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repentance is not grounds for losing one’s salvation in Scripture. It is grounds for a discipline (Hebrews
12), a loss of rewards (1 Cor. 3:10-15) and could result in a person being taken home early as
punishment (1 Cor. 11:30).

2:1-3a - “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from
it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or
disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”
Salvation from what? If the message is come out by faith and don’t go perish with them, the salvation is
from perishing in the Old Jerusalem. The result of the salvation will be that they are there at the return
of Christ to see the New Jerusalem and enter. They believe Jesus would return at any moment. So, they
just needed to wait for it.

4:1-3 - “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should
seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard
did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have
believed enter that rest” First, it says they may “seem” not to reach it. Second, those did not believe
were the ones who did not enter. So, there is a contrast between faith and those who do not believe in
the first place.

6:4-6 – “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the
heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and
the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since
they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” This
passage refers to believers who wander into sin and refuse to mature. It does not say they are unsaved.
It says they will not be “renewed to repentance.” As a believer repentance restores relational fellowship.
It does not determine whether you are saved or not. Those who disobey are disciplined. Those who
obey are rewarded. For more on this issue see the section on eternal security.

10:39 - “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and
preserve their souls.”

Again, The Jewish believers are being pressured to return to Judaism. It is likely that Hebrews predates
the fall of Jerusalem as it is not mentioned in the book. Yet a catastrophe seems pending. The writer
urges them not to go back but to look to a new city (Hebrews 11:10, 11:16, 12:22, and 13:14). If they
return to Jerusalem and Judaism they will perish with the Jews. If they die with them, they will not enter
the rest God is leading them to. They should be like the heroes of the faith and continue in faith as God
brings them to the New Jerusalem. These passages are practical warnings about how to seek the New
Jerusalem they thought was about to come at any moment.

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 –
8 “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the
presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might”

What does it mean to obey the Gospel? It means to obey God by believing in Jesus. Remember the
passages above that said that the work of God is to believe in the Son? That does not mean faith is a
work. It means that the obedience God wants from us is not to do good works to merit our salvation,
but rather to believe.

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