Hebrews 6 Amplified Bible (AMP) 6 Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God, 2 With teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment. [These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware long, long ago.] 3 If indeed God permits, we will [now] proceed [to advanced teaching]. 4 For it is impossible [to restore and bring again to repentance] those who have been once for all enlightened, who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and have become sharers of the Holy Spirit, 5 And have felt how good the Word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and world to come, 6 If they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance—[it is impossible] to bring them back to repentance, for (because, while, as long as) they nail upon the cross the Son of God afresh [as far as they are concerned] and are holding [Him] up to contempt and shame and public disgrace. 7 For the soil which has drunk the rain that repeatedly falls upon it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose benefit it is cultivated partakes of a blessing from God. 8 But if [that same soil] persistently bears thorns and thistles, it is considered worthless and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. 9 Even though we speak this way, yet in your case, beloved, we are now firmly convinced of better things that are near to salvation and accompany it. 10 For God is not unrighteous to forget or overlook your labor and the love which you have shown for His name’s sake in ministering to the needs of the saints (His own consecrated people), as you still do. 11 But we do [strongly and earnestly] desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity [all the way through] in realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of [your] hope until the end, 12 In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith (by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises. 13 For when God made [His] promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, 14 Saying, Blessing I certainly will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you. 15 And so it was that he [Abraham], having waited long and endured patiently, realized and obtained [in the birth of Isaac as a pledge of what was to come] what God had promised him. 16 Men indeed swear by a greater [than themselves], and with them in all disputes the oath taken for confirmation is final [ending strife]. 17 Accordingly God also, in His desire to show more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan, intervened (mediated) with an oath. 18 This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us]. 19 [Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whoever steps out upon it—a hope] that reaches farther and enters into [the very certainty of the Presence] within the veil, 20 Where Jesus has entered in for us [in advance], a Forerunner having become a High Priest forever after the order (with the rank) of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6 No chapter in the Bible has disturbed people more than has Heb. 6. It is unfortunate that even sincere believers have fallen out over the doctrine of falling away! Scholars have offered several interpretations of this passage: (1) it describes the sin of apostasy, which means Christians can lose their salvation; (2) it deals with people who were almost saved but then backed away from trusting Christ; (3) it describes a sin possible only to Jews living while the Jewish temple was still standing; (4) it presents a hypothetical case or illustration that could not really happen. While I respect the views of others, I must reject those ideas just listed. I feel that Heb. 6 (like the rest of the book) was written to believers, but this chapter does not describe a sin that results in a believer losing salvation. If we keep the total context of the book in mind, and if we pay close attention to the words used, we will discover that the main lessons of the chapter are ones of repentance and assurance. I. An Appeal (6:1-3) The writer has severely scolded his readers because of their spiritual dullness (5:11-14); now he urges them to go on to maturity (perfection). This, of course, is the main theme of the book. The word perfection (maturity) is the same word used in the Parable of the Sower in Luke 8:14 (and bring no fruit to perfection). This image ties in later with the illustration of the field in Heb. 6:7-8. The appeal Let us go on is literally, Let us be borne, or carried, on. It is the same word translated upholding in 1:3. In other words, the writer is not talking about self-effort; he is appealing to the readers to yield themselves to the power of God, the same power that upholds the whole universe. How can we fall when God is holding us? Instead of going ahead, however, these believing Jews were tempted to lay again a foundation that is described in vv. 2-3. The six items in this foundation do not refer to the Christian faith as such, but rather to the basic doctrines of Judaism. Facing the fires of persecution, these Hebrew Christians were tempted to fall by the wayside by forsaking their confession of Christ (4:14 and 10:23). They had already slipped back into babyhood (5:11-14); now they were prone to go back to Judaism, thus laying again the foundation that had prepared the way for Christ and the full light of Christianity. They had repented from dead works, referring to works under