Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us go on [to what belongs] to full growth, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God,
Hebrews 6 opens with a call to move forward. But what does the writer want left behind, when no Christian can abandon the truth of Christ? The answer turns on a translation, on who the first readers were, and on what "maturity" means here.
The older English wording misleads here. It seems to say we may leave "the principles of the doctrine of Christ."
The Authorized Version does not translate verse 1 of this chapter correctly. It should be clear that we must never leave "the principles of the doctrine of Christ." Divine principles and sound doctrine must always remain the vital basis of all Christianity. But the New Translation reads correctly: "So, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us go on to what belongs to full growth."
Read the other way, the verse would ask believers to drop the very things they stand on:
There is not a single fact in that glorious economy from first to last — not a single stone in that glorious structure from foundation to topstone; not a single principle in that magnificent system from beginning to end — that we could afford to leave or do without for a moment. What is the grand foundation of Christianity? The cross.
What we leave, then, is the teaching that belonged to the time before the cross. It was true, but not yet the whole.
What is really meant here is "the word of the beginning of Christ." This is the truth revealed while He was here on earth. The Gospels later record it as His ministry. To limit the soul to this, perfect as it was in its own time, means doing without the blessed use of His redemption and heavenly headship. His cross totally changed the standing of the believer. To ignore this is to stop short of full Christianity, and to remain infants where the Lord would have His own grow up.
The first readers were Jewish, and the old Jewish system is what they had to leave:
What then are we to leave in Hebrews 6:1-2? Simply those elements of truth found in the Jewish system. Whatever lasting value they had appears again in Christianity, but the system itself was to be abandoned forever.
Every item in the list was familiar to a devout Jew before Christ came. Each phrase carries a Jewish sense.
These things were all known before the incarnation of Christ. The faith he speaks of is faith in God, not personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The washings refer to Jewish purifications, not Christian baptism. The laying on of hands refers to the way an Israelite, bringing his offering, identified himself with the animal he offered. Resurrection is of the dead, not "from among the dead", as in Christianity. Martha, in the Gospel story, believed in the resurrection of the dead. She found it hard to believe that one person could be raised from among the dead while others were left in death.
"Dead works" does not mean scandalous sin. The motive is what makes a work dead:
The term "dead works" covers all works which men do with the direct object of getting life. If a man is seeking for life, it is very clear that he has not yet got it… And notice, this is not a question of "wicked works". No one would think of getting life by such works. No. On the contrary, you will find that people keep turning to "dead works" to ease their consciences over "wicked works".
The goal is not sinless conduct but maturity — the adult standing of a Christian, grounded in where Christ now is.
The new standing of the Christian depends on Christ dead, risen, and in heaven. The infinite sacrifice is already offered and accepted. Only on that ground has Christ taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So we cannot go back to what came before the cross for the things that shape a Christian. We, if full-grown, need the corn of the land, now that it is no longer a question of manna raining in the wilderness… "Perfection" means only this: the adult standing of the Christian, compared with infancy before redemption.
So the thing to learn is a Person, not a lesson repeated:
The thing we have to learn is Christ. It is useless to learn the first principles over and over again. If we have learnt that, let us go on to learn Christ. Let us learn Him in all His characters, and in everything we go through.
The added condition in verse 3 is read as pointing forward to the warning that follows.
Faith has in it a maturing energy and will go on to full growth. But there are other conditions in which God will not permit this "going on to perfection." Verses 4 to 8 explain it. There the case is one of mere profession without real faith… In so solemn a case, God will harden the person in judgment, and allow no recovery and therefore no progress.
- Leave, not lose. We drop nothing of Christianity. We leave the teaching that belonged to the time before the cross.
- Foundation. Repentance, faith in God, washings, laying on of hands, resurrection and judgment were all known before Christ came. Laying them again is going backwards.
- Dead works. Not wicked deeds, but anything done to get life — even religious duty used to quiet a guilty conscience.
- Full growth. Maturity is adult standing, and it rests on Christ dead, risen and seated in heaven — the corn of the land, not the manna.
