Is It Possible To Fall Away? Pt. 2 Hebrews 6:4-8

What this episode covers

The author warns his readers to grab their attention. The audience had yet to mature beyond milk to solid food (Heb 5:11-14). They were stuck still learning the elementary doctrine of Christ (Heb 6:1-3). Pray & Read Hebrews 6:1-8. Three primary interpretations of this passage: 1. Genuine Christians who lose their salvation which would be contrary to Scripture that speaks to the perseverance of the saints (Phil 1:6). 2. This is only a hypothetical description. However, nothing in the text indicates this is hypothetical. 3. These apostates were never genuinely converted (1 Jn 2:19). They never truly possessed what they professed. There is a genuine danger of falling away from the covenant community if our faith is only superficial. Those who experience true repentance will persevere in their pursuit of God’s blessing. 1. The Pretension of Apostasy (4-5) 2. The Realization of Apostasy (6) 3. An Illustration of Apostasy (7-8) The Pretension of Apostasy (4-5) How does apostasy pretend? While these experiences are not fake, they could leave us with a false impression. Someone could experience each of these privileges and still fall away. One can fall away from the covenant community if they belong to it in a superficial way. Someone can make a profession that appears credible from all outward appearances, but fails to be genuine in reality. We spent some time noting how each of these blessings were experienced by the wilderness generation (Neh 9). The Realization of Apostasy (6) “It is impossible…to restore them again to repentance.” When someone falls away from the peak experience of Christianity, there is nothing left to convince them of the truth of the gospel. Restoration becomes impossible when that happens. John Calvin relates this to the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Spirit — which he likens to a total rejection of God and his gifts (Mt 12:31-32). He does not consider this to be a possibility for the elect. Ultimately, we must admit that only God knows where the line is drawn. But this passage suggests that a person can reach the point of no return. The ability to repent has an expiration date. It’s only available for a limited time, and if we don’t respond before the cutoff, we will lose the opportunity forever. How would they crucify Jesus again? How are they holding him up to contempt? An older interpretation of this passage led to some significant doctrinal differences regarding baptism, repentance, and forgiveness. This view associates “restore again” with the cleansing blood of Christ that is applied in baptism. All sins prior to baptism were cleansed, but any sin committed after the sacrament was not covered. Philip Hughes finds this interpretation in the Shepherd of Hermas and Clement of Alexandria. This led to the practice of believers delaying their baptism until they were about to die. Eventually, teaching arose that the blood of martyrdom would also purge all sin. Predictably, that led to many believers seeking martyrdom. All of this becomes the precursor for an elaborate system of penance and purgatory that was so corrupt it troubled Martin Luther, who addressed it in 1517. There are several problems with this interpretation, beginning with the fact that the author of Hebrews is not addressing sin in general, but the particular sin of apostasy. Hughes: Of course, the very possibility of lapsing from all that one’s baptism signifies discountenances any doctrine of automatic regeneration, ex opere operato, through baptism, as though the external rite itself guaranteed the internal reality. Indeed, the whole issue of this passage may be said to revolve around the question whether the internal reality, to which the external rite is designed to testify, is truly present or not. The language of crucifying Jesus again is a graphic reference to rejecting the gospel. Those who do so take the position of Jesus’s accusers — declaring his deat

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