Danger: Don t Fall Away

Transcription

1 Danger: Don t Fall Away Hebrews 6:4-8 One of the unique features of Hebrews is that the author suddenly and frequently interrupts his train of thought in the middle of his theological discourses to issue stern warnings to his audience. The warning we are going to be looking at this morning is particularly perplexing. It is arguably the most controversial passage in Hebrews (and perhaps the entire New Testament), and it has caused considerable distress throughout the history of the church. It has troubled earnest Christians, raising doubts about the assurance of their salvation, an assurance that seems to be so clearly affirmed in other passages of Scripture (Romans 5, Romans 8:29-38; John 6:39-40, 44; 10:28-29). I am going to read the entire passage, then I want to make a few comments about some interpretive issues regarding it, then we will plunge in, try to discern its meaning, and its application for us. Hebrews 6: 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 (ESV). Let me say, first of all, that if this passage causes you to be distressed when you hear it being read, then it is being received as it was intended to be received. There is no doubt that the author wanted to strike fear in the hearts of those in his audience who were drifting from the faith. So if you hear this and think to yourself, This is troubling. This is scary! then your response is as it should be. If, on the other hand, you hear this and think, Well, I m sure it doesn t mean what it sounds like it s saying because it doesn t fit with my theology; or I m not alarmed; I can explain it in a way that softens the meaning and takes the fear out of it, I think you need to be very careful. The author has carefully crafted this warning and uses language in which he is intentionally trying to cause alarm. He wants to produce fear in our minds and hearts. This is a passage to be taken very seriously, and it ought to cause us to examine ourselves and our theology. Second, this warning, far from being an unloving, ungracious statement from a harsh, hell-fire preacher, is actually a gracious, loving admonition from a concerned pastor. He was trying to prevent these people from being irretrievably lost. Years ago, Mindy and I hiked up Half Dome in Yosemite one day, a seventeen mile round-trip hike that was both strenuous and exhilarating. We planned to stop and eat our packed lunch at Vernal Falls, about the half way point on the way up, a breathtakingly beautiful, 327 foot waterfall. As we sat at the top of the falls just before the river cascaded over the cliff, enjoying the beauty, there was a sign just a few feet away from us. It read: Stay Back! If you fall in, you WILL die! Admittedly, that sign was a bit of an eyesore, but I knew why it was posted and never once second-guessed the motives of those who did so. It s not because they were mean. 1

2 It s not because they were trying to ruin people s picnics. It s because they were genuinely trying to prevent people from dying. Third, when we come to a passage like this we ve got to shed our theological biases and try to interpret it as objectively as we possibly can. All of us have theological baggage that we have picked up over the course of our life experiences and church backgrounds and theological training that we carry into our study of Scripture, and try as we may, we have a hard time not imposing those biases on the text, especially in a passage like this one where the stakes are so high. We need to remember that while objectivity is not impossible, it is difficult, so we need to come to a passage like this with an open mind, a teachable spirit, and a willingness to change our minds if it doesn t fit into our theology. Fourth, having said all this, I do want to note that there is just enough ambiguity in the language of this passage to make its precise interpretation difficult, and so we need to be careful about being overly dogmatic about our interpretation. For example, the author describes certain phenomena in verses 4-5 without defining exactly what they mean. And because he doesn t define them exactly we are left to wonder, are these people Christians who irretrievably lost their salvation? Or are they people who were associated with the Christian community, but who never actually came to saving faith in Christ, that is, they never became new creatures? That is the heart of the debate on this passage, and there is enough ambiguity (as we will see when we begin to study the text) to keep the debate alive. And when there is ambiguity I believe the best attitude to have is, don t dig in your heels about your position. Be open to the fact that you could be wrong. And for a passage like this being wrong can be extraordinarily consequential. Because there could be people who are duped into believing that they or their loved ones are saved when they are really not saved, simply because they have a theology that says, Once you are saved you are always saved, and I can prove that Hebrews 6 means this, this, and this This is a warning, and it needs to be taken to heart. Okay, let s look at the text and try to discern what the author means. Before we actually look at each verse, I want you to know that verses 4-6 are one single sentence in the Greek, and so it s important that we distinguish the main clause (which contains the main idea) from the subordinate clauses (which support the main idea). The main clause in verses 4-6 is It is impossible for those to be brought back to repentance. The first part of that clause (what we would call the subject) is found at the beginning of verse 4; the second part of it (what we would call the predicate) is found in verse 6). These two parts are separated by five intervening participle clauses, each of the first four having increasing length and complexity, while the fifth is intentionally abrupt. It is important to note that while the first three verses of chapter 6 are in the first person ( we, us ), this section in verses 4-6 switches to the third person ( those, who ). The change is significant, for the author does not specifically say that his listeners are the ones who have fallen away. We can assume that some of them are in danger, but this warning is intended to prevent them from falling away, and apparently the author believes that his listeners can still avoid doing so. He says, for example, in verse 9, Even though we speak like this, we are confident of better things in your case, things that accompany salvation. In fact, verses 9-12 express the author s confidence that those in his audience do not fit the description just provided. 2