- Go on. The way forward is not repeating first lessons. It is learning Christ Himself — with a sober "if God permit".
of [the] doctrine of washings, and of imposition of hands, and of resurrection of [the] dead, and of eternal judgment;
This verse holds four of the six teachings that Hebrews tells its readers to stop laying down again as a foundation: baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection, judgment. Each one is true and serious — so why the call to move past them?
Read the six items straight through and one name is missing.
"The word of the beginning of Christ" is given to us in short in the six teachings listed here. If these were the Christian "foundation," we would have a Christianity without Christ. The apostle says, "Not laying again a foundation," because he has in view Jews who had accepted the Christian foundation. If they went back to Judaism, they would be laying again what they had given up. But nothing here is distinctly Christian. The question is not whether these things are true or necessary, but whether they are the Christian foundation. Two things come first, which are in fact fundamental: "repentance from dead works and faith in God" — but note that it does not say here, faith in the Lord Jesus.
The ESV says "washings" here; some translations say "baptisms." The word is plural either way, and that plural decides its meaning.
In Hebrews 6:2 the Hebrew believers were urged to leave "the doctrine of baptisms." In Hebrews 9:10 we read of "various baptisms or washings," and these were "imposed until the time of reformation" — a time spoken of as "Christ being come." So the baptisms meant here were part of the Jewish ritual, which had many washings and bathings. But none of these washings fully stood for the baptism of the New Testament, which as an entrance ordinance puts the baptised person in a new position.
Those repeated washings could touch the body, but they could not settle a conscience. The quotation from Hebrews 9:14 below follows an older wording:
They consisted only in "meats and drinks and various baptisms," or purifications — "carnal ordinances." By their very nature such ordinances could not touch the condition of the soul, only the flesh. He contrasts them with what does purify: "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
Commentators differ on which practice is meant. Some tie it to the sacrifices, where a worshipper put his hands on the animal about to die in his place:
The passage in Hebrews 6:2, we hardly need to say, refers by its context to the Old Testament practice of the worshiper laying his hands on the victim. This marked the animal as his substitute, and so identified the worshiper with it (Lev. 1:4, and so on).
Others read it more widely, with a warning about clinging to outward signs:
Take things lower still: "the doctrine of washings and laying on of hands." These had their place, as we know, and many people give them much attention now, as they did then. Yet they are outward things, and they in no way perfect the worshipper's conscience… The laying on of hands was certainly an ancient sign of blessing, and we see it practised in various ways even after the gospel. But those whose hearts live in such signs, and who do not set their mind on things above, show the symptoms of their childish state.
Everything on this list was known before Christ came, and the resurrection named here is the older, plainer form:
These things were all known before Christ came into the world as man… Resurrection is of the dead, not "from among the dead," as in Christianity. Martha, in the Gospel story, believed in the resurrection of the dead. She found it hard to believe the Christian truth that one person could be raised from among the dead while others were left in death.
The last item has a plain meaning, and it reaches past people to angels:
The eternal punishment of the wicked is called "eternal judgment" (Heb. 6:2). The fallen angels are kept for judgment (2 Peter 2:4), and everlasting fire is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).
The word "eternal" runs through the whole letter, always set against what Israel had on earth:
Their privileges were earthly, outward, and for a time only… The Christian's portion even now is very different, and his hope is far brighter. So the Letter to the Hebrews puts the stress on "eternal" or "everlasting." Such is the salvation (Heb. 5:9), the judgment (Heb. 6:2), the redemption (Heb. 9:12), the Spirit (Heb. 9:14), and the inheritance (Heb. 9:15), while the blood is the blood of an "everlasting" covenant (Heb. 13:20).
This is not a ladder of Christian experience with beginners on the lower rungs.
It is not a question of moving from one class in the school of Christ to another. It is a question of leaving the school of Moses to enter the school of Christ fully, from the heart, and with understanding… We could not give up a single atom of Christianity without giving up Christ Himself, for He is the foundation, the source, the center, the spring of it all.
