Can the Unfaithful Christian Return to Christ?
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Hebrews 10:26 says, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” Can these people be brought back into the fold? Can the unfaithful Christian return to Christ?
Yes, provided they sincerely desire to come back. The book of Hebrews deals more with this issue of falling away than does any other book in the New Testament because many Jewish Christians were falling away from the church to go back to Judaism. In Hebrews 6:4-6 we read, “For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (ASV). Here are Christians. They were “once enlightened.” They had “tasted of the heavenly gift.” They partook of the Holy Spirit. They experienced the “good word of God.” They partook of the “powers of the world to come.” Yet, they made a conscious choice to refuse these things, forsake Christianity and go back into Judaism. The Hebrew writer says that it is “impossible to renew them again unto repentance.” No outside force can bring them back to faithfulness to the Lord.
Now, can they come back? Yes, they can repent and turn back to God again, but there is nothing that a faithful Christian can say to them to “renew them again to repentance.” The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 illustrates this very point. God is always willing to accept those who, in repentance, turn to Him and declare their love for Him. The Prodigal Son left his father’s house willingly. He was in a good and blessed situation, but he decided that he could do better. As a result, he squandered his inheritance living a sinful life. He eventually ran out of money and friends, and he ended up in the lowest situation imaginable in that day–feeding pigs. When he realized the depravity of his situation, he decided to make a change. He came home and was restored to his father. His father forgave him and received him back into his house. The one thing that you do not read about in the story of the prodigal son is people going out to check on him to make sure he was well. The father did not go looking for him; the servants did not go looking for him and the brother did not go looking for him. They did not look for him because in his situation there would be nothing that could be said to bring him back. What are faithful Christians going to say to such a person who already knows everything that can be said?
There are situations where faithful Christians should look for those who have gone astray. This is illustrated in the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin. Jesus tells those parables immediately before the parable of the Prodigal Son. The lost sheep illustrates those who are lost through ignorance. The lost coin illustrates those who are lost through neglect. Jesus taught us to search for these and bring them back. However, when one deliberately chooses to leave that which he knows is a place of rest and safety, then the only way that person can be restored is through their own personal decision. No amount of reasoning from us is going to persuade someone to come back who has purposefully chosen to be lost. So, as the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 6:4-6, “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance.” That is a choice that only that person can make. What must one do to come back? He needs to acknowledge his lost state and return to Christ and the church.