I would like to consider a passage of Scripture that some people have deemed difficult to understand or have multiple interpretations attached to them. We must remember that almost every verse in the Bible has only one meaning: the author’s original meaning. So, with that in mind, let’s consider the following passage.

1. Is it really “impossible”?

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance.-Hebrews 6:4-6a

Chapter 6 is, by most people’s reckoning, a hard chapter to grasp, regardless of your theological position. Dr. R. W. Dale, a conservative scholar of a bygone age, said this:

I know how this passage has made the heart of many a good man tremble. It rises up in the New Testament with a gloomy grandeur, stern, portentous, awful, sublime as Mt. Sinai when the Lord descended upon it in fire, and threatening storm clouds were around Him, and thundering and lightnings and unearthly voices told that He was there.

As we approach this chapter, we need to put aside whatever we have heard or been taught in the past and try our best to view it with fresh eyes.

To understand the verses in question, we really need to back up 5:12, where the author of Hebrews begins a new section. In the previous chapters, he has discussed the excellence and superiority of Christ over angels, and how Christ was the perfect High Priest. Man could have total confidence Christ because of His superiority and position before God the Father.

Now, the author switches gears in the last three verses of chapter 5 and turns his attention from Christ, the High Priest, to the his readers. He seems concerned about the state of the faith and gives them a stern warning about slipping away from the Lord. His readers should have been mature Christians by this time; it seems obvious that they have been believers for a quite some time, yet for some reason there spiritual growth has been stunted. This seems to trouble the Hebrews author.

Spiritual Obtuseness, 5:12-14

It appears that these people had been Christians for so long, they should be teaching others the faith. The word “elementary” (NIV) is from the Greek word stoicheion (we get our word “atom” from that word) and suggests the “primary elements”-that is, the very basic tenets of the faith. So, these readers should be at least able to teach the basics to others, but they aren’t capable of doing that. This is an ability that is inherent in every single believer, 1 Peter 3:15; Romans 2:21, yet how many believers today are content with just the barest knowledge of God? How immature were these believers? They are likened to babies in need of burping. In fact, the sense of the verse is that since they hadn’t progressed, they have actually fallen back. In the Christian faith, there is always movement: either we move ahead in our faith or we fall back. There is never any standing still.

Verse 13 is an interesting verse that presents some translation problems. However, I believe the author is saying these immature believers are as incapable of understanding spiritual truths as a baby is incapable of understanding grown-up talking. The Hebrew phrase, apeiros logou dikaiosynes suggests just that-the words were too hard for them to grasp.

In contrast to babies living on milk, mature believers need solid food. The NIV translates the Greek gymnazo (“to train naked”) as “trained themselves.” The meaning is striking for mature believers: they are constantly exercising their spiritual perception, they are always learning and growing, they don’t always need to be spoon-fed.

Deo volente! 6:1-3

Curiously, instead of offering the immature believer milk, the writer says he will leave behind the ABC’s and go on to maturity, and he uses the word “therefore” to begin. One would think he would begin this new discussion with a phase like, “Despite your sorry condition.” He says, “let us go on”; which indicates a horizontal movement. There are six foundational beliefs that the author takes from the Old Testament and applies to Christian life.

1. Repentance from dead works. This was the message of John the Baptist, of Jesus, of the apostles and is a basic element of all preaching. Here, it is repentance from “dead works,” which probably means turning from the legalistic, blind obedience to Jewish ways. Dead works get a person nowhere. A living and vital relationship with God through Christ is essential to spiritual maturity.
2. Faith toward God, (KJV). The believer’s faith is not in a set of rules or in a priest or a system of belief, but rather it must be based in God Himself.
3. Instruction about baptisms. This is in apposition to “foundation,” and is the first of several subjects. The idea is that Christian converts needed to be taught the differences between the various baptisms they had and would encounter. Notice it is plural, which means that is not referring to Christian baptism only. In fact, the word used here is a word frequently used to purification ceremonies other than baptism in water. This is significant because his readers were Jews who didn’t grasp the relationship between their various “baptisms” and Christian baptism.
4. Instruction about the laying on of hands. Like baptism, this was a widespread practice in the ancient world. In the Church, hands were laid on new converts, on the ordination of ministers and such, and seems to be connected with the gift(s) of the Spirit on several occasions (i.e. Acts 8:17-19). Again, the immature believers hadn’t seen a connection between the laying on of hands in their faith and in the Christian faith.
5. Instruction about the resurrection of the dead. This topic, as well as the following one, was mainstays of discussion in both faiths. The resurrection of the dead was taught throughout the Old Testament, but now these immature believers needed to see the resurrection of Christ as the first-fruits of what was to come.
6. Instruction about eternal judgment. Connected to the above, this was an important aspect of faith, for it indicated a vindication of their faith and an assurance that the unrepentant would be judged. Also implicit is the notion that we, the Church, must live as responsible men and women for one day we will be raised from the dead at the final judgment and give an account of ourselves before God. Death is not the end of everything, as many new converts to Christianity had been taught to believe.

Verse 3 is a statement of resolute determination to push ahead and grow in the faith along the lines we just mentioned: in doctrine and in knowledge. But notice the writer makes it clear that this can only be done with the help of God.

No second beginning, 6:4-8

Having laid the groundwork for his admonition against slipping away, the writer points to the impossibility of a “second beginning.” While it is impossible for a Christian to stand still-he either moves ahead or slips back-he can’t go all the way back to a state of innocence to start fresh. That’s impossible, he says. He stresses how serious slipping back is because you can cut yourself off from God’s blessings and His presence.

The key to this passage is really verse 9, but we need to look at the intervening verses first. What’s sad is that so many fine expositors literally skip over these verses. G. Campbell Morgan, who has been called the Prince of Expositors, ignores completely this section in his book on Hebrews. There are at least four interpretations of these verses, which are as follows. As you read them, be aware all but one of them assumes that these verses are referring to a believer not just slipping from the Lord, but slipping into a state of apostasy, a state of losing their very salvation.

1. These believers have lost their salvation. I think, this interpretation makes the least sense, although many believe it. The people who hold to this view are genuine, born again and take their faith seriously but believe their salvation depends on the amount of faith they have in Christ. In other words, they believe that if their faith wavers, they are in danger of losing it all together. They are able to produce Scripture to back this belief up, yet they ignore the many verses that clearly teach nothing can separate us from the love of God. We can have the assurance that behind the weakest Christian are the resources of heaven. Our salvation is a work of God, not a work of our faith. Romans 8, the entire chapter, teach this very clearly. There are many, many passages throughout the New Testament that make it abundantly clear that you and I cannot be lost after we have been adopted into God’s family. Having said that let me say this. While a believer cannot “lose” their salvation, they can willingly “give it back,” that is, they can choose to become an apostate. This, in my opinion, is not what these verses are teaching.
2. This is a hypothetical case. Proponents of this view, which has some merit, point to the use of the conditional “if.” There is only the slightest possibility that this may happen.
3. These believers were not true Christians. Those who hold to this view point out that the “if” word doesn’t appear in the Greek, so they say the people the writer is referring to were Christians in name only. I think this is unlikely in light of how the writer refers to them in chapter five.
4. The writer is concerned with the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation. This is a somewhat modern view that depends on verses 7 and 8. When a Christian falls away, his life no longer produces fruit, or it produces the wrong kind of fruit. The warning is very clear here. Land that is productive is seen as being blessed of God. Land that yields only weeds faced being burned out by fire in hopes that eventually it would produce the desired crop. The parallel with the Christian life is obvious. We are told our works would be tested, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

An examination of the word, parapito (“fell away”) sheds some light. It simply means “to stumble, to fall down” It does not mean, “apostatize.” It is the same word used of Jesus when He “fell on” His face to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the New Testament, there are many examples of men who “fell away.” Peter was one (Luke 22:32). John Mark was another (Acts 15:37-39). Neither Peter nor John Mark lost their salvation, even though they failed and suffered loss because of their failure; eventually they were restored and went on to do great works for God, but their failures remained.

Remember the opening words of the chapter: the issue is repentance, not salvation. It is impossible for people like this to repent. It means it is impossible for people like this to bring themselves to repentance. In other words, there is no turning the clock back to undo the damage done to their testimonies. They can be as sorry as they can be, but these folk have damaged their testimony.

Application

The application of the principles in these verses in the lives of believers today is powerful. First, it must be stressed that a believer’s salvation is not in question, his usefulness for the Kingdom is. When a believer stumbles and wanders away from God, he does irreparable harm to his testimony and to the Gospel of Christ. Not only that, but he opens himself up to all manner problems and trials because he has left the shelter of the Almighty. Just as the worthless land will be burned up to made useful again, so the Lord will allow calamity to come into an errant believer’s life to bring him back.

Second, note the encouraging words of verse 9:

Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case-things that accompany salvation.

One who stumbles and falls is not lost. Indeed, they may be restored and set right by the grace of God and the ministry of the Church.