“Falling away from the living God”[1], according
to Scripture, has very serious consequences. This falling away denotes
apostasy; to defect, to stand off, to revolt. It is total desertion, completely
departing and turning away from your beliefs, your faith. To do exactly the
same as Alexander & Hymenaeus, and others, intentionally making shipwreck
of the faith,[2]
to claim to be true believers of God,
yet not follow the true teachings of the New Covenant Church about Jesus Christ.
A believer who is justified[3] is to
let his righteousness work holiness.[4] The believer is to live a holy life and become
a servant of righteousness. A genuinely saved person cannot abuse the mercy of
God. He cannot walk in sin; he cannot make a habit of sinning. To do so is to
tread upon the mercy of God and make a mockery of God's grace. It is to say
that God's grace gives a person the license to sin, and such is a contradiction
of terms—as much a contradiction as to say that a dead man is alive.
But if
one after having “received the knowledge of truth”[5] continues
to willfully sin then nothing will protect one from the judgment of God. ‘Knowledge’
used here means full knowledge, epignosis in the Greek. The point is this. An Israelite who spurned the Old Covenant suffered a severe penalty;
we therefore will suffer a much greater penalty if we reject the superior New
Covenant. Apostasy under the New Covenant has the effect of having a
complete disregard over the Son of God by despising Him, despising the superior
blood of Jesus Christ that "sanctified" the apostate. Still more the apostate insults the Holy
Spirit who graciously, by grace alone, brought him or her to faith in Jesus Christ
and then not their faith but God’s faith.[6] Persistent
sin is a contemptuous attitude for the salvation secured through the priestly
sacrifice of Christ. Nothing less than to reject the Christian faith satisfies
the descriptive clauses in which the effects of the offense are sketched."[7] What are
these? a) He tramples God's
very own Son; b) He counts the blood of Christ an unholy thing: c) He has
despised the Spirit of grace, the very Person who showers the grace of God upon
men, that is, the Holy Spirit.
Take special note that this
is written to believers, not to those who have yet to hear the Good News and be
drawn to Jesus. This is very sobering, especially in these times, considering
how serious a matter the writer of the letter considered it then, just look at
how many thousands of believers are being drawn away from the faith. Look at
the many hundreds if not thousands of teachers / preachers preaching a false,
heretical gospel different from the one proclaimed by Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus said “ And many
false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. … For
there shall arise false Christ, and false prophets, and shall show great signs
and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”[8]
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