2:20-22
Peter does not mince his words here, and this verse should be a suitable rejoinder to the “once-saved-always-saved” brigade. We get involved in debates about whether we can be assured of our salvation (answer is yes!) and then silly “once-saved-always-saved” stuff. We approach this as an academic question and so tie ourselves in knots, and resort to saying Peter is talking about those who appear to be saved, but actually they never were. Instead we should take God at His word, and remember that we are not sitting in judgement on the word, but are to let the word govern our lives. We should also note that the Bible does not see things as a problem at all. We can be absolutely assured of our salvation because it is all the work of Christ, and He is completely effective and trustworthy. At the same time the Bible is equally clear that how we live our lives matters, and that going against God’s word is an extremely dangerous and foolish route to take, and is liable to result in judgement.
Peter here says that the people who he is talking about knew at least something of the salvation of Christ. Having done so and then gone directly against it they are now in a worse position than when they started. Indeed their judgement will be more severe because they tasted something of the truth and chose to reject it. We should note that this teaching is entirely consistent with that of Hebrews, and the words of Jesus (Matt 12:43-45).
Now was the person here saved at all? This is a most irrelevant question. Whatever his state once was or was not, there is one and only one thing he now needs to do, and that is to repent.
What about us, who hopefully are not currently in a state of absolute rebellion, how should we live? We live in the certain knowledge of God’s salvation in Christ. We live knowing that we must persevere and continue to follow Him.
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