HEBREWS – PART TWO – LESSON 6
“Understanding Hebrews 6:1-12—Part Two”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
Well, we are back in Hebrews 6, probably one of the most difficult passages in all of the word of God to (supposedly) understand. As we look at it, I want to encourage you, to let you know that I believe that God has a message for you in this chapter, and a message for me. I believe it is an exhortation combined with a warning, a warning that we need to hear, especially in this day and age. I want to encourage your hearts, that although you may find it difficult, I know that God is going to minister to you. If you are tuning in, and you didn’t hear Part I of “Understanding Hebrews 6:1-12, you need to make sure that you get that tape, because this is a continuation of that passage.
I want to start with Hebrews 6:1, and simply put us in context to read through v. 12. I know that that is going to take some time, but I want to make sure that those of you who are just listening by audio tape or listening by radio have the context of the Scripture before you. (1) “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,” [He has just said to them, in Chapter 5:11, “I want to teach you about Christ as the order of Melchizedek, but I cannot teach you that because you have become dull of hearing. You have need to hear once again the elementary teaching, or the principles of the oracles of God. You have regressed instead of gone forward; you need milk instead of meat, and it is time for meat. You are grown up enough to be eating meat.” So he is saying, in Chapter 6, that we are to leave that elementary teaching about the Christ, about Messiah, and the prophecies that pointed to Him, and to press on to maturity. We are not to lay again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,”] (2) “of instruction about washings, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (3) And this we shall do, if God permits.” [In other words, we shall press on to maturity, if God permits.]
4) “For 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, 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 upon 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 worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. (9) But, beloved,” [And this is a very encouraging verse.] “we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. (10) For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. (11) And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, (12) that you may not be sluggish (the same word for “dull of hearing” that is used in 5:11), but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
As we look at Hebrews 6, there are some keys to understanding this passage. I want to go over these keys very quickly, just to put you in context. The first key that is absolutely essential is: #1. Remember towhom the letter was written. Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians. The second thing is: #2. Remember the author’s purpose. The author’s purpose was to write briefly a word of exhortation. Then as you look at his purpose: What were the exhortations? We went through those exhortations, and in essence, those exhortations were that they were to hold fast the confession of their hope. They were to not drift away from them, but they were to draw near to Jesus Christ. They were to run with endurance, after they laid aside every weight and every sin that so easily beset them. In other words, it was an exhortation that said, “Don’t go back; go forward. Don’t retreat, but press on. Don’t let go, but hold on. Hold fast.” Those, in essence, were the exhortations.
The third thing in understanding Hebrews 6:1-12 is: #3. Remember thecondition of those people to whom he was writing. What was the condition of the addressees of this letter? We saw that they were suffering, that it was costing them to belong to Jesus Christ. We saw that trials show us the genuineness of our faith, or of our profession, or of our Christianity. They expose whether we are really saved or not. The fourth key is: #4. You have to understand the structure and the context of the book. In other words, you cannot interpret Hebrews 6:1-12 apart from the structure of the whole book, or apart from the context of the book.
At this point I want to review that context. In Hebrews you see a pattern of a truth that the author lays down, and after the truth comes a warning. I’ve put those warnings down (I’ve symbolized them like a bolt of lightning, and under that warning I have drawn an ear, because in every warning God is telling us that we need to hear, or we need to believe, or we need to receive. All that is done by the fact that I hear, and then I act upon that. In Chapter 1, God lays down this truth: God has spoken in these last days through His Son, His Son who is God, His Son who is better than the angels. Following this, in Chapter 2, in those first four verses, comes a warning. The warning is this: Listen; pay close attention to what you have heard, because if the word that was received by angels received a just recompense of reward when it was disobeyed, how much greater is going to be your judgment if you neglect so great a salvation. So here was a warning, and that warning said, “If you neglect this salvation, then judgment is going to come.”
