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Hebrews | Chapter 6

Hebrews 6:1-3

“Moving to maturity”

  1. Introduction
  2. 1a Marks of maturity
  3. 1b-3 Six features

 

Introduction

We are back looking at the third warning in this book: Rejecting spiritual maturity! In so doing the writer wrote about four groups that made up the fellowship of Hebrew believers in Rome:

  1. 11-14 The prolonged immature, those who have “come to need milk and not solid food.”
  2. 1-3 The maturing believer, those that have left “the elementary principals of Christ”.
  3. 4-8 The stillborn, those “who were once enlightened but now were endanger of falling away”.
  4. 9-12 The reproducers, those that have, “ministered to the saints, and do minister”.

 

The first general observation is that two of these groups are negative profiles and two are positive profiles:

  1. Negative: The prolonged immature and the stillborn
  2. Positive: The maturing believer and the reproducers

That observation leads us to the mysterious reality that all four of these groups existed under the same roof, had the same opportunities to grow under the same teaching presented to them. The conclusion from this observation is that: The differences were not to be found in differing spiritual diet or lack of spiritual nurturing. Instead, the lack of results was placed solely upon the listener as they were “dull of hearing” (Verse 5:11). Though this was no doubt true of the original recipients of this letter, I believe that this is NOT always true of the modern evangelical church today. I’m gravely concerned that we pastor / teachers bare some of the responsibility for the lack of maturity in the church today. There are three ways in which we pastor / teachers have contributed to immaturity with in His Church:

  1. Diet: The lack of verse by verse expository, systematic bible teaching, through the books of the Bible as originally written.
  2. Discipleship: The lack of discipleship where there exists an expectation of accountability to apply the truths taught.
  3. Definition: The changing of the definition of GROWTH from “spiritual maturity” to “numerical attendance”. Where this occurs the focus shifts from Jesus being essential to the believer, to the church being essential to the believer.

With that said we take up focus in the first three verses of chapter 6 of one group that was growing in their faith.

        1a Marks of maturity

Vs. 1a It is at once clear that one of the “marks of maturity”, by way of illustration from the physical realm, was a natural change in diet from “Milk” to “Meat”. In chapter 5 verses 12-14 the writer explains that milk is defined as:

  • The “first principles of the oracles of God, that leaves the believer unskilled in the word of righteousness because they are still discussing the elementary principles of Christ.” It seems, by way of the author’s definition that, “Milk” as far as a spiritual diet is concerned is essential for “salvation” but lacks the substance and nutrients necessary for our “sanctification”. To continue on in a diet that only emphasizes our need to get saved once we are saved would stunt our continual growth in how to daily walk with God.

What is at issue within this mark of maturity is understanding exactly what the author meant by these two exhortations:

  1. Leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ
  2. Let us go on to perfection

Without the proper study of these two phrases, it would be impossible understand the point the writer is making to the original reader. The Greek word “leaving” is a verb that means to “put off” and is further clarified by the words “the elementary principles of Christ.” The word implies an alteration from the original discussion. It carries the idea that a person can’t go on without separating themselves from that which they were attached described here as “the elementary principles of Christ.” In the context of the letter it seems as though the prolonged immature remained in this state due to a fixation on Jesus atonement as the Christ which they just continued to wrestle against, in light of the Levitical sacrifices. That continual debate kept them from moving onto maturity. The words “Let us go on” in classic Greek were used to “bring or carry”. These two words help to define the meaning of “the elementary principles of Christ.” Which was the emphasis upon the superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice to that of the Levitical sacrifices. All of this will be developed further in the letter where in 7:19 the writer will say that the law with regards to the Levitical sacrifices made nothing perfect whereas in chapter 10:12 after Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins He sat down.

This is why the writer is urging these professing believers to graduate from milk to meat, from immature diet to solid food, as he says in 5:14, “Solid food belongs to those who are of full age.” The continuation of the exclusivity of the diet had stunted their maturity. As already stated spiritual maturity is not produced automatically by age, neither is it produced by proximity to “solid food” or teaching. It is produced by practice! Which is what the author had said in verse 14 saying, “Those who by reason of USE have their senses EXERCISED to discern both good and evil.” Those two words “USE” and “EXERCISED” support the position that maturity requires the “hear of the word of God to be a doer of the word of God” as James wrote in 1:23. Spiritual maturity is produced when we act on what we believe, putting it into practice. But to reach this maturity requires us to leave behind the ABCs, or elementary truths, by which we came to Christian faith. The writer says, “Not laying again the foundation.” While it vital to have a solid foundation to build upon, there is NO ADVANTAGE to tearing up a solid foundation regularly to build the same one again and again. Instead “repetitive foundation laying” is a sign of arrested development and immaturity. One commentary noted that, “American evangelicals don’t usually come to church to learn anything. Instead, what they want to hear is the same old stuff so they can say, Amen too!”