the law (9:14). They had shown faith toward God. They believed the doctrine of washings (not baptism, but the Levitical washings; see Mark 7:4-5 and Heb. 9:10). Laying on of hands refers to the Day of Atonement, Lev. 16:21; and every true Jew held to a future resurrection and judgment (see Acts 24:14-15). If they did not move forward, they would be moving backward, which meant forsaking the substance of Christianity for shadows of Judaism. II. An Argument (6:4-8) Note from the beginning that the issue here is repentance, not salvation: For it is impossible... to renew them unto repentance (vv. 4, 6). If this passage is talking about salvation, then it is teaching that a believer who loses salvation cannot regain it. This means that salvation depends partly on our own works and, once we lose salvation, we can never get it back again. But the subject of the chapter is repentance—the believers attitude toward the Word of God. Verses 4-5 describe real Christians (see 10:32 as well as 2:9, 14), and v. 9 indicates that the writer believed they were truly saved. We do not have almost saved people here, but real believers. The two key words in v. 6 are fall away and crucify. Fall away is not the Gk. word apostasia, from which we get the English word apostasy. It is parapipto, which means to fall beside, to turn aside, to wander. It is similar to the word for trespass, as found in Gal. 6:1 (if a man be overtaken in a fault [trespass]). So, v. 6 describes believers who have experienced the spiritual blessings of God but who fall by the side or trespass because of unbelief. Having done this, they are in danger of divine chastening (see Heb. 12:5-13) and of becoming castaways (1 Cor. 9:24-27), which results in loss of reward and divine disapproval, but not loss of salvation. The phrase seeing they crucify (v. 6) should be translated while they are crucifying. In other words, Heb. 6:4-6 does not teach that sinning saints cannot be brought to repentance, but that they cannot be brought to repentance while they continue to sin and put Christ to shame. Believers who continue in sin prove that they have not repented; Samson and Saul are cases in point. Hebrews 12:14-17 cites the case of Esau as well. The illustration of the field in vv. 7-8 relates this truth to the image of the testing fires of God, a truth given in 1 Cor. 3:10-15 as well as Heb. 12:28-29. God saved us to bear fruit; our lives will one day be tested; what we do that is not approved will be burned. Note that the field is not burned, but rather the fruit. The believer is saved yet so as by fire (1 Cor. 3:15). So, the whole message of this difficult passage is this: Christians can go backward in their spiritual lives and bring shame to Christ. While they are living in sin, they cannot be brought to repentance, and they are in danger of divine chastening. If they persist, their lives will bear no lasting fruit, and they will suffer loss at the judgment seat of Christ. And, lest we use grace as an excuse for sin, Heb. 10:30 reminds believers: The Lord shall judge His people. III. An Assurance (6:9-20) The writer closes with as solid a passage on eternal security as we will find anywhere in the Bible. He points, first of all, to their own lives (vv. 10-12) and reminds them that they had given every evidence of being true Christians. We find faith, hope, and love described in these three verses, and these traits are the characteristics of true believers (1 Thes. 1:3; Rom. 5:1-5). But he cautions them in v. 12 not to be dull of hearing (or slothful, same word as in 5:11). God has given His promises; they need only exercise faith and patience to receive the blessing. He then uses Abraham as an illustration of patient faith. Certainly Abraham sinned—and even repeated one sin twice!—yet God kept His promises to him. After all, the covenants of God do not depend on the faith of the saints for their certainty; they depend only on the faithfulness of God. God verified the promise of Gen. 22:16-17 by swearing by Himself—and that settled it! Abraham did not receive the promised blessing because of his own goodness or obedience, but because of the faithfulness of God. Abraham experienced many trials and testings (as did the original readers of Hebrews), but God saw him through. In v. 17, the writer says that God did all this for Abraham that the heirs might know the dependability of Gods counsel and promise. Who are these heirs? According to v. 18, all true believers are heirs, for we are Abrahams children by faith (see Gal. 3). So, there are two immutable things that give us assurance: Gods promises (for God cannot lie) and Gods oath (for God cannot change). The unchanging Word of God and the unchanging Person of God are all we need to assure us that we are saved and kept for eternity. We have a hope to anchor our souls, and this hope is Christ Himself (7:19-20; 1 Tim. 1:1). How can we drift spiritually (2:1-3) when in Christ we are anchored to heaven itself? We have a sure and steadfast anchor; and we have a Forerunner (Christ) who has opened the way for us and will see to it that we one day shall join Him in glory. Instead of frightening saints into thinking they are lost, this wonderful chapter warns against unbelief and an unrepentant heart and also assures us that we are anchored in eternity.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Feb 2014 16:46:09 +0000
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