Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6:1

I’m convinced Hebrews 6 is one of Satan’s favorite passages, for he has used this passage to cause dismay, despondency, and depression in more Christians than perhaps any other single passage in the Bible. Make no mistake about itthe devil is a Bible scholar… TIME magazine may have thought they were on the cutting edge of society with their “Is the Bible Fact or Fiction?” cover one week, but in reality, they fell prey to the oldest trick in the book. After all, way back in the Garden of Eden Satan did the same thing when he said to Eve, “Did God really say…?” In Matthew 4, he quoted Psa_91:12, saying to Jesus, “Is it not written that the Father shall give His angels charge over thee lest You dash Your foot against a rock?” Yes, he quoted Scripturebut he conveniently left out the part that says, “to keep thee in all thy ways"for God’s ways don’t include jumping from the temple. Satan still uses these tactics today. As he did with Eve, he’ll either question or contradict the Word. As he did with Jesus, he’ll quote it and omit part of it. Hebrews 6 is one of those passages a lot of believers read and say, “Uh-oh. I’m in a heap of trouble,” because Satan is all over it, saying, “You’ve fallen away. You’ve lost your salvation. There’s no hope for restoration.” While Hebrews 6 is, indeed, meant as a warning, the question is: Does it apply to you and me? Let’s see… Here the author lists six basic foundational principles every believer should understand: Repentanceboth from sin and from trying to earn salvation through works Faith Baptismboth water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit Laying on of handsfinding your spiritual gift and being empowered for service Resurrectionincluding end-times teaching, the Rapture of the Church, and the millennium Eternal judgment If you’re a teacher, these are six areas you should be teaching new believers. And if you are a new believer, I encourage you to explore these very important principles of our faith. After addressing these foundational principles, the author moves on to the section so often misinterpreted…

Hebrews 6:4

“If you ignore these foundational truths and return to your old ways, it is impossible to renew you to repentance,” writes the author of Hebrews. And that’s why this Scripture is so troubling. I often become involved in conversations where someone says to me, “I’m lost,” or, “I’ve committed the unpardonable sin,” or, “It’s hopeless.” “Why?” I ask. “Because, after I went back to the old scene, I heard a sermon on Hebrews 6 that said it’s impossible for me to return to salvation. I’m doomed.” There are those who say Hebrews 6 is talking about people who were never savedabout people who just sort of dabbled in Christianity. They came to church occasionally on Sundays. They had devotions if they weren’t too busy. But they weren’t really plugged in. They were on the peripherydabbling in Christianity, dabbling in mysticism, dabbling in materialism, dabbling here and there. Yes, they tasted of the heavenly gift and of the Word, but they never really sank their teeth into it, never digested it. Consequently, certain Bible teachers maintain that Hebrews 6 does not even apply to a born-again believer. I have difficulty with this argument because in a previous chapter, we read how Jesus Christ tasted death for all men (Heb_2:9). Does that mean Jesus merely dabbled in securing our salvation, that He didn’t pay the full price? No. When Scripture says Christ tasted death for all men, it means He took the poison; He died in our place; He who knew no sin became sin for us. Thus, I believe those who use the word “taste” lightly in reference to Hebrews 6 have problems in their position. A second group says that, based on the word “if” in verse Heb_6:6, Hebrews 6 presents nothing more than a hypothetical situation. In other words, if there was someone who really experienced the Holy Spirit and tasted of the good Word of God, and if it were possible that they would fall away, then they would re-crucify Christ and put Him to open shame. But I find such an argument stretching the language to an illogical conclusion. I believe Hebrews 6 is not about an unbeliever who was never really saved. Nor is it presenting a hypothetical situation. I believe it speaks of those who leave the simplicity of Jesus Christ. So when a person says, “Oh, Jon, I went back into the party scene for three years,” or, “back into that religious trip and depended upon my own efforts and my own goodness,” on the basis of this passage, I have to say to him, “It’s impossible to renew your salvationbut there is a story you must remember…” He had everything going for him. Rich, young, and powerful, he was one of People magazine’s “Twenty-Five Most Intriguing People.” In a moment of desperation, however, he came to Jesus and said, “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus listed several of the commandments, of which the young man said, “I’ve kept them all.” “Right,” Jesus said. “Now go sell your goods and you’ll be free to follow Me.” “I can’t,” said the rich young ruler as he walked away. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said sorrowfully, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom.” “Then who can be saved?” asked His disciples, who were under the impression from generations of rabbinical teaching that riches were a sign of God’s blessing. “If a rich man can’t be saved, who can be?” And Jesus said, “With man it is impossible, but"and here is the glorious but"with God all things are possible” (see Mar_10:27). You’ve walked away, sister? You’ve walked away, brother? It is impossible in your own energy, in your own strength, by your own efforts to renew yourself again to repentance. But guess what? Even now God is doing a miracle. He’s brought you into this understanding. He’s made you see the stupidity of what you’ve been doing. And He has done the impossible. He has brought you back once again. But understand that if it weren’t for His miraculous power and matchless mercy, it would be impossible for you to return to Him. A glorious truthyet a sobering one as well, for Scripture indicates it is possible to wander away once too often. Like the rich young ruler, there can come a day when you just can’t return. The job’s too demanding; the movie’s too enticing; the guy’s too handsome. There can come a day when a person can wander away to the point where his heart becomes hardened. You cannot lose your salvationbut you can leave it because God won’t force eternal life on anyone. What can separate us from the love of God? Neither height nor depth nor principalities nor power nor things present nor things to come. No outside force can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Rom_8:38-39). Only you can. And that’s the warning of this passage.

