2 Peter 3:14-18Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Conclusion
14 Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found at peace with Him without spot or blemish. 15 Also, regard the patience of our Lord as an opportunity for salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. 16 He speaks about these things in all his letters in which there are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.
This same very thing is happening now in the church as to the same reason why Peter was having to write and warn believers. Warning us that people are here trying to twist Pauls teachings to promote a walkless faith and the OSAS doctrine.
"Unstable, untaught, twisting the Scriptures to their own destruction" is not descriptive of genuine believers. Nothing is mentioned here about walkless faith or the OSAS doctrine. That is your personal commentary.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stability.
"Dear friends" and "lawless people" are two separate groups.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Amen!
Keep in mind Peter is speaking to believers. Be on guard why if we are eternally secured? Led away from what if we are secured? Fall from your own stability? Why do we need to grow if we have nothing to grow into? Maybe the growth helps us be on guard from being led away.
Why didn't Peter specifically say "lose salvation" if that is the final result? Believers continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is part of our ongoing sanctification. Proverbs 24:16 - For a
righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity. hmm...
Hebrews 10Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
The Perfect Sacrifice
10 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said:
You did not want sacrifice and offering,
but You prepared a body for Me.
6 You did not delight
in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.
7 Then I said, “See—
it is written about Me
in the volume of the scroll—
I have come to do Your will, God!”[a]
8 After He says above, You did not want or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), 9 He then says, See, I have come to do Your will.[b]He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after He says:
16 This is the covenant I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws on their hearts
and write them on their minds,
17 He adds:
I will never again remember
their sins and their lawless acts.[c]
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
This is very beautiful and the hope we have in Christ. This is the only sacrifice that matters and we must remain in the faith of the only sacrifice for sins. That is the only way our sins are forgotten by the mediation of Christ. Walk away from Christ, lose faith then what sacrifice is available?
Those who permanently walk away were never firmly rooted and established in the faith to begin with.InHebrews 4, notice in verses 2-3, For indeed the gospel was preached to
us as well as to
them; but the word which
they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For
we who have BELIEVED do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest," although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Not all of these Jews were Christians. Notice that verses 2-3 makes a distinction between "us" who have BELIEVED and do enter that rest and "them" who heard the word but did not mix faith with what they heard and will not enter that rest because of UNBELIEF.
John 6:66-68Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
66 From that moment many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him. 67 Therefore Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”
68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life.
Hebrews 10 continued
*You left out verse 64 - But there are some of you who
do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. *Notice in John 8:31 - If you
continue in My word, then you are
truly disciples of Mine. Those who walked with Him no more because they were offended by His words were
not truly His disciples. *You also left out John 6:70 in which Jesus described Judas as a
devil. Judas did not continue and also fits John 6:64.
Exhortations to Godliness
19 Therefore, brothers, (very clear the author is speaking to believers if you haven't figured that out) since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh), 21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, 25 not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
This is our Christian walk, our faith in action is to draw near with a true heart, remain in faith to our original confession without wavering, and to keep encouraging other brothers/sisters to stay connected, stay in love, and to keep building up the church. Because the day is drawing near for everyone to be held for what they did with the time allotted by God to us here on earth.
*So where are the words, "lose salvation?"
Warning against Deliberate Sin
26 For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. 28 If anyone disregards Moses’ law, he dies without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, regarded as profane[d] the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know the One who has said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay,[e][f] and again, The Lord will judge His people.[g] 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
32 Remember the earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions, and at other times you were companions of those who were treated that way. 34 For you sympathized with the prisoners[h] and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession.[i] 35So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.
37 For yet in a very little while,
the Coming One will come and not delay.
