The Enduring Faith, Part 7 – Hebrews 11:15-16

Since the Christian’s pursuit of holiness will inevitably be fraught with trials and persecution, enduring faith is crucial to engage in this spiritual warfare. If the patriarchs were not fully resolved by faith to follow God’s call but rather yearned for their old way of life, they would not have endured in their spiritual pilgrimage. Their faith would have stalled, and they could have turning away from God and returned to their old country. These verses in Hebrews are a great reminder to believers about the dangers of backsliding and apostasy.

The cause and characteristics of backsliding and apostasy are similar, but their ends are completely different. What is backsliding? Backsliding is a spiritual lapse. When a Christian who has been passionate and faithful to the Lord departs from the Word and the ways of God without repenting, he is backsliding.

What causes backsliding?

Sin– Christians know what sin is, but some remain in it. Though they may be miserable, they go back to the bondage of sin. This is why Christians must repent every day.

Unbelief– When we doubt God’s Word, we will backslide. Unbelief causes us to sink in despair and drown out trust in God. The only antidote against the power of doubt is faith.

False teaching– False teaching misleads Christians, and causes them to depart from God’s ways outlined clearly in His Word.

Disappointment– Disappointment distorts your perspective and will cause you to be controlled by your emotions rather than by faith.

Backsliding is temporary, apostasy is eternal. The backslider is passive in his sins, but the apostate directly and proactively offends God. Peter was backsliding when he denied Jesus, but he repented in tears and returned to follow the Lord. Judas, on the other hand, was an apostate who betrayed and turned in the Lord Jesus to be put to death.

Some people begin backsliding and end up practicing apostasy. Take heed, anyone who sins secretly and habitually is in a dire situation of falling in apostasy. All Christians sin, but their hearts are pure and they earnestly desire and seek after what pleases God. We must understand what causes us to backslide. When we fail to love Jesus above all, we will backslide. The top priority in every Christian’s life must be to love the Lord with all his heart. We must constantly go back to our first love, remembering how our eyes were opened to see our hopelessness, and the grace and forgiveness that was poured out on us through Jesus Christ.

If we find ourselves backsliding, we must stop and examine ourselves by the mirror of Scripture. With solemnity, impartiality, and frequency, we must check our emotions, will, and mind and see where we are falling short of God’s Will. We must then repent of our sins, thinking about where and how we fell. Repentance is a radical change in mind about God, sin, self, and the world, which leads to a change in conduct. It’s not simply sorrow over the penalty of sin, but its to be contrite in heart for sinning against God. True repentance takes us back to see our hopelessness. It humbles our souls to find true hope in Christ alone, who saves undeserving sinners by grace alone. This is the only way to stop the pattern of backsliding that can lead to apostasy- repent and believe in the gospel.