How to Come Back to God after Falling Away

In our last study, we discovered that it is indeed possible for a Christian to lose salvation. Because of this, many live in fear—remembering what it was like to be close to God, yet knowing they have fallen away.

These are not people who merely thought they were Christians but never truly were. These are people who genuinely were Christians at one time, now having rejected Christ.

But if someone reaches a point where their heart can be softened again—is there still hope for them? These are people who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, yet chose to walk away. No doubt, many are asking: “Can I come back to God after falling away?”

The answer is yes! There is hope for those who were once in the faith and then left it. Some may say otherwise, pointing to passages such as Hebrews 6 and 10, which we’ll examine in this study. But the truth is this: even those who once belonged to Christ still have a chance to return to Him after falling away.

What Happens When a Christian Falls Away From God

Being born again means that a person’s soul—once dead in sin and far from God—is brought to life. This new life comes from the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us. In that moment, our soul is made alive because the Spirit of God—the very breath of life—abides in us.

When you remove yourself from Jesus, you remove yourself from life itself. You step away from the way of salvation. As a result, your soul once again becomes dead in sin. This is a serious condition—but as we will see, it is not irreversible.

Hebrews 13:5 is speaking of someone who has Jesus and is content in Him. It describes a person walking with Him. The verse assures us that Jesus will not leave us behind or abandon us when we are faithfully following Him.

God does not forsake those who follow Him—that is the proper context. But He will not imprison us either. If we choose to forsake Him, He will not force us to remain with Him. He allows us to walk away.

God does not change. He makes it clear that His promise to never forsake us applies only to those who do not forsake Him. When we abandon Him and turn to other gods, He will not deliver us. If we forsake Him, He will, in turn, forsake us.

Can a Person Come Back to God After Falling Away

These are very powerful passages. At first glance, they seem to teach that once a Christian falls away, there is no path back to God. But that is not truly what they are saying.

If that interpretation were correct, it would directly contradict the following words of Jesus:

Here, Jesus Himself is speaking to people who had left their first love and fallen from grace. Yet He calls them to repent and return. If returning were impossible, He would not command them to do it.

Some argue that the “first love” in this passage refers to evangelism rather than to Jesus Himself. But that does not hold up, since one must love Jesus first before truly loving evangelism.

This is why the greatest commandment begins with loving God first, and then loving others second. Clearly, Jesus is addressing Christians who have fallen away. And just as clearly, He is asking them to return to Him.

The Prodigal Son

Luke 15 tells the story of the prodigal son. Notice that this was not a servant or a stranger—it was the father’s own son.

The son left his father. But when he remembered where he had fallen from, he repented and returned. His father welcomed him back as one who had been dead and was now alive again.

This story does not begin with the son being distant. It actually begins with him in his father’s household if you read the whole story. Jesus was showing that the prodigal son represents someone who was alive and knew their Father in heaven, but chose to leave their Father.

When his hardened heart turned back to his father, he repented and returned. And his father did not reject him. Instead, he embraced him as his son. He declared: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”

The prodigal didn’t need to be born again as a brand-new son—that was impossible. He needed to be raised from the dead as a returning son.

In that same chapter, Jesus tells two other parables: one of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep to find the one that was lost, and another of the woman who loses a coin and diligently searches until she finds it.

In each of these stories, what was lost had originally belonged to the one who found it again. That is the point—there is hope for the Christian who falls away.

So if Jesus speaks of returning to God after falling away, how could the book of Hebrews be saying a person cannot return? The simple answer is this: it doesn’t actually say that.

Let’s look more closely at Hebrews 6:4–6 and Hebrews 10:17–18, 26–31.

What Does Hebrews 6 Mean

At first glance, Hebrews 6:6 seems to say that those who have known God and been Christians cannot return to Him if they fall away. But that is not what the passage is teaching. It does not say they cannot come back to Christ—it says they cannot be renewed again unto repentance.

