The Dangers of Turning Back
Hebrews 6:1-8
On October 25, 2010, a massive earthquake set off a tsunami that struck some Indonesian Islands. The tsunamis leveled whole villages, leaving hundreds dead or missing. According to the survivors, the deaths could have been avoided, or at least minimized. Unfortunately, the tsunami warning system – two buoys off the islands – weren’t working properly. So they didn’t alert the islanders to the coming danger.
Since 2004, experts have improved the tsunami detection network. The DART buoys (as they are called) measure wave height. If a buoy measures an unusual wave, it transmits that information to the shore. This system often provides the only warning signal for islanders to prepare for the oncoming danger. Unfortunately, according to the report, the buoys “have become detached and drifted away. Sensors have failed. As many as 30 percent have been inoperable at any one time.” As a result, the buoys often fail to awaken people to the reality of future tragedy.[i]
There are warning signs and signals everywhere we look. There are billboards all over our area warning people of the dangers of opioid and other drug overdoses. There are stickers on sports helmets warning athletes of the dangers of concussion and traumatic brain injury. There are signs at gas stations warning all of us not to smoke near gas pumps. When kids are learning to drive, they go through a whole segment in driver’s training on the dangers of impaired and distracted driving, complete with videos of accidents. Even the coffee we buy from our favorite coffee shop has a warning on it about coffee being hot.
We’re surrounded by warnings, and yet … people still use drugs like heroine and fentanyl. Athletes still play hockey, and football, and baseball, and cricket. Who among us HASN’T driven distracted at one point or another? Or spilled hot coffee on our pants before work? I will say that its been a long time since I’ve seen someone smoking while pumping gas, but I’ve seen people not too far away from the pumps smoking. We’re surrounded by warnings. Warnings that, all too often, we ignore.
The loving pastor who wrote the sermon that we call the New Testament book of Hebrews has paused his argument that Jesus is the all-sufficient savior and our risen Lord, that we need to turn to no other for help, that in fact there is no other for us to turn to – he’s paused all of that to motivate us to pay closer attention to what he’s about to say about Christ, AND to warn us of the dangers of following Jesus for a while and then turning back. And it doesn’t matter whether we follow Jesus for two weeks or two months or two years or twenty years before we turn back. There is a very real danger in doing that, and he wants us to be aware of it. Why? Because he loves us. Turn with me to Hebrews 6:1-8.
Now, we need to understand, he isn’t knocking the foundational elements of faith in Christ. If the foundation isn’t healthy, the building won’t stand the test of time. But if all we do is lay a foundation over and over again, we’re going to wind up with ugly concrete or block walls that stretch to the sky – not a beautiful house or church or building. The problem isn’t the foundation itself. The problem comes when all we want is the foundational elements of faith. When we don’t want to grow on to maturity in Christ. When we don’t want to wrestle with heavy issues or learn how to love and disagree with someone at the same time.
His issue isn’t with foundational things. Foundations are critical. His issue is with focusing ONLY on foundational issues and never moving on to maturity. A reader who never moves beyond their ABC’s never experiences the satisfaction of reading a great novel. A pianist who never moves beyond playing scales never knows the joy of playing a beautiful piece of classical music. Without those foundational things, we don’t have anything to build on. But if they’re all we have, we never experience the beauty and grandeur of life in Christ, life lived as a citizen of the kingdom of God.
He actually mentions those foundational issues. Repentance from dead works. Now, good works aren’t bad in and of themselves. James is very clear that “faith without works is dead” (Js. 2:17). Good works are a necessary EXPRESSION of faith in Christ, but they aren’t a way of trying to earn God’s favor, of trying to have the good in our lives outweigh the bad so that we can earn heaven when we die.
Life in Christ isn’t about trying to be good enough. It’s about recognizing that I can’t on my own, and placing my faith in Christ, acknowledging that he died in my place for my sin, and offers me his life in return. And that life comes with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit and the good works that come from that transformation. God doesn’t invite us into a life of always trying to be good enough but always falling short.
He invites us into a life of citizenship in his kingdom, a life in which our sin is forgiven and yet still punished, because that punishment was meted out on Christ on the cross. He invites us into that eternal life now, and we begin to live as citizens of his kingdom now – by his grace and empowering and always in need of forgiveness when we blow it. So we stop trying to “be” good enough to earn heaven and accept God’s offer of grace in Christ, and we begin to TRUST HIM. To follow him. Not just thinking certain things about God, but aligning our lives with the life he wants us to live in him.
“Instruction about washings” are the ceremonial Jewish washings that became, for followers of Jesus, baptism. So instruction about baptism. Early Christians took candidates for baptism through extensive foundational education and faith formation BEFORE they were baptized. Laying on of hands happened both during prayer for healing and also to commission church leaders in their roles. When I was ordained as a pastor, church leaders from all over the state came and laid hands on me, commissioning me as a pastor.
Resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment is about God bringing this history of this cosmos to his intended conclusion in Christ, when sin and death are destroyed and our sin is dealt with. We all want justice. When someone hurts us, we want justice. We want them to be punished. If God just looked the other way when we sin, or swept everything under the rug, God would not be a God of justice. And God is a God of justice. Sin has to be dealt with. Paid for. Punished. So we either place our trust in Christ and our sin is carried by him on his cross as he hangs there in our place – justice and grace combined in one God-initiated act – or we face God alone. That’s all the foundational stuff. And he doesn’t flesh it out anymore. He just mentions it, because he wants us to realize that we need to build our life in Christ on that foundation, but not JUST have that foundation, and never move on to maturity.
What’s the problem with just focusing on the foundational elements of faith? What’s the very real danger he is warning us about? The danger is that, in a world that is so often passionately opposed to life in Christ, we won’t last in the faith if we aren’t growing toward maturity in Christ. And not lasting, not persevering, in our faith in Christ, means we’ll stand before God at the final judgment without Christ. Look at Vv. 4-6.
Now, this is one of the most controversial passages in the New Testament. Thousands and thousands of pages in theological journals and books have been written about it, and pastors and bible scholars have come down all over the place on this text. The issue is whether someone who has an authentic faith in Christ can actually lose that faith. Roughly half the theological spectrum says “no they can’t,” and they quote verses like Philippians 1:6 – “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
The other half or so of the theological spectrum says “yes they can,” using passages like Colossians 1:21-23, which says, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith.”
The positions on this text from Hebrews fall into three broad categories. The first is that our pastor is talking about a hypothetical situation that can’t really happen. That seems to be the least likely. Why bother with a warning about a hypothetical situation that can’t really happen?
The second one is that actual followers of Jesus with authentic faith who are truly saved by grace CAN lose turn their back on Christ and go back to their old, pre-faith lives.
The third is that those who turn their backs on Christ aren’t really following Christ to begin with. Their APPEAR to be Christ followers but aren’t really. Because true Christ followers will never turn their backs on Christ.
Of course, the argument comes because people are trying to make this passage in Hebrews fit their theological positions. And those positions ARE in fact important. But they don’t matter to our ancient pastor as he or she speaks to us today through these Biblical words. His point is, flirting around with an immature faith that we are tempted to reject is a dangerous place to be. Why? Because apart from Christ, no one can stand before God.
But he goes a step further. Look again at V. 6. This is the verse that gives everyone trouble, and where the real warning is. Because we don’t like to think about the limits of grace. We don’t like to think about grace NOT being there. Here’s the thing – the Bible is clear that enduring is a key component of faith. God will finish what he starts in us, AND we must endure to the end. Both can be true at the same time.
Because I know that God will finish what he has started in me, I have the confidence and hope that promise provides and know that I can take one more step, no matter how hard the winds of this world blow against me. When I stumble and fall, I can allow Christ to pick me back up and continue on with him, hopefully with a little more wisdom to not make the same mistake, fall in the same way, again.
Our pastor wants us to ask a serious question of ourselves? If I am tempted to quit, to turn back, to reject Christ, what is the actual nature of my faith? What do I need to do to move on into maturity. And the definition of a mature faith is a faith that matures. Now, go with me on this one. For faith to mature, to grow, IT HAS TO LAST. A mature faith is a lasting faith. Maturing means lasting. Persevering. Hanging in there.