1b-3 Six features

Vs. 1b-2 What needed to be set aside was the typology, pictures of the 1st testament that pointed to the reality of the Lamb of God. They needed to let go and move on from the incomplete to the completed work of God in Christ. The phrase “elementary principles of Christ” is very different in the Greek. But it presents a question: If these Hebrews had left the 1st testament sacrifices and made profession of the Messiah, why does the writer exhort them to abandon these same sacrifices? The answer is that they had only made a mere intellectual agreement to this that was not being trusted upon under the stress of persecution. These Hebrews had NOT yet finally and irrevocably discarded the old practice for the new truth! This “repetitive foundation laying” they kept relaying was over 6 things that was ingrained in the 1st testament understanding mentioned in verses 1-2. We must avoid making our application based upon what we think these six things mean TODAY, to be blunt what they mean today is irrelevant! What we must investigate is what the intended meaning was to those that read the original letter. The foundation of the 1st Covenant had six features:

  1. 1b Repentance from dead works: In the 1st testament this meant turning away from evil sinful deeds that brings about the effects of death. Ezekiel said in 18:4 “The soul that sins will die.” Turning away from dead works and turning towards God was part of their foundation but what was missing was HOW to do so. Early on in the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus both preached to “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” But as we move on past this we note that Paul preached to the elders of the Ephesian Church in Acts 20:21 “..repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” What was missing was “faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”. Jesus had declared in John 14:6 “No one comes to the Father, but through Me.” A person no matter how sincere their repentance cannot turn to God apart from faith in Jesus Christ! Jesus IS THE ONLY WAY TO TURN TO GOD! Repentance from evil works is an important truth but it was incomplete if it was not accompanied by faith in Jesus! So the writer tells them that they needed to abandon the partial work for the completed work!
  2. 1c And of faith towards God: This is mostly covered in the above segment but in Acts 2:38 we are told that Peter preached, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”. Clearly there is no repentance apart from faith in Jesus. The only faith acceptable to God is faith in God the Son, as already noted in John 14:6. Some of the Hebrews addressed in this letter believed in God, but they were not saved. Their repentance from evil works and faith towards God was sincere but couldn’t be completed without Jesus Christ, as Acts 4:12 tells us that, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
  3. 2a Of the doctrine of baptisms: The word “baptisms” is an unfortunate translation. The Greek word is NOT “bap-tizo” which is always used for the ordinance of baptism but is instead the Greek word “bap-tismos” which means washings! This fact is yet another indication that this passage is addressing Hebrew professing believers and not true followers of Christ. Every Hebrew home had a basin by the door used for ceremonial washings. It is these washings that the writer is telling his readers to abandon and move on from. The reason for this was predicted in Ezekiel 36:25-27 Where we read the Lord say, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” The old washings were symbolic but clearly temporary whereas the new washing was once and for all. It was this NEW washing that Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus where He said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
  4. 2b Of laying on of hands: This has nothing to do with the New Testament practice of Acts 6:6, 8:17 and 1 Timothy 4:14 where you place your hands on someone to pray over them but instead is a reference to a 1st Testament practice where the person who brought a sacrifice to the priest would place their hands on it, to symbolize their identification with it on the sacrifice. The writer is telling them to abandon this practice because our identification is with Jesus Christ not by laying our hands upon Him as our sacrifice but because we have trust in His work on our behalf. We now “lay hold” of Christ by trusting in Him.
  5. 2c Of resurrection of the dead: The doctrine of the resurrection in the 1st Testament was very incomplete. There was an understanding that there was life after death and rewards for the righteous and judgment for the wicked. In Job 19:26 we read Job’s hope that, “after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God” and as such we learn that the resurrection was bodily, and not just spiritual. But in the New Testament the doctrine of the resurrection is detailed and complete and became a major theme of early church teaching. Jesus said in John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” There is considerable clarity in the New Testament in passages like 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 John 3:2 where we read that “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” The writer asks his readers to abandon the incomplete teaching of the resurrection for the complete understanding brought about in trusting Jesus “the resurrection and the life”.
  6. 2d And of eternal judgment: The 1st testament spoke some on the final judgment like Ecclesiastes 12:14 where we read, “For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” But in the New Testament we are given a fuller picture like Romans 8:1 where we read, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Or 1 Cor. 3:12-15 where we are told about the believer’s judgment for reward or lack of reward. Or Matthew 25:31-46 of the separation of the sheep from the goats. The final great white throne judgment of Rev. 20:11-15. Leaving the elementary principles on eternal judgment to the fuller understanding that came by faith in Christ is the writer’s appeal.

