SIN > Unmasked: Repentance Lost – Pt 1

Are all sinners redeemable?

Even over my lifetime there have been a number of iterations of this question.  Probably the most common way of expressing it is with the question, ‘can I lose my salvation?’  Another popular rendition of it has been the statement: ‘once saved, always saved’.


Can salvation be ‘lost’?  Can repentance be out of reach?  Are all sinners redeemable?  Whichever way you look at it, there is one non-negotiable piece of understanding that lies at the heart of unveiling a satisfactory – and truth-affirming – resolution to the Hebrews 6 dilemma.  So, first, let’s scope the dilemma- and to do this, I’m using the King James (Authorised) rendition of the Hebrews passage because that translation seems to be the one that is most often quoted in the arguments and debates around this subject.

There are two profoundly important truths that seem to escape many who call themselves christians – including those who are esteemed (and paid) to be ‘shepherds’ among the people of God.  The deficiency of these two things deals a death-blow to the spiritual life of many.

One is the truth that God is circumspect in regard to whom his truth is revealed to and to whom ‘repentance leading to eternal life’ is granted.  We ourselves are encouraged to practise the same principle by the scripture in Matthew 7: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”  God doesn’t do it; Jesus didn’t do it; neither are we to do it.

Many people dangerously misread the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 25, Mark 4 and Luke 19: three different accounts of the one teaching of Jesus.  For many, this is their justification for 1) a rabid capitalist economy by which people are taught to be tough, uncompromising and merciless in their bid to get along in the world; and 2) financial gain is the blessing of God and proof of one’s righteousness and acceptability to God.

For others, it’s interpreted as a kind of opposite to that: it’s the way of the kingdom of man, standing in stark contrast to the ways of the kingdom of God.

Neither is true.  If we were to read all the relevant bits of the gospel records, not just do a ‘cut and paste’ proof-text exercise, we would see that we are told quite specifically it applies to hearing (or listening).  The parables of the ten virgins, the ‘talents’, the lamp in its lamp-stand, etc. need to be interpreted through the prism that is given to us in Luke chapter 8: “Pay attention therefore to how you listen...” – the attitude of your heart.  That was the clearly stated purpose of Jesus’ speaking in parables: those whose heart attitude was right would get the meaning of the parable and, hence, the whole kit and caboodle of the good news of the kingdom of God.  And they would ‘get it’ mostly by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, not by study and academic pursuits.  In contrast, those whose attitude was screwed up and fundamentally self-serving would not get the meaning of the parable and, hence, neither would they get what it was pointing to; furthermore, they would go away more confused (i.e. with less) than when they came to ‘hear’ what Jesus had to say.  And that’s what happened.

Jesus could see quite clearly those whose heart was fixed against him by the way they listened and how they went away with less understanding than they came with.  Conversely, he saw the heart attitude of those who believed him as their lives lit up with the unspoken truth the parables contained.  This is absolutely consistent with a much maligned principle of human life on earth: in the kingdom of man, ‘seeing is believing’; in the kingdom of God ‘believing is seeing’.  Coming right back to Hebrews, we can note chapter 11, verse 3: “by faith we understand...”  Few get it; and many spend countless hours trying to make it work the other way: “by understanding we believe”.  It can’t and it won’t work that way.  His ways are not our ways – we’d be wise to believe it.

Let’s not miss here one of the great wonders of the grace of God: no human being needs to be ‘smart’, clever, or academic to fully apprehend the truth of the gospel of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ.  On the flipside, even the most unlearned or disabled can receive from the Holy Spirit as much as the cleverest of us all – perhaps even more.  Do we get that?

How you listen, how you respond and how you deal with the ‘little’ you get not only determines how much ‘more’ (or less!) you get, it also determines God’s willingness to draw you into his confidence.  I and many of his people around the world and across time can attest to this truth and it lines up with other things we know from scripture in scores of places.  Again: his ways are not our ways.

As it stands, we largely only listen when we like what we hear.  That’s the common way of man.  Yet it is the very thing that God in the old testament prophets, Jesus, and the first apostles told us would keep us from mercy and from finding repentance  ‘Be careful how you hear’, we are told; our common attitude, however, is the thing that betrays our hubris, self-righteousness, and pursuit of personal benefit – which we then label ‘success’.  Argh!

The second is the truth that, while God has a particular – and unique – agenda for the Jews, non-Jews (Gentiles or ‘the nations’ besides the Jews) have a ‘conditional inclusion’ in God’s overall agenda of uniting all things – and all peoples – under one head (Jesus) and into one family – what is known in the new testament as the ekklesia.

[Perhaps we could even note here that one definition of ekklesia might be “those who hear right”.]

To get a handle on this, we need to get the message of Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapters 9 to 11.  I’ll leave you to read that for yourself, but the masterkey is found in chapter 11 with the concept of ‘grafting’ (as in horticultural grafting of plants).  In my view, chapters 9 to 11 of Romans are the best layout of ‘the Jew and the Gentile in the plan of God’ that we have access to.

In summary form, the story goes like this:

·         God’s mercy is his own sovereign act - always and exclusively.

·         From the earliest times, it always was God’s intention to include “all nations” in Israel.  Israel’s former name was Jacob; it was changed to Israel (literally ‘God contends’ or ‘God wrestles’) after the ‘struggle’ or ‘contention’ with God recorded in Genesis 32.  Unfortunately, it never sat well with Israel that “the nations” (the ‘gentiles’) be included.  Hubris became the hallmark of the nation as they jealously guarded and prosecuted their specialness and superiority.

·         Israel, in God’s eyes, was to be the bearer of his grace and his blessing to the world.  Hubris took over and they sought to assert their superiority and to subjugate, insult and disdain all others.

·         God would have none of that, so he subjugated and humbled them; and then grafted in the ‘dogs’ and the ‘unclean’ (cf. Matthew 15 and Acts 10) – those Israel loved to hate – to provoke Israel to jealousy.

That doesn’t mean by any means that they are given up for good.  Note Paul’s question and answer section in Romans 11: “Did God reject His people?  Certainly not!”; “Did they stumble so as to lose their share?  Certainly not!”

However, it does mean 1) that Israel must learn their lessons; and 2) if the gentiles grafted in act with presumption and hubris like Israel, they will be cut off – with no possibility of finding repentance again.  That’s what Hebrews 6 is talking about.  If we understand what God has been up to all along, and we understand Paul’s explanation of how that works, we will understand Hebrews 6 – and we will understand the seriousness of His mercy towards us and how important is Romans 2:1-5.

Part 2 follows