– 12 min read
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of teaching about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do, if God permits. 4 For in the case of those once having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. 7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is unfit and close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
– Hebrews 6:1-8 (LSB)
Introduction
Let us acknowledge from the start that this is indeed a difficult text. Now, when I use the word “difficult,” I simply mean that on the surface or at first glance, it can be hard to follow and make sense of when compared to the rest of the New Testament. To put it more clearly, it is a text that requires the reader’s attentiveness and a certain level of Biblical theology. I would submit that upon careful study and consulting with the rest of the New Testament, this text can be understood clearly and properly. It is not to be chalked up as a mystery or some unattainable text to understand. My goal is to give us a brief outline, exegesis, and interpretation of the text so that we may all receive and heed the serious warning from the author of Hebrews.
Context?
One should not forget the context of the Book of Hebrews. Though it is commonly referred to as a letter, most scholars and commentators would say it doesn’t read like a letter.[1] Rather, it appears to be a transcribed sermon of encouragement.[2] Whatever it may be, it was written eloquently and distributed to Jewish Christians who were under great persecution because of their faith. Their trials were stacking up, and many of them were considering going back to Judaism. So, the author of this message seeks to encourage his audience and convince them through the Scriptures why Jesus is greater!
Contradictions?
From the onset, we must establish that the Bible does not and cannot contradict itself. If indeed the Bible is the infallible, inherent, authoritative word of God, by definition, it cannot be anything less than true. There can be no contradictions in the Bible; otherwise, it would not be the word of God. Therefore, when reading Hebrews 6:4-6, one may become perplexed in trying to square it up with other texts in the Bible. For example, we read John’s explanation of apostates as they were never truly saved to begin with; “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). Which of course, would fit well with the statements of Jesus in John’s gospel; “Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:39-40).
So then we ask, how does Hebrews 6:4-6 harmonize with these few passages cited and the many, many more contained in the New Testament? Not only the New Testament, but from what we read in Jeremiah 31:31-34, that all who belong to the New Covenant will know God, have His law written on their hearts, and have their sins forgiven. The data is clear: once the Holy Spirit seals someone, they belong to Christ, and if they belong to Christ, they are eternally secure in Him (Romans 8:9,11; Ephesians 1:11-14; John 10:27-30; Revelation 21:27).
Course?
So what is the best way to work through this text? I remember when I succeeded in my task of hunting a black bear and found myself standing over it with my friend on a remote island in Alaska. My only experience at that time was whitetail hunting in South Carolina. “How do you skin, clean, and harvest an Alaskan Black Bear?” I thought to myself. We were dozens of miles away from the shore where the boat was, and had already harvested a mountain goat, which we were carrying on our backs. Before I could start to become anxious about how exactly we were going to get all of this off the island, my friend said, “Well, let’s get started with the first task…” When there appears to be a massive task in front of you, it is always best to turn that big task into a list of smaller tasks. First, let us set our course by working through the list of participles the author gives us. Before we comment on any of them, let us get the list in front of us, and then we can work through them together.
1- “having been enlightened” (v.4a)
2- “having tasted of the heavenly gift” (v.4b)
3- “having become partakers of the Holy Spirit” (v.4c)
4- “having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (v.5)
5- “having fallen away” (v.6)
Commentary?
Some commentators would claim that the author is speaking to a truly mixed audience and therefore is not assuming everyone has indeed experienced these things. They would go as far as to claim that the author is not addressing believers at all in this passage.[3] Their objective is noble in that they wish not to venture into an interpretation that leads to the teaching of genuine believers losing their salvation. But this is not the solution, nor the best interpretation afforded. For the sake of length in this post, I will simply say that the best interpretation of the first four participles is that this is describing a believer.
Schreiner convincingly shows that all of these descriptors must be taken as experiences that only believers can have.[4] The word “enlightened“, which is our first participle, is used later by the author when speaking of the conversion of believers (Heb. 10:32). 2 Corinthians 4:6 alludes to this very thing with similar language. Never do we see an example of a “partial enlightenment” in Scripture. Since there is no term or sense of anything partial being used or implied in this text, it is best to read it as the author intends it. These people were indeed enlightened to the truth and knowledge of the gospel.
The second descriptor speaks of tasting “the heavenly gift” (Heb. 6:4). Again, some would have this tasting mean “sampling” or something of that nature. They would make a mountain out of this mole hill in the argument of “tasting doesn’t mean eating!” Not only is this silly, but it does violence to the other places the word is used to speak of “fully” experiencing something. For instance, earlier in the book, the author uses this word to speak of Christ’s death: “…Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9). Jesus did not partially die but fully died, truly died. Jesus fully experienced death, as did these individuals fully experience the heavenly gift. It seems best to say that the gift is salvation or the “gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17), and not the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is mentioned immediately after.