Vs. 3 The phrase in “And this we will do if God permits” must be understood in the context of “Leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ” and “Let us go on to perfection” It is a reference of the six foundational aspects these professing believers were holding on to instead of moving onto maturity. There are two possible interpretations to this brief verse: Some see it as the writer saying, “I will go on and teach you what you need to know about these above six things if God permits me.” Others think that the writer is saying, “You will go on to maturity if you allow yourself to move on from these six foundational aspects of the 1st testament.” I think that the writer could be thinking of both of these as maturity is going to require them by the work of the Holy Spirit both a greater understanding and an abandoning of the 1st testament teaching.

 

Hebrews 6:4-8

“The impossible enlightened”

  1. Introduction
  2. 4-5 Five advantages
  3. 6-8 The impossible to renew

 

Introduction

 

Our study brings us now to the third group that made up the Hebrew speaking church in Rome and the writer does so with four words that sets the tone of his concern for them: “For it is impossible”. He doesn’t say highly unlikely but “impossible” and with that one word the author unknowingly set in motion one of the most heated debates in Christianity; “Can a person lose their salvation?” Though this debate has raged for a 1000 years the first question that needs to be asked by the Bible student is, “Was this the question the writer was asking and answering in the first place?” Before we move to unlock this ill respective of the what the writer intended to say to the original readers this is still a very sobering passage! Before we dig into this passage and exactly what the Greek phrases of verses 4-6 means the context in which the writer makes this statement has already been set: He is not addressing the question of whether a person can lose their salvation. Instead, he is addressing the issue that this specific group of professing believers were demonstrating; some of them were turning back, because of persecution, to the Levitical sacrifices for their temporary atonement instead of trusting n the finished work of Jesus for their salvation.

4-5 Five advantages

Vs. 4-5 First the writer gives his readers a fivefold advantage of the spiritual work that God had done for this group of people:

  1. Once enlightened
  2. Tasted the heavenly gift
  3. Become partakers of the Holy Spirit
  4. Tasted the good word of God
  5. (Tasted) the powers of the age to come

The five advantages the Holy Spirit had given these Hebrews is sandwiched in between a warning where we read in verse 4 that, “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened…” followed by four more advantages and verse 6 where we read, “to renew them again to repentance.” It is only when we combine these two phrases of the warning that we can get its full sobering magnitude of the warning: “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened… to renew them again to repentance”. Furthermore the force of the Greek words “impossible” and “renew” give no wiggle room for the interpretation for word “impossible” to be diluted to mean “difficult” as it is the same word used elsewhere in Hebrews and in each case it can only mean “impossible”. The same is true of the word used for “renew”.The writer is saying that those who once experienced a renewal cannot again have the same like experience, they cannot again be brought to a life-changing repentance. It is the absolute nature of this statement that makes this such a sobering passage. But in light of the context the responsibility of this impossibility does not fall into the hands of the God of grace who has already given them these five advantages but rather in the hands of those who have already received these five advantages but refused to take full advantage of them by coming to faith. This presents two problems:

  1. How can anyone experience these 5 Spirit-given advantages and still not be a Christian?
  2. If they are a Christian, how can they fall away, without any hope of restoration?

It is over these issues that the battle has been waged throughout the Christian church.

