Don't lose your confidence

" Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:“For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul." - Hebrews 10:35-39

I would be among the first to admit that some passages, especially in a book like Hebrews are hard to understand. We read about eternal redemption and eternal inheritance and then we read things about drawing back and falling back that seem to say we have to do something to maintain our salvation. 

‘Don’t lose your confidence’ we read. The writer then goes on to explain that at the end of this ‘little while’ we will receive our eternal reward. We also read that the just will live by faith. That means that we don’t live by our works.

Then we see ‘if anybody draws back’ God has no pleasure in him.

So how do we reconcile the two. If our salvation is indeed eternal why does God warn about falling back?

The key is in the last line. ‘We are not of those who fall back into perdition, but those who believe to the saving of the soul.’

I think the answer is clear. God takes no pleasure in those who draw back, but those who have truly put their faith in Christ are not those who draw back. Those who are truly saved are not going to draw back. Those who draw back are those who never have truly believed no matter how they seemed all along.

That is not to say that no one ever backslides, but those who are truly saved are not going to reject their faith.

Our salvation is secure. It is eternal. And if we really have it we are not of those who draw away from it.