Eternal Security or Eternal Loss

Hebrews 10:26-27 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

When I first came to the Lord, it was at a wonderful assembly of believers called The Church of God of Prophecy. These were sweet believers in Christ, and I loved them – and still love them – dearly. The Lord led me to salvation through the preaching of Pastor White. I was saved about 30 days before I went into military service.

The Church of God of Prophecy is but one of a group of Churches that believe in Arminian theology. Arminianism is a branch of the Protestant faith based on the theological teachings of Dutch Reformed pastor Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609). He led a group of followers known as Remonstrants to split from the Dutch Reformed Church. One of the signature beliefs of the followers of Jacobus Arminius (or the Arminians) was “The Conditional Preservation Of The Saints”.

**The followers of Arminianism believe that salvation is conditional upon the believer remaining in Christ.**

Churches that believe in the conditional salvation of the believer (Arminianism) are Methodists, Free Will Baptists, Christian Churches, Churches of Christ, General Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of the Nazarene, the Wesleyan Church, the Salvation Army, Conservative Mennonites, Old Order Mennonites, Amish Churches, the various Churches of God, and the Pentecostal Churches. These Churches believe that a person, once saved, can willingly walk away from Jesus, and willingly relinquish their salvation. Southern Baptists, along with Particular Baptists, Reformed Baptists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists believe in the Eternal Security of the Believer. We believe that once a person enters a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith, that that believer is adopted into the Family of God by the Holy Spirit of God (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5-7). The Southern Baptist Faith & Message (2000) states:

IV. Salvation: Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

V. God’s Purpose of Grace: All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

Southern Baptist Churches believe that the Child of God – who is truly a Child of God – can never be lost. The Churches that follow Arminianism believe a Christian can, by his or her will, be lost once saved. To prove this, they refer to texts like the one we read tonight. Let’s read it again:

Saved in the Church of God of Prophecy, I was taught that every Christian had to guard their salvation, lest we be lost. What I was taught was:

Salvation = Jesus’ Work + My Work

You Must Read Scripture In The Spirit, And In Context

As I studied my Bible, reading things in context, I began to believe differently than the followers of Arminius. The greatest things you can do as a student of Scripture is:

Learn to PRAY and SEEK GOD the Holy Spirit’s guidance when reading Scripture. If you are a Christian then you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Colossians 1:27). Jesus said of the Spirit that “when He is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
Learn to READ SCRIPTURE in CONTEXT. Context is so very important. Never take a Bible verse and try to build a doctrine around it based on itself. Read what is written before and after.

I was told that the Scripture …

is telling us that a saved person who willfully sins can become lost. But that’s not what the verse is saying. If this verse is to be applied this way, then the phrase “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” is telling us that once lost, that person CANNOT be saved. This is a hopeless teaching! Isn’t it true that every sin we commit is a willful sin? And if you commit a willful sin then there remaineth NO MORE sacrifice for sins, but a certain FEARFUL LOOKING FOR of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. So salvation is by faith in Christ – but if you ever misstep – you’re going to hell. And there is NO REMEDY because the text clearly says, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins”. But that can’t be true because of the CONTEXT of Scripture. The Apostle John tells us in:

1 John 1:5-7 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

The Christian is NOT to walk in sin. We are to walk in the light of God with Jesus. But we have this promise, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin”. Christians are not perfect. John knew this as he wrote:

1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

We are – as Christians and Children of God – still imperfect creatures that live in an imperfect world. We sin. We sin willfully. We sin grievously. Now this is not what God wants of us. God wants us to avoid sin, for sin hurts us, and separates us from God. The Prophet wrote:

Isaiah 59:2 … your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Sin in the Christian grieves the Spirit of God and quenches His power (Ephesians 4:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). As Christians, we are to forsake sin, because we are dead to sin but alive to Christ. The Apostle said:

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? … 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

There are times that we as Christians willfully sin. We all do – yet this does not make it right. The standard is to avoid sin and, when you do sin, confess that sin to God. Put the sin under the blood of Christ.

So What Does Hebrews 10:26-27 Refer To
If Not The Loss Of Salvation?

What is the SIN that the Apostle is referring to in verse 26:

Hebrews 10:26 … For if we sin willfully

The “sin” the text is referring to is the sin of unbelief in Christ. The Book of Hebrews was written primarily to ….. (drum roll please) … the Hebrews. The Hebrews believed that their sins were covered by the animal sacrifices that they had done, year after year, prior to the coming of Christ. But the Scripture told them:

Hebrews 10:1-4 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

The animal sacrifices were but shadows of the Cross of Christ. They pointed toward the day when Jesus Christ would come and make payment for sins. The writer of Hebrews is telling his fellow Hebrew citizens that the animal sacrifices are no more. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, entered this world to take away the imperfect sacrifices of the Temple.

Hebrews 10:5-10 Wherefore when he {Jesus Christ, the Messiah} cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The First Covenant – the Covenant of the Works of the Law (the animal sacrifices) were taken away by the “offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. We who believe in Him are “sanctified” or set apart for God’s Kingdom “once for all” by Jesus’ death on Calvary. The Priests of Israel,

Hebrews 10:11-12 … standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man (Jesus Christ, the Messiah), after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

The priests offered animals over and over again. But Jesus on the Cross offered “one sacrifice for sins for ever”. There are no more sacrifices. Jesus paid it all!

Hebrews 10:18-20 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Because of what Jesus did for us on Calvary, we can enter into the holy place where God is. Our sins are covered! Our faith is in Christ alone! The text:

Is a warning to the “adversaries” who reject salvation by faith in Christ. He tells the Hebrews, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins”. There is no need to go to the Temple anymore, to make sacrifice for sins. When Jesus died on Calvary He declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Salvation is vested entirely in Jesus. To drive this point home, the Apostle writes:

Hebrews 10:28-29 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

To reject the Law of Moses under the first Covenant was to court death. To reject faith in Jesus Christ – “the blood of the covenant” – an unholy thing, is to reject the “Spirit of grace”. God will punish all who do this. You must receive Jesus Christ by faith,

Receive Him as the Lamb of God,
Receive Him as the Great High Priest,
Receive Him as the Son of God,
Receive Him as Lord of Lords

Salvation is not What I do + what Jesus did. Jesus alone paid for my salvation. Jesus alone represents me to the Father. Jesus alone is my Lord and Leader. I put all my trust in Him, and do not draw back from faith in Jesus. The Apostle ends the text with:

Hebrews 10:38-39 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Faith alone in Christ alone saves us. May God move your hearts to receive Him and Him alone as both Lord and Savior this very day. Amen and Amen.