Now, look at Vv. 7-8. Our pastor has made his, or her, point. And now they illustrate it. Just as a field’s crop is evidence of the health of the soil, the fruit in our lives is evidence of our faith in Christ. Not at any one given point. There may be times where we’re struggling. Times when there are rocks in the soil that need to be removed or fertilizer that needs to be applied. But in the end, there is fruit in keeping with a life of faith.
Of course, there are those who pass from this life before they have a chance to bear fruit. That happened right next to Christ, with the evil man who found faith as he died on the cross beside Christ. That happens. And growth and maturing isn’t always obvious to us looking into one another’s lives from the outside.
Maturing leads to a fruitful life in Christ in the end. Some of that fruit is internal. We are more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, more patient, more kind, more gentle, more able to endure difficulty. And some of that fruit is external … other people drawn to Christ because of what they see of him in us.
Some of us have faith, but our growth is stunted, because we are not willing to move beyond laying the foundation. If that’s the case, we need to heed our pastor’s loving warning, because a stunted, immature faith, if it never moves beyond the foundation, will, over time, have a harder and harder time producing any fruit. It will be harder and harder to hold on to Christ when the world pushes us to let go and get back in line with the way it wants us to go.
Growth and maturing requires us to become okay with being uncomfortable. We have to allow God to stretch us, challenge us, and shape us, and that isn’t always comfortable. There are people here who need to volunteer to teach a class or lead a Bible study. I cannot teach them all. There are people here who have never fed the hungry who need to volunteer on a community meal team for a while. There are people here who need to give of their resources to help keep the food pantry supplied. There are people here who have someone on their hearts to pray for and invite to church who need to step out and do that.
And there are people here who have been leading and helping and doing for a long time and they’re getting older and can’t do what they used to do. And that makes all of us uncomfortable. Because we know it means we’ll need to step up and step into new levels of growth and maturity to carry things forward into what God has for us next. And that requires ALL of us to get a little bit uncomfortable.
From time to time, lobsters have to leave their shells in order to grow. They need the shell to protect them from being torn apart, yet when they grow, the old shell must be abandoned. If they did not abandon it, the old shell would soon become their prison – and finally their casket.
The tricky part for the lobster is the brief period of time between when the old shell is discarded and the new one is formed. During that terribly vulnerable period, the transition must be scary to the lobster. Currents gleefully cartwheel them from coral to kelp. Hungry schools of fish are ready to make them a part of their food chain. For a while at least, that old shell must look pretty good.
We are not so different from lobsters. To change and grow, we must sometimes shed our shells – a structure, a framework – we’ve depended on. Discipleship means being so committed to Christ that when he bids us to follow, we will change, risk, grow, and leave our “shells” behind.[ii]
2025 has been a year of leaving my shell behind and looking for the new, bigger one God has for me. After a lot of activity starting Christ Church in 2013, a little over a year after our son Zeke died, and then merging here with Peninsula Bible Church almost three years later in 2016, things had kind of settled in for me. Lenda and I had a good working relationship. She did what she had always done and I did my thing. We talked, we shared thoughts and ideas, but she managed a lot of what happens around here and I focused on preaching and pastoral care and that kind of stuff. And Randy is begging for a break from some of his facility and grounds management tasks.
And now Lenda isn’t here. As a church, we’ve had to rethink how we do things. Sometimes we’ve had to actually notice things Lenda did that no one knew she did, like manage all the different types of toilet paper and paper towel dispensers, all needing different kinds of supplies, or remembering to unplug the coffee maker, but not the water cooler.
As Ruth and Margianne have moved into new leadership roles, it’s required a different type of leadership from me. But it’s going to require a different level of growth and maturing and engagement from all of us as we move forward into what God has for us next. Are you growing, or stunted? If you’re stunted, beware. There’s a price to pay for staying there. Let’s pray.
[i] Smithsonian Magazine, “Did Broken Buoys Fail to Warn Victims of the Mentawai Tsunami?” (October 28, 2010)
[ii] Brent Mitchell in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.