Hebrews 6:7

Just as rain falls on both briars and fruit-bearing plants, the glorious news of salvation would have been refreshing and renewing to those who understood that salvation is based solely and completely on the finished work of the Cross. But to those who insisted on returning to a works-based relationship with God, the same Word would be damning.

Hebrews 6:9

This is how I feel about you. I’m persuaded of better things because you’re interested in salvation. How do I know? Because you’re here; because you worship; because you pray; because you want to take in the Word.

Hebrews 6:10

Faith without works is dead (Jas_2:26). It’s not faith and works. It’s not faith or works. It’s faith that works. True faith works. When you’re madly in love with someone, you do things you would never have done otherwise. True faith works because true love works. The idea in this verse is intriguing. God will not forget the works we’ve long since forgotten. Conversely, I don’t believe there will be a lot of rewards for the works we haven’t forgotten. “Look at the guys on the street corner,” Jesus said. “They want to be acknowledged. They want to be applauded. But I say unto you, they have already had their reward” (see Mat_6:5). Jesus wasn’t being spitefuljust truthful. Therefore, minister secretly whenever you can. Bless people in a way they don’t even know from whence it came, and you will have reward in heaven.

Hebrews 6:11

Keep ministering. Keep believing that the promises of God work for you, in you, and through you.

Hebrews 6:13

In addition to the swishing of priestly robes and the sounding of temple trumpets, there was another reason the Hebrews were being drawn back to religiosity. The early church lived in anticipation of the return of Jesus. But weeks, months, and years passed. And Jesus had not come back. “The temple we can see,” the Hebrews must have said. “The incense we can smell. Jesus left us with His promisebut where is He?” Consequently, many grew weary, wondering if they could trust the promise of His coming. Throughout Scripture, there is inevitably a gap of time between the giving of a promise and the performance of the promise. Abraham “patiently endured.” How long? Twenty-five years. In your case, maybe the same will be true because in the period of waiting, in the gap between the giving of the promise and the performance is when God does His best work. Waiting for His Working A Topical Study of Heb_6:15 After anticipating this day for months, Paul and Penny stand before the pastor promising they’ll be faithful and true in sickness and in health, in riches or rags, until death separates them. But five years later, Paul comes home and says, “I’m out of here, Penny. You no longer meet my needs. You no longer captivate my heart.” And he walks away from the promises he made, leaving his wife and family behind. The Bible you hold in your hands is packed full of promisesmore than three thousand in number. Many of you have promise boxes sitting on your kitchen table or promise books stuffed in your back pocket. But today, there are those in our midst who would say, “My heart is broken because I don’t think the Lord has kept His promise to me. I claimed the promise. I prayed it in. I wrote it on a three-by-five card and stuck it on my mirror. But nothing happened.” Maybe, like Penny, you’re in that place today. If so, this is a highly important text for you to consider. If you’re not, certainly you’re living near or linked to those who wonder why things don’t work as Scripture promises. In verse Heb_6:12, we are exhorted to follow those who went before us and obtained the promise by faith. The author of Hebrews uses one man specifically as an illustrationAbraham, the father of faith. After Abraham patiently endured, he obtained the promise. What promise? You know the story… Abraham was seventy-five years old when, in Genesis 12, he was told to leave his home and father to go to a new land where God would give him offspring as the stars overhead. This must have blown Abraham’s mind, for he and his wife, Sarah, had no children at that time. Off he goes on his journey, this father of faith, and sure enough, God gave him a son from whom an entire nation was born. But it didn’t happen immediately. In fact, it took twenty-five years. And in this there is a hugely important spiritual principle that needs to be part of your life. That is, there is very often a gap of time between the promise and the performance of the promise. In Abraham’s case, the gap of time was twenty-five years. We read that after Abraham patiently endured, he obtained the promise. I love the New Testament because it is so wonderfully gracious in that it never once mentions the sins or failings of the Old Testament saints. And that’s the way God looks at you and me under the New Covenant. “Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more,” He says, (see Heb_8:12). If you only read the New Testament account of Abraham, you wouldn’t know the rest of the story. For while it is true that Abraham patiently endured and obtained the promise, it is also true that when he was in his mid-eighties, Sarah said, “I know God promised you we would produce a nation. But let’s be reasonable. Ten years have come and gone since we heard from Himand nothing’s happened. I’m long past the age of child-bearing, so have relations with my handmaid, and the child produced will count as ours.” Abraham agreed to Sarah’s suggestion, and a baby named Ishmael was the result. Ishmael was not the promised childbut rather an attempt by Abraham and Sarah to try to help God fulfill His promise.

