Hebrews 6:4-6
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
I would like to break this down into it's smaller parts.
For it is impossible
for those who were once enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted the good word of God,
and the powers of the world to come,
If they shall fall away,
to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to an open shame.
People use this verse a lot but we all seem to ignore what it says. Let's look some of the words.
enlightened a : to furnish knowledge to b : to give spiritual insight to
partakers :to take part in or experience something along with others
fall :to pass passively into a new state of mind
I know people who are like this. They use to go to church. Now they are now professing atheist or just don't believe. They know the bible inside and out but have done the "If they shall fall away". Getting them to repent is impossible! But with God anything is possible.
I fell away also into the world or sin, so I had to deal with this verse last year for myself one on one. I fell flat on face and the only thing that was left was him. He accepted me back just as the parable of the wayward son. He was a son first, left and went into the world, fell flat on his face. The father threw a party when his son returned home. He did me also!
Notes, Once saved always saved applies to predestination, but some people was not predestined to be saved, they have tasted of the spirit and know the truth but reject him later, even Paul talks about several of them. Paul told us to pray that satan will destroy their flesh that they might be saved in the end. Blaspheme against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven which where they end up!
As for the person planting the seeds of the gospel, it's better for him to beleive once saved always saved because of the motivation factor there. but he shouldn't tell new christians about once saved always saved until the person have been weaned off of milk and can handle meat.
I have been told that this sounds like works. Nope it means plant the seed, then water it, take care of it, but don't expect the plant to produce fruit until it has matured. That takes time.