S156P7 – Our good spiritual progress: once and done
Heb. 6:1-7
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.
She stopped between songs to tell the crowd an endearing story of her years growing up in the Church. Each summer, she went away to a Christian camp. While there, she would focus much more on her faith, and she always came to the realization that she was too worldly. Her life did not reflect her beliefs. She joked that she would go to the altar and get saved every summer. Her story speaks of a young lady who thinks she is committing but really is not. Her words did not equal surrender. It was not until she was much older that she sincerely made the choice to give her life to Christ and follow him. There was but one genuine moment of surrender that resulted in her being born again.
Justification is not a process but an instance. It is something which occurs once in the life of a Christian and only at the beginning of that person’s walk with the Lord. It is the first step, and the process of sanctification is what follows. Paul speaks clearly that the elementary doctrines of our faith are for the beginning. As we mature, we grow past that. Our learning builds upon prior learning. That is why milk must come before meat because we cannot go back to the beginning and start over. One who has repented and surrendered to the Lord cannot reverse that repentance and then decide to have it again. That alter call to accept salvation is only for those who do not already have it.
There is a difference between repentance which brings salvation and repentance of the sins we continue to commit. The chain of events Paul speaks of specifically here is repenting, falling away, then attempting to repent again. This is the impossibility. He is not talking about the Christian who falls and then asks for forgiveness. He is talking about the one who has moved on to Christian maturity then abandoned the faith and later hopes to return to it. In that respect, there is no starting over. Those who are justified must be vigilant to remain in the faith. The door of justification cannot be reopened. Father, help us to understand what it means to remain repentant so that we are not of those who fall away.