Meditations

Hebrews 6

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, ² Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. ³ And this will we do, if God permit. 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, ⁵ And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 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.  -kjv

 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ² instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And God permitting, we will do so.⁴ It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age ⁶ and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.  -niv

Therefore, leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, ² teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And we will do this if God permits.⁴ For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, became companions with the Holy Spirit, ⁵ tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, ⁶ and who have fallen away, because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding Him up to contempt.  -hcsb

Question on Sept 3, 2016 by open line moody radio listener:

I have a question from Hebrews 6, verse 4 through 6, which seems to suggest that someone in the faith that falls away cannot be brought back through repentance. Is this a salvation passage or sanctification passage?

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

I really struggled with Hebrews 6 when I first came to the Lord because I really saw that scripture taught that we are secured once we are saved but nevertheless, Hebrews bothered me, Hebrews 6 in particular. I brought it up to a professor who taught me when I was a freshman in moody and his advice to me was always to interpret the unclear passages in the light of the clear passages. The scriptures are really clear in John 6: 37-40, the Lord Jesus says that all that the Father gives me will come to me and this is the will of the Father, that all that He has given me that I will lose not one of them. Second principle of reading Hebrews 6 is to keep in mind that there is a mixed multitude there. There are some people who are close but don’t really know the Lord. They are mentioned in Hebrew 3. He says in verse 6 Messiah was faithful as a Son over his household whose household we are (present tense) if we hold on to the courage and confidence of our hope. Well, what if we don’t hold on to the courage and confidence of our hope, then we are not his house presently and then verse 14 says this, we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. Well, we have become companions, what if we don’t hold firm? Well then we have not become his companions now. The point of those passages is that he is warning us if we don’t hold fast, then we don’t really know the Lord now.

Question : The question for that is what if a person has made a firm decision in the past and then things happen and then started thinking I don’t know if this is really true.

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

Well I would say that a person who genuinely knows the Lord, he may have some trip ups and have some doubts but they won’t deny the faith. Let’s go on to Hebrews 6. I believe Hebrews 6 is a warning to go on from an old testament faith that looks forward to the coming of the Messiah to a genuine faith believing in him that he has already come and here’s why. It says verses 1 through 3, leaving the elementary message of the Messiah, let us go on to maturity or completion if you could say, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, that sounds like it could be something that a believer in Jesus knows or it could be something that was taught in the old testament, in fact faith in God is taught in the old testament, about laying on of hands, taught in both the old and new testament, the resurrection of the dead, taught in the old and new testament, eternal judgement, taught in both old and new testament, only one in this passage in this list, some versions translate it baptisms, it actually in greek is a word that refers to old testament ritual washings, it does not refer to christian baptism. What that tells me it is merely an old testament perspective. All those in the list could be either but that ritual washings in Hebrews 6 verse 2 refers to an old testament practice and tells me oh no, move on from an old testament faith to a faith in the Messiah. And then they go on to talk about they tasted the heavenly gift, they become companions with the Holy Spirit, tasted God’s good work, that is all in the context of they have been in that congregation and they saw the working of the Holy Spirit but they were not sealed themselves if they turn away. What he is saying is that you have come so close, you’ve heard the word of God taught, you’ve seen the miracles in the community, you’ve seen the Holy Spirit’s power and you’ve tasted it but you have not really eaten it if you deny, now what I am telling you to do is to go on to a full new covenant faith where you believe the Messiah.