Sept 19, 2019
READING TIME: 3-4 MINUTES
HEBREWS 6: PART 4
BETTER THINGS THAT ACCOMPANY SALVATION
Verse 9 speaks of “better things” (plural), and things that “accompany salvation,” not “salvation” itself. The writer of Hebrews is not saying in verse 9, “I am confident that you are saved.” Rather, he is saying, “I am confident that you will go on to bear good fruit, which accompanies salvation,” just as they already and previously had done (v. 10). For this reason, he reminds his readers that God will be faithful to reward them one day: “for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name” (v. 10). Hebrews 6 is about genuine believers going on to maturity in the Christian life, not about believers assuring themselves that they possess eternal life.
Hebrews 6:6
Careful consideration of the content of these verses in the context of Hebrews, however, indicates that genuinely regenerate individuals are being described.
I agree with Wilkin (in his dissertation, 178-179) that the author meant that it was humanly impossible to renew to repentance those who fall away. God, however, might do what no human can do. The point seems to be that once a believer willingly chooses to apostatize no man can coax him back to repentance. Said in another way it is impossible for continuous effort on the part of people to restore an apostate back, not to conversion but commitment.
Hebrews 6:8
Using an analogy, this warning compares someone who falls away from the Christian faith with the earth that receives rain and produces thorns and briers instead of fruit. Such earth is “rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.” The word “rejected” means to be disqualified and is used of believers in the New Testament about losing future rewards (cf. 1 Cor. 9:27), but is never used of hell. This earth (unfruitful believers) is disqualified from usefulness and the accompanying benefits. Note also that the earth is near to being cursed, not cursed. This denotes the seriousness of the apostasy (6:6) but stops short of total rejection. When it says that the earth is to be burned, one correctly pictures the thorns and briers being burned off the earth, because the earth itself cannot burn. Thus it pictures a fire of judgment and/or purging that burns up that which is useless (cf. John 15:6; 1 Cor. 3:13-15). These believers were in danger of becoming “sluggish” (6:12), and such spiritual lethargy would be useless to God and others. God’s disciplining judgment has the purpose of making believers holy and fruitful (12:10-11). There seems to be an intended relationship of this warning to Isaiah 5:1-7 which warned Israel that God would burn her for being an unfruitful vineyard. The warning of Hebrews 6 shows that believers who do not go forward with their faith squander God’s blessings so that what is produced is not useful but useless and fit only to be discarded, or burned.
Conclusion of Hebrews 6:4-8
This passage does not teach that one can lose eternal salvation, nor is it addressing unbelievers or presenting a hypothetical situation. It addresses Hebrew Christians in danger of making a terrible choice to abandon their forward progress in faith to return to Jewish rituals. They would lose forever the progress they would have otherwise made and would suffer God’s temporal judgment. This is a good exhortation and warning to Christians today. God wants us to faithfully press forward in our Christian faith. Though our eternal salvation is secure, there are severe consequences if we intentionally turn away from Him and do not go on to maturity. We will not only forfeit the progress we could have made but face God’s fiery chastisement intended to make us more useful in the future.
Sources Used
Bing, Charlie. “Hebrews on Fire.” GraceNotes 34.
________. “How Do We Explain Hebrews 6:4-8?”
Cocoris, G. Michael. Repentance: The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible. Grace Gospel Press.
Wilkin, Robert N. “Repentance as a Condition for Salvation in the New Testament,” An Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, May 1985