In an extremely solemn pronouncement, the author then set forth the tragic alternative to the progress they desired the readers to make. If they did not advance, they would retreat. Should anyone so retreat, their situation would be grim indeed.
Hebrews 6:4–6 is considered by many to be the most difficult interpretative passage in all the book of Hebrews, and some would say in the entire New Testament. Because so much of the interpretation of the warning passages as well as the entire epistle hinges on this paragraph, considerable attention to its exegetical, historical, and theological aspects is mandated. Most attempts at analyzing this passage fall into the trap of putting theology before exegesis. The Greek syntactical structure of 6:4–6 is difficult to untangle in an English translation. The three verses make up one sentence in Greek. The subject of the sentence actually does not appear in the text until v. 6 with the infinitive translated “to be brought back.”
Debates on these verses between Calvinists and Arminians have often produced more flame than insight. Many different interpretations of this passage appeal for your acceptance. To show the difficulty in interpreting this passage, there are many commentaries that try to sum up the views into three or four viewpoints, but when you look at them, there is still diversity among what these scholars view as the main viewpoints. But in the next post, we will do our best to boil these down, give a summary of the view, and also point out some key features within the verses. We will touch on these today, but next time we will look at this a little deeper. Today, we want to try and focus on this verse and what is being said. Let’s read this passage, look for some key takeaways, and see how to we can further worship God. The next time, we will do a deeper exposition.
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. (NASB)
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- As a Christian, remember what God has given you.
- You have been enlightened – had some revelation of Christ or who’s mind has been opened to Christ
- You have tasted the heavenly gift – meaning experiencing a vital relationship with Jesus Christ
- You have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit – If you truly accepted Christ, the Spirit lives in you. You have experienced some gifts, influences, and some form of communication (maybe convicting or leading) from the Holy Spirit
- You have tasted the good word of God – the Bible offers us encouragement when we are weak. It warns us of the dangers of sin including dependence of self and self-glory. And it tells us about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It is a way to know our Father better and gain a better understanding of Him.
- The powers of the age to come – (while it may not be eschatological in this verse), Believer’s have hope of a future with Christ. A hope that can give us power to look past the trials to the amazing life to come.
- No matter what the “lures” of this world are, remember what you have in Jesus and the identity you have in Him. We will never be satisfied with what the world offers, but we can be satisfied in Christ.
CLOSER LOOK:
Verses 4-5: This passage has been interpreted in five ways: (1) that the danger of a Christian losing his/her salvation is described, a view typically associated with those who take an Arminian position. To those who do not take the Arminian position, they see the Scriptures teach the security of the elect, and the key passage is Romans 8:29-30 (also this view is rejected because of biblical assurances that salvation is a work of God which cannot be reversed); (2) that the warning is against mere profession of faith short of salvation, or tasting but not really partaking of; (3) that hypothetically if a Christian could lose his/her salvation, there is no provision for repentance; (4) that a warning is given of the danger of a Christian moving from a position of true faith and life to the extent of becoming disqualified for further service (1 Cor. 9:27) and for inheriting millennial glory; (5) it is a warning to those who had professed faith in Christ but were in danger of leaving Christianity to lapse back into Judaism. The entirety of these verses (4-6) constitutes a single sentence in Greek as well as in the English of the NIV. The central assertion is found: it is impossible for those who have … to them again to repentance. Following the words “those who” is a description of the persons whom the writer affirmed cannot possibly be brought back to a state of repentance. The description the writer gave shows that they had Christians in mind.
To begin with, the author described them as individuals “who have once been enlightened.” This is a natural way to refer to the conversion experience (cf. 2 Cor. 4:3–6). The readers claimed to have been “enlightened.” They had some revelation of Jesus Christ. The idea of enlightenment appears in 2 Corinthians 4:4, where unbelievers fail to see in Jesus “the light of the gospel.” The writer’s only other use of the verb “enlightened” (phōtizō), is Hebrews 10:32, where the reference to true Christian experience can hardly be doubted. In also calling them people who “have tasted the heavenly gift,” the author again employed familiar concepts related to initial conversion (cf. John 4:10; Rom. 6:23; James 1:17–18). Probably this referred to the readers as people who claimed to have experienced a vital relationship with Jesus Christ (Ps. 34:8). They claimed to have faith in Christ. They were urged to demonstrate their faith by their works (v. 12). The effort to evade this conclusion by seeing in the word “tasted” something less than full participation fails—in view of the writer’s own use of this word (Heb. 2:9)—to describe Jesus’ experience of death. One might also compare 1 Peter 2:3, which quotes Psalm 34:8.
