Assurance, Insurance, and the Bottom Line

(Note: I am posting from the road. Sketches may be added later.)

This past week I shared a sermon from Hebrews 3:7-19. The central truth of this passage is that obstinate rebellion results in judgment, even for people of promise. I think Hebrews brings an increasingly severe (and scary) series of warnings to the church. The warning seem to be making the case that there is a line of apostasy, and if you cross that line there is NO coming back.

Of course this immediately raise the questions of eternal security, losing one's salvation, perseverance of the saints, once saved - always saved...how ever you want to describe it. I read these passages and am forced to ask the question, "Can a Christian lose the promise of life eternal?"

Hebrews seems to answer that question affirmatively.

Now I realize that my fellow Calvinists will have a handful of theological constructs they use to explain away this interpretation of the warning passages in Hebrews. I do not have the time energy or desire to discuss these constructs other than to ask, "If there is no danger, then why is there a warning?"

The concept I would like to engage now is how quickly biblical exhortations to Christian faith (and conversely warnings against apostasy) end up as discussions about so called eternal security.

Is it possible that we have reduced the entirety of the Good News to a list of theological propositions or moral decisions that we have to accept in order to avoid damnation? Is the only value of following Jesus escaping hell? Is there nothing else of value?

Or, to turn the issue on its head, if there was no such promise of eternal life or threat of eternal damnation, would we still follow?