It is of the highest importance then that the believer should wake up to his due place according to the call of grace. Christ as He now is makes his relationship evident. By Him and to Him where He sits at God's right hand we are called. It is therefore in the fullest sense a heavenly calling. Old things, not evil things only, are passed away. We are by faith associated with the glorified Christ, Who, having accomplished redemption, is on that ground gone into heaven, so as to confer on the faithful a heavenly relationship. All that is distinctive of the Christian accordingly is in contrast with the ancient people of God whose position, associations, worship, and hope, were earthly though ordered of God. The danger of the Christian therefore, and especially for the Hebrew Christian, was a lapse into earthly things; which was the more easily done as the O. T. was no less divinely inspired than the New, and hence might plausibly be pleaded to justify such a return.
“Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us press on unto full growth [lit. perfection], not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith in God, of teaching of washings and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of dead [persons], and of everlasting judgment; and this will we do if God permit” (Heb. 6:1-31Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3And this will we do, if God permit. (Hebrews 6:1‑3)).
We could not be exhorted in any just sense to leave “the principles” of the doctrine of Christ. For first principles never become antiquated. Nor does the text really say so here, any more than it does in truth speak slightingly of “the first principles of the oracles of God” in Hebrews 5:1212For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. (Hebrews 5:12). “Principles” or “first principles” of Christianity it is of all moment to apprehend and hold fast; and in fact this the Epistle insists on from first to last. It was here the Hebrew confessors of Christ were weak. They had faintly if at all realized the truth that was wrapped up in the person of Christ and in the facts on which the gospel is based. They were occupied with whatever lay short of His death, resurrection, and ascension, with a Messiah known after the flesh. But these were such “rudiments” as were in keeping with Him on earth when the Holy Spirit was not yet given and the words the Lord spake were dimly understood. Indeed many things He had yet to say they could not then bear. This was but “the beginning of the oracles of God"; whereas “the principles of the doctrine of Christ” would better express that profound connection of truth with fundamental facts and Christ's person which characterizes the Epistles of Paul and John. What is really meant here is “the word of the beginning of Christ,” that which was revealed in the days of His flesh and in due time recorded as His ministry in the Gospels. To limit the soul to this, perfect as it was in its season and in itself, is to do without that blessed use of His redemption and heavenly headship which the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles to preach and teach, and which we have permanently in the apostolic writings. His cross totally changed the standing of the believer. To ignore this is in fact to stop short of full and proper Christianity, to remain infants, where the Lord would have His own to reach their majority. Let us not slight the riches of His grace.
“Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us press on unto full growth.” The new status of the Christian depends on Christ dead, risen, and in heaven. The infinite sacrifice is already offered and accepted; and only so has Christ taken His seat on the right hand of the Majesty on high. We cannot therefore go to elements before the cross for that which forms and fashions the Christian. We need the corn of the land, now that it is no longer a question of raining manna in the wilderness.
The various English versions are disappointing. Wiclif seems to have read or mistaken “immittentes” for “intermittentes” in the Vulgate, for he has the strange error of “bringing in,” &c., instead of leaving off. And Tyndale is loose indeed: “let us leave the doctryne pertayninge to the beginninge of a Christen man.” In result it is not far from the general sense, though intolerable as a translation. Cranmer's Bible, and the Genevese followed Tyndale less or more closely. The Rhemish, save in its servile adherence to the Latin, is more exact than any; for even the A. and the R. V., as we have seen, might mislead in the text, though precise in the margin. The Revisers rightly gave “full grown” for perfect in Hebrews 5:1414But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14); consistency would therefore demand “full growth” here. For it is not the quite ignorant who fail to understand that “perfection” means only that, the adult standing of the Christian, as compared with infancy before redemption. But the enemy has a hand in keeping believers back now, as this Epistle chides the Hebrews for the same culpable dullness in early days.
The statement in the chapter before, that Christ having been made perfect became, to all those that obey Him, Author of eternal salvation, helps much to see what perfection or full growth means here. Till then the saints could not rise above promise. Now whatever, or how many soever, be the promises of God, in Him is the Yea, and in Him the Amen for glory to God by us. Till redemption the Spirit of prophecy could say that God's salvation was to come, and His righteousness to be revealed. But the gospel declares that His righteousness has been manifested, and that the believer has eternal life and receives the end of His faith, even soul salvation, though we have to wait for that of the body yet. Meanwhile those that are Christ's are cleansed once for all, not only sanctified through the offering of Christ, but perfected forever (εἰς τὸ διηνεκές) as Hebrews 10 tells us unhesitatingly. The Holy Ghost, instead of keeping our guilt continually before us, testifies that through Christ's work God will remember our sins and iniquities no more. Thus for the Christian, with full remission, there is no more offering for sins; and hence he has boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Those that by faith seize this, the truth of the gospel, are no more under age, held in bondage (as the apostle says elsewhere) under the rudiments of the world. By the faith of Him Who died and rose we receive the adoption of sons, and through His Spirit cry, Abba, Father. So we draw nigh.
It was here the Hebrews were slow to hear and learn of God. They did not doubt that Jesus was the Christ; but they were dull to own both the full glory of His person and the present eternal efficacy of His work. This failure in faith kept them babes, and for this they are blamed; for God could not reveal more distinctly the dignity of Christ, nor could Father, Son, and Holy Ghost add to the fullness of what the cross is to God as well as to the believer. The Holy Spirit is come down from the glory of heaven to attest what He is there, and what that work has done for all those that believe in Him. Entrance into this portion is full growth.
It was really going back from heavenly glory and eternal redemption on the part of all who refused to go forward into the full privileges of the gospel, content to know no more than what the disciples had before the cross. All they had then did not give them peace with God, for it did not cleanse their consciences. The middle wall of partition stood unbroken. There was no access for them into the holiest, nor had they the Spirit of adoption. Neither the sting of death was gone, nor the power of sin annulled. Full growth implies on the contrary all this blessedness, and more; and to this the Hebrews are here exhorted to go on. It is not attainment, but simply faith in the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, in a word, Christianity. Alas, how many who call themselves Christians, as sincere believers as the Hebrews addressed, are no less than they looking behind, instead of moving on to the enjoyment by faith of the risen Savior, and of their nearness to His God and Father.
The next words give a sample of the things that occupied those who were not full grown, from which they are here dissuaded: “not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God.” It was all well to have laid such a foundation once; it was childish to be ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. Repentance is indispensable for a sinful man; faith in God must ever be in a saint. But eternal life is now given, Christ sent as propitiation, and the Holy Ghost given to us. Is all this to leave believers where they were? Take again yet lower things, “of doctrine of washings and imposition of hands.” These had their place, as we know, and many heed them much now as then, external though they are and in no way perfecting the worshipper as touching the conscience. The “washings” may include John's baptism, or that of the disciples, though the word slightly differs in its form; and the laying on of hands was certainly an ancient sign of blessing, which we see practiced in various ways even after the gospel. But those whose hearts dwell in such signs and set not their mind on things above betray the symptoms of their infantile condition. God has provided some better thing for us. They are among the things whatever their teaching might be, which the light of the glory now revealed in Christ leaves in the shade. So again with the still weightier doctrine “of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.” No Christian denies either for a moment, but acknowledges both truths; yet he looks for his blessing at Christ's coming, as he knows from His own lips that judgment, awaits only those who reject Him, and that believers are to rise in the contrasted resurrection of life, and do not come into judgment.
Let souls beware then of labor in vain that diverts from better blessing. “And this we will do, if God permit.”