We are in an interlude of exhortation and warning (5:11-6:12) between two major sections of Hebrews, wrestling with the possibility of falling away and eventual apostasy. These are ideas introduced by the author at this point in our study.

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 (6:4-6).

The classic Reformed tradition and current evangelical point of view is that once you are born again, you are ensured the reward of heaven. It is called the doctrine of eternal security. Are you familiar with the language? Heaven is absolutely guaranteed to everyone who is truly born again.

Yet, that doctrine seems to be at odds with Hebrews.

So how do people holding this position deal with these texts? Typically they will raise rhetorical questions. In other words, the answer should be self-evident by the question, such as:

• “How can the eternal life that Christians receive come to an end?” Oh, I see what you mean.
• “If you are born again by the Spirit, how can you be unborn?” Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that.
• “How can God be faithful if he can renege on his promises of salvation to all who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior?” God reneging? Being unfaithful? No way!

All these rhetorical questions seem very persuasive. But take a step back and you will realize there is a paradigm at work behind them. They make logical sense in view of a certain way of thinking and the accompanying assumptions. The problem is they are not those of the author of Hebrews. And therein, as the saying goes, lies the rub.

What is the paradigm at work behind these assumptions about eternal security? The default of this mindset is the juridical model, that of a courtroom in which salvation is essentially a legal transaction, not so much a relational transformation.

As we have seen from his church in the wilderness theme, the author of Hebrews is operating with a paradigm based on the model of reconciliation. Which is, it should come as no surprise, the most common theme in the New Testament. Salvation, in Hebrews, is a pilgrimage relationship with God, our Redeemer, through the grace of participating in his eternal life, which was secured for us by Messiah’s faithfulness and appropriated through our obedience of faith.

Paradigm* shapes hermeneutics.

A paradigm is a framework, a model, a pattern. Your framework for understanding the world and putting everything in right relationship will determine how you interpret an event. Once established, you operate from that point of view without thinking much about it.

The doctrine of eternal security separates a relationship with God from salvation by God. True, a relationship with God is a blessed byproduct of salvation, but it is not the substance of it. And so the evangelical position is that sin may cut off Christians from fellowship with God and the blessings of God, but it can never remove them from the eternal gift of his salvation.

Again, within a juridical model, if the judge declares you to be free, it is a done deal. It is a legal declaration, and the judge is not going to rescind the declaration. But the courtroom model is not appropriate here. For the author of Hebrews, salvation comes as a result of an ongoing relationship with God because He is the Savior, in Him is Life. When you are united with, in good relationship with, in right standing with Him, you have Life.

Yet you can withdraw from that relationship as the prodigal son did from his father’s house. He was still his father’s son, but he removed himself. Had he not confessed and repented and gone back to his father, he would have perished in the pigsty, because salvation is relational. It is a pilgrimage, an ongoing process at work in your life.

We are being saved. And we shall enter into the fulness of that salvation at the eschaton, at the consummation. In the meantime, we must walk by faith evidenced by faithfulness. For the author of Hebrews, to enter God’s rest—in other words, to inherit salvation as an eschatological reality—we must persevere in grace through Spirit-empowered faithfulness.

To fall away from that dynamic blood-bought, Spirit-enabled relationship with the Living God, whether through neglect, laziness, hardened hearts, wilful sustained sinning, or outright apostasy, can lead us to be found wanting when we stand before the judge on the last day and discover that our God is a consuming fire, according to the author of Hebrews.

Typically, those who hold to this position argue that the author here is not speaking of people who are truly redeemed.

Instead, he is warning some who attend church and go through the motions but have not truly been regenerated. Because, so goes the logic of those who accept the paradigm of predestination, if God does redeem you, there is no way He is going to let you fail. He will persevere you. However, you must then do gymnastics to deal with texts like these or avoid them altogether.

The truth is the author of Hebrews is not speaking to only some in the community. He is speaking to the whole congregation. He is reminding them what it means to be on pilgrimage. There is no status quo. When the cloud moves, you must follow, or you are going to be left behind in a deserted place. He is light and life. If you let go of His hand, you are drifting towards darkness and death.

We are either growing or drifting when it comes to salvation.

But, says the author, God is eager—even when you apostatize, like the prodigal son in effect did—to welcome you back. He is there for you. You, however, must turn to Him and walk with Him. That is faith, that is perseverance. It is a grace work of the Spirit and a gift from God lest any one of us should boast.=

On the other hand, beware of the opposite error which is all too prevalent in some Christian traditions. The one in which people walk around in constant fear rather than secure confidence in the God of their salvation. It is a subtle kind of legalism masquerading as humility in which your salvation constantly hangs in the balance.

Sadly, there are leaders in faith communities who instill and manipulate that fear to get you to do what they want you to do. God forbid! If that is you please hear me. The kind of legalism where you are never sure if you are saved or not saved is not of God. It is of the devil. Pure and simple.

All you have to do is keep on walking, keep on following. You are in Christ if you walk by the Spirit. Take the hand of the Savior. It is only by holding his nail-scarred hand that you will arrive at the place of security in eternity. Those who persevere to the end inherit the fullness of the promises of God.

The Spirit is at work in you, inspiring and enabling your faithfulness. And so the author of Hebrews invariably moves from warning back to encouragement. You, dear ones, are not among those who fall away.

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (6:9-12).

And remember this: the intent of the author’s interlude here in Hebrews is to prepare us for the remarkable revelation of Jesus as our merciful High Priest. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever […] (6:19-20).

* Scientists have paradigms. There was the Copernican, the Newtonian, and the Einsteinian paradigm. Each one worked to explain the facts to one degree or another. The facts that could not be explained by the paradigm were typically ignored or not taken all that seriously.

In the history of science, typically, when a new paradigm emerges, the generation that holds to the prevailing one refuses to accept it. Scientists are not nearly as objective as you think, or as they would like you to think. Interestingly, a new paradigm takes a whole generation to pass, just like Israel in the wilderness. Once that generation passes, the next generation of scientists receives the new paradigm.