Part 16

The Holy Spirit Can Be Forsaken, Part 2

Hebrews 10:26–30 (ESV) —  For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.  How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 

Understanding Our Salvation

This month we return to a topic we just barely began to open last month: the question of “can a believer forsake their faith and the Holy Spirit?” Last month I led with a warning to not become terrified by the fact that the Holy Spirit can be renounced. Neither, though, should we fall into an arrogant belief of “once saved always saved” or “I’m baptized, I’m good even if I don’t have faith.” Both of those beliefs are demonstrably false. This article will look at Hebrews 10:29, which demonstrates that they are both false. Salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:5,8, Romans 3:23-24, 11:6). We must not swerve from that truth. 

We must not swerve from salvation by grace and begin to think of salvation as something that is held onto by our works. If we think our salvation depends on us, we’ll live in constant fear of losing our salvation. That borders on a denial of the very saving grace we must accept for our salvation (Galatians 2:21). 

Neither should we swerve from salvation by faith and claim that our status as “once saved” is our guarantee of salvation (Ezekiel 18:24). Our guarantee of our salvation is the shed blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19), and our assurance that we’ve received that grace is our confession of faith and our trust that God works through the Means of Grace (1 John 1:9, Romans 10:9-10, 1 Peter 3:21). Our status as “saved believers” can only be known by faith. 

It may seem like I’m arguing that we should take a “moderate,” “middle,” or “balanced” view of it all. Sometimes people think “we should just not get carried away with either extreme.” They say, “let’s just do a good mix of grace and faith and call it good.” That’s not really what I am hoping to say though. Christian ministry should not be in the habit of limiting how much grace we proclaim for fear of enabling sinful behavior. Nor should we limit our exhortations to live faithfully because we’re afraid of terrorizing people. 

Ministry does not rely on our human intuition to guide us away from extremes. Instead, Christian ministry relies on the power of the Word and Spirit of God to proclaim His truth. The Word is a lamp unto our feet (Psalm 119:105) guiding us in the way we ought to walk (Colossians 2:6), and the Holy Spirit enlightens us unto salvation (Ephesians 1:17-18) by impressing these truths upon our hearts and minds (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). 

So we are not aiming to just walk a middle ground away from extremes. The focus of teaching that “salvation can be forsaken” is not only to keep us away from that extreme. The goal of looking at these Scriptures is not merely to avoid “not-faith.” The goal of any Scriptural exploration is faith itself: a deeper understanding and trust in God’s grace and the Holy Spirit.  

The Identity Change

One of the key points to understand about your salvation is that a believer has been given a new identity in Christ. This change in identity is as radical a change as going from darkness to light (Ephesians 5:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). 

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV) —  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

The key thing to know about this text is that the Holy Spirit is talking about identities here. He says “the sexually immoral” not “people who’ve committed sexual immorality.” He says “the idolaters” not “anyone who has committed idolatry.” And then He says “and such were some of you.” 

He didn’t put “some” in there because some people were lost sinners and others weren’t. He put “some” in there, because “some” fell into the specific categories listed, while others fell into other categories. In truth, though, the category “idolater” probably covers us all. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and we all either trust in Christ for our salvation or trust in our own strength (Habakkuk 1:11). We are either followers of Christ (the one true God), or we are idolaters. Those are the only two identities available. Praise the Lord, then, that Paul says “such were some of you.” Their identities had changed. 

Many blessings are poured out on us when our identity is changed from that of a lost idolater to a saved believer. First Corinthians 6:11 says we are washed, sanctified, justified, and placed into the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We no longer wear the identity that our sins would earn. Instead we wear the name of Jesus Christ in all its righteousness. 

Forfeited Identity

That 1 Corinthians text (6:9-11) explains that our identity changes when we enter salvation, but does it say anything about losing it? Actually no, not really. First Corinthians chapter 6 is Paul exhorting believers to live out the new identity they have been given. Within the confines of chapter 6 though, there is no warning about forfeiting salvation. The thing to note, though, in that text is that it says believers have been “sanctified.” 