- Absence. Six weighty truths, and Christ's name in none of them — such a foundation would be "a Christianity without Christ."
- Shadow. The plural word points to Jewish washings — rules that reached the flesh and never cleansed a conscience.
- Dispute. Commentators differ on the laying on of hands — a worshipper identifying with his sacrifice, or an ancient sign of blessing — but either way it stays outward.
- Half-light. Even the future truths are the older, dimmer form: resurrection of the dead, not the raising of some from among the dead while others stay in death.
- Forward. Leaving these is not moving up a grade in Christ's school; it is leaving Moses' school altogether for the One who is Himself the foundation.
and this will we do if God permit.
The writer has just urged his readers to leave the beginner's lessons behind and press on to full growth. Now he adds his own resolve to theirs, with a condition attached. What is the "this" he means to do? And why would God ever not permit it?
The "this" points back to the goal just named: going on to full growth. That growth is not about a spotless life, but about how much of Christ a believer knows:
The apostle is speaking here about things that all belong to the first principles of there being a Christ. A Pharisee held them, though he was not a believer at all. He believed there would be a resurrection of the dead, and so on. The great mass of Christians stop here. But the apostle says it is useless to rest here; he would have them go on to perfection. What he calls "perfection" is not about practice or conduct, except, of course, as truth makes us holy. It was going on to a full revelation of what was in Christ. It refers entirely to doctrine.
Commentators also put the same contrast in terms of age:
"Infancy" was the condition of souls under the law. "Full growth" connects the soul with a glorified Christ, and with the relationships the believer has with Him. This is according to the complete revelation of the will of God.
Everything that makes a Christian a Christian rests on what happened at the cross and after it:
The new standing of the Christian depends on Christ dead, risen, and in heaven. The infinite sacrifice has already been offered and accepted. Only on that basis has Christ taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So we cannot go back to what came before the cross to find what forms and shapes the Christian.
These readers were not stalled by doubt but by affection for the religion they grew up in:
The Apostle goes on to show what hinders spiritual growth. The wisdom and philosophy of man hindered the saints at Corinth. Clinging to their traditional religion hindered these Hebrew believers. One has truly said, "Nothing hinders progress in spiritual life and understanding more than attachment to an ancient form of religion. Such a religion is traditional, not simply personal faith in the truth. It always consists in ordinances, and is therefore fleshly and earthly."
The same pull works on readers today, with no old religion in view:
In our case we have no national position to maintain. But we naturally love and cling to many things, and the light of full and proper Christianity displaces them. There is very real danger that we may close our eyes against that light to keep the things we love.
Commentators differ on where the weight of this condition falls. One reading ties it to responsibility. Deeper knowledge brings graver danger, so God may hold it back.
But you see he says he will do this "if God permits." Now this is not a mere pious sentiment. Coming to know the Son of God as High Priest of the coming good things carries grave responsibilities. It also puts the one who has it in serious danger. So God, who knows our hearts, may not "permit" everyone who stands on the foundation of the first principles of Christ to reach that knowledge.
Another reading ties the condition to the solemn warning that follows:
Faith has a maturing energy in it and will go on to full growth. But there are other conditions in which God will not permit this "going on to perfection." Verses 4 to 8 explain this. There the case is plainly one of mere profession without actual faith. Such a person deliberately abandons that profession, defying every clearly witnessed truth he had once outwardly embraced. In so solemn a case, God will judicially harden, and allow no recovery and therefore no progress.
Both readings agree on one thing. The resolve stands under God's permission, not under our will.
- Leave. We leave behind not the foundation but the habit of resting on it. Even a Pharisee could hold those first lessons without faith.
- Grow. "Perfection" here means full growth in the knowledge of a glorified Christ. It does not mean a sinless life.
- Why. A believer's standing rests on Christ dead, risen and in heaven. So nothing from before the cross can shape Christian life.
- Beware. Love for the old and familiar stalls growth. For them it was a traditional religion. For us it is whatever we refuse to let the light displace.
- Depend. The resolve is real, but it ends with "if God permits." Growth is God's to give, and He may hold it back.