The next truth comes from 2:5, all the way through Chapter 2. You have the truth laid down that Jesus Christ died, that He took upon Himself flesh and blood, that He as a merciful and faithful high priest might make propitiation for our sins. It shows us that we are to consider Jesus as the apostle and the high priest of our confession. After that comes a warning, and in the midst of that warning he lays a foundational truth for the whole book. That foundational truth (the point that he wants to make sure that his readers understand) is this: Continuance in the faith is the evidence of your salvation. In other words, it is not enough just to believe at the point of your salvation, but you must keep on believing, your must keep on holding fast that confession of hope firm until the end. Then comes the warning, and the warning is this: If you are not faithful, if you do not listen, then you will miss the rest of God. To miss the rest of God is to miss salvation.
Then, at the end of Chapter 4, he moves into Jesus as our high priest, and shows us how He qualifies as our high priest. Right on the end of that, in 5:11, we move into an exhortation and a warning in Hebrews 6, that tells us that if we do not hold fast to these truths about Jesus Christ, and we turn away from (or fall away from them), then there is no repentance. It is impossible to renew you again to repentance. You are going to have judgment, just like the earth that does not bring forth a harvest. So there is a warning again, saying, “You had better hear, and there is judgment if you don’t.”
Then we move into Chapters 7, 8, 9, and the first part of Chapter 10. We see Jesus Christ as our priest of a better covenant, and as our priest, not only of a better covenant, but as our priest who offers a better sacrifice. In Hebrews 7-10, we have that laid down for us, and on the heels of that comes a warning. He has made a sacrifice, the author of Hebrews tells us, which takes care of sin for all time. So the warning comes: Don’t sin willfully, after having received the knowledge of this truth, because if you sin willfully, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. If you are going to go out and trample underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ, and the blood of the new covenant, then God has only one thing that He can do—and that is to judge you. Judgment is coming. And he tells us, “If you do not hear this, then judgment is coming.”
Then we move into the next body of truth. The next body of truth is centered in exhortation, because after 10:18, we move from the doctrinal part of the book to the practical part of the book. In 10:18 through the twelfth chapter, you have him laying an exhortation for the fact that we are to hold fast our confidence, that we are to continue in the faith. He gives us that wonderful “Faith” chapter. Even though we are disciplined, we are to persevere and know that discipline belongs to every child of God. Then he tells us, “Don’t be like Esau, and don’t despise the chastening of the Lord. If you do, and if you refuse Him who is speaking, then there is nothing but judgment that awaits.”
The pattern you see in the book of Hebrews is truth, and then judgment if you do not believe that truth, or if you do not adhere to that truth, or if you do not continually embrace that truth. If you reject that truth and turn away, then there is judgment. He lays down truth, warning, judgment; truth warning, judgment; truth, warning, and judgment. Every time he does that, he says, “Hear, hear, hear,” in essence. Don’t refuse him who is speaking. You need to know the structure and the content of the book.
The fifth thing you need to know if you are going to interpret Hebrews properly, if you are going to understand it, is this: #5. The interpretation of Hebrews 6:1-12 must agree with the whole counsel of God, because Scripture cannot contradict Scripture. The sixth and final key you need for understanding to remember (and I know this is all review, but it is good review because it is important) is this: #6. The authormust be allowed to say what he says. You cannot reinterpret what the author has said very clearly. You cannot make the book say what the author does not say. You can’t suggest hidden meanings that the author does not expose, because he is going to expose everything that he wants you to know. You cannot force an interpretation upon the book, no matter what, if you are going to handle the Scripture with integrity.
The second thing we did last week was to look at Hebrews 6:1-3, and we saw that if we were going to press on to maturity (“pressing on the maturity” means that God is going to carry us along to maturity), that is something that happens to every true child of God. Just like a baby cannot help growing up, because everything that is essential or that is needful, or is set up genetically for that child to mature, the same thing is in us. We have to go on to maturity to one degree or another if we are truly born of God. We saw that he is going to tell us, in Hebrews 6:1-3, that we are to press on to maturity. We are not to lay again a foundation--and he talks about that foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God, instructions about washings, etc. All of those teachings, according to the author of Hebrews, point more back to the Levitical cultist, the Levitical rituals, and the way they worshipped God under the old covenant, than they do point forward to new covenant things.