Hebrews 10:29 does give us a warning against forfeiting our salvation. Some might say that the person being described in Hebrews 10:29 was “never saved,” but notice what it says- 

Hebrews 10:29 (ESV) —  How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 

There are a few important points to notice in this text. The first is that it says the person under discussion here “was sanctified.” This is a simple past-tense verb. The meaning is utterly inescapable: whoever this person is, they were at one point a recipient of the grace of salvation. “Sanctified” is literally exactly the same word in 1 Corinthians 6:11 and Hebrews 10:29. The only difference is that in 1 Corinthians Paul is speaking to believers who still believe and thus still have the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, Hebrews 10:29 is a warning that even people who were once saved and sanctified can “outrage the Spirit of grace.” 

We’ve shown in previous newsletter articles that saved believers have the Holy Spirit, and whoever has the Holy Spirit is a saved believer. The two groups are synonymous. Hebrews 10:29 describes someone who was previously “sanctified” and thus according to 1 Corinthians 6:11, was at one time saved and gifted with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Now though, they have “outraged the Spirit of grace” and should have only a “fearful expectation of judgment and… fire” (v.27). This is a heavy truth.  

Hebrews 10:19-31 is a clear passage of Scripture that demonstrates that it really is possible to forsake your faith, forfeit your identity in Christ and insult the Holy Spirit to the degree that He departs from you. 

How Is The Holy Spirit Forsaken?

This is a giant question, and one that believers ought to be familiar with. Obviously we want to avoid doing, or believing or even flirting with whatever it is that leads us to forsake our salvation. There are many Bible verses to consider when dealing with that question, and so, this month we’ll have to forgo a thorough exploration of that and instead deal strictly with the content of the Hebrews 10 text. Next month we’ll begin to look at some instances of people forsaking the Holy Spirit as well as a few other warnings against it. As we study this, our familiarity with the Biblical teachings on it will help give us confidence that we have not forsaken and blasphemed the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:28-29, Matthew 12:30-32, Luke 12:8-10). 

Interestingly enough, Hebrews 10:19-36 is a section of Scripture intended to give believers confidence and exhort them to lean on that confidence. 

Hebrews 10:19–22 (ESV) —  Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,  by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

His purpose here is not to motivate Christians through fear of damnation, but rather to give some explanation and warning of what leads to damnation so believers can be confident that that is not them. To that end, He writes this-

Hebrews 10:26–27 (ESV) —  For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

The action described as responsible for alienating this person from their salvation is current, continuous, ongoing, deliberate and unrepentant sin. All five of those adjectives are stated here in verse 26, even if those specific words do not appear in our translation. 

The word “sinning” in verse 26 is not a main verb (indicative), but rather a present, active participle. That’s nerd-speak for “it’s a current, continuous and ongoing action.” The present tense leans heavily on the ongoing and continuous aspect. What is not being said here is: “if you ever deliberately sin after coming to a knowledge of the truth, you are toast.” That statement ignores that “ongoing” and “continuous” are both stipulated by the present tense. 

Furthermore, the fact that it’s a participle instead of an indicative means that we’re not even saying: “if you have ever had a time when you were deliberately sinning in a continuous and ongoing fashion, you are toast.” This statement ignores that the participle indicates that it is those who are currently deliberately sinning, in an ongoing and continuous fashion, that are trampling underfoot the Son of God (V.29).  

Because this is a participle instead of an indicative, what truly is being said is: “if you are currently deliberately sinning in a continuous and ongoing fashion, you are trampling underfoot the Son of God and disparaging His sacrifice for you. There’s no further atoning sacrifice after His, so you should not expect your sins to be forgiven, but instead, should fearfully expect to answer to God for all your sins.” 

In Hebrews 10:26, the grammar demands that we read the “sinning” here as current, continuous and ongoing. 

