I am going to give you Got Questions answer here as I like it.
Question: "Does Hebrews 6:4-6 mean we can lose our salvation?"
Answer: Hebrews 6:4-6 states, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” This is one of the Bible’s most difficult passages to interpret, but one thing is clear—it does not teach that we can lose our salvation. There are two valid ways of looking at these verses:
The GotQuestions answer starts with a bias - that the passage 'can't mean' that a former believer can reject faith and hence lose salvation. That bias becomes very apparent in the hoops it jumps through to ignore the actual Greek text and force it's own interpretations onto it.
One interpretation holds that this passage is written not about Christians but about unbelievers who are convinced of the basic truths of the gospel but who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. They are intellectually persuaded but spiritually uncommitted.
According to this interpretation, the phrase “once enlightened” (verse 4) refers to some level of instruction in biblical truth. However, understanding the words of scripture is not the same as being regenerated by the Holy Spirit. For example,
John 1:9 describes Jesus, the “true Light,” giving light “to every man”; but this cannot mean the light of salvation, because not every man is saved. Through God’s sovereign power, every man has enough light to be held responsible. This light either leads to the complete acceptance of Jesus Christ or produces condemnation in those who reject such light. The people described in
Hebrews 6:4-6 are of the latter group—unbelievers who have been exposed to God’s redemptive truth and perhaps have made a profession of faith, but have not exercised genuine saving faith.
This interpretation also sees the phrase “tasted the heavenly gift” (
Hebrews 6:9) as referring to a momentary experience, akin to Jesus’ “tasting” death (
Hebrews 2:9). This brief experience with the heavenly gift is not seen as equivalent to salvation; rather, it is likened to the second and third soils in Jesus’ parable (
Matthew 13:3-23), which describes people who receive the truth of the gospel but are not truly saved.
Finally, this interpretation sees the “falling away” (
Hebrews 6:6) as a reference to those who have tasted the truth but, not having come all the way to faith, fall away from even the revelation they have been given. The tasting of truth is not enough to keep them from falling away from it. They must come all the way to Christ in complete repentance and faith; otherwise, they in effect re-crucify Christ and treat Him contemptuously. Those who sin against Christ in such a way have no hope of restoration or forgiveness because they reject Him with full knowledge and conscious experience. They have concluded that Jesus should have been crucified, and they stand with His enemies. It is impossible to renew such to repentance.
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This interpretation is unsustainable and does severe damage to the actual text, context, and parallel scriptures. While some (not all) Greek terms in the passage can have a range of meanings, context limits these. And when some explicit terms which can only accurately describe Christians are used, with no contextual reason given to restrict other terms, then it makes no sense to restrict some terms to non-Christians and then just ignore the explicit ones.
Briefly, with parallel scriptures given to show that taken together these terms must refer to former Christians: These Christians had seen the light (
II Cor 4:6), ate of the heavenly gift (
John 6:33),
were made partakers in the Holy Spirit (
I Cor 12:13,
II Peter 1:4,
Eph 3:6,
Heb 3:14,
Col 1:12,
Phil 1:7,
Eph 4:4, etc), tasted the goodness of the word of God (
Psalm 38:4) shared in spiritual gifts (
1 Cor 12:4), and
repented (
Acts 2:38), but
then fell away.
If only the phrase 'seen the light' was used, then maybe it could be argued that only non-Christians were meant. However, the explicit term 'were made partakers of the Holy Spirit' was used - which circumvents any attempt to make this apply to non-Christians. Literally, the Greek term
métoxos means to share in with change afterward, that is
change due to
sharing. The term right before is genēthentas - showing that they were
given a new birth and transitioned from one state to another! Are unbelievers made partakers of the Holy Spirit, transitioning to a new life and changing due to the indwelling Spirit? Of course not!
Another explicit term the passage uses is 'having fallen away.' This is the Greek parapiptó, which explicitly refers to falling away from something you were a close participant in - not something you were merely close to joining.
From help word studies:
"
3895 parapíptō (from
3844 /pará, "from close-beside" and
4098 /píptō, "to fall") – properly,
fall away, after being
close-beside; to
defect (abandon).