There is debate among the scholars, and I want you to know that. Some say that all of these refer to the elementary teachings about Jesus Christ as Messiah under the new covenant. But when it says, in 6:1, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ,” that can be translated, “about the Messiah.” You know that the Old Testament lays out those things concerning Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament we have shadow. In the New Testament we have substance. In the Old Testament we have things that, in typology, point forward to Jesus Christ, and then we have Jesus Christ, the anti-type, in the New Testament. I lean toward the fact, because he is talking to Hebrew Christians, because of all these keys to understanding Hebrews that I was sharing with you, that this is pointing more to the Old Testament things than it is pointing to the New Testament.
Now we come to the lesson for today. All that was review, but it is good and essential for you to understand what I am talking about, as we go forward. We want to look at 6:4-6, and see who the “those” are in those verses. (4) “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened…” I want to take every description of them, and look at it quickly. The “those” of Hebrews 6:4-6 have: #1. Been enlightened. They have been enlightened once for all. The word for that ishapax, and it indicates a once-for-all situation. He is saying that these people, the “those”, have once-for-all been enlightened. In other words, they know it. When he uses “enlightened”, we want to see if he uses that any other place within his book. Yes, he does. He uses it in 10:32, and it is interesting, because he uses it in another warning passage. Let me tell you about the word “enlightened.” It simply means “to be illuminated.” It means to have light come into a situation, so that there is understanding, so the darkness of misunderstanding or not grasping it is removed. “Do you see?” “Oh, yes, I see.” “I will shed light on that.” That is what it means to be illumined. Light has been shed. There has been understanding.
In 10:32, it says, “But remember the former days,” [and this is right after the warning passage] “when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, (33) partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.” [He is describing those in Hebrews that he believes are saved. He says that they were enlightened. The “those” in Hebrews 6 were enlightened. When you go through the Scriptures, you can see this same word used in other passages. It is not used a whole lot, but it is used in Ephesians 1, where Paul prays, “I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened, that you might know”(and he wants them to know three things.) It simply means that there is understanding, that there is revelation there.
The second thing that you learn about the “those” (going back to Hebrews 6:4) is: #2. They have tasted of the heavenly gift. This word “tasted” is also used by the author in Hebrews 2:9. “But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” This word “tasted death” does not mean that Jesus just kind of licked a lollipop versus eating a lollipop. He actually experienced death. The author of Hebrews if telling us that “those” in Hebrews 6 have had a taste of the heavenly gift. They have experienced the heavenly gift. You say, “Well, what is the heavenly gift?” We would all like to know the heavenly gift is. There is debate on it. I think that “tasting the heavenly gift” has to do with those things that belong to salvation. The word for “gift” is dorean, or it is from that word. That word is used in John 4, where Jesus is talking to the woman at the well. He said, “If you knew the gift of God (the gift that God has for you) you would ask, and He would give it to you.” He is saying that He is that gift. “I am that gift.” So it is gift of eternal life, the water of life. Here he is saying that these people have tasted of the heavenly gift.
The third thing that we see about “those” is that: #3. They have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. The word “partakers” is a word that is used several times in Hebrews. I want to show you two times that it is used, because it will give you enough insight into it. Hebrews 3:1 says, “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” [So he calls them holy brethren. He says that they are partakers of the heavenly calling.] It is also used in 3:14, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” [The word “partaker” means to share, to partake of.] What have we seen about “those” in Chapter 6? #1. They have been enlightened; #2. They have tasted the heavenly gift; #3. They have been made partakers, or sharers, with the Holy Spirit.