Can a true believer in Yeshua lose their salvation? Or, put another way, once we are saved, are we always saved? It is a contentious, controversial, and loaded question, the answer to which affects not only our sense of eternal security, but also the daily decisions we make as followers of Messiah. Fortunately, one of the most important underlying themes running throughout the book of Hebrews provides us an explanation. Unfortunately, many find the author’s answer difficult to swallow.

Throughout Hebrews, we are frequently admonished to not fall away. The author warns against having “an evil heart of unbelief resulting in the falling away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). He exhorts us to hold fast to our faith until the end (3:14), because any unbelief within us should cause us to “fear” (3:19-4:1). He encourages us to “be diligent, then, to enter into” our eternal stopping-place (4:11). And he challenges us to go on to maturity “to the discernment both of good and of evil” (5:14-6:1). Then in chapter 6, he makes his most substantial declaration.

[F]or it is impossible for those once enlightened (having tasted also of the heavenly gift, and having become sharers of the Ruach HaQodesh, and tasted the good saying of God, also the powers of the coming age) and having fallen away, to be renewed again to reformation (having again crucified the Son of God to themselves, and exposed Him to public shame). (Hebrews 6:4-6)

While we might be tempted to believe that such a grave warning could not possibly apply to true believers in Ye­shua, the author makes his meaning clear. He begins by speaking of “those once enlightened”—presumably with the light of Yeshua (Hebrews 10:32, John 1:9)—whom he then goes on to describe in detail. They have “tasted also of the heavenly gift,” “the good saying of God,” “the powers of the coming age,” and have “become sharers of the Ruach HaQodesh.” This is not the description of some false convert or religious adherent in name only. This is a true, bona fide believer in the Messiah.

To fall away, then, means that one no longer diligently holds to the belief and faith in who Yeshua is and what He has done for us. It means he no longer fears the living God, he has given in to the evil heart of unbelief, and he remains immature in his discernment between good and evil.

So for this one who had once been enlightened, but then fallen away, the author says that it is impossible “to be renewed again to reformation” or repentance. In other words, the change that takes place in the believer when he puts his faith in Yeshua and turns to God cannot happen again— he cannot be made new a second time. Yeshua’s sacrifice is no longer available to be made for him again. This is what the author wants us to fear. This is why he wants us to remain diligent, to mature, and to hold fast to our faith. This is why the author repeatedly points to the example of the generation of Israel that fell in the desert (chapters 3 & 4), was not given a second chance, and—despite having been redeemed and delivered—did not enter the promised land. Such is the fate also of the believer who has fallen away.

It is indeed true that, once saved, “no one will snatch [us] out of [Yeshua’s] hand” (John 10:28), “[nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39), and no material or spiritual force in the universe external to us can steal us from God and our salvation. Yet this does not mean that a believer cannot still fall away through his own disbelief and immaturity of faith. While there is never any reason for followers of Messiah to live in fear that we might accidentally lose our salvation—as if it were something we could unintentionally mishandle or misplace—what the author of Hebrews is saying is that we can deliberately throw away our salvation through the passivity and immaturity which open us up to evil and sin.

Can a true believer in Yeshua lose his salvation? No. Never. Can he reject it through his own disbelief? He most certainly can. Heed the author’s warning to be diligent in faith, and you will never have cause to doubt your salvation.

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