What does First B Jackson teach about falling away?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on falling away takes the warning passages in Hebrews 6 seriously rather than softening them. Pastor John introduced the section in Hebrews 6:4-8 by first acknowledging that it is one of the most theologically contested passages in the New Testament, and he was direct that it is easier to run to a consistent logical extreme than to stay in the tension the text itself holds. The warning describes people who have been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and who then fall away. He said the plainest reading of those four participles describes Christian experience, and he was not willing to do what he called verbal Olympics to explain that away. Neither he nor Pastor Matt steered the congregation toward either side of the theological debate about whether a true believer can lose salvation. The point both pressed was that the warning is real, and it calls each person to examine themselves honestly rather than to evaluate someone else.
Pastor Matt did address the fear that the passage can stir up. If someone is asking whether they have committed the unpardonable sin, he said, the very fact that they are asking and reaching toward God means God's offer of forgiveness is still open to them. God always responds to genuine faith. The image from verses 7 and 8, two pieces of ground that both receive rain, was used to hold the warning in a practical place: the question a person should bring to their own life is whether they see fruit of the Spirit there, or only the motions of acting like a Christian without any real transformation showing up.
The teaching does not leave the warning as the final word. The author of Hebrews follows it with the word "beloved," the only time that term appears in the letter, and says he is convinced of better things concerning his readers, things that accompany salvation. He sees their work and the love they have shown toward God's name. Pastor Matt pointed the congregation toward what actually holds faith secure: not a person's own consistency, but the promise and oath of God, confirmed because God could swear by nothing greater than Himself, and the high priesthood of Jesus.
Taught from Hebrews 6:4-8 · Hebrews 6:9-11 · Hebrews 6:1-3 · Hebrews 6:13-15 · Genesis 22
The passage taught · Exodus 3:14
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- September 29, 2019 The Basis of Our Spiritual Security A Wyoming pastor walks through Hebrews 6, tracing diagnosis, warning, and encouragement to one anchor: the unbreakable promise of Jesus as our eternal High Priest.
- September 29, 2019 The Basis of Our Spiritual Security Hebrews 6:13-20 examined: God's promise, oath, and Son form the unshakeable basis of spiritual security for everyone who has taken refuge in Christ.
- September 22, 2019 Danger, No Passage The pastor walks through Hebrews 6:4-12, holding the warning against falling away and the call to persevere in honest tension, without softening either.
Mentioned along the way
- March 3, 2019 The Lord Stood With Me Paul closes 2 Timothy with a list of names, and Pastor Ray traces what faithfulness, desertion, and service look like in the lives of real people then and now.