These verses have been misunderstood for a long time. There are those who use the text as support for losing your salvation. Allow me to draw a distinction between relationship and fellowship. A son is a son forever no matter the circumstances because of the relationship to the father. A son can behave as if he were not a son to any degree under any situation if the fellowship has been injured but he is still a son. If you are questioning the perpetuity of your salvation after having confessed Christ as your Savior asking for his forgiveness, you are tormenting yourself. Rely on the practicality between relationship and fellowship.
Notice in our text the verbs that are used. They are enlightened, tasted, and participated. There is nothing in this text that says they have lost their salvation. I can be enlightened when I come into a dark room but that does not mean I belong in that room. I can taste the meal but that does not mean that I have consumed the entire meal. I can partake of anything such as a sports team but that does not mean I am a professional athlete. The people herein described have rubbed shoulders with the gospel but not believed it. If I visit a dance, that does not mean I am a dancer but only that I am an observer.
The relationship of believers with God is based on what God has done through Christ on the cross and his resurrection. There is absolutely nothing that a human being can do that would create a relationship with God.
The fellowship of believers with God can be wide ranged. Many people have accepted Jesus as their Savior but never read the Bible and never go to church. When they pray, it is likely to publish a wish list to God instead of an experience of worship.
To fall away in this case is to become disinterested in the gospel. It is to ignore the tenants of what the Bible says for how we should live. It is to place self above the influence of the Holy Spirit. Any positive example provided by one who has fallen away is that of a good moral person and nothing more. If it were possible to lose our salvation, how much sin and what kind of sin must we commit to lose it. Because that is such an important question were it true, surely the Bible would define it clearly.
We could take the next sentence out of context and conclude that we can once again become lost. That phrase is, “if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance” these words taken by themselves are frightening. The explanation is enhanced by the Scripture saying to crucified Jesus afresh is putting him to open shame. In other words, Jesus was crucified once for our salvation. He would never be crucified a second time just because we have sinned. He said on the cross that his work was finished. That means our salvation is complete without any amendments. I ask you this: were it possible for Jesus to be crucified a second time, what is to say that he would need to be crucified a third time a fourth time or a fifth time or a 100th time? The salvation provided by Christ on the cross has no alternate plan. There is no plan B.
The importance of our text is to monitor how we associate with God. He completed the plan of salvation, but our fellowship relies on us. Will we choose to be close to him, or will we choose to have a lukewarm relationship with him as did Jesus complain of the Laodicean church in the book of Revelation?
Having a friendship with Christians does not make anyone a Christian. Attending church does not make anyone a believer. I know of someone who likes to go to church because of the entertainment value and not as an act of worship. These verses do not threaten that we can lose our salvation. They do, however, place a great responsibility on every proposed believer to do everything possible for a close fellowship with God.
Christian Writer 