Over the past few weeks, we have been dealing with the topic of eternal security, asking the question, “Can a child of God ‘fall from grace’ in the sense of losing his eternal salvation?” We have seen, through the writings of Elder C.H. Cayce as well as our own studies, that the answer is a resounding “no.”

But what about Hebrews 6:4-6? Some take these verses to teach that a child of God can apostasies to the point that they are no longer a child of God. Last week, we looked at the context; this week, I want to look at verses elsewhere in Scripture that demonstrate this view is wrong.

First of all, let’s look at the verses themselves. Hebrews 6:4-6 reads as follows: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” We saw last week that this is set in the context of timely salvation, not eternal, and we should not remove it from this context. Otherwise, we will get confused and seemingly find contradictions in the Scripture itself.

Secondly, let’s look at John 10:35, where Jesus asserts that “. . . the scripture cannot be broken.” This simply means that there are no contradictions anywhere in the Bible! The word “broken” means “to annul, subvert; to do away with; to deprive of authority” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). If there were two scriptures that contradict each other, then one of them would have to be broken – i.e., annulled, subverted, done away with, or deprived of authority. Jesus says this cannot be!

With these principles in mind, let us look at a few other verses in the Bible that firmly teach the eternal security of the believer. In John 10:27-30, Jesus states, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” It cannot get much plainer than this, Dear Reader! Jesus says unequivocally that “no man” can remove even ONE of His children from His hand. The reason for this? He is God! Only if you believe that you are equal with God could you believe that you could remove one of His children from His hand.

But some raise the objection that you can remove yourself from His hands. However, we should not miss the fact that He said “no man” can remove them. Since you yourself are “a man” (or woman – it is used here in the generic sense to denote both men and women), this means that you cannot remove yourself from the hand of Christ!

We are told in Isaiah 49 that, while it is possible for a human mother to forsake her own child, it is not possible for the heavenly Father to forsake His own: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” Isa. 49:15. Why not? “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Isa. 49:16. You see, Dear Reader, we are “graven” in the very hands that were nailed to the cross for us! There is no way He will forget us!

Finally, the very terms “eternal life” and “everlasting life” give proof of the eternal security of the child of God. The phrase “eternal life” occurs 26 times in 26 verses in the New Testament. The phrase “everlasting life” occurs eleven times in eleven verses in the New Testament. In John 6:47, Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” In other words, the believer is not waiting to obtain everlasting life one day, he ALREADY HAS this everlasting life!

Now let me ask you a simple question: if this “everlasting life” ever ends or is taken away, is it truly “everlasting”? Would God promise something that isn’t true? The answer is, “NO!” Let God be true, and every man a liar! Rom. 3:4. By its very definition, the eternal life we have is just that: eternal. if we could ever lose it, it wouldn’t be eternal, and God’s promise would become a lie. God forbid!

I hope this helps us see the glorious promise of eternal life for God’s children, and that this promise is sure. It is interesting to note that, later on in the very chapter where we began (Hebrews 6), we find the writer calling this a “hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” Heb. 6:19.

Truly the hope of eternal life is sure for every single one of God’s children!

May the Lord bless you is my prayer.

Elder Chris McCool, Pastor