FIRST QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #7
FEBRUARY 12, 2022
“JESUS, THE ANCHOR OF THE SOUL”

 

 

A Sunday teacher told me she stopped teaching her children’s class because of her pastor’s teaching of “once saved, always saved.” From his pulpit he proclaimed he could never be lost, regardless of sin in his life. Hearing this the teacher was greatly concerned and shared her apprehensions with her husband. He told her she must have misunderstood what their pastor said. He advised her to speak to him about it. She did. The minister’s reply was even more strongly worded. He said he could willfully, deliberately murder someone and never be lost because he was “saved.”

 

The teacher told him she would have to resign from teaching the children and he asked why? Her reply to him was that she did not agree with his teaching of “once saved, always saved.” He wanted her to continue to teach the children because she was one of the best teachers in that church. Her response was that she could no longer teach because she would instruct them that they could lose their salvation if they should turn away from God. She told the pastor that difference between her belief and his belief would confuse the children as they listened to the differences. She resigned.

 

Advocates of the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” do not believe Hebrews 6:4-6 is describing a “saved” Christian who loses his salvation as described in this passage.

 

Others teach that this passage is only a warning against a mere profession of faith, but that the passage is not about real salvation. They taste but do not really partake of salvation (see The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1315).

 

The passage truly addresses those who have experienced genuine conversion but turn away from it and enter into perpetual apostasy.

 

Notice the phrases Paul uses in this passage: “once enlightened”, “tasted the heavenly gift”, “have become partakers of the Holy Spirit”, “have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come”, if they fall away”, “renew them again to repentance”, “crucify again… the Son of God.” Reading later, Hebrews 10:26-29, in Tuesday’s lesson there is more evidence that it is possible to be lost because of continual choosing to reject so great a salvation:

 

“If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth”, “trampled the Son of God underfoot”, “counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing”, “and insulted the Spirit of grace.”

 

In my own experience, I thought I probably committed the “unpardonable sin” because I had committed almost all the sins condemned by God’s law. I was concerned about my predicament. So, I asked a pastor about my situation. His reply brought comfort to me. He said as long as a person is concerned about this sin, it is evidence the unpardonable one has not been committed. This is because when the Holy Spirit is not present there is no conviction of sin.

 

We need to remember that what has been referred to in the above quoted passages is about continual apostasy. The apostates to whom Paul referred had a genuine experience with Christ at one time. They saw and felt the mighty power of the gospel in their lives. But continual apostasy resulted, then and now, in losing the power of the gospel and results in a continual ongoing crucifixion of Christ in the unrepentant person. These continue to be unrepentant. Their consciences become seared as with a hot iron. There is no remorse for their rebellion against Christ.

 

In spite of the possibility of apostasy, we have wonderful promises in Thursday’s lesson.

 

In the passage of Hebrews 6:16-20 Paul wrote of humans swearing oaths of confirmation in a court of law. He contrasted this with the fact that God not only promises salvation, but He “confirmed it by an oath” by which “we might have strong consolation.” Confirmation by an oath meant then and continues to this day that God was/is willing to give up His life if any promise He made fails to do what He says it will do.

 

In a court of law, we swear an oath, under God, to tell the truth.

 

God “swears as well as man, and He can swear only by Himself. He can even stake His life as a pledge (‘as I live …, if the men of the land see,’ Numbers 14:21-23). God guarantees with His oath the truth of His Word. He backs the declaration of His will by His majesty and holiness, and even by His very existence.” Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.

 

Mrs. White understood that God loved us so much that for our redemption He risked His own existence for our salvation. “Look upon the wounded head, the pierced side, the marred feet. Remember that Christ risked all. For our redemption, heaven itself was imperiled.” Christ Object Lessons, 196.

 

“[I]nto the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life’s peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss.” The Desire of Ages, 49.

 

Waggoner wrote many times about God’s oath and what it means to us. Here is one of those gems:

 

“If one poor soul should come to Him and fail to find forgiveness for a sin confessed, or help in time of need, that would be a failure of God’s promise, to which He swore by Himself, and therefore that very moment God would cease to exist.

 

“Does someone say that it is irreverent to talk about God’s ceasing to exist. It is no more irreverent than it is to talk about His not being able or willing to forgive any sin that is acknowledged, or to provide all the help that any soul needs. Would that all men might see that to doubt God’s willingness to forgive is to deny His existence, so that it is the rankest infidelity not to accept pardon, or to doubt that God helps in every time of need.” E. J. Waggoner, The Present Truth, United Kingdom, October 27, 1898.

 

God’s promise – Christ, Who is the fulfillment of all His promises – is our Anchor in the waters of life whether they are calm or roaring. We have “this hope as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.”

 

In Paul’s use of the metaphor of an anchor we learn God’s purpose for us. The anchor is a device, usually made of metal, attached to a ship or boat by a cable or chain and lowered to the seabed to hold the vessel in a particular place by means of a fluke or pointed projection that digs into the sea bottom. These can be a life saver in times of storm.

 

Christ is our hope. He is our spiritual anchor. He is both steadfast and sure. Regardless of the fierceness of the tempests we face, He is faithful. He is steadfast. He will hold us and never let us go.

 

In agreement with this from Mrs. White, and Elders Jones and Waggoner, here are some following thoughts to encourage us to trust the Anchor of our souls as we close this Insight:

 

“Infinite Love has cast up a pathway upon which the ransomed of the Lord may pass from earth to heaven. That path is the Son of God. Angel guides are sent to direct our erring feet. Heaven's glorious ladder is let down in every man's path, barring his way to vice and folly. He must trample upon a crucified Redeemer ere he can pass onward to a life of sin.” Our High Calling, 11.

 

“Do conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road is the easy way. All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on. God's love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves.  . . . And all the way up the steep road leading to eternal life are well-springs of joy to refresh the weary.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing,” pp. 139, 140.

 

“The new birth completely supersedes the old. 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.’ He who takes God for the portion of his inheritance, has a power working in him for righteousness, as much stronger than the power of inherited tendencies to evil as our heavenly Father is greater than our earthly parents." E. J. Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant (1900), p. 66.

 

"It can never be repeated too often that under the reign of grace it is just as easy to do right as under the reign of sin it is easy to do wrong. This must be so, for if there is not more power in grace than there is in sin, then there can be no salvation from sin. . ..

 

"Salvation from sin certainly depends upon there being more power in grace than there is in sin. A. T. Jones, RH September 1,1889.

 

~Jerry Finneman