Thirdly mentioned by the author is the partaking of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:4). Again, we could object to the idea of someone partially receiving the Holy Spirit. The very seal of the New Covenant is the receiving, sharing, and partaking of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 3:1-5). You either have the Holy Spirit and are united to Christ, or you do not. There is no in between. This one seems pretty straightforward.
When we get to v.5, we read of “having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” Again, we have the word “tasted,” which we have best interpreted to mean to fully experience and not partially. This would be that they have indeed fully experienced the living and active, sharp word of God (Heb. 4:12), the same word which “[their] leaders, who spoke the word of God to [them]…” (Heb. 13:7). They have also experienced the eschatological hope of the New Heavens and the New Earth. The powers of the age to come are all the blessings the believer will powerfully receive upon his resurrection and glorification. One might object here to the fact that believers have not “fully” experienced these realities, but it is nonetheless truly present in their hope and pledged to them fully in the gospel by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They have attained it all in Christ by union with Him (Eph. 2:6).
Conundrum?
How is it then that someone who could have experienced all of these things then falls away (v.6)? And not only falls away, but then “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame” (Heb. 6:6). Is this a conundrum? This is certainly the language of apostasy (Ezek. 14:13; 15:8; 18:24; 20:27; 22:4).
“But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, does injustice, and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his unfaithfulness which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die.
– Ezekiel 18:24 (LSB)
What we could compare to this act of great apostasy is the unforgivable sin Jesus mentions in Matthew’s gospel: “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matt. 12:31-32). These were people who experienced such great things in such a great way and yet still did not believe in Jesus as the Son of God. In their hardhearted rebellion to the Spirit’s witness of who the Son of Man is, they blasphemed Him, and therefore proved never to be renewed or repentant. Grindheim says, “Jesus’s words about the unforgivable sin belong in a different context, as they were spoken to his opponents, not to followers who were in danger of leaving. Nevertheless, the main point is comparable: no path to salvation is left for those who are in the privileged position of having experienced God’s salvific power but who reject it.“[5]
So, first off, we must establish that this is not a new concept or new language. It is, however, difficult for us to reconcile with the newness and greatness of the New Covenant (Jer. 31-34) because it is not like the Old Covenant. The best thing for us to grasp is that this is a warning for those who are considering abandoning Jesus Christ and His gospel. The author is speaking of the person’s experience. Unlike John, who was not concerned with the subjective experience of the apostates who walked away (1 John 2:19), the author of Hebrews is granting them that they have had experiences of these things. John was interested in the facts of the matter; he was explaining why people had left. Our author here is not doing that. He is trying to prevent this from happening by encouraging believers and giving them serious warnings. In fact, we should remind ourselves that the author of Hebrews believed his audience to be genuine and that they would not fall away; “But we are convinced about you, beloved, of things that are better and that belong to salvation, though we are speaking in this way” (Heb. 6:9).
Consquences?
We read in v.7-8 that the author compares these apostates to a worthless land that produces thorns and thistles. He tells us that this land recieved the same rain as other land which produced useful vagetation did: “For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is unfit and close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” Here, I think, is the solution to the problem many readers and commentators face. By the author giving us this illustration, he is acknowledging that those who are cursed and burned (land with thorns and thistles) are really not “fully” receiving the rain. It is taking the good rain and producing something bad.
It is not by accident that this imagery is used. We remember the parable of the sower from our Lord, and the thorns represented the person “one who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matt. 13:22). This is exactly the problem that the author of Hebrews is encouraging his hearers to overcome. They are being tempted to quit the faith because of the worries of the world. If the rain had a fruitful impact on them, it would produce fruit/vegetation. Grindheim sums up what the author is attempting to accomplish well.
The pastoral implication of this interpretation is that the impossibility of repentance is not a prohibition of repentance. It does not mean that certain sins are beyond God’s capacity for forgiveness or that there are certain individuals who are not allowed to come to Christ. The author’s warning does not stand in tension with the central biblical ideas that Jesus accepts anyone who comes to him (Matt. 11:28; John 6:37; Rev. 22:17) and that he is always ready to forgive any sin, with no exceptions (1 John 1:9; 2:1-2). However, the seriousness of the warning is that there is only one remedy for sins: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If that remedy is rejected, there is no other.