When we read the word renew, we understand it as starting over and being made new. But when we read the word repentance, we often, without realizing it, substitute it in our minds with the word salvation. Repentance is certainly part of coming to salvation, but it is not the same thing as salvation itself.

Verses 4–6 are saying that those who have known God and been Christians cannot be renewed unto repentance. The word renewed means “to begin again, to start over from the beginning.” The word unto expresses movement toward a goal, like saying “unto the end.” It means traveling the distance until you reach a destination.

So the passage literally says it is impossible to start over from the very beginning—that first step toward Jesus. Repentance is where it all began. It was the first step you took toward Christ and salvation.

So it isn’t saying a person cannot be renewed to salvation. It is saying a person cannot go back and start over as if they had never taken that first step at all.

You cannot hear the gospel as though for the very first time again. You cannot come to Jesus as though you had never known Him before. You must pick up where you left off—as a born-again child of God.

Think of the prodigal son. He could not return to his father as if he were merely a servant, because it was impossible for him to be anything less than his father’s son. Even when he was “dead” to his father, he was still his son.

When he returned, he did not become a newly born son. Believing you have to be “born again, again” is like saying you need to be adopted a second time. That would mean Jesus would have to pay the adoption price all over again.

That is why verse 6 says they would “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” You cannot begin again as though you were never God’s child. You do not need to be readopted. God can revive His “dead son,” but no one can pretend they were never His son in the first place. Like the prodigal, you simply need to come home.

Now let’s see the full context of the subject in Hebrews.

This is actually where the topic begins. Paul says these believers should have been teachers by now, but instead they still needed to relearn the basics. They needed to go back to the foundational truths of the faith. He continues this same thought into chapter 6.

Paul urges them not to keep laying the foundation over and over again. They don’t need to keep starting from scratch. The foundation has already been laid. They already know about repentance. Jesus has already made them children of God. There is no need to “start over.” He then carries this same thought into the verses that are often misunderstood.

Look at Hebrews 6:4-6 again.

Paul is telling us that it is impossible to start over as if we had never known Christ. We don’t need to meet Jesus for the first time again. We don’t need a brand-new foundation. When we fall away and return, we are not renewed—we are restored.

There is a difference between renewal and restoration. Renewal is about making something entirely new. For example, broken pieces of a glass vase could be melted down and reshaped into a completely new vase. That new vase is not the same one that was broken—it is an entirely different one. That is renewal.

Restoration, on the other hand, repairs what was broken. It puts the original vase back together, heals what was damaged, and makes it whole again.

So Hebrews 6 is saying this: you cannot be made brand new all over again, but you can be restored to the fellowship with God that you once had. Paul continues this thought further in the chapter.

Paul explains that when you are restored, God does not forget the works you did before you fell. Your past relationship with Him is not erased. You were His child before you fell—and you are still His child when you return.

What Does Hebrews 10 Mean

God promised to remember our sins no more. This is called the remission of sins. So when the passage says that there is “no more offering for sin,” we should ask: Why would we ever need another offering? All of our sins are forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus. If our sins are forgiven, there is no need for a new sacrifice to forgive them again.

Notice carefully—these verses do not say that a person cannot be forgiven if they walk away. They simply say that since our sins are already forgiven through Jesus, no other offering is needed.

Here we see the same truth repeated: there is no more sacrifice for sins, even if we willfully turn away. But what does this mean? Does it mean that the blood of Jesus no longer covers us, and therefore a new sacrifice would be required? Or does it mean that there is no other sacrifice besides Jesus that can ever cover us?

Let’s look at the context to understand it correctly.

Verse 28 points back to the Law of Moses. Under the law, when a person sinned, they had to bring a sacrifice to be forgiven. How could someone “despise” this law? By sinning but refusing to bring the sacrifice. This was disobedience—but more than that, it revealed unbelief. That person did not believe (or care) that God would forgive them through the sacrifice He had provided.