  1. Once enlightened: Of first importance is that this phrase makes no reference at all to salvation. There is no mention of new birth or regeneration and to make the “once enlightened” as “born again”, without any connecting phrases anywhere in the Bible is a stretch NOT implied in the text or elsewhere. None of the normal New Testament terminology is used to indicate salvation. In fact, NO TERM used in these five advantages is ever used in the New Testament for salvation. What we have here is two words of a phrase that will indicate who the writer had in mind when he wrote it:
  2. First the word “once” in the Greek it means “once for all”. This means that the “enlightening” never needed repetition. From the writer’s perspective to the original readers, these Hebrews who had listened to the message of the New Testament had experienced the the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment in their minds and hearts to clearly understand what they had heard. John 16:13-15 clarifies our understanding of this when we read Jesus’ words to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit’s work saying, “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” The writer is declaring that this happened to the readers, and it never needed to be repeated for the purpose of the lack of understanding or to make it clearer.
  3. Second the word “enlightened” in the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures always has to do “intellectual perception of biblical truth”. The word means to be “mentally aware of something, to be instructed or informed”. The word carries NO CONNOTATION of response, neither acceptance or rejection. To illustrate this, we need only look at Matthew 4:16 where Jesus read Isaiah 9:1-2 that declares that those “who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” All those who heard in Galilee were not saved but they had ALL SEEN a great light! Seeing and believing are not the same thing. Those who had witnessed Jesus words and works in Galilee were to some extent “enlightened” as indicated in Jesus warning to these very cities in Matthew 11:21-24 where He says “If the mighty works which were done in you were done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago..” These Hebrews who the writer is addressing had natural knowledge of factual information. When considering those from the Galilee area who had first-hand knowledge of the words and works of Christ and the advantage that such experience afforded them was to a degree that only a few thousand people in all of history who had as much “enlightenment” as they did. But most of them didn’t move beyond “enlightenment” to faith! The only conclusion you can make of these Hebrews is that they were “enlightened” but not saved! And because of this they were in grave danger because their lack had nothing to do with something more the Holy Spirit could give them to inform them further to belief. Peter describes them in 2 Peter 2:20-21 “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
  4. Tasted the heavenly gift: At issue in this advantage is the understanding of what the writer meant by using the word “tasted” and what he meant by the phrase “heavenly gift”. The word used to describe the advantage given to them by the Holy Spirit was a “taste” and it is worthy to note that if the writer intended to describe those he was writing to as believers, then why did he say that they merely “TASTED” of the “heavenly gift” instead of saying that they “RECEIVED the heavenly gift”? The writer is clear on this, the “heavenly gift” was not feasted on he was only sampled which had left an impression of the distinct flavor of his goodness. It appears that these Hebrews were like their forefathers in Kadesh-Barnea outside the land of promise who had in their hands the blessings of the fruit of the land of promise but still turned back. The interpretation of the words “heavenly gift” can be one of two persons, the Holy Spirit as He is spoken of as such or it can be a reference to Jesus who is the greatest “heavenly gift”. Seeing that the Holy Spirit is the focus of the third advantage I don’t believe that He is what the writer is speaking of here. I believe that these Hebrews had tasted of the blessings of salvation in Christ but had yet to feast upon Him fully as they hadn’t received Him. They had tasted in what they had seen and heard but turned back and didn’t fully partake of Him.
  5. Become partakers of the Holy Spirit: Here the main issue is what does the word “partakers” mean in reference to the Holy Spirit? The word in the Greek is in the aorist tense not the perfect tense. Which means that the reference to the meaning of “partakers” is not to a “permanent” state but a mere fact of a work of the Holy Spirit. Had it been in the perfect tense it would have spoken of the finished work of the Holy Spirit having permanent results. The fact that the writer doesn’t use the perfect tense instead uses the aorist tense points to the incompleteness of the work of the Holy Spirit in the case of these Hebrews. “Partakers” of the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean “possessors” of the Holy Spirit. They weren’t indwelt by Him, He had NOT taken up His permanent residence in their hearts, they were not sealed by Him, born again by Him, or baptized by Him into the body of Christ by Him! Instead, they were mere participators in His work co-operating in His pre-salvation work that was leading them to the act of repentance from their sins and trusting alone in the finished work of Jesus for their atonement. This work had not yet been completed because these Hebrews had resisted its completion! The Bible never speaks of Christians as being only associated with the Holy Spirit; it speaks of Christians being INDWELT by Him. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to come alongside the unbeliever as they partake of His work of revealing Jesus to them, convicting them of sin and revealing His work on their behalf. These Hebrews didn’t “possess” the Holy Spirit, they were only “partakers” of His work.
  6. Tasted the good word of God: At issue in the fourth advantage is two phrases “tasted” and “word of God”. The word “tasted” is the same as above and refers to having “sampled” the word of God but didn’t eat of it. What I find interesting is what the “sampling” is; the writer doesn’t use the normal reference to the “word of God” “logos” in the Greek but instead uses the word “rhema” which emphasizes the parts of the word rather than the whole! The writer uses this word as it fits the sampling of parts of God’s word instead of the partaking of the whole of it. These Hebrews had sampled parts of the word of God and may have done so with enthusiasm and appreciation, but they hadn’t done what Jeremiah describes he did in Jeremiah 15:16 where we says, “Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” Instead, they were like the description of Herod towards John the Baptists words in Mark 6:20 where he enjoyed listening to John preach was fascinated by his words but when pressed to make a decision forsook the message and had him beheaded. There is nothing wrong with “tasting” as it is the first step to eating but if all you ever do is taste and never eat you will eventually die of starvation.
  7. (Tasted) the powers of the age to come: Same word “tasted” is implied here as well but we will need to understand what the writer meant by the phrase “the powers of the age to come”. The word “powers” in the Greek is repeatedly used to refer to miracles, wonderful works, or mighty works. The word “age” in the Greek refers to a period of time characterized by miracles. It differs from this present age in which we live where “mighty works” are not the common everyday norm. What the writer is saying is that these Hebrews had witnessed “mighty works” from the apostle’s healings and other “wonderful works” that will be common in the millennial kingdom of Christ. Yet though they had tasted of such things they had not come to faith in Christ.