And as is always the case whenever we try to help God out, Ishmael only made matters worse, for Ishmael became the father of the Arab nation. The promised son, Isaac, would come through Sarah thirteen years after Ishmael was born. “This raises an interesting question,” you say. “What kind of father would give a promise to his kids and then wait twenty-five years to fulfill it? Why does God make us wait?” Following are three reasons why God our Father tells us to patiently endure… To Produce Endurance Jeremiah was getting a bit weary of the ministry to which God called him. When are You going to come through, Lord? he wondered. And God answered him by saying, If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?Jer_12:5 In other words, “You may think it’s tough now, Jeremiah, but I know what’s ahead. There are some real difficulties coming your way, some tremendous challenges heading in your direction.” Jesus made it clear that it rains on the just and the unjust alike (Mat_5:45). Because of the fallen condition of the world in which we live, death, disease, poverty, tragedy, and heartache abound. Consequently, God says, “Due to the repercussions of the fall of this planet, due to the repercussions of the depravity of the race, storms are coming.” “Change the weather,” we say. “No,” says God. “I am going to change youthrough the trials you’re going through right now, through the promises you’re claiming but have not yet seen come to fruition.” If someone had told me twenty years ago the things that would come down in my life, I would have said, “I can’t deal with that. I won’t be a part of that. No way.” But my Father has been so good, so faithful to prepare me all along the way through difficulties and challenges. Yes, there were promisesbut yet there were gaps between the promise and performance that tested my faithnot because God was cruel to me, but because He cared about me. “I’m training you for what I see is coming down the path,” He said. “It’s all part of the plan, Son.” To Perfect Blessing “I’m going to do exceeding abundantly above all you could ask or even think,” the Lord says (see Eph_3:20)“but it’s going to take time.” Due to his allergies, when Peter-John was a baby, he required a special formula. On one of the very rare occasions I, rather than my first wife Terry, was up at night with him, he started crying as I impatiently heated his bottle. I can remember saying, “Calm down, buddy. It’s coming. You won’t want it cold.” But you know what? He continued to howl because he couldn’t understand what I was saying. And the Lord whispered in my ear that night, “Jon, that’s you. I’m cooking something up; I’m getting something ready. But you’re crying, “Where is it?” because you don’t understand the language of faith.” And that’s all of us. “Wah, wah,” we cry. “It’s been twenty-five days or two years or fifteen years. Where’s the promise?” And all along, the Father is saying, “I’m getting it ready. I’m going to do something better than you could even imagine. But it’s going to take some time.” Zacharias and Elizabeth were well beyond the years of bearing children. No doubt they had stopped asking for children decades ago. But God heard their prayers and knew He wanted not only to give them a baby, but to give them the greatest prophet who had ever lived, one who would prepare the hearts of Israel for the coming of His Son (Luk_1:16). The same is true for you and me today. God says, “I want to do things beyond anything you could dream or imagine. So hang on, folks, the bottle’s getting warm.” I have discovered that the longer God takes to fulfill a promise in my life, oftentimes the better it will be. “I want a man who loves God passionately,” she says. “Doesn’t God say to delight in Him and He’ll give us the desire of our hearts? Well, I’m praying for a man who loves God, who’s six feet four inches tall with dark hair, a big smile, a good business head, who loves to talk about the Lord, who cares about people, who is a good athlete with a great sense of humor, who’s sensitive and considerate, and who has eyes only for me. That’s what I want.” So the Lord begins shaping and developing her to make her the woman who would be attractive to such a man. But what happens? “I’ve waited two months,” she says as she heads off to Rockin’ Rodeo to scope out the situation. And then she wonders why she ends up with Tex. After Abraham patiently endured, he obtained the promise. We know the inside story. He wasn’t patiently enduring perfectly. But he learned his lesson, and the promise eventually came his way. To Prepare Us The language of eternity is faith. When the Lord has us ruling and reigning at His side, under His command, doing His biddingwhatever that means in the ages to comeHe’s going to need men and women like you who are not second-guessing, not doubting, not faltering. Jesus taught about the faithful in this life who will be rulers over five and ten cities in the kingdom (Luke 19). In other words, Jesus is saying there is a destiny far beyond what any of us know or can imagine awaiting us in the next zillion years to come. And the language that must be fluently spoken by us if we are going to be ambassadors for Him in the realms and regions beyond is the language of faith. She was the best teacher I ever had. We walked into our sophomore Spanish class and Senorita Thomas greeted us that first day, saying, “Listen, carefully. These are the last words of English you’re going to hear this entire year in this class.” And that was it. From then on, everything she spoke was Spanish. It was miserable initially. But it forced us to think in a way we never would have had we been able to fall back on English. And that’s what the Father’s doing. “Kids,” He says, “the only way you’ll be prepared for what’s coming is if I force you to learn the language of faith now because that’s the language you’ll be speaking for the next billion years to come.” If I were God, you know what I’d do? Once a year, I’d go to every church and appear with a great display of power and fire and smoke. That would probably get everyone by for a year or so. But God knows such a thing would actually undo what He desires to dofor the growth of faith would be retarded. We would depend on what we could see physically or hear audiblyand consequently, we would not be fluent in the language of eternity. All the promises will come about in due season. In the meantime, precious people, realize God’s heating the bottle. Understand that He’s forcing you to develop a whole new way of thinking and living. And remember, Scripture says it was after he patiently endured that Abraham obtained the promise.

