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Mike,

I just finished reading your response to someone who asked the same question I just asked you in the previous email. And you really nailed it down for me. I think I was barking up the right tree when I said that I did indeed “sin” (divorce) in ignorance for if I had the “TRUTH” in me then I would have known, and it (TRUTH) would have performed it in me. So indeed then I could not have been “elect” but I think I can confidently say that Christ in me is capable of strengthening me with power to endure in Him until the end. I suppose that would be “hope of election”!
If I missed it, I am sure you will correct me, and thanks for that as well.

M____

Hi M____,
Thank you for your question. I am thankful that you found your answer on the site.

No, you have not missed the point, but I just want to add that there is nothing you have done, or that anyone has done, that is not covered by Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. Just look at what Paul says here.

1Co 6:9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1Co 6:12  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

There is not one person among us who is not guilty of one of those sins, and yet we are told: “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
What we did before we came to know the true Christ and what we repent of after coming to know the true Christ, are all covered by that sacrifice. It is so thorough that King David, in type, even after his adulterous, murderous relationship with Bathsheba, is still received back as washed, sanctified and justified to the point of being considered a virgin. It is of these very same Corinthians that we are told:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The “impossible” part of Hebrews six is this:

Heb 6:4  For [ it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [ him] to an open shame.

We have the examples of Esau and King Saul as God’s rejected anointed, and both men typify our own rejection of Christ, even after having tasted the heavenly gift. Both men typify our old man who knew Christ and returned to Babylon. “Crucifying the Son of God afresh” is the same as “turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.” The sad part is that both Esau and King Saul demonstrate that when we are in this state, we are not able to acknowledge our sad state.
That is the only thing that separates King David from King Saul. King Saul never in his life took a man’s one wife away from him and then killed that man to cover up his adultery. But King Saul did do something even worse, and that was to refuse to acknowledge that he was the man who had disobeyed and rejected his own God. He did this by presumptuously assuming the role of a priest and by disobeying the command to destroy all of the Amalekites. In both cases King Saul shifted the blame to Samuel for being late and to the people for wanting to sacrifice to God. But God “will have obedience and not sacrifice”, and He will also have a “meek and contrite spirit” which says “against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this thing” when told “thou art the man.”

2Sa 12:7  And Nathan said to David, Thou [ art] the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
2Sa 12:8  And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if [ that had been] too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
2Sa 12:9  Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife [ to be] thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Sa 12:10  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
2Sa 12:11  Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give [ them] unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
2Sa 12:12  For thou didst [ it] secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
2Sa 12:13  And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
2Sa 12:14  Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also [ that is] born unto thee shall surely die.

Whenever we sin against our brothers, even “the least of these, my brothers”, we are really sinning against God and against Christ. Not one person who acknowledges his sins has the spirit of Esau and King Saul, who simply never could do that. We have all been that way in the past, but God has had mercy on all of us who are concerned that we may have committed “the unpardonable sin”. That is not a Biblical phase, and there is no sin which is not pardonable. But it is still impossible to renew a person to the faith, as long as he is not given to acknowledge that pride keeps him from saying “I have sinned against the Lord.” That is the difference between the spirit of King David and the spirit of King Saul. We are all King Saul before we become King David, but King Saul must be destroyed before we can become King David, who is a type of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).
So no one who is worried about this sin is guilty of that attitude. Those who are in that state will always be blaming someone else for their mistakes and for their plight. They will be disobeying God before the whole world, while like King Saul, ruling God’s people, and claiming to be obeying Him before the whole world. That is the spirit of both Esau and King Saul.
Esau “found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” simply because he was never given to appreciate that blessing. To him that blessing meant no more than a bowl of red pottage. One of the most valuable parts of that blessing is the ability to confess one’s own sins against the Lord. That was Job’s problem, that was Esau’s problem, and that was King Saul’s problem. It was “the pride of life”, and it is accompanied by a bitter spirit.

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there [ be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

So another part of “the blessing” is to “find place for repentance”. That blessing simply has no place in the proud spirit of Esau or King Saul. That spirit is in us all, and it is given only to very few to have that spirit burned out while yet in these vessels of clay.
I hope this helps and edifies you in some way. I hope you can see that a person who refuses to repent simply finds no place for repentance, even though he may see that he has lost his blessing. The man of God will find place for repentance and will become a changed person. God’s elect do not worry about whether they are God’s elect. They truly believe that God is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11). What all of God’s elect do is remain vigilant, diligent, and sober, and they never take their election for granted, even as they know that every day of their life has already been written in God’s book.

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike