READING TIME: 4-6 MINUTES
Sept 17, 2019
Hebrews 6 Part 2
In yesterday’s post, I gave you tips on how to interpret biblical passages that, on the surface, appear to teach salvation can be lost. In reality, when these biblical passages are properly interpreted, you will see that salvation can never be lost.
In today’s post, I will expand on the fire metaphor in the book of Hebrews. This particular metaphor in Hebrews does not refer to hell. Yesterday I gave you an overview of the meaning of Hebrews 6. Today and in future posts, we will look at this important chapter in more detail.
FIRE METAPHOR IN THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
The judgment of fire in Hebrews refers to God’s discipline which can be very severe. Such discipline will be meted out in this life in the form of painful experiences. The fire here would be understood by these Hebrew Christian readers as the fiery destruction of Jerusalem which happened a short time after this book was written, a judgment on Israel for rejecting and crucifying Jesus Christ. In any case, believers don’t need to fear burning in hell, but they will experience God’s burning anger if they willfully turn away from the benefits of the eternal salvation which Jesus Christ provided through His death and resurrection (from Bing, Grace Notes #34).
I want to thank G. Michael Cocoris for his helpful notes below on Hebrews 6.
Hebrews 6:1
Repentance from dead works in this verse is a change of mind about the rituals of the Mosaic Law. All efforts to please God are “merely dead works” and the only hope of salvation is a complete reversal of attitude. It is a complete change of mind, whereby the convicted sinner gives up all thought of being able to propitiate God by an effort of his own and acknowledges that he is as bad as the Word has declared him to be.
This reference again demonstrates that the nature of repentance is not a feeling of sorrow for sin or changing one’s behavior. It is not saying people have to feel sorrow for their works or stop doing one kind of works and start doing another kind of works. It is saying that people need to change their minds about their works.
Repentance and faith are foundational. The author is saying that the readers need to press on beyond foundational truth to more advanced thinking, which will lead to maturity.
Hebrews 6:4-6 — Those Who Fall Away
Hebrews 6:1-12 describes the spiritual crossroads to which the immature, Hebrew Christians had come. They were faced with two options. Either they could go on to spiritual maturity by continuing in their faith amidst great opposition and thus receive God’s present blessings and future reward, or they could return to Judaism with its “dead works” of temple worship and priestly sacrifices, resulting in God’s temporal judgment, loss of blessing, and loss of future reward.
CONTEXT OF MATURITY
The context of this disputed passage concerns spiritual maturity, not eternal condemnation and salvation. Though people often focus only on verses 4-6, these verses are set within a context dealing with the subject of maturity.
IDENTITY OF THOSE WHO FALL AWAY
The writer knew his readers had not yet fallen into a hardened state of unbelief and unrepentance so that the description in verse 6 did not apply to them yet, though it could in the future if they did not continue steadfastly in their Christian faith. Otherwise, if the warning of verse 6 did not apply to the readers as a realistic possibility, why bother stating it? The readers were previously warned about the possibility of falling spiritually in Hebrews 4:11: “Let us, therefore, be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
Scripture elsewhere warns about the possibility of genuine believers falling away. In Jesus’s parable of the four soils, He describes the first soil as unbelievers, but the second soil is believers who fall away: “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:12-13). Likewise, the apostle Paul warned the saved but carnal Corinthians, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
This could then be translated, “If they fall away, [it is impossible] to renew them again to repentance, while they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” The writer of Hebrews is not shutting the door forever upon these believers experiencing spiritual growth again. But he is making it clear that this spiritual renewal will not occur while at the same time they persist in going back to the defunct Temple and its needless sacrifices.
The impossibility of renewing them to repentance remains while they continue to again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame. . . Returning to the sacrificial system was tantamount to crucifying Christ to themselves. This put Him to open shame because it implies that the death of Christ, instead of being one sacrifice for sins for all time (Hebrews 10:1-12), was no better than the repeated Levitical offerings.
Regarding those in Hebrews 6:4-6 who turn back to Judaism, we may conclude that it would be impossible to renew them again to repentance (a change of mind) as long as they remained in a state of willful rebellion. Believers cannot (v. 3) go on to maturity (v. 1) if they do not allow their minds to be renewed daily (Rom. 12:2).
TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW
Sources Used
Bing. Charlie C. “Grace Notes #34.”
Cocoris, G. Michael. Repentance: The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible. Grace Gospel Press. Kindle Edition.