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"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace" ( Hebrews 6:4-6 )

Growing up Baptist, I held tightly to the doctrine 'once saved, always saved'. So you can imagine the ground shaking experience that occurred one summer at camp when my counselor co-worker challenged this idea. He was attending Bible college at the time learning all sorts of things. As he shared this knowledge, confusion about what I had always believed set in. I realize now what he was trying to say, but at that time, I wasn't able to reconcile this truth in full understanding. Even reading a verse such as this, can challenge our core belief system unless we understand several things. However, to comprehend the fullness of God's grace, having insight into a passage of scripture such as this is extremely important.

Every great truth in the Bible, appears to have a contradiction. This is why we get so many divisions among believers who cannot agree and argue these doctrines. However, there are always two sides to every truth and understanding both sides brings balance to each truth in the Bible. Each idea is usually not an either or but both. A good illustration I once heard a speaker use is that of a tightrope. If I was going to cross a gorge on a tightrope I would need anchor point securely fastened on each side of the gorge. I would want the tension and pull to be the exact same so I could walk the entire length of the rope without it losing structure. If they were not both pulling in the opposite direction with the same force. I would never securely make it across.

This is a great picture to understand why it is important to have equal and opposite truths that appear to contradict. Because it gives the pull needed to find balance between both ideas and both truths. Comprehending all facets will bring a deeper understanding of scripture and an intimate working knowledge of God and His infinite grace.

At first glance, this verse seems to be floating in this chapter out of nowhere. The writer is encouraging the reader to progress in their knowledge of truth. Then out of the blue He warns against falling away, noting it is impossible to be brought back again to repentance once this happens. This can be a little disconcerting because life carries us through ebbs and flows without the need to worry about losing one's salvation. So the question naturally becomes, once you are born again, can you lose your salvation?

Tomorrow we will look at this question and find the answer by looking at the promise of salvation. Please join me for part 2, The Basis of Eternal Redemption.

Christ ushered in the New Covenant of grace, which comes to us by faith alone. Faith placed in what Jesus did to fulfill the Law of Moses. He obtained the righteousness that the Law could never give mankind. And now anyone who trusts in Jesus to save them is freely offered this rightness in place of the guilt and shame which plagued mankind because of sin. Romans makes this very clear, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” ( Romans 3:21-24 ).

Through faith in Christ we gain the full revelation of what Moses spoke about. He showed us the righteousness of the Law, Jesus is the one who provided that righteousness for us, so the Law could be fulfilled in our hearts. Paul said in II Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” ( II Corinthians 5:17-21 ). Now that we have obtained this we become partakers in God’s House where Jesus resides as the faithful Son over it.

Jesus has proven Himself trustworthy as overseer of the New Covenant God made with mankind. But He is not just a servant of this promise; He is the master and guarantor of the Covenant. It is ratified by His precious blood. Therefore the members of God’s house, everyone who puts their entire trust in Jesus, can rejoice and hold fast to this promise of grace. We can experience confidence before God because of the hope we place in Christ. Since He was faithful to God when He entered humanity to redeem us, He will be faithful to us and every promise that has been made.

What Moses saw and spoke about is fulfilled in Christ. As long as the Son resides over God’s Covenant we rest securely in this promise. We have hope for every situation in life. We know Jesus is our advocate to sympathize and help in every situation. We also know the glory to which we are called and look forward in anticipation to the time when Christ returns.

Tomorrow we will look at Hebrews 3:7-9; Hardness of Heart Effects Our Understanding of God

The gospel was promised by God through the Holy Scriptures regarding His son Jesus. Paul is starting to build his case and it is not by chance that the starts with the fact that Jesus was a descendant of David, by his human nature. He does this to engage the Jewish reader and to support the claim that in fact the Good News of the Messiah has come. The Jews wouldn't be able to receive any of this information without first recognizing that Jesus' blood line was one and the same as the promised Messiah.

This is also a very important piece of information to us as gentiles because when we look at the full spectrum of the scriptures both old and new it is important for us to compare all the evidence of Jesus against the prophecies of the promised Messiah. Paul knows this is a prophecy of the scriptures and on that needs to come to pass if Jesus was in fact the Messiah or Christ.

One obvious place to look for the prophecy is Isaiah 9; if you grew up in a church or merely went to services on Christmas then this scripture should be familiar to you.

This is an obvious prophecy of the Messiah and one which foretells that the Christ will reign on David's throne. Now we are well aware of the fact that to reign on the throne of a king one must be a blood descendant.

The height of Israel's royal kingdom was during the reign of King David and King Solomon and Isaiah said that the Messiah would ‘reign on David's throne and over all his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with Justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.' So to be the Messiah who could accomplish this it would be important that the Christ was of David actual blood line.

God also promised David that his kingdom would be established forever. II Samuel 7:16 says, ‘Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.' This was all part of God's promise to David and this promise is also recorded in II Chronicles 17:14, "I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.' And lastly it is David who wrote about this promise from God in Psalm 132, "Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one." ( Psalm 132: 17 ) Here the word horn symbolizes strong one, that is king... and the ‘anointed one' is common as a descriptor for the Christ throughout the Old Testament.

So throughout the Old Covenant it is apparent that the Messiah would come through the bloodline of King David. And if you flip over to the beginning of the New Testament the written record of Matthew's gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus...

"A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham..." ( Matthew 1:1 ) As you read through the genealogy you will see that this genealogy records Jesus' ancestry through Jesus' earthly father Joseph and that ancestry was traced through the royal line of David and King Solomon. "And Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ."

Matthew clearly writes to a Jewish audience, so the lineage traced through the father confirming the royal bloodline of King David would be important to them when deciding if Jesus was the Messiah.

Now, if you look at Luke's account of the genealogy of Jesus, you are going to see a completely different genealogy of Jesus, you are going to see a completely different genealogy. But his ancestry is also traced back to King David, but is trace back through one of David's other sons, Nathan. Luke who wrote this gospel was not Jewish so tracing the lineage back to King David through Joseph the earthly father wouldn't have been important to him. What would have been important to him was to record accurately the account of Jesus, which was the declaration at the beginning of His letter, "Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilius, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught." ( Luke 1:3-4 )

Luke's focus and purpose was to record accurately the account of Jesus' ancestry to us, who are not Jewish, so we could see and understand how Jesus descended from David thus fulfilling the Messianic prophecies concerning the Christ coming from the line of David.

Luck gives us one other important piece of evidence here in his writings... Luke 3:23 says, "now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph." First he gives this little disclaimer that it was thought that Jesus was the son of Joseph and then launches into a completely different genealogy then that of Matthews account.

So at first glance, this seems to contradict itself, but upon further study and reflection we see that Luke's attention to detail actually adds to the fullness of the fulfilled prophecy because Luke actually gives us Jesus' ancestry through his Mother Mary, which her ancestry can also be traced back to King David and since Jesus was not of his earthly father's bloodline it was necessary to trace his bloodline to King David through his mother Mary.

So Paul knows the importance of his for both the Jews and the gentiles that is why he starts out the book of Romans assuring his readers that Jesus was the promised ‘Good News' foretold about in the scriptures through the prophets and in accordance to His human nature, he was a descendant of David, thus fulfilling scripture and prophecies about the Christ or Messiah.

I heard a preacher recently say that for God's Word to manifest itself in your lives you need both the Word and the Spirit to be successful. The book of John starts out by saying, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." Now we understand the Word to be Jesus and we see this all through out the scriptures that Jesus is called the Word and that the Word was flesh - it was God living and interacting in the physical realm.

It is not surprising that Paul starts out the book of Romans telling us that Jesus was a descendant of David, and we have recently discussed the importance of this truth. But since we understand our Lord Jesus to be both physical in body and spiritual in mind and Spirit it is of the utmost importance to understand that Jesus' resurrection from the dead by the Spirit of holiness to be the pinnacle of history and the absolute proof that Jesus was who he claimed to be - The Son of God.

Going back to our account in the book of John, we see some important truths starting in vs. 10, "He was in the world and though the world was made through him the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who receive him to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent nor human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the father full of grace and truth." ( John 1:10-14 )

So we have the Word, who was God and who is God and who created all things and who came in human form to break the curse of the law and to redeem that which the kingdom of darkness acquired during the fall of man... and he was in human form.