– Sigurd Grindheim, The Letter To The Hebrews, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023) 316-17.
By rejecting the gospel, they are rejecting Christ. By rejecting Christ, they are putting Him to open shame. This means they are saying that His crucifixion was just, that He deserved it because He is not an innocent savior. In the apostates’ eyes, Jesus was no spotless lamb. It is therefore impossible for someone to come to Christ if they believe Him to be a false savior and false teacher. As Calvin says, they are renouncing God’s grace.[6] They have received the rain and produced thorns and thistles.
Common?
We note that the author tells us that “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance” (Heb. 6:6), and so we should do well to highlight the word repentance. This repentance that stands against the apostate as impossible to attain must be interpreted as genuine repentance that saves, a “repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). This is the only repentance that can come to mind, for judgment is what is at stake in this text. This means that social repentance, or even repentance to the church, is not what the author is alluding to, but as John Gill puts it, an “evangelical repentance.”[7] We are reminded of men in the Scriptures who were proven apostates and yet, for a time, showed some kind of repentance.
– Pharaoh (Exod. 9:27; 10:16)
– Judas (Matt. 27:3-5)
Not only is this an uncommon thing, but it is an insincere thing. Neither Pharaoh nor Judas was sincere or genuine in their repentance. The Scriptures nowhere indicate or allude to the idea of any of them being renewed, restored, or rescued from their sins. These men, like the ones whom the author of Hebrews warns, have experienced great things of God. If someone rejects it, there is nothing left for them in the gospel. Gill very pointedly explains this issue.
Now to renew them to a true repentance, which the apostle says, is a thing impossible: the meaning of which is not only that it is unsuitable and improper, but it is absolutely impossible. It is impossible to these men to renew themselves to repentance; renovation is the work of the Holy Ghost, and not of man; and repentance is God’s gift, and not in man’s power; and it is impossible for ministers to renew them, to restore and bring them back, by true repentance; yea, it is impossible to God himself, not through any impotence in him, but from the nature of the sin these men are guilty of… [T]heir sin is against the Holy Ghost, for which no sacrifice can be offered up, and of which there is no remission, and so no repentance…
– John Gill, Exposition of the Old & New Testaments, vol. 9, (The Baptist Standerd Bearer, Paris, AR, 2016), 406
As Gill notes, repentance is a gift from God and a work of the Holy Spirit in the sinner. Therefore, there is no such thing as repentance by the work or will of man that can save. It must be from God. And if that is the case, then how is it that these men can be renewed to a repentance that saves when they have openly rejected the God who can give it?
Conclusion
No believer can lose their salvation. This is not what is being addressed in this passage of Hebrews 6. However, what is being addressed is the seriousness of forsaking Christ and leaving the faith. For this person, there is no hope. Christ alone saves. When a person considers all the data, gathers up all the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and then still rejects Christ, there is no hope for them. Calvin put it this way, “It would be wholly unbecoming, that God by pardoning apostates should expose his own Son to contempt. They are then wholly unworthy to obtain mercy.”[8] Let us be warned to fight the fight of faith and run the race strong. Again, we read from Calvin.
If any one asks why the Apostle makes mention here of such apostasy while he is addressing believers, who were far off from a perfidy so heinous; to this I answer, that the danger was pointed out by him in time, that they might be on their guard. And this ought to be observed; for when we turn aside from the right way, we not only excuse to others our vices, but we also impose on ourselves. Satan stealthily creeps on us, and by degrees allures us by clandestine arts, so that when we go astray we know not that we are going astray. Thus gradually we slide, until at length we rush headlong into ruin. We may observe this daily in many. Therefore the Apostle does not without reason forewarn all the disciples of Christ to beware in time; for a continued torpor commonly ends in lethargy, which is followed by alienation of mind.
– John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol XXII, Paul’s Epistle to The Hebrews, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1989), 136-37
Works Cited
[1] Sigurd Grindheim, The Letter To The Hebrews, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023), 24-25.
[2] Thomas R. Schreiner, Hebrews, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary, (Lexham Press, Bellingham, WA, 2020), 10.
[3] John MacArthur, Hebrews, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL, 1977), 146.
[4] — Schreiner, Hebrews, (Lexham Press), 182-87.
[5] — Grindheim, The Letter To The Hebrews, (Eerdmans Publishing), 316.
[6] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol XXII, Paul’s Epistle to The Hebrews, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1989),136
[7] John Gill, Exposition of the Old & New Testaments, vol. 9, (The Baptist Standard Bearer, Paris, AR, 2016), 406
[8] — Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, (Baker Book House),139