Those Who Shrink Back to Destruction: Profiling the Reprobate

In reading the five warning passages in the epistle/sermon to the Hebrews, we observe two groups of people. They are distinguished from one another by their identity and practice. In other words, a tree is known by its fruit (Mt 7:16–20).

In His providence, God gives gifts to men. What is done with His benevolence reveals whether God has added blessing or curse to those gifts. Blessed is the man who draws near to God (Jas 4:8), the giver of every good and every perfect gift (Jas 1:17). Cursed is the man who falls back (Heb 3:12; 6:6), who drifts away from God and His Word (Heb 2:1). To the blessed, He says, “I will be their God and they will be my people” (Jer 31:33; 32:38). To the cursed, He says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you” (Mt 7:23).

The terms employed from the beginning for each group are “elect” and “reprobate”. What is ultimately true for one group is not true for the other group. Therefore, if one group is elect; redeemed; regenerate; and believing…then, the other group is reprobate; unredeemed; unregenerate; and unbelieving.

Our focus here is to profile the reprobate primarily from the five warning passages in Hebrews (2:1–4; 3:6–4:13; 5:11–6:20; 10:19–39; Heb 12:1–29). To read these passages without a theological framework, derived from correlating doctrines, will ultimately lead to a false conclusion. Invariably, the conclusion will be a man-centered, works-based salvation that is not assured because it is controlled by man, not God. Therefore, we are considering a biblical doctrine of reprobates along with a view to the warnings to the reprobates in Hebrews.

First, reprobates do not have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:18; 17:18; 21:27). When they die, they will have their names blotted out of the book of life (Ps 69:28).

Second, reprobates are not given by God the Father to God the Son in eternity past (Jn 17:2, 6, 24; 18:9). They have no personal relationship with any Person of the Triune Godhead.

Third, reprobates are not predestined to adoption as sons before creation (Eph 1:4–5). In other words, they were not chosen by God to be brought into His family (Rom 11:5–6).

Fourth, reprobates were not chosen for salvation from the beginning (2 Thess 2:13); rather, they are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Rom 9:22).

Fifth, reprobates will manifest their eternal damnation by shrinking back to destruction (Heb 10:38). They will prove they are already condemned before they die in their trespasses and sins. They demonstrate both unbelief and disobedience toward God.

We now consider the reprobates’ deficiency of both faith and works in those warning passages that admonish them about their damnable plight before the holy God.

First, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ preached (Rom 10:17). The Gospel call goes out to all people, that all should repent and believe in the Person and work of Jesus Christ (Acts 16:32; 17:30).

The reprobate may or may not hear the proclamation of Christ and Him crucified. Regardless, he or she will receive the just penalty for sins. The reprobate who do hear the preaching of the Bible will neglect the Word spoken to them (Heb 2:2–3). In other words, they will drift away from what they heard (2:1). It is the Holy Spirit working in and through the Gospel preacher; so to reject Jesus Christ whom we preach insults the Spirit of grace and denies His work of testifying to Christ (Jn 15:26; Heb 10:29).

The Holy Spirit is the catalyst in one being born again (Jn 3:1–8; 1 Pet 1:3). Those who are made partakers of the Holy Spirit are exposed to the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ in others (Rom 8:9, 11; Heb 6:4). The reprobate hears the Word and is enlightened to the spiritual things of the one true and living God. He does not profit from the Word of God (4:2), however, nor from the work of the Spirit. Instead, in unbelief his heart is hardened because without a heart change, he retains his evil unbelieving heart (3:12; 4:7), a heart of stone (Ezek 36:26), which causes him to go astray (3:10).

A hardened heart is natural for the reprobate, who does not know God’s sovereign ways in so great a salvation (Heb 3:8, 10), despite his tasting the heavenly gift of the Spirit illumining the Word of God (6:4–5). In fact, it is common for the reprobate to beg that the Word no longer be spoken to them (12:19), by refusing those who are speaking to them (12:25).

Without the grace of God, those who shrink back to destruction will grow weary and lose heart (10:39; 12:3). Having not received the promises of God nor the faith to believe them, the reprobate will not do the will of God nor hold on with confidence (10:35); instead, they will go on sinning willfully with no remaining sacrifice for their sins (10:26).

Enlightenment has no effect on the spiritually blind (2 Cor 4:4; Heb 6:4; 10:32). For those who have no confidence in Christ (3:6), they merely provoke God to wrath (3:15) because the deceitfulness of sin accomplishes its work unto death and the appointed judgment (9:27). They are storing up wrath for the day of wrath (Rom 2:5).

The reprobate are denied entry into God’s sabbath rest (heaven). The reprobate do not enter because of unbelief and disobedience (3:18–19; 4:6). They are guilty of denying the Holy Spirit and trampling under foot the Son of God and His precious blood of the covenant (10:29). They put the Son of God to open shame (6:6), crucifying Him again and again (6:6) with all bitterness and defilement (12:15), having rejected His fulfillment of the Law of Moses (10:28; 12:17), for which they have broken precept after precept. Therefore, they die without mercy (Rom 9:15–16; Heb 10:28).

Having fallen away from the truth, regarding the wisdom and power of God (6:5–6), who is Christ (1 Cor 1:24), there is no renewal of repentance (6:6). There is only the terrifying expectation of judgment, the fury of eternal fire (10:27), at the hands of the living God (10:31), a truly frightening vengeance.

Thus, we have considered the profile of the reprobate and his void of God and of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. He is without God and without hope in the world (Eph 2:12). His eternal punishment is derived from a just judgment from the just Judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25), who is none other than Jesus Christ (Jn 5:22; 8:16), the very One the reprobate despised and rejected.

My dear reader, consider the state of your eternal soul this very hour. Is this description a proper reflection of your position in relationship to the Son of God? If yes, be warned and be very afraid; for the Day of judgment will soon come; and you will be presented at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account (2 Cor 5:10). Without Christ, it will not go well for you on that day and in that place. There will be hell to pay…for eternity.

David Norczyk

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

September 7, 2025

Hebrews 10:38–39