As a youth, my group of friends would often go hiking. During that age before the Internet, we had to read the Appalachian Trail Guides and plan out the distances between springs and lean-tos.
Imagine hiking all morning, finishing all your water along the way, and planning on refilling at the designated location on the map -- only to find it dry during the heat of the day!
These teachers were said to be “waterless springs” 2 Peter 2:17. Their map to “freedom” leads them into a lifestyle of sexual immorality that is presumptive upon the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Early church fathers identify this heresy with the Nicolaitans of Revelation 2:6, 2:15) and it can be summarized as grace-permits-sin or antinomianism.
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.
Their map leads people to a place where the Holy Spirit will no longer give His regenerative power and this makes repentance “impossible” (adynatos).
The Crossroad
This brings us to a difficult set of thoughts.
No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We are at the place of mystery, the boundary between the sovereignty of God and the will of man.
Seen from within man’s will there is falling away. Seen from God’s decree, the sinner was never a child of God.
This is the crossroad where the eternity of God’s will and chronology of man’s choices intersect.
Fortunately, as we pause and study Hebrews 6:4-6, the passage does not say to the stumbling sinner:
“It is impossible, . . . to restore them again to redemption . . .”
It says to the truly apostate:
it is impossible, . . . to restore them again to repentance . . .
So, continued apostasy (including the heresy of antinomianism) is one’s own choice. But if you become repentant, and throw yourself on the finished work of Christ, you remain one of God’s elect.
Using a phrase from commentaries, this does not “do violence” to Chapter 17 of the Westminster Confession of Faith “Of the Perseverance of the Saints”, which has the follow key phrases:
· “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.”
· “This perseverance of the saints depends, not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election”
· “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:”
Combined they say that the elect, who even if they fall away, will only do so only “for a time”, and they will “persevere” and will “neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace”. Which, itself, is not in conflict with Chapter 3 “Of God's Eternal Decree”:
· “The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.”
So, we can confidently follow Peter’s instruction and step through this intersection:
2 Peter 1:10-11
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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