Now apply that understanding to verse 29. What does it mean to “tread underfoot the Son of God”? It means to treat the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus as worthless, as if His blood cannot save.

The verse continues: “and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing.” Again, this means a person considers the blood of Jesus powerless and insufficient to save.

Then it says: “and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” The word despite means “to treat with contempt, to disregard, to disdain.” Once more, this describes treating the grace of God as worthless, as though He had no power to save.

And here is the truth that many have missed: Hebrews 10 is not saying that a fallen Christian cannot return to the faith. It is saying that there is no other way back except through Jesus.

These verses do not say that the blood of Jesus cannot cover the sins of someone who returns after falling away. In fact, they teach the opposite!

They warn that if you consider the blood of Jesus insufficient to forgive your sins—even the sin of falling away—then you are the one rejecting the only way of forgiveness. That is what it means to “do despite unto the Spirit of grace.”

So these are not verses declaring that you can never be saved again. They are verses warning that if you reject God’s way of salvation through Christ, then no forgiveness is possible—because there is no other way!

Look closely: none of these verses say that the blood of Jesus is not enough to cover someone who has left the faith. None say that a person cannot return to Him, like the prodigal son who was alive, then dead, and then alive again.

In fact, they say the opposite. They declare that if you claim the blood of Jesus is not enough to cover all sins—even the willful sin of walking away—then you are the one despising the Spirit of grace.

These verses are not teaching that you cannot be saved. They are teaching that only those who refuse to believe God is both able and willing to save them cannot be saved. To say otherwise—to claim that God cannot, or will not, forgive the repentant soul—is nothing less than blasphemy.

How To Come Back To God After Falling Away

Now that we’ve seen from Scripture that restoration is possible, we need to understand how. Jesus tells us exactly what to do:

Jesus tells us that we must repent and do our first works. This repentance isn’t the same as when someone first comes to Him to be born again. This is the repentance of someone that is already a child of God being restored.

But what were our first works? The way you return to your Father is the same way you came to Him the first time—you came believing He would forgive and accept you. You came in faith.

If you were once a believer and have left, you don’t need to be “born again” as if for the very first time. Jesus’ one sacrifice is enough; you cannot crucify Him again. What you need is restoration, not a brand-new beginning.

Come back by repenting, returning to those first works of faith, and trusting His word. If you repent, there is hope. The Father is ready to welcome His child back home.

There’s something important to note in this passage. It says, “they that wait upon the Lord.” Renewal isn’t always instant—it can take time.

I’m often asked by people returning to the faith whether they will ever feel God like they used to. The answer is yes, but you have to wait for it. This isn’t a punishment; it’s actually how God strengthens you.

Every Christian goes through a time when God seems distant. It’s a difficult, even painful, feeling. But it is during this time that we learn to walk by faith, not by sight.

It’s easy to follow God when you feel His presence. But what happens when you don’t feel it? Do you just sit down? Do you run away? Or do you keep walking in the darkness, knowing He is still there, no matter what it feels like?

It is in these times that we must lay down our insecurities, our dependence on feelings, our own wisdom, and our pride. We learn to let go of anything that doesn’t align with His Word, because His Word is the only sure light we have.

Coming to Him in faith means you aren’t looking for confirmation, a feeling, or a sign to prove it’s real. You need to believe, even if you don’t get any confirmation—because His word is confirmation enough.

Don’t fall into the trap of trusting your feelings. Don’t be afraid. No doubt the prodigal son took some time after returning home before he felt like he belonged again. Do you think he stopped feeling unworthy the moment he walked back in the door? Most likely, he still felt that way for a while. But his feelings didn’t change the facts. And neither will yours. You have to just accept that.

In the next lesson, we will examine what Scripture calls the one unforgivable sin. I’ll explain what it is—and why it isn’t as final as you may think.

Unit 3:14 – What Is the Unforgivable Sin OR

Return To Christianity 101 Unit 3 – Repentance and Salvation