6-8 The impossible to renew

Vs. 6-8 The writer has carefully pinned his case against these Hebrews who have had every advantage given by the Holy Spirit to the degree that the Holy Spirit has nothing more to offer these Hebrews, there was nothing lacking in the information He had given them in fact they had participated in it right up to the point of their salvation but then had refused for no reason of lack and returned to trusting in the Levitical system of sacrifices for their atonement.

The use of the word “if” indicates that the case the writer is presenting is hypothetical and as such is intended as a warning to those Hebrews who fit this category. The Greek words “fall away” are on used here in the New Testament and in the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures in Ezekiel 14:13, 15:8 where it is used of Israel falling away from true worship of God. The word means to deviate from the right path, to turn aside. It describes an as yet hypothetical situation whereby these Hebrews break away from the completed work of the Holy Spirit’s advantages. The word “renew” is a word the means “to restore back to original condition” and simply implies that having rejected the five advantages the Holy Spirit had given them they wouldn’t be able to recapture what they had already rejected as if they had never heard it. It is here that we must remind ourselves who this letter was being written to before we move to an application for us today! The writer was addressing pre-temple destruction Hebrews who were being tempted to go back to the Levitical system of temple sacrifices. And in so doing they would be renouncing their professed faith in the Messiah for the sacrifices of the first testament. Should they do so they would render their hearts so hard that the five advantages already granted them would no longer have any effect. They would be irrevocable lost, nothing more the Holy Spirit could do for them. With that said, the situation that these Hebrew professing believers faced cannot be repeated today in the same sense as there is no temple in Jerusalem and no way to go back to the Levitical system of sacrifices at the present time. There are no sacrifices to leave and return to. The sin they were in danger of committing isn’t the same as the rejection of Christ by unbelievers today.

The analogy found in nature represents the free bestowal of spiritual enlightenment as one piece of ground reacts by producing useful herbs, this reveals that some of these Hebrews had borne fruit in accordance to the five advantages. Others bore thorns and briers and is likened to some of the Hebrews who went back and rejected what they knew to be true.

 

Hebrews 6:9-12

“Confident of better things”

  • Introduction
  • 9-10 Beloved
  • 11-12 Showing diligence

 

Introduction

 

This morning we finish up the third warning in this letter “the danger of rejecting spiritual maturity”. It is by far the sternest of the warnings so far as we saw last week the warning made to the professing believer who were only intellectually convinced but not yet spiritually committed. There the warning was, “For it is impossible if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance.” The writer already identified his readers: Four groups that made up the church of Hebrews speakers in Rome. Two of which were negative; the prolonged immature and the still born of last week. And two of them were positive, those growing in maturity (chapter 6 verses 1-3) and the group that we shall examine today in verse 9-12.

9-10 Beloved

Vs. 9 First for sake of understanding the context of the writer we need to recognize who he is addressing in verses 9-12. A carefully examination reveals two groups:

  1. First in verse 9-10 we have the group described to us as the “beloved”. The writer must have spent considerable time evaluating them as he declares that he was “confident of better things concerning them, things that accompanied salvation”. The writer goes on to generally describe these “things” in glowing terms as they not only were engaged in “work” their motive in the way in which they were doing their work was a “labor of love” done in the “name of Jesus” as if they were exercising the work towards Him. This was not only a “past observation” but “a present-day reality” as they were still demonstrating this “labor of love”.
  2. Second in verses 11-12 we have a second group only described as “each one of you” who were to take motivation from the “beloved” that the writer had just addressed. This group was to “show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end” as the “beloved”. They were not to remain “sluggish” but instead “imitate those who through FAITH and PATIENCE inherit the promises.”

