FAQ: Can I Lose My Salvation? BY Adriel Sanchez for Core Christianity
Sometimes, assurance of salvation feels elusive. We’re deeply aware of how frequently we fall back into those same sins, of how much we doubt, of just how capable we are of failing to love God and our neighbors. Then we encounter a passage like this one in Hebrews and are filled with fear:
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.(Hebrews 6:1–6)
Doesn’t this passage teach that I can lose my salvation? Just how far can I fall before there is no way back?
A Closer Look at Hebrews 6
Hebrews 6 is using language for Baptism (“those who have once been enlightened”) and the Lord’s Supper (“who have tasted the heavenly gift”). There are two ways to understand what the writer is saying here.
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First, he could be writing to a Jewish-Christian audience, warning them about going back to Judaism. That would explain the notion of crucifying Christ afresh. The temple was still in operation, so he’s saying, If you go back to Judaism and the sacrifices there, you’re crucifying Christ all over again. There’s no salvation if you go back to that.
Another interpretation could be that they can’t be restored because they’ve hardened their hearts. They’ve walked away. Verse 7 says, “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it produces a crop useful. It receives blessing, but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” He’s saying that there are people in the church—maybe those who grow up in the church—who hear God’s Word, they’ve been baptized, they even participate in the Lord’s Supper. But as the word of God falls, it falls on thorns and thistles.
