The writer pointed out the consequences of not pressing on to maturity to motivate his readers to pursue spiritual growth diligently.
Christians have interpreted this passage in many different ways. Some believe that those who fall away (v. 6) are believers who lose their salvation.171Others hold that those who fall away are people who have professed to be believers but really are not.172Still others take the whole situation as hypothetical. They believe that if a Christian could lose his salvation, which he cannot, it would be impossible for him to be saved again.173Another view is that only Hebrew Christians living before the destruction of the temple could commit this sin, whatever it is. The view that I believe harmonizes best with the writer's emphasis is that those who fall away are believers who turn away from God's truth and embrace error (i.e., apostates).174The vast majority of scholars view these people as genuine believers.175
"The transition from the first person (vv. 1-3) to the third person suggests that the author does not wish explicitly to identify the people described with the readers of the epistle. This may be partly out of tact; it is certainly (cf. v. 9) in part because he believes that his readers can still avoid apostasy."176
6:4 The writer could describe Christians fairly as those who were once "enlightened"(cf. 10:32; 2 Cor. 4:3-6). The "heavenly gift"of which they have "tasted"(cf. 2:9) at conversion seems to refer to salvation (cf. John 4:10; Rom. 6:23; James 1:17-18). Any attempt to interpret tasting as only partial appropriation (i.e., the idea that they tasted it but did not swallow it) is not credible.177
"This is not to explain Scripture, [but] to explain it away in favour of some preconceived doctrine."178
Elsewhere the same Greek word refers to complete appropriation (e.g., Jesus Christ tasted death for everyone, 2:9; cf. 1 Pet. 2:1-3; Ps. 34:8). Christians become "partakers"(cf. 1:9, "companions"; and 3:1, 14, "partakers") of the Holy Spirit through Spirit baptism.
6:5 Every true Christian has tasted the Word of God and found it to be good to some extent. The original readers had also tasted the powers (lit. miracles) of the coming messianic age. They had observed the apostles perform miracles (cf. 2:4). The five events listed in verses 4 and 5 view salvation from different aspects and manifestations; they do not present a succession of salvific events.179
"Together, the clauses describe vividly the reality of the experience of personal salvation enjoyed by the Christians addressed."180
"The warnings are clearly not addressed to nominal Christians, but to those who have shared, as fully as it is possible to share in the present time, in the blessings which accompany and follow entry into the Christian life (6:4f.)."181
6:6 Earlier in this letter the writer warned his Christian readers about drifting away from the truth through negligence (2:1-4). He also warned them about failing to keep trusting God and walking by faith (3:7-19). Now he referred to the same apostasy as "falling away."
"The aorist tense indicates a decisive moment of commitment to apostasy. In the LXX, the term parapipteinhas reference to the expression of a total attitude reflecting deliberate and calculated renunciation of God (Ezek 20:27; 22:4; Wis 6:9; 12:2; cf. Michaelis, TDNT6:171 . . .).182In Hebrews it is equivalent to the expression apostenai apo theou zontos, to fall away from the living God,' in 3:12. Apostasy entailed a decisive rejection of God's gifts, similar to the rejection of the divine promise by the Exodus generation at Kadesh (3:7-4:2 . . .). . . . What is visualized by the expressions in v 6 is every form of departure from faith in the crucified Son of God. This could entail a return to Jewish convictions and practices as well as the public denial of faith in Christ under pressure from a magistrate or a hostile crowd, simply for personal advantage (cf. Mark 8:34-38 . . ."183
Falling away from the truth is no hypothetical possibility but a tragic reality in too many cases among believers (cf. Num. 14:27-32; Gen. 25:29-34; Heb. 3:7-19; 10:23-25, 35-39).184Christians departed from the faith in the first century (e.g., 2 Tim. 2:17-18) and they do so today (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1).
"The author repeatedly urges his readers to maintain their Christian profession and confidence (cf. 3:6, 12-15; 6:11, 12; 10:23-25). The man who falls away is evidently the one who casts that confidence, and its attendant reward, aside (10:25)."185
To what is it impossible for an apostate to be renewed? The writer said it is repentance, not forgiveness or salvation. Immediately the question arises whether this explanation is realistic since some believers who have departed from the truth have repented and returned to the fold of the faithful. I believe the writer meant that in the case of apostates, the really hard cases who are persistently hostile to Christ, it is impossible to restore such people to repentance (cf. vv. 1, 3, 7-8).186This inability to repent is the result of sin's hardening effect about which the writer had sounded a warning earlier (3:13). It is also the result of divine judgment (cf. Pharaoh, Exod. 9:12; 10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17).