The other word to pay especially close attention to is “deliberately”. Other good words that would help us translate the intended meaning here are “willingly”, “intentionally”, “voluntarily” and even “purposefully.” There is a marked absence of regret or sorrow and a marked presence of intent in this word. The person sinning in this fashion knows they should repent and turn to Christ and yet they willfully ignore the Holy Spirit’s leading anyways.  

As to “unrepentant,” admittedly that word does not appear in this text. The very definition of the attitude does however. Repentance is not only a turning away from sin but it is a turning towards Jesus and His atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins. When anyone tramples on that work and regards it as worthless, instead of valuing it and trusting it for the life-giving sacrifice it is, that is unrepentance. 

As described in Hebrews 10:26-29, what “outrages the Spirit of Grace” is current, deliberate, ongoing and continuous, unrepentant sin. That is how you walk away from the covenant of grace that God makes with believers. That is how you trample underfoot the Son of Man and treat as worthless His precious blood. 

So, how do we keep ourselves from doing that? Or, a more faithful way to ask the question would be: How does the Holy Spirit keep us from doing that?

Our Help

Psalm 121:1–2 (ESV) —  I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

On one hand, when we list out all those adjectives it makes it seem very hard to reject the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, if we remove but one of those adjectives, it can seem terrifyingly easy to reject the Holy Spirit. “Did I really not intend to sin that way?” “Did I really repent of that?” “I can’t believe I’ve sinned this way again, does that mean it’s ongoing?” All these are questions that can haunt believers. Believers who trust in the Lord, however, need not be terrified. We have a Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17, 26-27). 

The writer to the Hebrews, right before this awesome warning in 10:26-29, points to the source of our “help” and our confidence by pointing us to the Means that God uses to give “the Helper.” 

Hebrews 10:22–25 (ESV) —  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Though it’s long ago enough now that you’d be forgiven for forgetting it, the thing that started me on this discussion about forsaking the Holy Spirit was a discussion of Baptism. Having shown that the Holy Spirit is well and truly given, along with salvation, in the waters of Christian Baptism, we then took up the important caveat that the grace given in Baptism can be abandoned by unbelief. The writer to the Hebrews follows the same logical flow here. 

The “pure water” that sprinkled our hearts clean can be none other than the water of Christian Baptism. The ones to whom the writer to the Hebrews says should “draw near with full assurance”  is us: the ones who have had their hearts sprinkled clean by the waters of Baptism. Baptism gives us assurance that our old, dead stony hearts have been replaced by new “true hearts” that have been “sprinkled clean.” 

But the Holy Spirit is not here saying “once baptized always saved.” Instead He goes on to exhort us to living faith that “holds fast to our confession” and continues to “stir one another up to love and good works.” How do we do that? How do we continue in this faith? We meet together and encourage each other (verse 25). 

I take for granted here that when the writer to the Hebrews says “meeting together”, He means opening the Word of God together. All throughout Acts you see this as the central part of Christian congregational life (Acts 2:42-47). In Acts 20 we hear about a Bible study that went so long a guy fell out of a window and died. Not to worry though, Paul miraculously resuscitated him (Acts 20:7-12). 

We are called to trust that the Means of Grace give us the grace necessary for salvation. In Hebrews 10:19-30, the Holy Spirit does warn us that we can leave the faith and forsake Him, but He has also given us everything we need to have confidence that we haven’t. In this portion of Scripture the Holy Spirit is calling us to trust that God uses the Means of Grace to also create in us and maintain in us living and saving faith. He Himself is the helper that keeps us in our salvation. We receive Him when our hearts are washed clean in Baptism, and we continue to faithfully walk with Him when we continue to gather with the Congregation, under the Word of God. 

In following articles we will continue to look at believers forsaking the Holy Spirit. We’ll dig deeper into what it means to “outrage the Holy Spirit” as we read more about some instances of believers turning from faith. We’ll learn more about His work as defender of the Temple, and we’ll look at how Congregational discipline is actually  a blessing that should give us greater confidence that we haven’t forsaken the Holy Spirit. Until then, do not neglect the gathering.