The
writer in chapter 6 verse 11 makes a pretty direct statement to his
readers. He says, “we have much to say about this, but it is hard to
explain because you are slow to learn”.
Such a statement sounds like it could have come from Paul.
Yet even if it didn’t, I believe that these New Testament writers
were very convinced of their faith and as a result were bold in speech.
The
writer goes on to say that these people should be far enough down the road
in their faith that they should be teaching others, but in reality they
have to be taught all over again themselves.
The things they need to be taught are “the elementary truths”.
These are the basic teachings.
This implies that these people were in the process of loosing their
faith, or that they have become quite dull in their trust in Jesus.
Becoming “dull in faith” seems to be the tendency of man.
If you don’t “fan the fires of faith” you will become dull in
faith.
The
writer compares these people to little children who are too young to eat
solid food. They have to drink
only milk. The question can be
asked then, “what is milk and what is solid food”?
According
to Hebrews 5:12 and 6:1 milk
seems to be the elementary truths of the Gospel.
He lists them as; repentance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands,
resurrection, and eternal judgment. The
writer calls these the elementary teachings about Christ, and that these
people should move on past this into maturity.
It strikes me that if these teachings are elementary, how much are
we today like the Hebrews that this letter is directed to.
The things that he lists here as basic are probably not really
clearly understood by many Christians today. If I were to ask the average
Christian what the writer means by any of these points, could he or she
give a proper explanation? Probably
not.
The
first in the list is “repentance from acts that lead to death”.
Many translations use the phrase “repentance from dead works”.
The first interpretation then concerning repentance is from our own
works. We cannot receive
salvation as a result of anything we do, no matter how good it is.
Therefore we must repent, or turn from trying to receive salvation
from our own human effort. Of
course we do need to repent from acts of sin that lead to death as well.
So when thinking of repentance, we must think of both aspects of
repenting. The liberalized
church today has pretty much converted over to a system of works, which
the writer would call dead works.
The
second in the list is faith, which is a natural result of repenting.
You cannot really have faith, which is simply trusting Jesus,
without repenting. You must
turn from your own ways before you can take steps of faith towards Jesus.
Once again, as I have said before, when we come to Jesus in
repentance, we trust Him with our whole life, which would include our
salvation. We don’t just
trust Him for salvation.
Baptisms
are next in the list. You
probably notice right away that baptisms are in the plural form, meaning
more than one. A general
rule is that unless the context says otherwise we should use the word
baptism in the sense of water baptism.
The word baptism is also used in a couple of other ways as well.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, He comes to us as if we are being
baptized with Him.(Acts 1:5) Mat.
3:11 says that Jesus would baptize with the Holy and with fire.
This baptism with fire seems to be connected with receiving the
Holy Spirit. It may not be a
secondary baptism but a result of the Holy Spirit coming into a life.
Then there is the idea of being baptized into the church, or the
body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:13) When
we receive the Holy Spirit we are not only united with God Himself, but we
also become united with our brothers and sisters in Jesus.
It is like a baptism into the family of God.
We are immersed into Christ’s body on earth.
Laying
on of hands is the next elementary truth.
We see this teaching all through the New Testament.
In Acts 19 Paul laid hands on 12 men and they received the Holy
Spirit. The basic thinking to
laying on of hands is that we impart something to the person we are
touching. We are being used by
the Lord to give that person something, whether a miracle, or a calling of
God, or whatever.
Next
on the list is the resurrection. This
resurrection consists of two parts, first the resurrection of Jesus, then
as a result, our own resurrection on the Day of Judgment.
This
leads to the next item on the list, that being eternal judgment.
There will come a day when all unbelievers will
be judged and their eternal destiny will be sealed.
At that day it will be too late for anyone to change his mind.
Those who have not given their lives to Jesus will fall into
eternal condemnation, that is, the
Lake
of
Fire
.
The
writer closes this paragraph by saying, “God permitting, we will do
so”. By this he means, if
God so allows us, we will move on from these things to become mature
Christians. Notice, “God
permitting”. We must
understand that God is sovereign, He can do whatever He chooses.
