A Heavenly Calling (6)

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God… Hebrews 3.12

Lose your salvation?
The Book of Hebrews has sometimes been a source of consternation for believers. It seems to suggest, in chapters 2, 3, and 6, that believers can “fall away” from or “lose” their salvation.

In Hebrews 2.1 the writer warns us to be careful about what we believe lest we drift away from full faith in the Lord.

In chapter 6 he writes, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” (vv.4-6).

And here in chapter three he qualifies our possession of God’s heavenly rest by saying that we will truly share in it “if” we hold fast and persevere, so that we are able to keep from “departing from the living God.”

Here is not the place to resolve these difficult passages. Suffice it to say that the writer is not teaching that a true believer, one who is in pursuit of full faith and a greater share of the heavenly calling, can fall from grace or lose his salvation. Instead, he is saying that true believers daily prove that they share in the heavenly calling by the way they practice faithfulness to God, and by guarding against every inroad of unbelief and sin.

In our media-rich, secular age, we must be especially vigilant against unbelief finding its way into our hearts. The heavenly calling of God is really real, and we can really share in it. But we’ll need to be continuously on guard against ideas and messages that can undermine our confidence, stifle our boasting, and rob us of the reality of our experience of Christ.

Lose the reality of your salvation?
Francis Schaeffer was once asked why it is that the Christian life doesn’t seem real to so many people. Why don’t they act like people who have come to full faith and are sharing in a heavenly calling? What is the cause for this loss of reality? Schaeffer explained that “the greatest reason for a loss of reality is that while we say we believe one thing, we allow the spirit of the naturalism of the age to creep into our thinking, unrecognized.”

We profess to be on the path of a heavenly calling, but in fact, we’re trudging around in the desert with all the other grumblers and complainers, so busy, like everyone else in our narcissistic age, thinking about and looking out for number one that we’re missing the life God intends for us.

Many believers have allowed “the spirit of the naturalism of the age” to undermine their experience of the heavenly calling. Their priorities and values are fixed on material possessions and successful careers. They look for pleasure in fleeting entertainments. They worship in churches where the health of the Body of Christ is measured in attendees, budgets, buildings, and programs, rather than in Biblical criteria. And they fill up their time with work and frivolous diversions, so that they have little strength or inclination left for knowing or serving the Lord.

Can such people really be Christians? Or they might be merely wanting to be Christians, but only on their own terms?

It’s clear they are not serious about pursuing full faith in the Lord; and they will never know the true joy, hope, power, peace, and righteousness of the heavenly calling until they shake off the fetters of our materialistic and relativistic age, fortify their hearts with the vision of Christ exalted, and take up the path of faithfulness toward God which the writer of Hebrews outlines in chapter 3 (cf. Heb. 12.1, 2).

Constant vigilance
In an unbelieving age like ours, we need to be constantly on guard against anything that threatens to lead us astray from our heavenly calling. If we will not do this, and if we prefer instead to follow every side-path of self-indulgence, every distracting dead end of frivolity and foolishness, or every invitation to make more, have more, spend more, or just have more fun, we will discover – sooner or later – that the path our feet pursues reveals the reality that is in our hearts, and that our hearts, captive to the spirit of the narcissism and naturalism of the age cannot truly be regarded as treading the path of the heavenly calling of God.

For reflection or discussion
1.  Is it possible that some people who believe themselves to be Christians may not really be believers at all? Meditate on Matthew 7.21-23 as you formulate your answer.

2.  If some people who never began to share in the heavenly calling – considering Jesus, being faithful to God, daily in the Word, and so forth – suddenly “fall away” from their profession of faith, have such people “lost their salvation”? Explain:

3.  Peter says we should give all diligence to shore up our confession of faith. Meditate on 2 Peter 1.5-11. How does Peter’s teaching fit into the idea of the heavenly calling?

Next step – Conversation: Talk with some Christian friends about Schaeffer’s observation. Do you agree? How can we keep from having the spirit of the naturalism of the age undermine our sharing in the heavenly calling?

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 9 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “A Heavenly Calling” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.