Hebrews 6:4-6 Part 2

“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 6:4-6 ESV). in Part 1, we considered the possibility of spiritual life before birth like in the case of physical birth. The same is true when planting a seed in the ground. There are a few days in which the seed germinates and when a plant breaks through the ground. We considered the words enlightened, tasted and shared as describing spiritual life before birth.

In this lesson, we will consider the impossibility of falling away once conception has taken place. Jesus said: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37 ESV). Before the creation of the world God the Father chose those he would give to Jesus as a gift; to those the Father would begin the period of gestation and not one of these would not go full term and be born. The promise is that all chosen would be given the faith to believe and would be born according to the Father’s plan. It is, therefore, impossible for anyone to fall away and if they somehow could overcome the power of God and fall away, then it would be impossible to restore them again to repentance.

In the next lesson we will consider a diagram to express this concept.

Prayer

Father, if free will is embraced and salvation is determined by a decision on the part of the person and not on your choice, then there could not be a gestation period in which spiritual life develops, making belief impossible.  One who is not first given spiritual life will not choose God (Romans 3:10-11). Father, I clearly experienced several years of gestation before my faith was sufficient for me to believe.