Sometimes I wonder if we really understand this aspect of God.
Concerning
the word "sovereign", it is interesting to note that the Hebrew
word that is translated as "sovereign" in the Old Testament
means to own. So in the Old
Testament sense of the word, if someone calls God "sovereign
Lord", as they often did, they would be saying, "the Lord who
owns me". I'd
suggest that when we call God sovereign today, we'd be saying the same
thing.
The
next couple of verses, 4 through 6, are difficult verses and have been
debated for years. The best
that we can do is to accept for face value what it says.
It is saying, that for the person who has “been enlightened,
tasted of the heavenly gift (salvation), shared in the Holy Spirit, shared
in the goodness of the word of God, and the powers of the coming age; to
come back to Jesus if he falls away”.
The writer says “it is impossible … if they fall away, to bring
them back to repentance…”
We
do need to recognize a couple of points here. We are not talking about
simply back-sliding, depending on your definition of that word.
We are not talking about getting lazy in our faith as these Hebrews
were. We are not talking about
loosing our intensity for Jesus. We
are not talking about doubt either. We
are talking about out and out rejection of Jesus.
This is the case because the writer says if a person falls to such
a extent that he has to repent all over again, He can’t do that.
If you have to repent all over again, this means that you have
thrown away your faith, you have decided not to trust Jesus any longer.
Then once throwing your trust away you turn back to the life you
once lived. This would be
called repentance in reverse. If
someone has actually done this, then it appears, according to this verse,
he can’t be saved the second time. By
repenting in reverse you are publicly disgracing our Lord and what He has
done on the cross for mankind.
These
Hebrew people actually have not got to this place as yet.
The writer is writing this as a warning.
He does not want them to get to this point.
He is speaking very clearly to them.
If they keep on going as they are, they may end up repenting in
reverse.
So
in verse 7 and 8 the writer gives this same warning but using an analogy.
Land that receives rainfall can produce good fruit, but if it does
not rain, only thorns will grow. I
know this from experience. One
summer to save money, I did not water the lawn and it was extremely dry
that year. The grass died, but
weeds did not.
It seems that certain weeds don’t need lots of water to grow like
grass does. It took me two or
three years to get rid of those weeds.
So the writer is saying, if you don’t drink in the water of the
Lord, if you don’t live in the Spirit, you will loose what you have and
will be in danger of being cursed. These
are strong words. It is clear
that this writer believes that there is a way to loose your salvation.
It is by throwing away your trust in Jesus, and repenting in
reverse. Worst still, he seems
to be saying that you can’t get resaved.
To
me this is simple. One is
saved by faith, and the only way to get unsaved is by total unbelief,
total rejection of Jesus.
In
verse 9 the writer seems to not want to leave this strong warning without
encouraging them. He calls
them “dear friends” and says that he “is confident of better things
of them”.
These
people have obviously had a good past in the sense that they have
“helped” the people of God. God
will see this. Even
though they have fallen to a degree, He will give them more chances to
relight the fires of faith.
In
verse 11 he encourages these people to show “diligence to the end”.
Once again, it is not the one who runs the race, but the one who
finishes the race that will get the prize.
Verse
12 says, “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who
through faith and patience inherit what has been promised”.
We can only “inherit what we have been promised” by patiently
trusting Jesus. Do you
need patience to trust Jesus? It
appears that you do. Like
Abraham, we don't necessarily get what God promises over night.
In
verse 13 we see that God made a promise to Abraham to give him many
descendents. There is no one
greater than God to swear by, so God swore by Himself.
When God makes a promise, whether a positive one or a negative one,
He keeps it. Abraham patiently
waited, and the beginning of the promise came true with the birth of his
son.
We
should understand that the word "descendents" here is
specifically speaking of
Israel
, not what some call "spiritual
Israel
" who they also call the church.
