What Does It Mean to Be Reprobate?

What does it mean to be reprobate? American Heritage Dictionary gives two definitions (as an adjective): 1. Morally unprincipled; shameless. 2. Rejected by God and without hope of salvation. To be honest, there isn’t a lot of difference between the two. If one is morally unprincipled and shameless, than one stands a very good chance of being rejected by God and left with no hope of salvation. If one is rejected by God, then one has no basis for moral principles, and so will become morally unprincipled and shameless. Please notice that there is a definite difference between being reprobate and being an atheist. If you’ve been paying attention, then you know that many atheists do have moral principles, which simply proves that, although they have rejected God, God has not rejected them (at least not yet). The term reprobate is used three times in the New Testament: Romans 1:28, 2 Timothy 3:8, and Titus 1:16.
Some examples from Scripture: the parable of the prodigal son has been brought up, but I don’t think that qualifies. The father never gave up hope that his son would return, and when the son did return, the father ran out to meet him. Clearly, the parable illustrates the relationship that God (the Father) has with us (His children). Many times we will slip away from the will of God, but He is patient with us. He will usually deal with us, and try to get us to return (in the parable, the father had nothing to do with the son’s misfortune, but sometimes God does prevent us from prospering when we seek our own will instead of His; but sometimes He just let’s us do what we want, and let us learn the hard way that material things never bring lasting satisfaction). Personally, I don’t think that the prodigal son represents a reprobate spirit—the Father did not reject him, even though he rejected the Father.
Esau is, perhaps, a better example. He sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. At the time, he had convinced himself that he was starving to death, so what good was his birthright? Some have said that Jacob took advantage of him (because Jacob knew that Esau wasn’t dying), but I think that Jacob did what God led him to do, but that’s a subject for another blog (this would get really long if I tried to get into that now). My main point here is that Esau found no space of repentance, though he sought it carefully. Of course, in Esau’s case, he wasn’t looking for salvation (he was looking for his inheritance, as the older son, but inheritance doesn’t always go to the older son—but our inheritance, as Christians, from our Father, is salvation), it’s just that when he realized what he had given up for a little bit of food, he tried to get his birthright back, even though he didn’t have anything that Jacob wanted nearly as bad as Esau had wanted those beans at the time. It is clear, however, that even though Esau’s state wasn’t really the state of a reprobate man, that the Scripture uses Esau’s situation as a warning to those who might become reprobate: God forgives (and He wants to forgive), but there are no guarantees that you will be able to find forgiveness if you just walk away. I have known far too many people that convinced themselves that they could do whatever they wanted, because God would forgive them, and ended up so far out there that they didn’t even want to be forgiven anymore.
The Pharaoh that refused to let the Israelites go (Ramesses II?) has been brought up. To be honest, I’m not sure that he qualifies, either, because, it seems to me, that you have to have been saved before you can be reprobate. Certainly Pharaoh had a reprobate attitude, and it even talks about God hardening his heart, which would suggest that God wasn’t trying to save Pharaoh, so that would indicate that God had rejected Pharaoh. There is some indication that Pharaoh knew who the true God was, but that he refused to bend his will to God’s, so maybe he really was reprobate. I guess it’s open to debate.