There are few who have set out to follow the Lord Jesus who have not, at some time or other, gone through painful exercise of heart in connection with the opening verses of Heb. 6 And while, in the long run, they have had no reason to regret the exercise, yet it is always needful to distinguish between the Spirit’s using a scripture to search, and Satan’s abusing it to stumble us. Searching is good for us. It is most healthful. We all need it, and we have to be thankful when we get it, we are so prone to be light and superficial, and to retire from anything that probes the conscience.
Still, we have not the slightest doubt that many true and earnest souls, many to whom Heb. 6:4-64For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4‑6) has no application whatever, have been stumbled and discouraged through not understanding the true force and bearing of the passage. It is to help such that we pen the following lines, for we can truly say there is no work in which we have a more intense interest than in taking up the stumbling-blocks out of the way of God’s beloved people. We feel most fully assured it is work which He delights to have done, inasmuch as He has given express commandment to His servants to do it. We have just to take care lest, in our desire to remove the stumbling-blocks, we should in any wise disturb the landmarks. May the blessed Spirit, then, graciously help us to a right understanding of this sadly misunderstood passage of holy scripture!
Our special business, just now, is to inquire who are they of whom the inspired writer speaks in verses 4-6—those of whom he declares, “ It is impossible to renew them again to repentance?” A correct answer to this question will remove much, if not all, of the difficulty felt in respect to this portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews; and in reaching this answer there are two things to be borne in mind—first, that in verses 1 and 2, there is not a single feature belonging to Christianity as distinct from Judaism; secondly, that in verses 4 and 5 there is not a single expression that rises to the height of the new birth, or the sealing of the Spirit.
Let us quote the apostle’s words: “ Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” or, as the margin reads it, “ The word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms [or washings], and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”
Now it must be plain to the reader that the apostle could never exhort those professing christian Hebrews to “ leave” anything belonging to Christianity. There is not a single fact in that glorious economy, from first to last—not a single stone in that glorious superstructure, from foundation to topstone—not a single principle in that magnificent system, from beginning to end—that we could afford to leave or dispense with for a moment. For what, let us ask, is the grand foundation of Christianity? The cross. And what are its two characteristic facts? A Man glorified in heaven, and God dwelling in man on the earth. Could we leave these? God forbid! To whom, or to what, should we go? It is impossible that we could leave or give up a single fact, feature, or principle of our glorious Christianity.
What, then, have we got in Heb. 6:1, 21Therefore 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. (Hebrews 6:1‑2)? Simply those elements of truth contained in the Jewish system which, in so far as they possessed any permanent value, are reproduced in Christianity; but, as a system, were to be abandoned forever. Where is there a word peculiar to Christianity in this passage? Can we not see at a glance that the apostle has Judaism before his mind? It is this he exhorts his brethren to leave, and to go on to Christianity, which he here calls “ perfection.”
It is a very commonly received idea that the words, “Let us go on to perfection,” refer to our leaving the earlier stages of the divine life, and getting on to the higher. This we believe to be a total mistake. As to what is called “ the higher christian life,” there is in reality no such thing. If there be a higher life, there must be a lower one; but we know, blessed be God, that Christ is our life, the life of each, the life of all; and there cannot be anything higher than that. The merest babe in Christ has as high a life as the most matured and profoundly taught member of the church of God.
No doubt there is progress in the divine life, growth in grace, faith growing exceedingly. All this we own most fully, and would charge ourselves to seek after most earnestly. But it is not the subject of Heb. 6:1, 21Therefore 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. (Hebrews 6:1‑2). It is not a question of going from one form in the school of Christ to another, but of leaving the school of Moses to enter fully, heartily, and intelligently, the school of Christ. It is not a question of going from one stage of christian life to another, but of abandoning Judaism to go on to Christianity. We could not abandon a single atom of Christianity without abandoning Christ Himself, for He is the foundation, the source, the center, the spring of it all.
But the reader may feel disposed to ask, Have we not got “repentance, faith, resurrection, and eternal judgment” in Heb. 6:1, 21Therefore 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. (Hebrews 6:1‑2)? True, but only as elements of the Jewish system. There is not a word about “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ”—not a word about Christ at all; it is simply Judaism, to which some of the Hebrew professors were in danger of returning, but from which the apostle earnestly urges them to go on.
Let us now turn for a moment to verses 4, 5. “ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come [of the coming age], if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.”
Now the reader will notice that, as in verses 1, 2, we have not a single clause specially characteristic of Christianity; so, in verses 4, 5, we have not a single clause that rises to the height of the new birth, or the sealing of the Holy Ghost. A person might be all that is here spoken of, and yet never have been born again, • Resurrection, as seen in Christianity, is not merely “ resurrection of the dead;” but,” resurrection from among the dead.”
never sealed by the Holy Ghost. How many thousands have been “ enlightened” by the gospel, without being converted by it! Wherever the gospel has been preached, wherever the Bible has been received and read, an enlightening influence has gone forth, altogether irrespective of any saving work wrought in souls. Look, for example, at the nations of Europe since the Reformation. In all those countries that have received the Bible, we see the moral effect produced in the way of intelligence, civilization, and refinement, apart altogether from the question of the conversion of individual souls. On the other hand, those countries which have refused the Bible exhibit the melancholy results of ignorance, moral darkness, and degradation. In a word, there may be enlightenment of the understanding without any divine work in the conscience or in the heart.
