When Hope is Gone

A caller from Illinois wanted to know if there was no hope for someone whose conscience had been seared. It’s a question that is asked fairly often in various forms. Does that Bible really teach that there are people who are beyond hope?

You won’t find it in any up to date hymnals, but there’s an old hymn that says, “There’s a line that is crossed by rejecting the Lord, where the call of His Spirit is lost…” Is there really such a line?

The Apostle Paul thought that there was because he warned Titus about the apostates on Crete by saying that, “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” Disqualified is the Greek word for reprobation. You might call it a technical term in the New Testament, and I wish translators were more consistent in using it, but the word refers to someone who is beyond hope.

Let me explain it this way. Imagine two extremes, God’s best on one side and the devils worst on the other. God’s original intention in Eden was to create human beings would know only His best. Adam and Eve were made with both a body and spirit. They were given a spirit that would be in touch with God’s Spirit. And that spirit would rule over their bodies.

Because we live in a fallen world, however, our tendency is to move away from God’s best – toward the devil’s worst - and give the physical side of our nature more control. In fact it’s even possible for God’s design to be reversed so that the body is in control over the spirit. The KJV term for that in the New Testament is concupiscence. There may be times when the Holy Spirit will call attention to sin and the conscience may be affected, but the flesh is still in control.

And yes, it’s even possible for a person to walk so far away from God’s best that a line is crossed. At some point, the spirit becomes a non-factor in that person’s life. It’s as if the spirit has disappeared and the result is a life that is only physical. All you see in that person is an appetite that can never be satisfied. God’s Spirit will no longer reprove that person. The conscience is hardened and has no effect. God is finished dealing with him or her. That’s what the Bible means when it uses the term reprobation. Can you see why this is such a serious matter?

When is that line crossed? Only God knows. Christians are to preach the gospel to everyone. It’s presumptuous to tell anyone he or she is beyond hope. The Lord said that He will separate the sheep from the goats in His perfect timing, and He hasn’t given that job to us. But the line is there and it is deadly, my friend.

I once explained the gospel to a young soldier who listened carefully and considered what Scripture taught and then said, “You know, I believe every thing you just said is true, but I’m young and have a lot of living to do before I become a Christian.” I’m not sure what it is he thought Christians are doing before they die, but apparently it wasn’t “living” as he defined it. The tragedy of his rejection of the gospel, however, is his assumption that he could walk away from God and still find his way back on his own terms. As the Bible says, “now is the day of salvation.”