Dr Paul Allen

Christians struggle with sin because we, in this life, are still sinners. The presence of sin in us will not be eradicated until that glorious day when we see Jesus face to face. What a day that will be! But until then, we fight sin by faith, and we can experience assurance inside the fight. But we also believe there are forms of “willful sin” that evidence a heart that has not been saved. Which leads to today’s question from Josh.  https://hopecollege.com Let's look at the book of Hebrews — specifically Hebrews 10:26–29 . The writer seems to be speaking about the ability to lose salvation by engaging in ‘willful sin,’ as it has been called.  What is the opposite of a ‘willful sin’? Is it an accidental sin? Or something else? Due to the presence of the Holy Spirit ’s conviction, all sin done by the believer is done willfully. Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 6 often give people the impression that a person possesses the fullness of salvation and then loses it. These texts can...

“If they then fall away, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Heb. 6:6). Hebrews 6:4–6 paints the dreadful picture that it is impossible to restore to repentance those who fall away. It is impossible to restore those who may have done many things in order to show that they were genuine Christians (6:4–5).  As such, many believe that the passage teaches that genuine Christians can lose their salvation. But this position does not fit the evidence of this text or the rest of the Bible. Since the characteristics of the group that falls away may be true also of unbelievers in the church, we cannot automatically interpret the text as teaching that genuine Christians can lose their salvation. However important this may be, the most compelling reason for believing that 6:4–6 does not teach that genuine Christians may lose salvation is found in 6:7–8, which we will look at tomorrow. Let's examine Hebrews 6:6, which tells us ...

An act of sin does not cost you your salvation. There are people who teach that if you sin once after you have accepted Jesus, you must be saved again. But this is not what the Bible teaches. Can you conceive of somebody adopting a child and then throwing it out on the street because it falls while learning to walk? When we are saved, we are adopted into the family of God. We must, out of love on one hand and godly fear on the other, seek to live a life that is pleasing to Him. But the idea that one act of sin would cause someone to be thrown out of God’s family is not in the Bible (I John 1:7, 9). However acts of sin or rebellion will take away the joy of your salvation. When David sinned he had no joy, because he had rebelled against God (Ps. 51:12). He said, "Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me" (Ps. 51:11). Even though he had committed adultery and had been responsible for an innocent man’s death, by this clear statement we are shown that he still had the Holy Spiri...