What does it mean to backslide?

Quick Answer: What does it mean to backslide? As a believer, you aren’t backsliding, because you weren’t “climbing” your way up to God to begin with.

Diving Deeper: The term “backslide” is really an Old Testament concept related to being under the Law. It implies you were climbing, making progress, then your strength failed, and you slipped and started to slide back. Jeremiah 3:6 (KJV) says: “The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, ‘Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done?’” In Jeremiah 8:5 (KJV), it appears as well: “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit; they refuse to return” (Jeremiah. 8:5). Finally, Proverbs says: “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways” (Proverbs 14:14).

The Old Testament law was given to the Jews. It was 613 rules they were supposed to keep. It was like they were constantly trying to climb towards God, one rule at a time. You might think of it like climbing Mount Sinai. But the reality was that no one was capable of reaching the peak of Law-based living. No human could perform well enough, hence the backsliding. It was (and is) inevitable in a system where we humans try to reach God through our performance.

The good news (the Gospel) is that we are not under the old Law-based system. Since we don’t have the ability to climb up to God, He came down to us in the person of Jesus and fulfilled the Law perfectly. In fulfilling the Law, it’s like Jesus hung a gold medal for “mountain climbing” around our necks and said, “It’s finished. The Law is fulfilled. Now, stay off that mountain. It’ll kill you!” 

Mount Sinai was never meant to be scaled by us to begin with. Only Jesus could do it by keeping the Law perfectly. The term “backsliding” in the Old Testament was appropriate to describe what the Jews experienced in trying to keep the 613 rules of the Law. But it is entirely inappropriate to describe Christians today. When preachers use the term “backsliding” and hold it over believers to make them feel guilty, they are in error. It conveys the wrong idea that our job is to climb toward God and try hard not to slip back from Him. This is not the Gospel.

The Gospel is the good news that Christ lives in you forever. And He is saying, “I’ll never leave you. I’ll never forsake you. No one can snatch you out of My hand. I’m united with you. You were crucified, buried, and raised with Me. Now, you’re seated at My right hand. There’s no sliding out of your location in Me.”

The term backsliding has no rightful place to describe a New Testament believer. Not only is it discouraging, it does not reflect the truth of our permanent union with Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Let’s Make It a Conversation!
1. Have you ever been told (or thought) that you have backslidden? How did it make you feel?
2. How does it make you feel to know that you don’t have to climb toward God because He already climbed down to you in the person of Jesus?
3. Why do you think the religious community is always looking to frame our relationship with God today in terms of progressive closeness or distance?
4. How can our permanent union with Christ transform our perspective?