Exposition of Hebrews 6:4-6

Well I hope that everyone realizes that if they find a hard Scripture that they want dealt with in class that they can ask, email, blog, or call me and give it to me to deal with. I might want time to pray and think before I answer but I’ll give you the best answer I can come up with. You are not likely to have any question that is younger than 500 to 2 thousand years old anyway.

Along those lines … I’d like to deal with some verses in Hebrews that, at first glance, may seem to be contrary to the doctrine of the Preservation of the Saints. I want you to have the Helmet of Salvation on and well fitted to protect your mind from the enemy of your soul.

First, we always need to remember to interpret Scripture with Scripture. It is a unified whole written by divine inspiration and not with men as mechanical holy typewriters used by God but with men inspired and God writing through them in history with their style and person in the process. That is why we like to know why a book was written. What occasioned the writing of the book? This is especially important in the Epistles and that is because it gives context. And why do we want context? It is because a text without a context is a pretext. In other words if you are out of context then you are spinning the use of a Scripture to support a point that may or may not be valid but in either case the Scripture isn’t appropriate for your point.

Hebrews is a little hard in this respect because the Early Church was convinced that Paul wrote the book but modern scholars wonder and nobody is sure who the letter was written to or what caused it to be written. So we are left to listen carefully to what the author is saying.

The verse that you’ll sometimes hear from someone who is convinced that “eternal security” isn’t eternally secure is Hebrews 6:4.

Hebrews 6:4-6
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

So that verse can be taken to infer that someone can fall away and lose their salvation. So you could decide that in John 17 when Jesus said that He had not lost any that the Father had given to Him that He was wrong or meant almost none. Well that can’t be right can it?

The solution that many have sought in this verse is to argue that the person that might fall into this category isn’t really saved. They saw some light, tasted some good stuff, shared a little in the blessings and then bailed out. I’ve had some friends and acquaintances that would fall into a category like that and Scripture does indicate that Tares (the Unsaved) will grow in with the Wheat (the Saved) until Judgment Day.

I like simple explanations when possible because we don’t want to twist stuff around and the fancier we get the more likely we are to make a mistake. This verse says “repentance” and says that they have shared in the Holy Spirit. It really seems that it is talking about a saved person and not a person that was just looking for the benefits of Christianity without the Lordship of Christ. In particular I see “restore again to repentance” as restoring salvation. So if that is the case then how does this fit?

We have to back up to context here. We don’t know who the author was really writing to for sure so what do we infer from the text? Hebrews begins with a discourse on the glory of Christ as our Priest. He is viewed in His glory as finished with his provision of purification for our sins (Hebrews 1:3-4). Then some warnings and corrections begin to be found in the text as the Glorified Christ is praised and lots of Scripture is quoted. I’ll list the warnings.

Hebrews 2:1
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 3:12
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

Hebrews 4:1
Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

Hebrews 4:11
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

It really sounds like they were rejecting the rest or position that God has provided for us on the Cross and beginning to develop some distorted gospel (which is no Gospel). The author was talking to the believers (Brothers) but their local church was in danger of forgetting the Gospel.

Then the author hits them between the eyes …

Hebrews 5:11-14
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So you have some brothers here who barely understand the Gospel. They are in need of the first principles of the Gospel and you have to assume they are teaching and practicing doctrinal error. Based on the warnings they must have a limited view of Jesus and the atonement and are not entering into the rest that Christ has provided n our justification.

Hebrews 6:1-8
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

So they have been returning again and again to repentance, apparently with multiple versions of baptism (here translated washings), with repeated laying on of hands (presumably for the Holy Spirit), and they apparently a problem with the doctrine of our resurrection and of the judgment throne. The author acknowledges that the Holy Spirit is needed for us to grow but it is something we must do. Then the author points out the obvious. That you can’t get saved, lose your salvation, and get saved. These guys were apparently teaching this. They were apparently stuck in some sort of multiple salvation process. Stuck at repentance over and over and forgetting our Great High Priest and his atonement for us once for all. Instead they were teaching that you got saved, lost it, got it, etc. The author wasn’t trying to say that if you lost your salvation you couldn’t get it back. He said what he said to correct an error. He was teaching that it doesn’t even make sense. How can you have all your sins past, present, and future atoned for, then lose this (how can that be?), and then have another atonement? Well you can’t. It takes a contemptible view of the Cross to make that work in which partial and progressive atonement would be possible. The author isn’t arguing for eternal insecurity but on the contrary he is saying it isn’t even a rational position and they need to stop teaching that your salvation comes and goes. If they keep teaching false doctrine then the author is afraid that they are not part of the Church but rather thorns and thistles.

Hebrews 6:9-12
Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

“Though we speak in this way” refers to both the strong rebuke as well as showing that their doctrine was foolishness and that they had forgotten the surpassing worth of the sacrifice of Jesus. Note that the authors says that they are really sure of better things and things “that belong to salvation” and by implication that they are saved eternally and may have the full assurance of hope until the end. And what does it mean to inherit the promises?

Hebrews 6:13-20
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of is purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So if you wondered about the view of the author on Eternal Security here it is. Eternal security taught by the author! The “unchangeable character of His purpose” is so glorious for us. How can we get stuck on a verse that is simply pointing out how dumb it is to think that a salvation based on our High Priest could ever come and go and then ignore the verses that follow? God wanted an oath to assure us in our weakness so He swore by Himself that He was going to accomplish this thing for us. We are the Children of Abraham. We have a sure refuge and our souls have an anchor back behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies.

So Hebrews 6:4-6 does not teach that you can lose your salvation. The verse teaches that it is foolish to think that salvation can come and go. This portion of Scripture teaches eternal security and rebukes recipients for a weak view of the Cross and an immature understanding of justification.