The differences in these two groups go beyond the demonstration of what they were doing and the way in which they did or didn’t accomplish the “work”. It becomes clearer in the Greek that these two groups describe believers andunbelievers both of which made up the church of Hebrew speakers in Rome. I say this because of several identifying marks in the text:

  1. The first group is called by the writer “beloved” in the Greek which is a descriptive term from the word agape. It is used 60 times in the New Testament the first 9 of which it is used of God the Father to describe God the Son. Every other time whether addressing Jews or Gentiles, it is used only to describe “believers”.
  2. The second group is NO where identified as “beloved” and are instead characterized by the writer as those who DO NOT “show” the same “diligence to the full assurance” and those who have “become sluggish” and need to imitate the “beloved” who had “faith and patience” which indicated that this group didn’t have those qualities.

The remarkable thing to realize is that both of these two groups had received the same five advantages of:

  • Once enlightened
  • Tasted the heavenly gift
  • Become partakers of the Holy Spirit
  • Tasted the good word of God
  • (Tasted) the powers of the age to come

The conclusion we can make from this observation is that while these five advantages of God are HELPFUL for salvation, they do not indicate that a person HAS salvation! This observation ought to clear up the mass confusion in the church as to why we see people who have benefitted from these five advantages but are no longer living out what they profess to believe! The apostle John aptly describes them in 1 John 2:19 saying that “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”

            The phrase “we are confident of better things concerning you..” in regard to the “beloved” centers around the word “confident” and is translated elsewhere as “persuaded” the word suggests a conviction that was the result of proof. The phrase is in the perfect tense which means that it is fixed. As this was a general letter that didn’t mention specific names of who he regarded in these four groups the writer wants to settle the hearts of those who were living out their faith and weren’t mere pretenders. Coming from such an absolute statement as “For it is impossible if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance”; we can see why the writer would want to reassure some, without removing the danger others were facing. The writer only mentions one of the “better things” in this section but before he does, he goes back to what he had previously mentioned “things that accompany salvation”. Things that “accompany salvation” is a contrast between:

  • Not remaining as an immature Christian but moving on into maturity
  • Not preferring milk but moving on into the meat of the word
  • Not remaining unskilled in the word of righteousness but mature in righteousness
  • Letting go the elementary principles of Christ and moving to maturity

The “things that accompany salvation” are positive, not negative, they don’t reflect external ceremonial religion, but relational transformation and new life. There reality doesn’t come from repeated sacrifices but from trusting in the complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

            Then the writer interjects the phrase “though we speak in this manner” was meant to be a comfort to those believers who after reading the last section with absolute warning may have been wondering if the warning applied to them. Paraphrasing this the writer is saying, “Beloved fellow Christians, though we have been speaking about these fearful warnings to unbelievers in your midst, we know that far better things apply to you. You have already shown and continue to show the things that accompany salvation.” It is important that the church understand that we must not use the characteristics of the intellectually convinced but not spiritually committed of verses 5:11-6:4 to separate the wheat from the tares as that is Jesus’ responsibility when He returns, as He alone weighs the thought and intents of the heart.

Vs. 10 The writer at once lets his readers know of the faithfulness of God as He doesn’t forget their work done in His behalf. Saints, our names will not be lost in His book of life, our salvation will not slip His mind and our rewards will be forgotten! What a comfort this is as many a believer throughout history has experience times of doubt at the times of discipline and judgment. The prophet Malachi gave stern warnings of judgment to befall the nation, but the Lord also had him write in Malachi 3:16-17 “So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORDand who meditate on His name. “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” God always knows His own and because of this we have no fear of final judgment, missing the rapture or loss of rewards. It is also clear by the writer’s words that a believer’s works are not what saves him or keeps him saved, they are only an evidence of his salvation. It is also interesting to see that the motive behind the work is what God sees as it is a “labor of love which you have shown towards His name”. The significance of the service is not in the work alone but that it is an expression of love and devotion to Jesus exercised towards others. The way to have unity in the body of Christ is to have believers continue to grow in the Love of God! Unity of faith will never be accomplished apart from devotion to God! The fact is none of us are lovable all the time in our own personalities and merits, but Christ is, so our actions towards each other are not to be done with view to each other but with a view towards Jesus! Furthermore the writer’s observation wasn’t past tense but present day reality as they “have ministered to the saints, and do minister!” What I find interesting is to note that the praise towards these believers is in the midst of warnings to those of the Hebrew speaking church that were both prolonged immature as well as those who were only intellectually convinced but not spiritually committed. This suggests to me that part of “ministry” includes correction in which the aim is restoration and encouraging others to come to faith in Christ. Such ministry is to be regularly exercised towards the “saints” and being a saint has nothing to do with the level of a believer’s spiritual maturity, miracles done in their name it only speaks of their salvation who the Lord declares them to be holy in His sight because they have trusted in His son’s Holy work.

