Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 to 8

The above verses sometimes raise questions in peoples minds as to whether the passage means that genuine Christians can turn away from Christ and be subsequently lost, or whether we are speaking about persons who were never real Christians at all.

One would say, first of all, that the writer of the epistle is not talking about Christians who fall into sin, but rather of persons who apostatise from the faith, in this case going back to Judaism. We have a similar sort of thing in chapter 10 and in 1 Timothy chapter 4. We are speaking about wilful sin (chapter 10:56), not one of inadvertence.

The point is that the persons spoken of had been showered with blessing from God (verses 7 & 8), but it had not resulted in any fruit for God. There was no change in the persons as a result of it. With all true Christians there will be fruit however meagre. Consider our Lord’s parable of the sower (Matthew 13 particular verse 23) and by way of contrast the fig tree that had leaves only (Matthew 21 particularly verse 19). Then we have Paul’s word in Romans 7:4 where he speaks of bearing fruit to God. James also makes several references to fruit. It is a burden of his epistle that there should be fruit. Faith should result in corresponding works.

Another point: the persons that are spoken of were exceedingly blessed; it is not just a question of persons who have been brought up in a Christian household going off into the world as some would have it. If this were the case the prodigal son would never have been blessed. Others have pointed out that the persons had only ‘tasted’ (verses 4 and 5). However one person was startled when I pointed out that Christ had only tasted death (chapter 2:9). This would show that we should be careful that we do not water down the statements in the passage.

The force of the section is that in Christianity God has given his best and if that is not good enough there is nothing further that can be presented to those who have known the good things of Christianity but have turned away from them.

The passage starts off by speaking of the impossibility of renewing again to repentance those who have turned away. This implies that the persons had repented, that is, had turned from dead works (what the Jews performed) in the past - see verse 1. In this connection it may be noted that normally Scripture connects repentance with something else as in verse 1 where it is linked with faith in God. See also such passages as Acts 3:19 where it is linked with conversion and Acts 20:21 where it is also linked with faith. There is also Mark 1:15 (repent and believe) and Matthew 21:29 (repented and went). Repentance on its own may be simply a change of mind, right in itself, but there may be a lack of depth in it. Repentance should produce works (Luke 3:8 and Acts 26:20).

In the passage we are speaking about persons had been enlightened and had tasted of the heavenly gift. What is the heavenly gift ? It is not the Holy Spirit who is mentioned separately further on. Neither do I think it is eternal life. Rather it is heavenly giving (the beneficence of heaven) as I believe it is also in John 4:10 and 2 Corinthians 9:15. No doubt if a specific gift was intended it would have been specified. This is, not just my own thought, but has been said by another well versed in Scripture.

The three other things mentioned are the Holy Spirit, the good word of God and the works of power of the age to come. Such an one as Judas Iscariot would have listened to Christ’s ministry (the good word of God) and been involved in miracle working (Matthew 10). There were also those who had prophesied in Christ’s name and yet were persons who Christ never knew (Matthew 7:22/23). Prophesying would have involved speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit. Such an one as Balaam in the Old Testament did as much, though there is no evidence that he was a self judged man (see 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11 and Revelation 2:14)

The problem with the persons spoken of in this passage is that there had been no purification of their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). There had been no inward change such as Ezekiel speaks of (Ezekiel 36:24-32). The possession of spiritual gifts does not show that we have what is vital any more than the possession of material things (1 Corinthians 13; Luke 16:19-31 and 12:15).

The passage gives us extreme cases. There were evidently such at the time the Hebrew epistle was written as he speaks of “those” (verse 4), indicating that there were several to whom his word applied. However, by taking the extreme cases he leaves room for the fact that there may be others where it may be difficult to renew them again to repentance, but not impossible. Today, we do not normally see works of power such as there were at the beginning of the assembly’s history, so it might be argued that the passage does not apply now. However, it would be dangerous to assume that the passage does not have a voice to us today. The warning nature of the passage should not be overlooked or explained away.

It may be of interest that Charles Darwin had the early verses of Hebrews 6 marked in his Bible. He was reputed to have been favourably disposed towards the book of Hebrews.

August 2008