38 But My righteous one[j] will live by faith;
and if he draws back,
I have no pleasure in him.[k]
39 But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and obtain life.
In Hebrews 10:26, to "sin willfully" in the Greek carries the idea of deliberate intention that is habitual, which stems from rejecting Christ deliberately. This is CONTINUOUS ACTION - A MATTER OF PRACTICE. Now we don't walk along our daily life and accidently fall into a pit called sin. We exercise our will but, the use of the participle clearly shows a CONTINUOUS ACTION. The
unrighteous practice sin - (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21);
not the righteous, who are born of God - (1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 John 3:9).
The reference to "the blood of the covenant that sanctified him" in verse 29 seems to be referring to a Christian, but this overlooks the fact that the word translated "sanctified" (which is a term often applied to Christians; it is the verb form of the adjective "holy") really just means "set apart," and doesn't necessarily refer to salvation. In 1 Corinthians 7:14, Paul uses it to specifically refer to non-Christians who are "sanctified" or "made holy" by their believing spouse.
(And by this Paul does not mean that they are saved). A non-Christian can be "set apart" and from other non-Christians and sinful things without experiencing salvation as Paul clearly explained. So the word "sanctified" means to be "set apart." If the word "sanctified" simply meant saved, then you would have to say that the Sabbath was saved (Genesis 2:3), the tabernacle was saved (Exodus 29:43), the Lord was saved (Leviticus 10:3), the Father saved the Son (John 10:36) and many other things that just do not line up with Scripture.
In verse 39, the author sets up the contrast that makes it clear to me that he was referring to unbelievers, not saved people: But
WE are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of
THOSE who believe to the saving of the soul. Those who
draw back to perdition do not believe to the saving of the soul and those who
believe to the saving of the soul do not draw back to perdition. So after considering the context, it seems most likely that "he was sanctified" should be understood in the sense of someone who had been "set apart" or identified as an active participant in the Christian community of believers, but who has subsequently committed apostasy by renouncing his identification with other believers, by rejecting the "knowledge of the truth" that he had received, and by repudiating the work and the person of Christ himself. Such a person’s apostasy is thus evidence that his identification with the Christian community was only superficial and that he was not a genuine believer.
2 Peter 2:21-22Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit,[a] and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”
Those who are truly born of God have received a new nature, a divine nature, and they have new and different appetites and desires. They have been transformed from pigs and dogs into sheep. The change is more than just cosmetic, as in 2 Peter 2:20. *These cleaned up on the outside dogs and pigs were never sheep.
Compare 2 Peter 1:4 -
"partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption - Strongs #5356 that is in the world through lust with 2 Peter 2:20 - with they escaped the
pollutions - Strongs #3356 (different Greek word) of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, yet they are again entangled therein, and overcome. *Notice that 2 Peter 2:20 did not mention them being "partakers of the divine nature.
Corruption (Strongs #5356) (to shrivel or wither, spoil , ruin , deprave, corrupt , defile, to destroy by means of corrupting, to spoil as does milk). Corruption - describes decomposition or rotting of an organism and the accompanying stench. The utter depravity of the fallen flesh and the resultant moral decomposition of the world opposed to God is driven by it sinful lusts or evil desires.
Internal corruption.
Pollutions/Defilements (Strongs #3393) ("pollutions", "filthy things", "contaminations", "world's filth") describes the state of being tainted or stained by evil and refers to impurity, impure, tainted, defilement, foulness or pollution.
Pollutions/Defilement refers to what is on the
outside (2 Peter 2:20). But genuine believers have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4).
*Corruption is deeper than pollutions/defilements on the outside: it is decay on the inside.
Having the knowledge of Jesus Christ does not save a person if there is
no heart submission to that knowledge. The latter end is worse than the beginning for these men because rejecting this knowledge will make them more accountable at the judgment.
Its really not that scary. The author is just saying remain in Faith. Well, I suppose for people that are living lukewarm this verse won't sit too well on the stomach.
Obviously, this verse is similar to......
You are absolutely obsessed with the NOSAS doctrine. What's really scary is remaining on that roller coaster ride of fear and bondage to In-security.