3 Let s look more closely now at verse 4. 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 The author has been admonishing his audience in the previous verses not to lay all over again a foundation of the basic principles of faith. Here, he says, the reason that nothing is to be gained by doing this is because when one falls away from the faith, there is no opportunity to come back. I m going to read that entire main clause again, which starts in verse 4 and ends in verse 6. For it is impossible to restore them again to repentance. The word impossible is a term that clearly means that something cannot happen, and its position as the very first word in the sentence is intended to make this forceful and emphatic. It should not be weakened to mean, it is difficult or it is not fitting as some have tried to do. The author uses this word in three other places in Hebrews, stating that it is impossible for God to lie (6:18), it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (10:24), and it is impossible to please God apart from faith (11:6). In all of these usages the word clearly means that something cannot happen, and we must take it to mean that here in 6:4. We ll look at what this means in more detail later, but first let s find out who the author is referring to. The adjective impossible is modified by five parallel participle clauses that identify the people he has in mind. who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift who have shared in the Holy Spirit who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come who have fallen away Let s look at each of them. Those who have once been enlightened. This verb is in the passive voice they have been enlightened implying that God is the one who has enlightened them. The Bible tells us that by nature we live in darkness, ignorant of the truth, and we need divine enablement to be able to understand it. This expression signifies that these people understood the message of salvation which God Himself revealed to them. They truly comprehended what Christ had done on their behalf. Second, Who have tasted the heavenly gift. The word translated tasted might seem to mean having tried but not fully partaken of, as when you taste something but don t swallow it, and that would conveniently help some of us interpret this passage to mean that these people only sampled the gospel, but didn t fully embrace it. But tasting is a common metaphor for experiencing something fully. Earlier in Hebrews we are told that Jesus tasted death (2:9). Did He only come up to the threshold of death, or did He fully partake of death? If you interpret taste in that context to mean that He didn t fully die, but was only on the verge of death, then it poses a major problem for our theology. Our faith is in vain. What is the heavenly gift? Some scholars have connected tasting the heavenly gift with partaking of the Lord s Supper, but this is unlikely. Remember, the author has been continually alluding to the wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel in his letter, and the figurative rendering of God raining down manna from heaven for the Israelites (Ex. 16:4) is described in the Old Testament as a divine gift. Tasting the heavenly gift, then, 3