But what means the * é tasting the heavenly gift?” Does not this imply the new birth? By no means. Many may have gotten a taste of the new, the heavenly, things set forth in the glorious gospel of God, and yet never have passed from death unto life, never have been broken down before God, about their sins—never have received Christ into their hearts. Tasting of the heavenly gift, and passing by new birth into the heavenly kingdom, are totally different things.
So also many were made “partakers (μετοχους) of the Holy Ghost,” so as to speak with tongues, prophesy, and the like, who nevertheless were never born of the Spirit. When the Holy Ghost came down on the day of Pentecost, His presence pervaded the whole assembly. His power was felt by all, converted or unconverted. The word rendered “ partakers” does not express intelligent fellowship, and this makes it all the more clear that there is not the slightest thought of new birth or sealing.
Further, as to “tasting the good word of God,” do we not all know too well that unconverted people can, in a certain sense, enjoy the word of God, and have a measure of delight in hearing a full, free, gospel preached? Have we not often heard persons who furnished no sort of evidence of divine life speaking, in highly appreciative terms, of what they called the savory doctrines of grace? There is a wide and very material difference indeed between a person tasting the good word of God, and the word of God entering the soul, in living, quickening, convicting, and converting power.
Finally, a person might taste “ the power of the coming age”—the age when Messiah will set up His kingdom—he might heal diseases, and cast out devils—he might take up serpents, and drink poison—he might speak with tongues: he might do all these things, and yet never have been born again. “ Thus”—as a recent writer has solemnly and forcibly put it—“ we may fairly give the fullest force to every one of these expressions. Yet, write them out ever so largely, they fall short both of the new birth and of sealing with the Holy Ghost. There is everything, one may say, save inward spiritual life in Christ, or the indwelling seal of it. That is to say”—and, oh, may it be deeply pondered in this day of intellectual knowledge and flippant profession!—“one may have the very highest endowments and privileges, in the way both of meeting the mind, and also of exterior power; and yet all may be given up, and the man become so much the keener enemy of Christ. Indeed such is the natural result. It had been the mournful fact as to some. They had fallen away. Hence renewal to repentance is an impossibility”—declared to be so by the authoritative and conclusive testimony of the Holy Ghost—“seeing they crucify’ to themselves the Son of God, and put him to an open shame.”
“Why impossible? The case supposed is”—not any one who ever possessed a single spark of divine life in his soul; no, nor yet any one with the very feeblest desire after Christ, or one atom of true repentance or desire to flee from the wrath to come, but that—“ of persons, after the richest proof and privilege, turning aside apostates from Christ, in order to take up Judaism once more. As long as that course is pursued, repentance there cannot be. Supposing a man had been the adversary of Messiah here below’י—as, for example, Paul himself, the very writer of the epistle—“ there was still the opening for him of grace from on high. It was possible that the very man that had slighted Christ here below, might have his eyes opened to see and receive Christ above; but this abandoned, there is no fresh condition in which He could be presented to men. Those who rejected Christ, in the fullness of His grace, and in the height of His glory in which God had set Him as Man before them”—Christ the object of fourfold testimony, His works, the Father, John the Baptist, and Moses. (John 5)—י י Those that rejected Him, not merely on earth, but in heaven”—as attested by the Holy Ghost sent down from the ascended and glorified Man on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens—“ what was there to fall back upon? What possible means to bring them to repentance after that? There is none. What is there but Christ coming in judgment?”*
Surely there is, and can be, nothing else. For one who, from amid the full blaze of gospel light and privilege, could deliberately go back to the darkness of Judaism, there remains nothing but hopeless impenitence, hardness of heart, judicial blindness, and eternal judgment.
It is not, be it carefully observed, a child of God falling into sin, and getting at a distance from God. Such an one will, most surely, be brought back, and restored, though it may be through sore affliction under the chastening hand of God. It is not an anxious soul earnestly seeking the way of life and peace. It is not the case of a poor soul ignorant and out of^ the way. To none of these does the “ impossible” of Hebrews vi. 4 apply. There is not a single anxious, earnest, soul beneath the canopy of heaven whose case is impossible. There is just one case that approaches awfully near to Heb. 6:4,4For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (Hebrews 6:4) and that is one who has gone on sinning against light, refusing to act on the plain word of God, resisting the truth—knowingly and deliberately resisting—because of the consequences of acting upon it.
This is indeed most solemn. No one can take it upon him to say at what depths of darkness, blindness, and hardness of heart, a case of this kind may arrive. It is a terrible thing to trifle with light, and to go on with what we: know to be wrong, because of worldly advantage, to please friends, to avoid persecution and trial, or for any reason whatsoever. “ Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.” Jer. 13:1616Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. (Jeremiah 13:16).
Having sounded this warning note for any whose case may need it, we close this part of our subject by presenting to any troubled soul whose eye may scan these lines, that precious word at the very end of the inspired volume—a word issuing forth from the very heart of God—the heart of Christ—“ Whosoever will, let him take the water of life FREELY.”
(to be continued, if the Lord will)