“4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” Hebrews 6
Can a person be saved by God’s grace in Christ and then lose that salvation so that the person is lost once again? That’s the question that men have. Some say, no, absolutely not and they offer a few passages of text to prove their position. Others say, yes, most definitely and they offer many passages of Scripture which prove it.
Let’s note some things from the text above…
1. This is speaking of people who have been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, been a partaker of the Holy Spirit, have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come. Would you say these people, 1] Never became Christian; 2] Almost became Christian; 3] Became Christian?
2. This says these people who enjoyed all of these wonderful things of God have “fallen away”. If they have fallen away from these things, then doesn’t that exclude the possibility that these were never saved? How can you fall away from something you never were part of? You can’t.
3. This says these people can’t be “renewed AGAIN” to repentance. The use of the word “again” implies that they repented in the past, but not again. Thus they are now UNrepentant since they fell away back into the world. Can the unrepentant be saved? When he says, ‘impossible to renew them again”, does it imply they were repentant some time in the past?
3. This says, “They again crucify to themselves the Son of God”. The use of “again” implies there were a time in the past that they crucified the Son of God. Now, since they have “fallen away” and are unrepentant, their life is a life that recrucifies Jesus. They crucify AGAIN the Son of God because they have gone back to the sinful life they lived prior to their conversion.
Here are some other passages that show a Christian can fall away: Hebrews 2:1-3; Hebrews 10:26-29; 2 Pt 2:22 (compare “last state worse than first” with Luke 11:24-26); Romans 11:20-24; Gal. 5:4.
So yes, It’s true that a Christian can turn away from God’s grace and be lost again. The last state of that person’s soul is worse than the first, (2 Pt 2:22; Lk 11:24-26).
The “eternal security” folks like to reference John 10:27-29 and Romans 8:38-39 that shows there is great security for the redeemed, but these passages do not show God’s people cannot remove themselves from His grace. In fact, the Bible teaches that salvation is on the condition of remaining faithful to death.
Some people will wonder if this means that the Christian who wandered away from the faith can be restored once again. That’s a good question. The Hebrews 6 passage carries the idea “while they crucify again” and so if they come to repentance, say because the church disciplined them (Mt 18:15ff; 1 Cor 5), then they are restored and the church, like God does, renews its love toward the brother who strayed.
I offer this humbly, Dan
A Conquering Faith 
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