4 means that these people actually experienced God s gift, which, in this context, I would interpret to mean the Bread of Life the Lord Jesus Christ. Who have shared in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was active in this congregation, both on personal level and a corporate level, confirming and validating the truth of the gospel. No doubt He distributed his gifts in this congregation according to His will, and empowered members to use these gifts to express the very life of Christ in their midst. And so the description, here, points to, at a minimum, an exposure to if not a reception of the Holy Spirit Himself (O Brien, 222). Whatever the case, they had a close encounter with the Holy Spirit. Verse 5. have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. These two expressions, word of God and works of power went hand in hand in the experience of the New Testament church. Tasting the goodness of the word of God refers to hearing the preached word of the gospel, and points back to the occasion when the listeners received the good news of salvation (O Brien, 223). They didn t just hear it, they embraced it, they accepted it, they received it. Once again, the word tasted means to fully partake of something. The powers of the coming age include signs wonders and miracles that accompanied the initial announcement of the gospel and by which the saving message was verified (O Brien, 223). All four of these phenomena demonstrate an experiential relationship with Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and His church. They are eternally significant things, spiritually profound things, things that require intimate knowledge of and participation in the life of the faith community. These are not descriptions of a mere pew warmer, or a casual, hit-andmiss Sunday morning churchgoer. These are people who are plugged in, people who demonstrate commitment. Now, let s look at verse 6. And then have fallen away... This next description is dramatically and intentionally abrupt. After four lengthy positive statements in which the initial experiences of life in the Christian community have been elaborated, this assertion is short and sharp. It is another participle clause, and it is important how one interprets it. Some have interpreted it as conditional, to be translated, if they fall away but of course this will not happen it cannot happen. On contextual grounds, however, it is much better and more natural to conclude that this is an adjectival participle clause, meaning that it is a further characterization of the group. So it would be translated, as the ESV does, and have fallen away, meaning that it is certainly possible for this to happen. The verb to fall away, in light of the context and particularly the severity of the descriptions that follow, has to refer to the specific sin of apostasy. Apostasy means to turn away from the living God (3:12). Another description of apostasy is in Hebrews 10:26, where it depicts those who willfully and habitually sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth. The author does not explicitly accuse his readers of apostasy. Again, he uses the third person here, presumably because he believes they can still avoid it. But this warning assumes they are in danger of committing this sin. And the seriousness of this sin is chilling. Verse 6. It is impossible for those who have fallen away, who have committed apostasy to be restored again to repentance. 4

5 I want to remind you once again that impossible means that it cannot happen. Here, the author says that those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, and then have fallen away, cannot be restored by repentance to the Lord. The impossibility of God restoring a person to repentance is explained in the two parallel clauses that follow. Since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. These participial clauses are circumstantial, giving the reasons why such a restoration is impossible. One of the major emphases in Hebrews is the once-for-all death of Christ. They are crucifying afresh none other than the Son of God, the One who has now in His exalted state, sitting at the right hand of God. How presumptuous can one be? For this is the very One who willingly shed His blood for their sins, and they knew He did it, yet they are choosing to thumb their nose at Him. In so doing they are showing their contempt for Him, putting themselves in the position of those who had Him crucified (O Brien, 226). The second reason why the restoration of apostates to repentance is impossible is that they are holding Jesus up to contempt, subjecting Him to public disgrace. When Jesus was crucified His adversaries derided Him. Apostates cause the shame of the cross to be reenacted. They not only show contempt for Jesus, they make Him contemptible in the eyes of others, deterring them from coming to faith (O Brien, 227). So, in light of this, here s how I would interpret verse 6. The reason it is impossible to be restored to repentance is not because of something that happens to the apostate, like a hardened heart that makes him/her incapable of repenting. Rather, it is impossible to be restored to repentance because of what the apostate does to Jesus. In other words, this is punishment from God. By not restoring those who commit apostasy God allows their firm decision to stand. He does not force men and women against their obstinate resolve but allows them to terminate the relationship (O Brien, 226). To reinforce this teaching, the author introduces a parable in verses 7-8. Verse 7. 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. God s many gifts to believers, mentioned in verses 4-5, are compared to repeated showers of rain. This soil produces grain, fruit, vegetables, feed for animals all which are suitable for those for whom the land is cultivated. The focus is on God who has showered His refreshing rains on the land and cared for it. Fruitful crops have been produced and the good soil shares in God s blessings. But look at verse 8. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. The half of the parable also portrays soil that has been well watered and nurtured, but by contrast it produces thorns and thistles. The responsibility for these thorns and thistles is not God s, for He watered it just as He did the land that produced good crops. It s the land s fault, and thus persons. Those who commit apostasy, in spite of the many blessings that have been showered on them by God, are like well-watered land that produces thorns and thistles. This land is worthless and near to being cursed. These are very grave expressions and should not be minimized. The word translated worthless means valueless, and came 5