I won't get into the discussion here because I've done it
elsewhere, but God promised Abraham's descendents certain things, and his
descendents are clearly
Israel
. At the same time, God
promised Abraham's offspring, who Paul says is Jesus in Galatians 3:16,
certain things as well. Both
Israel
and Jesus are recipients in the Abrahamic Covenant.
The
writer goes on to speak about human oaths, or covenants. When man makes
oaths with one another they appeal to someone that is greater than them to
stop all arguments about the oath. This
is why we swear on the Bible in a court room.
These
verses need some serious thought. It
is hard to understand what the writer is speaking about without stopping
and thinking it through. Verse 17 says that God “wanted to make the
unchangeable nature of His purpose clear”.
Notice that God has an eternal purpose, and it has not, nor never
will change. This purpose is
salvation in all of its varying aspects, which include the salvation of
Israel
as seen in Romans 11. I say
that because
Israel
is so much a part of the Abrahamic Covenant.
So
in order to make this purpose clear to those He wish to
enter into His purpose, God makes a covenant with these people.
Verse 18 says, “God did this so that, by two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of
the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged”.
What are the two unchangeable things that the writer talks about
here? Traditional speaking,
the two unchangeable things that the oath is based on is God Himself in
two different aspects. First
God Himself gives the promise and that should be good enough for us.
Yet second of all, He is the one who guarantees the promise.
He is both the Giver and the Guarantor of the promise.
It is all His idea, ands He will carry it through to its
completion. He is not
depending on us to carry out His unchangeable plan.
That is to say, at some point His plan will be finished whether you
or I participate or not.
When
speaking of the Abrahamic Covenant as an example of God making promises,
you'll note in Genesis 15 where God confirms the covenant with Abraham,
that in actuality, God did not make a covenant with Abraham.
He made it with Himself.
God agreed with Himself, after He put Abraham to sleep, that He
would promise Abraham certain things, Israel, Abraham's descendents
certain things, and Abraham's offspring Jesus certain things.
The fulfillment of these promises depended on God's faithfulness
alone, and nothing else.
We
commonly say that all things are possible with God.
Yet this is not quite true. Here
in verse 18 it says that God is not capable of telling a lie.
Isn’t that good for us. God
is not capable of falsehood. Therefore
what He says will happen, will happen.
Because
of this, those of us who "have fled to take hold” of this promise
should be encouraged. Note the
word “fled”. This is the
view point of New Testament writers. When
speaking about repenting, this is important.
These men did not simply think in terms of getting saved and going
to heaven. Part of the
salvation process was being “rescued from the world and our sin”.
Repentance therefore involves a fleeing from our own ways.
You can picture people running fast out of a house inflamed with
fire. This is how the New
Testament writers view repentance. They
were fleeing from their old lifestyle.
They felt that they were being rescued from the world and their
sin.
There
should be great hope in us that God’s ultimate plan will be reached.
“We have this hope as an anchor for our soul, firm and secure”.
(ch. 6:19) It is vital to feel
this way in the depth of our hearts. In
all we believe, and hold true as Christians, we need to hold strong and
deep convictions. We cannot be
wishy washy. We cannot be
tossed to and for in our thinking. We
must be convinced of our hope in the truth.
Verse
19 speaks of Jesus going behind the certain and acting as high priest on
our behalf. This reference to
the curtain is in relation to the Old Testament Temple.
In order to get to the most holy place where the presence of God
was, you had to go behind a
certain. Not everyone could do
this, only the high priest, and only once a year.
But we know that at the resurrection of Jesus that certain was
ripped open. Now in one sense
of the Word, Jesus is continually there, in the presence of God acting on
our behalf. Once again, Jesus
is forever our high priest. Now
and forever through eternity, the only way in which we will be able to
come before the Living God is to have Jesus come with us.
We cannot, not never will be able to stand before God without
having Jesus stand with us and represent us to Him.
How thankful we should be. To
me it is amazing that even in the next life, as righteous as we will be,
we will still need a high priest, who is Jesus.