Jer. 50
God used Babylon as a refining fire for His people. Then He used another nation to the North to execute His judgment against Babylon. I feel like He did all of this not just for the obvious stated purposes. The entire Old Testament, the entire story of the people of Israel (and Judah) is a picture of God’s greater plan for all of us. I certainly don’t understand it all at this point. I don’t see all the messages and correlations in it. But I do recognize it. And it is unquestioningly clear to me that God orchestrated it all. I don’t know how anybody can even begin to see these threads that weave the whole Bible together in impossibly intricate and detailed layers and not know that there is a sovereign God behind it all.
Heb. 6
I am struggling to grasp what this passage is saying. I wish I knew the backstory to the writing of this letter of Hebrews. Who wrote it to whom and what prompted them to do so? In any case, what I see here addresses the issue of the assurance of salvation, which brings up the controversial concept of “once saved, always saved”. From what I am reading in this chapter, I see a lot of misunderstanding in that statement. The concept suggests that once you accept Jesus as the payment for your sins and the Holy Spirit indwells you, He will stay in you forever no matter what. But is that really what the Bible says?
Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John about pruning unfruitful branches from the vine. And the author of Hebrews says that it is impossible for those who “have shared in the Holy Spirit…and then have fallen away” to be restored again to repentance. He equates them with unfruitful ground on which the rain has fallen that will be burned in the end. But he follows that with words that indicate to me both that his audience has strayed off the path and that he has hope they can be returned to it. He then follows with our true assurance of salvation, which is God’s faithfulness to His covenant with us for our salvation through Jesus Christ.
What this all says to me is that yes, we do have assurance of salvation. We find it in what God has done for us. He gave us a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:19a) in Jesus. And He has given us a “strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us” (Heb 6:18b). This comes in the knowledge that God cannot and will not be unfaithful to His promise. So the assurance lies in God’s promise and His unchangeable character.
However, I see no evidence that we cannot reject God once we have accepted Him. Jesus is an anchor that will not fail, but we still need to choose to hold fast to Him. An anchor is only good to those who remain in the boat. As to what it means to reject God after having accepted Him, I don’t really know. What I do know, and what I cling to, is that if we don’t turn our backs on God, He won’t turn His back on us.