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Q
Could someone who is a Christian
fall so far from God that they might reach a point to where they
could never come back to
him?
~Ms. G
A
Dear Ms. G, In answer to your question concerning whether
believers can fall so far from God that they cannot come back to the
Him, I would like to draw
your attention to a passage in the New Testament. “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,” Hebrew
6:4-6. Now, before you become alarmed, let me explain. This passage
does say that a believer who falls away cannot again be renewed unto
repentance, but it is very important to note that it is not saying
that such a person cannot be restored to God!
This passage is a difficult
one to understand, but the way that I see it is that it is speaking
of the initial repentance that brings a man
back together with Christ. There is an impulse in so many Christians
to think that they need to be re-baptized or that they need to re-accept
the Lord when they have backslidden and fallen away. However, this passage
seems to condemn that mindset telling people that to try to re-accept
Christ or be re-baptized is to "crucify again for themselves the
Son of God, and put him to an open shame"(Heb 6:7). The point is
that it is impossible for those who have received the Holy Spirit to
re-receive him.
That is the best that I can do with a passage that
is so very difficult to understand, for at a first reading it certainly
seems to be saying
that once a Christian falls away, he is hopelessly lost forever. However,
such a reading would contradict so many other passages of Scripture which
demonstrate that God is "merciful, gracious, longsuffering and abounding
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity,
transgression and sin"(Exod 34:6-7), that he has "not come
to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance" (Matt 9:13).
Paul himself exhorts the Corinthian church to kick
one of its members out of the Church because he was openly having an
affair with his father's
wife; however he insists that they do this "for the destruction
of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus." (I Cor 5:5). This tells us that a man who falls into grievous
sin can repent and come back to the Lord. The great thing is that Paul
later writes back to the Church and says that they should allow him back
in and forgive him since he repented of his deed (II Cor 2:1-12). So
it must be that even after we have accepted Christ, there remains yet
God's mercy for us and our wicked deeds.
Anyway, I do hope that this
answer has helped you as you seek to know God more.
Blessings,
Thom
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