Can Christians Renounce Their Salvation?

Hebrews 6:1 calls one foundation of salvation "repentance from dead works." Repentance means "a change of mind." Repentance from dead works means you change your mind about dead works working, ie you don't live under the law.

Hebrews 6:4-6 says, "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, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance (changing their minds), since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame."

What do they "fall away" from? Grace. Paul said falling from grace was seeking to be justified by law. "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4).

The NET translation notes that the crucifying & putting in Hebrews 6:6 can be understood as temporal which gives us this meaning.
"It is impossible to renew them again to change their minds WHILE they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again & WHILE they are putting Him to open shame."

Galatians 5 tackles this very thing. WHILE you are seeking to be justified by law you "have fallen away" you "have fallen from grace." When you give up on being justified by the law, as Paul tried to convince the Galatians to do, you will then be able to change your mind back to grace because you trust that the one time sacrifice of Jesus has taken care of everything. Hebrews 10 makes it clear that Christ only had to die once & that any physical sacrifice is worthless because Christ's did the job. Hebrews 6 addresses something almost identical except instead of talking about living by the law in terms of physical sacrifice rituals it regards living by the law in terms of "dead works." Hebrews 6 starts off saying "we'll stop laying the foundation of repentance from dead works.. IF God permits." God didn't permit it because the very next thing spoken of in v4-8 regards repentance from dead works. To summarize, it says that as long as you trust in dead works working you'll never change your mind about trying to be justified by the law. It is a sense of "until you know it is broke it is impossible to fix it."

This is why Hebrews focuses on the perfect sacrifice of Christ. It aims to show that we have no need to recrucify Him or offer animal sacrifices anymore. But we do have to leave the old covenant behind for us to benefit from God's grace. That is the same thing Galatians 5 says, putting yourself under the law makes you "severed from Christ." This is not severed in the sense of being separated from His love, we know that is impossible. "Fallen from grace" isn't a spiritual state, it is a mental & experiential state. You cannot benefit from grace experientially while you are living under the law. The two mindsets can't coexist.

Hebrews 6:7-8 goes on to say, "Ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned."

Now lets interpret this considering the context, "Ground (a person) that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if the vegetation yields thorns and thistles, the vegetation is worthless and the ground is CLOSE to being cursed, and the vegetation with thorns & thistles ends up being burned."

Why is the ground only CLOSE to being burned? Because it is living under "the curse of the law" but Jesus "became a curse for us" preventing the ground from being cursed. This is teaching something similar to 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 which speaks about men's works being burned up. In that text there are good works made of gold & the like which "build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ" then there are bad works (works that misrepresent God, such as works done for the law rather than by God) made of wood, hay, & straw that are eventually burned up. To summarize Hebrews 6:7-8 is saying that those who have fallen from grace produce thorns & thistles, living under the law experiencing life as though they are cursed. But they are not cursed instead their thorns & thistles (bad/legalistic works) are burned up while they are "kept safe" though their works go up in flames. [Visit this post for a full look at 1 Corinthians 3:10-15's take on this].

Some use these verses from Hebrews 6 to teach that Christians can lose their salvation. Others, who don't believe in loss of salvation teach that these verses mean a Christian can "voluntarily choose to reject God." Neither is true, this text is about "repentance from dead works" meaning the law. The law's works cannot produce life. John 5:24 says, "Whoever trusts in the Father has eternal life and WILL NEVER be condemned; that person HAS CROSSED over from death to life." How can God extinguish ETERNAL life? He can't. God will never condemn His children even if they try to willingly, knowingly, voluntarily reject Him. God will not abort His children & you can't commit spiritual suicide, God will not allow it. We are His forever but this life on earth is infinitely better lived by grace than by law & that's what these scriptures are about. Romans 8 says "No created thing can separate us from God's love," we are created things. We cannot pluck ourselves from God's hand. God is love, if you can't be separated from his love you can't be separated from Him. If we are faithless He is still faithful.


Related Posts
Why Be Afraid of Hebrews 10?
Saved Through Fire? (Linked above)
Inseparable & Unforsakable, Fellowship Never Broken

Barely Saved & Still Judged?

"Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good." (1 Peter 4:15-19)

This is talking about suffering in the flesh. Certainly Christ did not "barely save us" in the sense of rebirth. The judgement in focus here isn't God's judgement on His people but a judgment, condemnation, & persecution from the secular world upon Christians. God's people are barely saved in the flesh from such oppressive rule & perhaps aren't saved at all. This entire context is about Christians suffering for doing good rather than suffering for doing bad.

Peter is saying, "Please don't commit crimes, if you are going to suffer only let it be for doing God's good. God in His mercy can barely save you righteous people from punishment handed out by the government because He can't override people's freewill & wicked people aren't going to cooperate with Him. Think about those who actually do wrong & don't know God. God can't always get you off the hook so don't intentionally put yourself on the hook by committing crimes. When you know you are going to suffer for doing good entrust your soul (earthly life) to God so you won't fear regardless of the outcome."

Peter concludes his letter & writing about suffering by saying it is the devil who seeks to harm you, not God. God is love & He does not punish His children. He cares for us.

"Cast all your anxieties on God, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." (1 Peter 5:7-10)

Christian Cannibalism?
The reason why "judgement" (this particular word is sometimes translated as condemnation) starts at the household of God is because Satan hates the people of God so he is going to influence rulers & oppressors to oppress them. Oppressors want to oppress just about everyone but Satan makes Christians a focal point of theirs. Physical persecution is Satan's last resort to harm the house of God. In western Christianity Satan doesn't need to physically persecute Christians. Because of 100s to 1,000s of years of religious teachings Christians condemn themselves. The problem with western Christians isn't that they "should do more for God" it is that they believe the wrong things about themselves & God. So Satan doesn't need to devour them. They consume themselves with guilt, shame, & fear all based on a false idea of God & a false idea of themselves.

Does God Abort His Children?

Hebrews 7:25 tells us that "Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." "God is not wishing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9).
So not only is He able He is also willing. Thus how can you not be saved completely if God is willing and able to save you completely?

"Nothing can separate us from the love of God" (Romans 8:39). God is love, if we can't be separated from His love how can we be separated from Him?

If somehow a Christian can become "unborn" based on their behavior after being born again that would mean sin is more powerful than God which is utterly false. Believing sin is more powerful than God really misses the point of the cross. We've already been totally forgiven at the cross. God does not count anything against us because of it (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Christ is the one who causes perseverance (see Hebrews 7:25 above). We abstain from bad behavior because God loves us not because we are afraid of Him casting us off.

If salvation is dependent upon human behavior Christ died for nothing. Why would there be a sacrifice for us if we could have saved ourselves? If you think you can lose your salvation based on behavior you, knowingly or not, believe the cross has no power and it is all our righteousness that saves us. That is not the gospel at all.

A Christian losing salvation essentially would be God aborting His own child.

Trust Never Discarded

It is true that once saved always saved but often our idea of salvation is that it is a one time past event. Trust in God is continual. Even in John 3:16 where it says "whosoever believes in Him" the actual tense of the verb (believes/trusts) in the Greek signifies not a one time past belief but a continual, present trust that doesn't end. There is no such thing as "once believed, now lost," or "I used to believe in God."

True continual trust in Christ will produce good works and God is the one who causes you to trust and causes you to produce good works.

Jesus said in John 15:5 "Apart from me you can do nothing."

"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." -2 Corinthians 1:21

"It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." -Philippians 2:13

Jesus said "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." -John 6:37