Now our Jesus was crucified and lay in the grave and at that point the penalty of sin had been paid for - Jesus shed his blood to atoned for the sins of the entire world once for all, past present and future. Hebrews talks about this in chapter 7, verse 27, "Unlike the other high priest, he (Jesus) does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrifices for their sins once for all when he offered himself." This is imperative to understand that Jesus paid the penalty for sin once for all - But it is only through his resurrection from the dead that he took the position of High Priest before God and entered into the heavenly tabernacle to present His blood on the mercy seat. Starting in verse 28 of Hebrews 7, it goes on to talk about this when it says, "For the law appoints as high priest men who are weak. But the oath which came after the law appointed the Son who has been made perfect forever. The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a High Priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven and who serves in the sanctuary; the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man" ( Hebrews 7:27 - Hebrews 8:2 ) this is why it is both the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus that gives us assurance of Faith.

Now Paul is stressing this point in the beginning of Romans, when he said, it was through the Spirit of Holiness that Jesus was raised from the dead and this demonstration of power is the proof that he was the Son of God! It goes back to what that preacher said, you need both the Word and the Spirit to manifest the truth that is God's Word. The Word was prophesied and spoken over thousands of years until that which was spoken came to pass by the movement of the Spirit and to the obedience of those the Word was spoken to, thus fulfilling the Word. The Word fulfilled itself by the demonstration of Power by the Holy Spirit in that and of the person of Jesus Christ who is the Son of God both in the physical and in the spiritual realm.

To have the prayer life of Paul...Paul wasn't casually telling the Romans that he remembered them and prayed for them. Paul did not waste words on the page to say something that wasn't true.

It's not like today when someone shares something with us and we tell them that we will pray for them. We say this to make them feel better and make ourselves look good, all the while we have no intention of carrying through with what our mouth uttered.

However, Paul was genuine, when he advised the Romans that he constantly remember them in all his prayers it was a fact. God was witness to the reality that Paul prayed and remember these Christians. He remembered them in all things, always thanking God the Father when he heard reports of their progress and faith.

Paul also tells informs us as a witness to how much he prayed for these people when he relates the genuineness of his service to the Lord, the Amplified Bible says it this way, "For God is my witness, Whom I serve with my [whole] spirit [rendering priestly and spiritual service] in [preaching] the Gospel and [telling] the good news of His Son, how incessantly I always mention you when at my prayers." He is reminding them of how he serves the Lord in everything, with his whole spirit. He served the Lord passionately and wholeheartedly.

News of Paul and what he did traveled to the known world. Paul was known for being an intense and driven follower of Christ and signs and wonders followed him by what he did. Paul is simply reminding the Romans, that in the same way I serve the Lord wholeheartedly and fully in my whole spirit, this is the same way I remember and pray for you before the Lord... He is my witness.

Today, if you have made commitments to pray for people or want to pray for people but do not know where to start... just start thanking the Lord for their faith and what He is doing in their lives. Remember them before the Lord and praise the Lord because of His goodness towards them. You will find that it is a pleasure to pray for people because you are making it all about the Lord, and this brings Him glory!

The law could never make us right with God because sin weakened it's power making it incapable of saving us. Our sin nature defeated us from the get go, so we never stood a chance of being able to fulfill the law by doing what it says. The entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit was vulnerable and held in captivity to sin under the control of darkness, we were powerless to help ourselves. In that sense, the law was never able to us to bring us salvation and yet it held the key to breaking the bondage of captivity that we were held in.

However, while we were weak and powerless, God sent Jesus to come in the flesh and utterly destroy the power of darkness. It is important to realize that Jesus came into the world and was just as much human as he was God. He was born under the same captivity that you and I were born into and yet he never sinned. He lived a perfect life and so he was able to fulfill the entire law because sin never defeated him. He came as our representative before God to stand in the gap that sin created. Just as Adam plunged the world into sin, Jesus rescued the world from sin.

Now to do this, Jesus became a sin offering for us. This is amazing, because Jesus is holy, he abhors sin, so this was no small sacrifice becoming the very thing that he hated and despised. But according to the law a sin offering was required. There were instructions for many sacrifices according to the Old Testament law. Leviticus 7:37 records six of them. However, a constant throughout all instructions for these different offerings was that a substitution was made for the individual making the offering. Something was sacrificed and the atonement was imputed to the individual making the sacrifice.

The interesting thing about the guidelines for the sin offering was that it had to made whether or not the sin committed was intentional or unintentional. The party for whom the sacrifice was made would lay their hands upon the offering to symbolically transfer guilt to the animal. Then the blood was sprinkled over everything because the covering of blood brought atonement and the forgiveness of sins. The sin offering was offered over and over because it was only a temporary solution to the problem. Hebrews chapter 10 says, "those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." ( Hebrews 10:3-4 ). So there was a need for the sin offering to be made, but it was apparent that the law was not able to accomplish the reconciliation and removal of guilt, because the sin consciousness was still there afterwards.