11-12 Showing diligence

Vs. 11-12 This section was written for the as yet unbelievers who were a part of the Hebrew speaking church. They had a profession of faith but were in imminent danger of falling away and trusting in the Levitical sacrifices for their salvation. The writers earnest desire is that they take a look at the true believers among them, and they would “show the same diligence to full assurance of hope until the end.” The word “diligence” in the Greek means to show eagerness with haste, they need to come to Christ, and they needed to do so NOW! They had exhibited sluggishness and procrastination in hearing and believing but their time was running out. They had not verbally outright rejected the gospel but to not accept it was rejecting it. So, they needed to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

 

Hebrews 6:13-20

“Trust Me!”

  • Introduction
  • 13 His Person
  • 14-15 His Purpose
  • 16-18 His Promise
  • 19-20 His Priest

 

Introduction

 

Over the last several weeks our look has been at the third warning issued by the writer about the lack of spiritual maturity, and it has been very sobering. The reality that the readers faced in reading this letter was that they fit into one of four groups and two of those groups were very dangerous to their soul. To me reading this section felt like going to a doctor and hearing the possibilities of your health could be grave or fatal if not immediately corrected. The concept we realized is that having received from the Holy Spirit those five advantages mentioned in verse 4 gave us a great OPPORTUNITY but they didn’t guarantee the OUTCOME! In spite of the pre-work of salvation given to us by the Holy Spirit it is possible that a person could have understood intellectually:

  • The work of Jesus on their behalf
  • Been excited about the possibility of heaven
  • Emotionally full of joy about the possibility of forgiveness

But there is NO SALVATION apart from TRANSFORMATION! If there has been NO permanent transformation as a result of those five advantages, then we are at very least stunted in our maturity or at worst not saved at all. As horrifying as the possibility is to our pride, I would much rather come to grips with the lack of my own spiritual growth while I still can do something to change then from Jesus own lips and realize that I needn’t have lived my life in the condition I had. I’m concerned that the modern evangelical church that has been busy with religious activities faithfully performed by people who continue to possess the same dispositions and attitudes, of people, who are not Christians. As I said prior there are two unmistakable evidences of maturity:

  1. Continual personal evaluation of our maturity and spiritual growth; the “Is it I?”, question.
  2. Consistent desire to help people for Jesus that is as much interested in WHY we are doing what we do as what we are doing!

With that said it is possible to be have those to evidences of the true Christian life and still have little if any sense of assurance, or security in our relationship with Jesus. We can be a Christian and still be full of doubts, fears, anxieties, and uncertainties about our relationship to Christ. That is what the writer addresses today. In the last section of the warning the writer put before some of his readers that they should “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” There were among them in the Hebrew speaking church in Rome people who were true followers of Christ who through faith and patience were inheriting the promises. In these verse before us the writer suggests another example in their ancestry who they can imitate, Abraham. The use of this patriarch is very revealing to me as it speaks of an underlining reason some of these Hebrew speaking church attenders were being persuaded to go back to the Levitical system of sacrifices, you see they just couldn’t TRUST Jesus at His word. So, in this section, with the father of the faith as the example the author gives FOUR REASONS YOU CAN TRUST GOD:

  1. 13 His Person
  2. 14 His Purpose
  3. 16-18 His Promise
  4. 19-20 His Priest

13 His Person

Vs. 13 The readers would have immediately recognized this “spiritual giant” of their ancestry as Paul called him in Romans 4:16-18 the “the father of us all and the father of many nations”. The writer has carefully chosen a story from the life of Abraham that will encourage the reader who struggles with doubts, fears and anxieties and uncertainties concerning their own spiritual maturity and growth. The story is found in two sections of Genesis chapter 15:5 and chapter 22:17-18. What we learn by looking at Abraham’s example reveals that trusting in God’s promises has far more to do with what we learn about God and far less of about what we see in us. What makes our confidence strong enough to defeat even the most persistent doubts and fears is that our faith isn’t in our WORTHINESS inheriting the promises but in God being WORTHY in keeping them! The ground of our hope is what Paul wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 1:6 as he said, “Being confident of this very thing, that HE who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

To set up the illustration in Genesis 15:5 account we are told of God’s appearance to Abraham where He first made a statement “I am your shield, your exceeding great reward” Whereby Abraham focuses on the longevity of the reward seeing that he has no heir. That’s when the God promised Abraham in verse 5 “Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And He said to him, so shall your descendants be.” The intervening six chapters to the immediate fulfillment of that promise Isaac’s birth (the ultimate fulfillment was Jesus) was 25 long years later in 21:2. Those 25 years were not filled with faith and obedience from either Abraham or Sarah as time passed without the fulfilled promise Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands as Hagar was employed to bare an heir to fulfill the promise as she gave birth to the middle east conflict in the birth of Ishmael. The important point the writer was making is that Abraham realized the promise not because he trusted in his work but in God’s oath which twice, He confirmed. Two things stand out in this illustration:

  1. First, Abraham did not believe it because he saw immediate results.
  2. Second, Abraham didn’t believe because he was doing his best to accomplish it.