6 to signify rejection. It would seem, therefore, in the context, that it would refer to not standing the test on the Day of Judgment being rejected. The phrase translated near to being cursed is not to be mistaken that this land is subject to being cursed, but there is still hope for it. The word points to something inevitable, and could be translated a curse hangs over it. The final clause, its end is to be burned, is not merely speaking of burning a field of weeds in order to clear it or cleanse it, because the language of this curse and the message of verses 4-6 about the impossibility of being brought back to repentance does not suggest that this is a restorative or a disciplinary process. Rather, this would seem to point to the punishment that awaits those who are condemned by God. The text is speaking of a fiery judgment on those who commit apostasy. So what do we make of all this? Do you see why this passage has troubled so many people? Do you see why there has been so much debate among scholars? In my preparation for this message I read two very highly respected scholarly commentaries, and both authors did a ton of exegetical work with a ton of scholarly research. And they both came up with some very different conclusions. Let me just say that my theology has been challenged like never before in this area of whether or not a person can lose his/her salvation. I m not saying I ve changed my position necessarily; I m saying my position has been severely shaken, as well it should be. And if yours isn t shaken, I m pretty sure you weren t listening. There s a couple of things I can say for sure. One, we d better take this warning to heart, for whatever the author said is inspired by God and 100% true, whether we understand it perfectly or not. And I would much rather error on the side of being cautious than being carefree when it comes to this matter of our assurance. I have dear friends and family members who were once active in the Christian community, who once cherished the Lord Jesus, who once believed in His Word, who were baptized and used their gifts to bless others, who now have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus. And yet, for some of them, at least, in the back of their minds they think that when they prayed a prayer or walked down an aisle or got baptized they got a get-out-of-hell free pass that they can give to Jesus on the day of judgment, and it doesn t matter how they live or what they do on this earth between now and then. The author of Hebrews (along with other New Testament writers) recognizes a form of conversion which, like the seed sown on rocky ground (in the parable of the soils, Mark 4), has all the signs of life, but which does not persevere. One may enjoy something of God s grace at the beginning without the completing grace of perseverance. Presumably this is why, in chapter 3, our author virtually defines true believers as those who hold firmly to the end the confidence they had at first (3:14). (O Brien, 220). And that leads me to the second thing, and I ll close with this. Immediately following this stern warning the author gives a word of encouragement. Look at verses Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 6

7 It is the author s hope that all of us have full assurance of hope until the end. And how do we do that? Don t be sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. In other words. Be faithful to the end. One Sunday morning, after the service, an eleven year-old girl came down the aisle by the steps and waited patiently to talk with me. I had heard her testimony a couple of years earlier, and had had the privilege of baptizing her. She shyly asked me, How do I know if I m really, truly saved? That is a great question! It s a valid question. It s a natural question and ought to be asked. And I want to tell you how I responded to her, which I think is really important and corresponds to Hebrews. Parents, when one of your kids asks you that question please don t say to them, Remember that night when you prayed and asked Jesus you re your heart? Don t worry, that took care of it. Or, Remember when you were baptized? That proves it. I asked her, Do you love Jesus today? Are you obeying Jesus? Does it bother you when you disobey Jesus? To which she replied in the affirmative to all. Then I said, Please come back when you are a teenager and ask me the same question. 7

8 Danger: Don t Fall Away Hebrews 6:4-8 Main Idea: It is impossible for those who were once part of the Christian community, if they fall away, show contempt for Christ, and make him contemptible to others, to be restored to God How to read this warning Let it scare you, as it was intended Remember it was issued by a loving, concerned pastor Shed your theological biases and read it objectively Be careful about being overly dogmatic about your interpretation Diagramming the syntax of 6:4-6 The main clause: For it is impossible to restore them again to repentance Five intervening participle clauses who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift who have shared in the Holy Spirit who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come who have fallen away Keys to interpreting 6:4-6 The meaning of impossible The meaning of fallen away The descriptions in these five clauses The parable in verses 7-8 Critical concerns Can you lose your salvation? Can you be irretrievably lost? 8