Concerning the law and sacrifices, Hebrews say this, "This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings-external regulations applying until the time of the new order" ( Hebrews 9:9-10 ). That is because we were so defeated by sin that the blood covering of animals would never do. So, what it could not do, 'God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering' ( Romans 8:3 ). This is an amazing truth because Hebrews 8 goes on to tell us that Christ did not enter a manmade tabernacle nor did he enter with bulls and goats, but he enter a heavenly tabernacle with his own blood obtaining eternal redemption for us. This blood so pure and so holy, unblemished before God, was able to save completely and cleanse our consciences from any guilt remaining ( Hebrews 9:12-14 ). And so he completely defeated death and overcame sin in one redemptive act.

Because Jesus only died to sin once, sin has been completely taken care of. He condemned it in the flesh when he died upon the cross. He subdued it, he overcame it, he deprived it of all it's power over us. The law was never able to do that for us, but what the law could not do, Christ did!

For those of us who have accepted this payment, We have traded our sin and our sin nature and have been given the righteousness of God. This righteousness fulfills the law which was always God's intent. It wasn't on our own account, but it was a gift. Through Christ we have become the righteousness of God. "For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness]" ( II Corinthians 5:21 Amp ).

The blood of Christ was able to cleanse us for all guilt. When we understand this, then we should no longer have a sin consciousness. That sin sensitivity will keep us from enjoying all the benefits of an intimate relationship with the Lord. But if we can overcome this notion of guilt then we will have boldness before the God. Hebrews 10 says, "let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water" ( Hebrews 10:22 ). Meaning that we should continually be approaching God this way, in boldness. We should have no consciousness of guilt because we are so totally forgiven through Christ. His blood was able to completely wipe away all condemnation that sin held over us.

Today, I am so thankful that Jesus did for us, what the law was incapable of doing. It is my prayer that you start approaching God in full assurance of faith, with boldness before him. Start living like you've been redeemed, fully purchased by precious blood, reveling in grace. God bless you!

What a marvelous thing to operate in God's timing, because it is always perfect. Abraham and Sarah were well beyond the childbearing years when the promise first came to Abraham. He was in his eighties and Sarah in her seventies. At this time Abraham believed what God said and God credited his faith as righteousness, or right standing with him ( Genesis 15:6 ). However, he did not see this promise fulfilled through Isaac for another 13 plus years, but he stood on the promise of the Lord during this time because he knew that God was faithful. It was not until after he was circumcised along with his entire household that the Lord gave him a time frame for the promise. The Bible records that Ishmael was thirteen years old when they were circumcised ( Genesis 17:25 ). Genesis records shortly after, "Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing" ( Genesis 18:10-11 ). When this happened Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety, there was no doubt to anyone who witness this miracle that Isaac was the son promised by God because naturally speaking, conceiving a child was impossible at their age.

What is amazing about God's timing in this situation is that it removes any argument that Abraham had anything to do with it's fulfillment. They never had children and they were advanced in years. God had promised them more descents than they could count and it was only through Him that this came to be ( Genesis 15:5 ). God told Abraham that he was his shield and great reward and that he would not leave him without descends ( Genesis 15:1-5 ). Part of the promise to Abraham was that the Messiah would come through his line, so this promise of descents carried the weight of the world upon it ( Galatians 3:16 ). And fulfillment of it blessed the entire world, just as God said it would.

Isn't it great that God does everything in his timing? At the right time he provide Abraham with an heir and at the right time he introduced the Messiah to the world. Romans 5 says "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly" ( Romans 5:6 ). We were held captive under sin and the power of darkness and we were completely incapable of saving ourselves, so at the precise moment, Christ came and die for us so that we could be reconciled to the Father. The amazing thing about what Christ did for us, he did when we were enemies of God. We were opposed and against him because of our sin nature, "but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" ( Romans 5:8 ). Just like in our example of Abraham, his timing was perfect and no one can argue that what he did for us we could have done for ourselves.

Today, I am so blessed by the promises that have been fulfilled in Christ. I am glad that he did what I could not do and in doing so, reconciled me unto himself. I am thankful for Abraham's faith and obedience and I look forward to seeing God's perfecting timing work in my life in all circumstances. Today, may this revelation of God's faithfulness bless you, amen.