  1. 13 His Person: This brings us to the first of four reasons why Abraham could trust God: It wasn’t because Abraham saw the immediate results, he clearly began to waver in faith because of time and thought he had to help God out. And it wasn’t because Abraham was doing his best to accomplish it, after all he and Sarah’s best was Ishmael, and we all know how well that has worked out over the last 7000 years. Abraham was confronted with TRUTH about the character of God; He invented truth, it is the essence of God’s nature, everything He says and does is truth. Therefore, if God makes a promise, he not only will keep it, He has to keep it because He has no other nature then truth. In Romans 4:19-21 that we have the answer to the question: “Then why did Abraham believe God’s promise?” As Paul writes of Abraham, “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God”. Faith must always rest on the character of God not the faithfulness of man. Abraham believed that God told the truth about Himself, and that God would always be true to his own character.

14-15 His Purpose

  1. 14 His Purpose: The second reason Abraham could trust God was that God’s promise to him wasn’t aimless, it was a promise with a PURPOSE. It wasn’t Abraham’s idea to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and move to the land of Canaan, it was God’s leading that directed him. Throughout God’s encounter with Abraham in His making a covenant with Abraham it was entirely God’s work. And when God established His covenant, it was He who established it with a promise, and it was God who made it UNCONDITIONAL. God never told Abraham He would bless him IF he fulfilled certain obligations, requirements, and certain conditions. The reality is Abraham wasn’t chosen by God because he had a certain quality or virtue, he was chosen purely on God’s will, just the same way Israel was chosen (Deut. 7:7-8). The ultimate purpose was to: Make known the true God, to reveal the Messiah, to be the preserver of the Word of God, to be a living demonstration of the faithfulness of God. The amazing thing is that Abraham was not a party to the covenant, He was only a witness to it and a vehicle for its fulfillment! You can trust God because He will NOT let His plan fail!

Vs. 15 Before we move to the third reason you can trust God in verses 16-17 the author deals with the proof of FAITH that it doesn’t come from our own experience; it is simply the demonstration of what we have already believed, because we believe Who said it. Albert Einstein didn’t come to the knowledge of relativity by performing a series of experiments that ultimately convinced him that relativity was true. Instead, he gradually saw the concept of relativity, and being convinced, he performed experiments that demonstrated it to others. This is the way of truth, “believing is seeing.” The secret of faith: Is that it rests on the character of Jesus Christ. As far as we are concerned we must determine whether He is telling us the truth, and we can trust Him, or we must reject Him as a self-deceived impostor.

16-18 His Promise

  1. 16-18 The Promise: The third security deals with the oath that God made to Abraham. The truth is God didn’t need to make an oath to Abraham or any person for that matter. God’s word is good without a “promise” but to accommodate the people who have a continual problem with trust, God promised on Himself to keep what couldn’t ever be broken because of who He is, and the purpose He make the promise. What this reveals to us who have a problem with trust is that: God who can not lie, promised to never break what He cannot break, to fulfill what was His idea in the first place that accomplishes His will! Just so that we all understand this it was NOT His promise upon Himself that made His promise more secure, He did this for us, not for Himself! The writer goes on to say in verse 17 that both of these things are without any possibility of change or variance. The word is used in the Greek of wills that once made are unchangeable and, in this case, even by God Himself! This promise is the most “secure” promise ever made and reminds us that our security is not based upon us never letting go of God but in God never letting go of us!

19-20 His Priest

Vs. 19-20 The Priest: The final reason we can trust God is in the person of Christ that all Christian faith has an “anchor both sure and steadfast”. Jesus not only made promises to us, but he has himself demonstrated them. Since this is true, then our faith will be strengthened as we see more clearly the character of the One with whom we must deal. This is why the author moves immediately to the matter of the high priesthood of Melchizedek. Again and again in this letter he has used this phrase, “a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” The sheer repetition of it indicates there is something very vital hidden here. Now we shall see what that is. What the writer is saying as the reason why we can trust God to keep His word is that Jesus alone is forever the Guardian of our soul. Jesus said in John 10:28 that He will, “give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Paul wrote of this security because of Jesus our High Priest in Romans 8:31-35 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”