Hebrews 3:
14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first.
what assurance did the unsaved have at first?
I don't understand your question. The unsaved are given assurances at a point in time when/if they become saved/born again. However, for those who remain unsaved until the end, no assurances are applicable to them.
Then if these people, who had
Hebrews 3:
14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the
assurance we had
at first.
And were
Hebrews 3:
1Wherefore,
holy brethren
, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus
were saved, it was unnecessary to warn them
Hebrews 3:
12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Edification for the saved; a published warning to the unsaved. However, the question you should have asked is: did any of the saved depart from the living God? The answer: no.
In what way are those without the Holy Spirit with Christ to be able to depart from Him
Again, I don't understand your question. For those without the Holy Spirit, neither do they have Christ - the two go together.
The unsaved eventually choose to depart from the true Christians because they are not of the saved and therefore do not truly believe in Christ.
Fair enough, and yet
Hebrews 3:
14We have come to share in Christ
if we hold firmly
to the end the assurance we had at first.
is there no difference between that and this non scripture?
We have come to share in Christ
as we hold firmly
to the end the assurance we had at first.
The KJV 3:14 seems to state it a little differently than yours.
[Heb 3:14 KJV] 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Said another way, since the "are made" was a completed action, and should we be of those who actually do hold the beginning of our confidence until the end, we can know that it is only from having been "made partakers".
And that being a function of having (been given) true faith. Those to whom it is not given, will not/cannot remain so unto the end but shall fall away. I think the below verse makes very clear that it is God's power, through faith, by which He keeps those to whom the inheritance was intended/bequeathed, to remain in true faith and confidence until the end.
[1Pe 1:4-5 KJV]
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you,
5
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The difference I think between the "if" and the "as" as I see it, is that for the "if" to be satisfied it must await the end; however, the "as" can be transient and terminate at any point with no guarantee of lasting until the end.
Better yet
it can be
both true that to become alive with Christ, believers must crucify the flesh, and
at some later point believers can begin to, for example
Galatians 5:
26Let us not
become conceited, provoking and envying one another.
Hence that and this
21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
"you" there are these people
Galatians 4:
6And because
you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
IMHO, there is nothing within a man's power that will bring to him salvation: it must come as a gift unsolicited from God through His grace and mercy, or not at all. Now, don't misunderstand me, I am not suggesting that it is ok to do those things which are not glorifying or pleasing to God, but neither does one's salvation dependent upon it. Why? Because salvation is solely and completely by Christ, not us. However, once God saves someone, He will direct them away from those things, and sometimes do so in the most unpleasant of ways until they get it. For an example, look at King David.
To be of the "sons" is in being God's spiritual son, meaning God had already saved and adopted them, the result of which, brings them to cry out to God "Abba Father".