Hebrews 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.”

2 Peter 2:20-22 reads, “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have know the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to the. But is has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit.’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’” This passage too speaks of those who came close to being saved. They had heard the way of salvation and had REFORMED their lives in some ways by giving up former sins and keeping company with true believers. But since they had never really been BORN AGAIN through the Word of God (see John 3:1-8 and 1 Peter 22-23), in time they too “fell away” by returning to a life of sin. Their “escape from the pollutions of the world” was only temporary because all they have is a “sinful nature.” The true believer has a “divine/holy nature” given to him at the time of their New Birth, as we see in 2 Peter 1:4, “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption of the world through lust.” The “old nature” in this passage is illustrated by the DOG and the SOW who return to their VOMIT and MIRE. These animals may be “cleaned up” for a time, but eventually return to what their nature craves! It is solemn to learn here that because these souls had “known the truth and then renounced the truth,” they will be judged more severely than if they had not known the truth. We could say, “With greater light comes greater responsibility and greater judgment for abandoning the truth.”  (DO)  (662.1)