I'm preaching this Sunday on Hebrews 6, the famous passage that is so controversial in the debate about eternal security. I'm working on the sermon now and plan to blog a post or two from my sermon prep but I thought, as a runup to that, I would post a couple of sections from the Westminster Confession. Before I do that, here are a couple of concerns I have as I am studying the passage.
The Scylla on that passage is the Arminian notion that you can lose your salvation. I think there are plenty of other passages that speak of eternal security, plus if you look at the passage through an O.T. covenantal community lens, there is a very reasonable explanation which does justice to the passage without forfeiting eternal security.
The Charybdis of Hebrews 6 is the typical reformed exegesis which effectively neuters the passage's intended effect as a warning. What I mean is that reformed exegetes and others who believe in eternal security spend so much time jumping through hoops to prove what it doesn't say, that they never get around to saying what it does say. In other words, these folks go to great lengths to show that this doesn't teach you can lose your salvation and I think the effect is to cause their hearers or readers to wipe the sweat from their brows and think "whew, glad to know this passage doesn't apply to me." It seems clear to me that, when we read Hebrews 6, we aren't to walk away relieved that this doesn't apply to us, but we should have a sense of fear and awe as we read it. In that respect, though I disagree with their paradigm and conclusions I think the Arminian interpreters do a better job of respecting the force of this text as a warning passage.
I'll probably have some more extensive thoughts on this ready to post sometime tomorrow but for now I thought I would post chapters 18 and 19 of the Westminster Confession for those of you who don't have access to them.
What I like about the confessional statements on this is that they are far more comprehensively biblical than many modern statements on eternal security and assurance of salvation. As opposed to the flippant "once saved always saved" theology of today where our eternal security is based on the praying of a "sinners prayer," the confession grounds eternal security in God's electing grace. Similarly, the subjective experience of the assurance of salvation is not grounded in some past experience, rather on present day experiences.
I just find the confessional statements to do a far better job of accounting for the biblical data on security and assurance than much modern exegesis does. I'll share more on that in a later post.
CHAP. XVII. - Of the Perseverance of the Saints.
1. They, whom God hath accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.
2. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace: from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof.
3. Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins; and, for a time, continue therein: whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves.
CHAP. XVIII. - Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation.
1. Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God, and estate of salvation (which hope of theirs shall perish): yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.
2. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God, which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.
3. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto. And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it from inclining men to looseness.
4. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God's withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light: yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived; and be the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.
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