So the problem isn't failures on our part: sitting and struggling. And you know,
I have a question. I have a doubt. I can't figure this out. Why is God doing this to me?
Everybody does that. Plenty of people in the Bible did that
who are, you know, very obviously believers and they're in the hall faith,
Hebrews 11. I mean, good grief, that isn't the issue.
Here's the key line, here's the controversial line.
"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."
Okay, this is a difficult passage.
And what I'm going to submit to you is that the text is going to be consistent here
like it was in the two previous chapters. The issue is always: keep believing.
But the question, the problem, the controversy is; what about this impossible statement?
So this is The Pillar New Testament Commentary. And this is a nice summary
of where scholars land on this, or at least what the issues are by Peter O'Brien
says; "The author finally rounds off the main verbal idea in his long sentence,
informing his listeners of what is impossible.
It is impossible for those who have committed apostasy
to be brought back to repentance." This is his translation.
"This difficult expression has been taken to mean that those who reject Christ's sacrifice
have repudiated 'the only basis on which repentance can be extended'.
While this is true, Hebrews is making the point that it is impossible to restore
someone to repentance." I'm going to stop there.
I'm actually on that side of this question. I think that's what it does mean.
And I'm going to object to his reasoning here. But just follow me.
I do think that what's impossible, what the writer of Hebrews is saying here,
look, it's essentially this. If you have someone who believes the gospel,
and then they turn from it, God has nothing else to offer.
This is the only means of salvation: the work of Jesus. And if you reject that,
there's really nothing else God can do or is going to do. This is it.
So, there is no possibility that any other means is going to come along.
And so this person would have to, again, come back to the thing that he rejected.
Now, what the commentators saying here is, the writer considers that;
the coming back, the restoration as an impossibility,
I'm going to object to that in a moment. And I'll show you why.
And I'm going to base it on an analogy, salvation analogy,
to the Old Testament. We're keeping the Testaments consistent here.
I'm going to show you a specific example, where someone who was an Israelite,
who ostensibly, you know, would have said "I'm a follower of Yahweh."
And then apostasies but came back. Okay, I'm going to show you a specific example there.
Now, "The subject" the commentator says,
"of the infinitive 'to restore [to repentance]' is indefinite.
Are other Christians or God the implied subject?"
In other words, is it impossible for Christians to do this?
Or is it impossible for God to do something? This restoration.
"The most satisfactory suggestion" this is where he lands, is that
doesn't have Christians in view, "is that it is impossible for God to restore the apostate
to repentance." So that's the part I'm objecting to,
"What is meant by this? It does not imply that God does not have the power
to bring back an apostate, since he is the one 'for whom all things
and through whom all things exist',
and his word is able to shake the foundations of the universe.
But" he says what it means is that God "may refuse to restore an apostate." He may say no.
Okay. You know, the analogy he uses is it's 'impossible' for God to lie.
God would never do that. There are things God chooses to not do,
out of the nature of his character. And not only do I think that
this isn't a good argument because of God's character, but I'm going to show you
hopefully, I have the verse Yeah, right here. Manasseh. Ok, Manasseh's Repentance.
Now, we don't know a whole lot about Manasseh, but we know Manasseh
was the worst idolatry to ever occupy the kingship in Israel.
If there was a deity out there to worship, he did it. And he did it zealously:
cultic prostitution, I mean, moving in phallic figurines into the Holy of Holies.
I mean, Manasseh did everything imaginable to be an apostate,
to turn from the faith of his fathers. Everything. There's just nothing left undone.
But here you go. This is 2 Chronicles 33. Again, this is late in Manasseh's life,
"The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army
of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks
and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God"
I mean, he knows where to turn,
"and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him,
and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again
to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God."
You can't get lower than Manasseh.
You can't get farther from God than Manasseh.
So what I'm suggesting here is if God looks at the apostasy of Manasseh,
and here's his prayer, that it's not impossible for God to hear the prayer
of someone who has forsaken, believing loyalty.
Okay, I think we need to be consistent across the Testaments.
Again, I go through all that, basically, to say that the New Testament,
the New Testament does define salvation as believing loyalty.
You believe in the work of Jesus exclusively, there is no other option.
If you reject that, well, you're in a world of hurt, because God isn't offering anything else.
There is zero possibility there, that something else will be offered to you for just forget it.
This is the only means of salvation, the very thing that you've just rejected,
if you're an apostate. But I think we can say on the basis of not just Manasseh,
I mean, there's going to be other you know, there's a few handful of examples like this,
where God will hear the prayer of the sinner, he will hear the prayer of the apostate,
and we'll welcome you back. The lesson we should draw from this is,
don't get into this mess. Okay, don't stop believing.
So the problem isn't failures on our part: sinning and struggling.
And you know, I have a question, I have a doubt I can't figure this out.
Why is God doing this to me? Everybody does that.
Plenty of people in the Bible did that, who are you know, very obviously, believers,
and they're in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11. I mean, good grief.
That isn't the issue. You're not in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11. If you turn to another god.
You're not there. You can really screw up a lot and be there.
But if you turn to another god, you're not there. And that is the issue.
The writer of Hebrews is worried about unbelief,
ie rejecting salvation, rejecting the king, rejecting the Savior.
He knows that we're believing now. But there could be people
among our group that just bail. They just say I don't believe this anymore.
This is why the Scripture says what it says.
Now again, I don't care how that fits into your system. Okay, I really don't.
We don't need systems. We need to pay attention to the text,
and we need to be consistent across the Testaments. That's what we need.