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Hebrews 6.1-8
1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
The other day I was watching an interview with a coach of a professional basketball team after the team suffered a loss. The coach was clearly frustrated by the situation, and it was apparent that he believed that his team could have done much better. In answer to one reporter’s question regarding why the team performed so badly, the coach said that the players needed to “get back to the basics.”
Back to the basics. I don’t think the coach had in mind that the players had to return to learning the very basics of the game of basketball, such as how to dribble, pass, and shoot. At a professional level, it would be a waste of time if players needed to learn those very basic skills of basketball again.
In this passage, the author of Hebrews lays out the very basics of Christian faith that all believers should know and understand at this point in their relationship with Jesus.
Verses 1-2:
- Repentance from dead works (meaning the worship of idols and all the practices and traditions that this involves).
- Faith in God (entrusting their lives to Jesus)
- Baptism and the laying on of hands (as a sign of their sharing and participation in the community of faith).
- Resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment (God is going to set things right in the age to come and the hope that we have of our own resurrection through Jesus’ resurrection).
Verses 4-5 describe the very basics of what happens when we entrust our lives to Christ:
- We are enlightened (we come to recognize the truth about God, the world, and our relationship with the Lord—who we are in Christ).
- We taste the heavenly gift (that is, our new life in Christ with all its new possibilities and new hope).
- We share in the Holy Spirit (how the Lord comes to us both personally and in a community of faith as the Spirit takes up residence within us—assuring us, revealing truth, reminding us of all that Jesus said and did, and leading us to grow to spiritual maturity).
- We taste the goodness of the word of God (knowing the message of Scripture and the grand narrative that we find there of God’s goodness, mercy, and love for us all).
- We taste the age to come (we have a taste now of what will be at the wedding feast of the Lamb, and we look forward to what we are yet to receive- Revelation 19.1-10).
These are the very basics, and the point Hebrews is making here is that he is not going over those basics again.
Hebrews then paints a very difficult picture for us regarding land that gets watered and produces a crop. But what if the land doesn’t produce a crop? What if, instead of a crop, the land produces thorns? The picture here is that the farmer will give up and burn the thorns on the land.
And here’s the difficult bit. The question raised is whether a person who has received Christ with joy, who has made a great start as a Christian, and who has belonged to the community of faith, but then rejects and abandons their faith and goes off in a completely different direction, can that person be restored? In other words, is it possible to restore a person who appears to become a genuine Christian and then loses everything by rejecting the Gospel?
Hebrews says it’s impossible, but the writer doesn’t pursue the matter further.
The apostle Paul agrees with what’s written here and unpacks things further (Romans 5-8).
But here’s the foundational thing to understand to which both Hebrews and Paul would agree. They state that the persons described in verses 4-5, who had received Christ with joy, never made faith in Christ their own. They never grew deep roots in their relationship with Jesus.
That agrees with what Jesus said when He told the parable of the Sower in Mark 4.1-20 (also in Matthew 13 and Luke 8). It’s interesting to note in this parable told by Jesus that two groups receive the word with joy, but then fall away.
Whew. That’s a lot to soak in and this last bit unsettles us and challenges us at the same time. The question that you and I must wrestle with, is what are we doing to pursue maturity in our faith in Christ? Do you have a strong, deeply rooted relationship with Jesus, or are your roots shallow, like a tree that is in danger of being blown over because its roots haven’t gone deep?
God bless you, and know that I am praying for you constantly.
Scott
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