The description is continued with the words who “have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit.” The underlying Greek employs again the word metochoi (translated in verse 4 as “partakers”), used in Hebrews 1:9 of the “companions” of the messianic King, and in 3:1, 14 of the Christian readers (and is also used in 12:8). The preceding expression evidently led the author to think about those who had received the gift of the Spirit as a result of their conversions. They had experienced some gifts, influences, and tugs from the Holy Spirit. Finally, there are also those who “have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” Here the thought naturally applies to converts whose instruction in “the Word of God” had given them a genuine experience of its “goodness” and who likewise had known the reality of miracles. The word rendered “powers” (dynameis) is the usual one in the New Testament for “miracles” and is an apparent allusion back to the experience mentioned in 2:4. Jesus Himself had spoken of the day when some of His professing followers would say to Him, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” (Matt. 7:22). Jesus would reply to these startled disciples, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers” (Matt. 7:23). The readers enjoyed a sample of Christian experience, including a knowledge of the Christian message and some powerful experiences which seemed to be linked to the Holy Spirit.
The Scriptures offer encouragement to the weakest believer, but they declare alarming warnings to those who carelessly presume that they are on God’s side. It is possible for an individual to approach the Word of God without any relish for its message. It is possible for a person to have something resembling Christian experience without genuinely knowing Christ. The readers of Hebrews were looking, sounding, and seeming to be like believers; but they were urged to show the reality of their faith by enduring in their commitment to Jesus.
Verse 6: There follows, however, the grim expression “and then have fallen away.” The phrase if they fall away may better be rendered “having fallen to the side” and depicts a runner who has fallen to the side of the track during a race. But the translation does not do full justice to the original language, where there is no hint of a conditional element. The Greek word parapesontas is in fact a part of the construction to which the preceding descriptive phrases belong. The Greek does not possess a conditional conjunction. Rather, one should understand this participle as the last of those describing a person for whom it is impossible to have a “change of mind” or repentance while being involved in those activities that mitigate against his/her profession of Christ. Maybe a better translation would be: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted … who have shared … who have tasted … and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance.”[1] It does not appear that this is a question in any hypothetical way. The writer’s language sounds as if they knew of such cases.
The words “fall away” cannot refer to the loss of eternal life which, as the Gospel of John makes perfectly clear, is the inalienable possession of those who trust Christ for it. But the writer seems to have in mind defection from the faith, that is, apostasy, which is a withdrawal from their Christian profession (cf. Heb. 3:6, 14; 10:23–25, 35–39). The assertion that such a failure is not possible for a regenerate person is a theological proposition which is not supported by the New Testament.[2] Paul knew the dangers of false doctrine to a Christian’s faith and spoke of a certain Hymenaeus and Philetus who said, “that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:17–18). The author of Hebrews was a solid realist who took assaults against the faith of their readers with great seriousness. And the writer warned that those who succumb, that is, “fall away,” after all of the great spiritual privileges they had experienced, “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance.”
To “renew” (anakainizö) means to restore. It is impossible for continuous effort on the part of anyone in the Christian community to restore a person back to fellowship with God. This is the reason for the strong warning of Heb. 3:13 to exhort one another to avoid a hardened heart. Continuing immaturity is dangerous. Think of those you have known who were radiant witnesses for Christ who were sidetracked and are now cold as stone. The reason the author gives is that they “crucify again…put Him to an open shame.” By departing from Christian growth, apostates put themselves in the position of those who actually had Christ crucified and exposed to public shame. If the original readers were Christian Jews contemplating returning to Judaism, then they were those who crucified Christ. It amounts, in essence, to a fresh public rejection, a symbolic crucifixion of Christ all over again.
The reason for saying, “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance,” is expressed in the words “since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” Those who renounce their Christian faith are, with respect to their own conduct and attitude, taking a step that amounts to a fresh public rejection of Christ. When they first trusted Jesus, they thereby acknowledged that His crucifixion had been unjust and the result of humankind’s sinful rejection of the Savior. But by renouncing this opinion, they reaffirmed the view of Jesus’ enemies that He deserved to die on a cross.[3] In this sense, they were crucifying the Son of God all over again. Due to the semi-recent history of the Pharisees and the Crucifixion of Christ, if the readers were Jews being lured back into some form of their ancestral religion, the writer’s words made a particular point. Their apostasy would be like stepping back over the line again and once more expressing solidarity with their companions who wanted Jesus put on the cross. That this was serious was exactly the writer’s point. Such persons could not be won back to the state of repentance which marked their original conversion to Christianity. In affirming this, the author’s words suggested a deep hardening of their hearts against all efforts to win them back, not to Christian conversion, but to Christian commitment.
[1] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 795.
[2] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 795.
[3] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 795.