Hebrews 6:16

Today, when people swear to strengthen their credibility, they swear by something greater than themselves. They don’t say, “I swear by my guinea pig,” but rather, “I swear on a stack of Bibles.” “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no,” Jesus taught in reference to the hypocrisy of this mentality (see Mat_5:37). And yetrealizing man is slow to believe and prone to suspicion, here God takes an oath to verify His promise. He meets us on our level.

Hebrews 6:18

Determined to show you and me that He will keep His promise as we’re waiting impatiently, God takes an oath. And thus there are two proofs that His promise will come to pass (Psalms 110): His Word that He cannot lie and His oath that He need not take, but does for our sake.

Hebrews 6:19

In the catacombs of Rome, where Christians hid in times of persecution, one symbol can be seen more than any other: the anchor. No matter what storms come our way, we are anchored in the Word of God, in the promises He made. We have this sure hope that He will do what He says. So don’t go back to temple worship, entreats the author. Don’t go back to heathen practices, to partying, to wherever else you came from. Be anchored in the immutable, unchangeable, sure, and steadfast Word of God. The writer goes on to say that our Anchor, our Hope, entered the veila reference that his Jewish audience would have readily understood… The temple veil that separated the people from the shekinah glory of God measured sixty by thirty feet, was ten inches thick, and was so heavy it took one hundred priests to move it. Although the priests could minister on the side of the veil where the table of showbread, the altar, and the incense were, only the high priest on the Day of Atonement could go behind the veil to the ark of the covenant and the glory of God. But when Jesus paid the price for our sin, and cried, “It is finished,” the veil was rent from top to bottom, thereby declaring, “Open House! Any day, any one, come on in!” We’re steeped in this knowledge. But if you can put yourself in the mind-set of the Hebrew, you’ll see this would have been a radical understanding.

Hebrews 6:20

It’s the big high-school game. Between the goalposts, the cheerleaders have stretched a paper banner that says something clever like, “Win!” And what happens? The forerunnerthe first guy out on the fieldbreaks through the banner, and the rest of the team follows behind him. Jesus is our Forerunner. He’s the first one through the veil. And the whole teamyou and Iget to come charging in behind Him. “Wait a minute,” the Jew would say. “You’re saying Jesus broke through the veil and leads the way for the rest of us? Tilt. Problem. Only the high priest could go behind the veilonly those of the tribe of Levi could be priestsand only direct descendants of the first high priest, Aaron, could be high priest. If Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, how could He be the Forerunner into the Holy of Holies if He wasn’t even a Levite?” To answer this objection, the writer reaches back two thousand years and pulls out the story of Melchizedek. Who is Melchizedek? He’s quite an important figure, for according to Heb_5:10, one’s understanding of Melchizedek is an indication of how well versed one is in Bible doctrine. You see, a chapter and a half earlier, the writer said he wanted to explain the Melchizedekian ministry but couldn’t because the Hebrews weren’t ready to take it in. But here and on into the next chapter, he raises the subject of Melchizedek anyway. It’s as though he couldn’t resist.