OSAS - WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
2 Peter 2:20 - For if after they have escaped the pollutions (foulness) of the world through the knowledge (full discernment) of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled (involved) therein, and overcome (vanquished, thoroughly defeated), the latter end (final place or time) is worse (more evil or aggravated) with them than the beginning (former time).
2 Peter 2:21 - For it had been better for them not to have known the way (road) of righteousness (equity, justification), than, after they have known (become fully acquainted with) it, to turn (revert, literally, figuratively or morally) from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2 Peter 2:22 - But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb (enigmatical illustration), The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
WHAT IS BEING SAID ABOVE SEEMS CLEAR ENOUGH SO I WILL BREAK IT DOWN TO WHAT I UNDERSTAND IT TO MEAN.
We are talking about someone who has escaped the "foulness" of the world (in other words sin and degradation) through the "full discernment" (this is impossible to twist because discernment comes through the Holy Spirit). Discernment then would means understanding beyond a doubt what follows. So the this person has the full understanding of what it means to turn to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. To me this means the person must be a Christian because the unsaved are totally ignorant of who Jesus truly is in his office as Lord and Savior. Christians first acknowledge their need of a Savior when the Father, through the Holy Spirit draws them as stated in John 6:44 - "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." So then we are talking about this person escaping the sin and degradation through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The verse goes on to say that this "Christian" got entangled again in sin. All who are honest as Christians understand the temptations we go through and how we sometimes yield to the temptation and sin. To deny this would be to believe a lie. The problem with the Christian in this verse is that he or she becomes entangled in this sin or sins and is overcome. The word overcome in this verse means that the Christian is vanquished or thoroughly defeated. In other word, the Christian can't win his or her battle with the sin they are entangled in and goes down to defeat. There's no way to interpret this than to say they weren't able to exercise faith in Christ to gain victory and fell away from the faith. We will see this in the next two verses.
Verse 21 goes on to say; "For it had been better for them not to have known the way (road) of righteousness (equity, justification)." Again, the unbeliever or unsaved person has never known the way of righteousness so this has to apply to a Christian. We know full well that our righteousness is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and we receive justification through his sacrifice of his blood shed for us on Calvary. Unsaved people have no clue about the word justification and what that means in a spiritual sense concerning the Bible. So this Christian has known the way of righteous/justification and turned from it. The word known makes it plain that this person has become "fully acquainted" with justification which cannot apply to unbelievers prior to salvation. The word turn means to revert morally/literally or what we call backsliding or turning from the holy commandment given unto them. Again, this can only apply to Christians.
Verse 22 goes on to say; "But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb (enigmatical illustration), The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. The illustrations of the dog and the pig are stunning because they show the depth of the backsliding. The dog in returning to its vomit eats it. I have seen this. It is gross and the picture of one of God's children giving up godly living is equally gross and is intended to be. The pig returns to wallowing in the mire (mud). This reference is striking because pigs love to roll in the mud and stench of a pig pen. If you have never cleaned out the contents of a pig pen you would not understand. I had that experience and the stench was beyond foul and sickening. So this illustrates a huge turnaround for the Christian to accept the filth of the world over serving Christ.
I believe there is forgiveness for the backsliding Christian, but in these verses I see no desire to return. I see a person who tried to live the Christian life and couldn't overcome some sin and was thoroughly defeated to the point of giving up his place in Christ and returning to the world. I see a Christian without hope returning to his or her old ways with no inclination to fight anymore. And so it is said their punishment will be worse. Combining this with Hebrews 6:4-6 and Hebrews 10:26-31 which I'll expound on next. To avoid repetition I will do verse by verse on those scriptures.
Hebrews 6:4 - "For it is impossible (same word) for those who were once enlightened (illuminated or made to see), and have tasted (experienced) of the heavenly gift (in line with the following verses I'm compelled to believe the Heavenly gift is salvation), and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, I don't believe this needs any explanation, but to say we have received the Holy Ghost when we are redeemed. Further this enforces the idea that the gift spoken of here is salvation because we can't have the Holy Ghost before we are redeemed through the blood of Christ.
Verse 5 - And have tasted (experienced) the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, (It is only after salvation that we begin to receive and understand the word of God and in my case I was privilege to experience the powers of the world to come as God manifested miracles in my presence that never could be explained apart from supernatural influence.
To further clarify, I have prayed for others who were healed instantly, I have been healed instantly myself as was my oldest son when we prayed for him, and I was used of God to cast demons out of houses and people. I have also had a multitude of prayers answered according to the promises that are found in scripture and some only God and I knew were prayed.
Verse 6 - 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." Going back to verse four where we read 'It is impossible' we continue with falling away. Again we are made to understand that this cannot apply to unbelievers because they can't fall away since they never came to Christ. This has to be speaking of Christians falling away. In this case the scripture tells us 'It is impossible, to renew them again unto repentance.'
Here we need to recap what is being said. The Christian has been enlightened, tasted of salvation, partaken of the Holy Ghost, has experienced the word of God and the powers of the world to come but then fell away. Having experienced all this the next words are chilling because it states "It is impossible to renew the above unto repentance. In other words, I believe it is saying there is no more opportunity for repentance. What a horrible state to be in!
Then follows the reason why it is impossible. "They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame." It's akin to spitting on the mercy and grace of God as if it no longer means anything to the Christian involved. It is tragedy beyond our understanding and difficult to grasp with finite minds. Salvation lost forever with no possibility of recovery. The clinching verses found in Hebrews 10:26-27 enforce the finality of this judgment.
Hebrews 10:26 - "For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Here is the root - "sinning willfully" after we have received the knowledge of the truth.
My personal view is that this is speaking of resisting the voice of the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin to the point where we deliberately sin against the Spirit over and over again until we harden ourselves and are no longer convicted of our sin. I believe this is what the scripture calls having a reprobate mind. In my opinion a person's mind that is reprobate can no longer differentiate between good and evil. They have forsaken righteousness and reached a point of no return. God help us to never go there. The next verse speaks of the judgment of those who do.
Hebrews 10:27 - but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries."
Here the Christian has refused to hear the voice of the Spirit and because they have become reprobate they only have judgment to look forward to and the description of that judgment is a fearful judgment, fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. These adversaries are the unsaved and unrepentant and those who turned from the Lord will join them and be damned forever. We are to be obedient to the Lord when he speaks to us through his word and the Holy Spirit. Judas was the first example of a follower of Christ who listened to the voice that turned him and led to his horrible death. I pray the Lord would keep all who read this and all of us would be diligent to resist the temptation that leads down that road to perdition.
C R Lord © 11/6/2022
THERE IS A COMMENT BOX BELOW. - I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR CONSTRUCTIVE INPUT.
Comments ()