"God has pledged Himself to pardon all who truly repent, but Scripture and experience alike suggest that it is possible for human beings to arrive at a state of heart and life where they can no longer repent."187
Even God cannot renew these apostates to repentance because He has chosen not to do so.
". . . the author does recognize the possibility that one may have regressed so far that it is impossible to again make progress toward maturity. He therefore states in verses 4-6 that it may be impossible to renew certain believers so that they can progress toward maturity."188
Would it not glorify God more for apostates to repent? Evidently by making it impossible for them to repent God will bring greater glory to Himself than if they did repent. Consider the glory that came to God because the Pharaoh of the Exodus did not repent.
God allows this hard condition because by their repudiating Jesus Christ these apostates dishonor Him. The writer spoke of this dishonor as taking the side of Jesus' enemies who crucified Him and publicly humiliated Him. The apostates in view crucify Him in the sense of passing judgment against Him again, by repudiating Him and His work, as those who literally crucified Jesus did. Evidently these "hard cases"are not those who turn away from just any aspect of God's will but specifically the doctrine of Jesus Christ.
". . . once Christ and his sacrifice have been rejected, there is nowhere else to turn. . . . The impossibility' of a second repentance is thus not psychological or more generally related to the human condition; it is in the strict sense theological, related to God's saving action in Christ."189
"Just as the Hebrew spies who returned from their expedition carrying visible tokens of the good land of Canaan nevertheless failed to enter the land because of their unbelief, so those who had come to know the blessings of the new covenant might nevertheless in a spiritual sense turn back in heart to Egypt and so forfeit the saints' everlasting rest."190
Two examples of these "hard cases"may be Hymenaeus and Alexander. Paul said he had turned them over to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme because they had apostatized (1 Tim. 1:18-20).
6:7 "A double illustration forms a transition between the negative and positive realities described in vv. 4-6 and vv. 9-12:
In the illustration in this verse the ground represents believers who drink in the water of God's Word and bear fruit as a result. This kind of response leads to God bestowing a blessing on those individuals who by their fruit-bearing have been a blessing to others (cf. Matt. 13:23).
6:8 If no good fruit results, however, only dangerous and destructive thorns, God will bring judgment on this ground rather than blessing it (cf. John 15:2, 6).
"Worthless"literally means disapproved (Gr. adokimos). It does not mean totally rejected but failing to gain God's blessing (cf. 1 Cor. 9:27). It is "in danger of being cursed"but is not cursed as unbelievers are. "Burned"does not mean burned in hell (cf. 1 Cor. 3:13-15). In ancient times as well as today farmers often burned their fields to removed unwanted vegetation, not to destroy the field itself. This is evidently a judgment on a believer that God allows because of his or her apostasy (cf. Isa. 9:18-19; 10:17; John 15:6; Heb. 10:17). The judgment might result in premature death in some cases (cf. 1 John 5:16-17). However the text does not warrant concluding that this fate will befall every apostate. Some "fields"once burned turn out to be more productive in the future, and that might be what God's judgment would lead to in the case of some apostates (cf. 1 Tim. 1:19-20). The purpose of the burning (chastening) is restoration to fruitfulness (cf. 13:1-9, 18-23).
The history of the interpretation I have offered in this passage, and in Hebrews generally, is as follows. Robert Govett was one of the earliest modern authors who wrote on the theme of the Christian's rewards.192He was also a leading figure in the school of thought that took the warnings of Hebrews as being addressed to Christians who were eternally saved and secure. However some in this school also believed that unfaithful Christians would miss the Millennium and spend 1, 000 years in a kind of "purgatory."Those in this school include G. H. Lang,193R. E. Neighbor,194and probably Philip Mauro.195
Among the standard commentators B. F. Westcott, James Moffatt, and I. Howard Marshall, as well as most others, took the view that the writer addressed true Christians in the warning passages. These three men took what we would call an Arminian stance believing true Christians can lose their salvation, but they believed the writer addressed Christians in these passages.
Students sometimes assume that the view that the writer addressed only false professors (i.e., not genuine Christians) is the majority view, but it is not. It is, however, the most popular Calvinistic interpretation.
Another modern writer who takes this passage as I do is R. T. Kendall.196He also discussed briefly the history of this interpretation in the church fathers.197Hodges also holds this view198as do Oberholtzer,199Dillow,200Gleason,201and others.
