Persistent Salvation
For if, after they* have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these things and succumb to them, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. The statement of the true proverb has happened to them, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and “A sow, after* washing herself, returns* to wallowing in the mud.”
if indeed you remain in the faith, established and steadfast and not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although you* were a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a sharer of the root of the olive tree’s richness, do not boast against the branches. But if you boast against them, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off in order that I could be grafted in.” Well said! They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand firm because of faith. Do not think arrogant thoughts, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the ⌊natural⌋ branches, neither will he spare you.
“Therefore everyone who acknowledges me before people, I also will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before people, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
The Coming Apostasy
4 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
For if* we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think the person will be considered worthy of who treats with disdain the Son of God and who considers ordinary the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy and who insults the Spirit of grace?
For it is impossible concerning those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and become sharers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age, and having fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, because they* have crucified again for themselves the Son of God and held him up to contempt.
