Hebrews: Week 9

‍ Purpose:

·      God is Faithful to Keep His Covenant Promises

·      Believers Must Hold on to the Confession of those Promises

·      Believers must Remain Connected to the Community of Promise

Warning Passages

2:1-4, 3:7-4:11, 5:11-6:12, 10:26-39, 12:14-29

Hebrews 6:1-12 - Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, ² teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And we will do this if God permits. ⁴ For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, ⁶ and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. ⁷ For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. ⁸ But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned. ⁹ Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them. ¹¹ Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, ¹² so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance. (CSB)

Question – Have you ever interacted with someone who seemed to be an expert at missing the point?

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Logical Fallacy:

“Ignoratio Elenchi” - Irrelevant conclusion

Big Idea:

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“Don’t Miss The Point”

Dr. Ben Witherington – “A text without a context too easily becomes a proof text for whatever you want it to mean.”

vv. 4-6

·      Calvinists - Interpret the passage as a warning against a false or incomplete experience of salvation, rather than a genuine Christian falling away.

·      Arminians - Interpret it as a warning that genuine Christians can lose their salvation through apostasy or a lack of perseverance in faith.

Question #1 - Who is this person?

·      Been enlightened

·      Tasted the heavenly gift

·      Have received the Holy Spirit

·      Believed God’s Word and experienced the Spirit of the Age to come

Scope of Salvation

·      Justification – “I am saved” -> Belief

·      Sanctification – “I am being saved” -> Submission

·      Glorification – “I will be saved” -> Endurance

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“So what’s the point?”

*The point is that the journey of being a Christian is about Faith that leads to Faithfulness.

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Question #2 – Can a person who has fallen away truly repent?

View 1 – Says no. That this person has committed the unpardonable sin (blasphemy by tasting the goodness of God and then abandoning it like it’s not real or good or necessary. It’s denouncing the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives and essentially calling it evil by living as though it’s not real. This view will sometimes point to vv. 7-8 to say that the rain of God’s blessings can be poured out on the same ground and some will experience growth that leads to flourishing and others will experiences thorns and thistles that lead to curses.

View 2 – Says yes. The person who has fallen away has fallen back into their former way of life (pagan / Judaism without Christ) and they cannot truly repent and return within that system. They have placed themselves outside of the New Covenant of grace and it is impossible for them within that system to receive true forgiveness of sins. Christ has already been crucified to liberate all people from those systems. We can’t go back and expect the same redemptive power to be effective in our lives.

Dr. Cynthia Westfall – “You can’t repent if you leave the foundations, because that’s leaving the atonement—you’d need Christ to die all over again.”

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“So what’s the point?”

*The point is that being a Christian is to recognize that Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

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Question #3 – Should we then live in constant fear of losing our salvation?

*The warning is that if we are not growing, we may be falling away. But the promise is that if we are pressing on in Christ… He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete that work in us. This isn’t about striving to earn God’s grace, rather, this is about living out the grace that God has already freely showered upon us.

• Philippians 2:12-13 - Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

Simply put – We work out (walk out) what God has already worked into us when we believed.

Hebrews 6:17-19 - Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (CSB)

*We seize this hope by…

·      Believing

·      Submitting

·      Enduring

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