In a previous post we considered three ways to know if you are maturing as a Christian. In this post, we’ll begin to think about what it means when we aren’t.
What If I’m Not Maturing as Christian?
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 6:1-6)
Does this passage teach that if we don’t “go on to maturity” that God will take away our salvation? Here are two reasons I don’t think so:
1. The illustration in verses 7-8:
For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
Enlightenment, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come rain down upon a group of people. Some of those people react with fruitful growth (listening, learning and discerning). Others react with fruitlessness. It isn’t that people are stripped of their salvation. It’s that, in spite of their spiritual experiences and participation, they never had it.
2. The pronouncement in verse 9:
Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
The fact that there are “better things–things that belong to salvation” indicates that the previous verses did not refer to things belonging to salvation. Those who fall away were never saved to begin with.
This brings us to a gravely serious conclusion: If you are not maturing as a Christian, it may be because you aren’t saved.