3895 /parapíptō ("fallen from a close position") refers to a
close-follower of Christ who becomes a defector. It suggests this person (at least at one time) was a believer (note the
para).
3895 (
parapíptō) is only used in Heb 6:6."
Taken all together in context, with parallel scripture, and with the two explicit Greek terms used which cannot apply to unbelievers, it is clear the passage is describing people who were once Christians.
The other interpretation holds that this passage is written about Christians, and that the phrases “partakers of the Holy Ghost,” “enlightened,” and “tasted of the heavenly gift” are all descriptions of true believers.
According to this interpretation, the key word in the passage is if (verse 6). The writer of Hebrews is setting up a hypothetical statement: “IF a Christian were to fall away . . .” The point being made is that it would be impossible (IF a Christian falls away) to renew salvation. That’s because Christ died once for sin (
Hebrews 9:28), and if His sacrifice is insufficient, then there’s no hope at all.
The passage, therefore, presents an argument based on a false premise (that a true Christian can fall away) and follows it to its senseless conclusion (that Jesus would have to be sacrificed again and again). The absurdity of the conclusion points up the impossibility of the original assumption. This reasoning is called reductio ad absurdum, in which a premise is disproved by showing that it logically leads to an absurdity.
This interpretation is even more absurd than the last. Why? Because it makes up a word that isn't in the Greek, and isn't even implied in the Greek! There is no "if" in Heb 6:6 or attached at the end of 5. If you are reading an English translation that inserts an 'if' into the verse, know that it is an addition by translators and not found in any ancient Greek manuscript.
Go check for yourself:
Hebrews 6:6 Greek Text Analysis
The manuscripts have the phrase "Kai parapesontas" - this translates "And having fallen away" or "And then having fallen away." There is nothing hypothetical about it, nor anyway to pull a hypothetical from it. Quite the opposite - the grammar is incredibly explicit that these people *did* fall away even as they had once shared in the Spirit.
Both of these interpretations support the security of the believer in Christ. The first interpretation presents unbelievers rejecting Christ and thereby losing their chance of salvation; the second interpretation presents the very idea of believers losing salvation as impossible. Many scriptures make it abundantly clear that salvation is eternal (
John 10:27-29;
Romans 8:35,
38-39;
Philippians 1:6;
1 Peter 1:4-5), and
Hebrews 6:4-6confirms that doctrine.
Both of the interpretations GotQuestions presents due support the Calvinist theory of eternal security - but as I went through, they violate the scripture in order to prop up that man-made theory. Here, though, he finally gives some support verses that refer to eternal life - but do these support verses actually show that someone cannot lose faith? Let's briefly examine them:
John 10:27-29: No proof here. This shows that Jesus *actively* gives eternal life to His sheep who *actively* follow Him. The Father *actively gives* these sheep to Jesus. Eternal life is an ongoing state conditional on their continual hearing him and accompanying Him. This doesn't prove a once and done eternal life wherein they can never stop following Him. The Greek verbs are very important here: hear, know, give, accompany, they are present active indicatives.
Romans 8:35,
38-39; No proof here. These verses only talk about the inability of outside powers, beings, and hardships from taking away our salvation. It says nothing to whether or not we can reject faith, and subsequently renounce salvation ourselves.
Philippians 1:6; No proof here. This just says that Paul is confident that Jesus will continue the work He began in us and continue to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus - true for anyone remaining in Christ/in the vine who grows in Christ (II Pet 1:3-11) and bears fruit. This good work in us begins after we place our faith in Christ, not before, so this verse cannot be referring to Jesus completing our faith. And in context, it's about Jesus being faithful to work in us - not a teaching that we will automatically remain faithful to Him.
1 Peter 1:4-5: No proof here. This verse says that we (believers) have a future inheritance
reserved for us, a salvation that will be revealed in the last days. This future salvation is conditional, however - it is only those who are protected by the power of God
through faith. So far from demanding that God's power keep us in the faith, this shows that God's power protects us through our faith. Obviously if we cease having faith, we are no longer protected by that power and cannot claim the reserved inheritance or promised salvation.
Hebrews 6:4-6: No proof here. This passage, as we just went through, unambiguously shows that some people were once Christians with the Holy Spirit, but then fell away.