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.
For it is impossible to renew again to repentance those once enlightened, and who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of [the] Holy Spirit,
Few verses have frightened sincere believers more than this one. How far can a person go with Christianity — light, taste, shared blessing — and still not belong to Christ?
This letter went to Jews who had taken up Christianity. The danger in front of them was going back to the religion they came from.
Every Jew who had embraced Christianity had found an entrance into a most privileged circle. He became a partaker of many striking benefits, whether or not he was really converted underneath. Under the stress of persecution and trouble, some might wish to shake off allegiance to Christ and return to their Judaism. In these verses the Spirit of God warns such people of the consequences.
Light shining on a person is not the same as that person receiving it.
But you say, were they not "once enlightened," what does that mean? Surely that must mean converted. Not at all. In John 1:9, it is said of the Lord Jesus, "The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world." Is every man therefore converted? Not so; but everyone born into the world is brought into the place where the light is shining... Being enlightened is the light coming to a man — the good news of the gospel. It does not mean he receives it, or that it converts him.
A taste can be real feeling and still not be new life.
Many have tasted the new, heavenly things set out in the glorious gospel of God, and yet have never passed from death to life. They have never been broken down before God about their sins. They have never received Christ into their hearts. Tasting the heavenly gift and passing, by new birth, into the heavenly kingdom are two completely different things.
Writers describe the emotion involved without granting it more than it is:
They may have been moved and touched after a shallow sort. How many a one has come into a gospel preaching, heard of Christ, been deeply impressed for the moment, thought it a wonderful thing, meant to be a Christian; and gone away unsaved, for there has been no work in his conscience.
The word translated "partakers" here (ESV: "have shared in") is the weaker of two words for partnership.
In Luke 5:7 a different word is translated "partners." It describes only sharing the privilege of fishing in the lake, since the fishermen were in separate boats. But in verse 10 of the same chapter our word describes partners in a closer relationship... Hebrews 6:4 uses the word of verse 7, translated there "partakers of the Holy Spirit." It describes people who shared the outward privileges of Christianity and yet were not in the intimate circle described as "in Christ."
Read the list again and notice what is missing. It never mentions life.
Many true believers, troubled by fears, have applied Hebrews 6:4-6 to themselves. Perhaps no other part of the Word shows how much one may have and yet not have life. They tasted, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit — but not of life... I doubt this Scripture ever troubled a mere professor. The dread of having fallen away is more a mark of having life.
The writer's own next words settle the point:
Right after describing these people, the apostle turns to the ones he is writing to: "Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things — things that belong to salvation." That is the clearest assurance that he had no thought of anyone who had known salvation suffering the doom of an apostate.
The reason lies in what these people had already received.
The nation had crucified the Lord. But they were guilty of that when they had only the doctrine of the beginning of Christ. Now they have received all that Christianity has brought. If they reject that, then they have crucified Him personally — the very thing they were guilty of as a nation. And there remains no other gospel for them.
The warning does not touch the believer who has sinned, or the soul still searching.
It is not a child of God falling into sin and getting at a distance from God. Such a one will most surely be brought back and restored... It is not an anxious soul earnestly seeking the way of life and peace. It is not the case of a poor soul who is ignorant and out of the way. To none of these does the "impossible" of Hebrews 6:4 apply. There is one case that comes terribly near it: someone who has gone on sinning against light, refusing to act on the plain Word of God, knowingly and deliberately resisting the truth because of what acting on it would cost.
- Privilege — Light, taste, and shared blessing are real. Each one describes what a person stands near, not what he is.
- Profession — What a person drops here is a profession, not a life. The list never mentions life at all.
- Deliberate — This is not weakness or backsliding. It is open-eyed rejection after full knowledge, and it leaves no other gospel to offer.
- Impossible — The word marks a person who has used up every means God gives. No other gospel is left for him.
- Assurance — If this verse frightens you, that dread is a mark of life. The very next words speak of "better things — things that belong to salvation."
and have tasted the good word of God, and [the] works of power of [the] age to come,
Hebrews 6:5 sits inside one of the most searching warnings in the Bible. It lists the last two of five privileges a person can share and still not be saved. It raises two questions. What does it mean to taste God's word instead of eating it? And why are miracles called the powers of an age still to come?
The first phrase points to the message these people had heard.
"And have tasted the good word of God." That is the word of the gospel of His grace. It had been presented to them, and they had the chance to taste it. Then there are "the powers of the world to come" (the coming age) — that is, the miracles.
Part of what made the word taste good to them was the contrast with what they had known before.
Whoever bowed to the gospel tasted God's word as good. They welcomed it with joy, and its flavour was completely different from that of the law, which was a ministry of death and condemnation.
One writer notices a word the passage never uses.
Hebrews 6:4-6 shows how far a person may go who only professes faith. It is interesting that the passage speaks twice of tasting, but never of eating. This is very suggestive.
Tasting can also be followed by refusal.
They had "tasted" — but a person may taste and, in the end, refuse.
The "powers" were not abstract. Those addressed had watched them happen.
They had tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come. A word healed many and raised some from the dead. Peter said to the lame beggar, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." To the dead woman Tabitha he said, "Arise." But it was all God's word, and everyone who professed the faith saw it and enjoyed it.
These powers take their name from a time still ahead. Older translations say "the world to come" where the ESV says "the age to come".
What the Lord was doing here below was giving a sample of what will mark the world to come. The powers He used, and which others used later through His name, were "the powers of the world [or age] to come," as Hebrews 6:5 calls them. His curing of diseases and casting out of demons was a partial display of what will be open and worldwide in that day.
The miracles therefore announced a coming reversal of everything sin has done to the earth.
"The powers of the age to come" are miracles, the mighty works by which the consequences of sin and the destructive power of Satan will be banished from the earth in the millennial reign — the thousand-year age still to come.
The whole list can be true of someone and still leave the question of salvation untouched.
This passage does not assume that these people have life, and it does not touch that question. It speaks not of life, but of the Holy Spirit as a power present in Christianity. To "taste the good word" is to have understood how precious that word is. It is not to have been made alive by it... so all these things could be there and yet no salvation. There could be no fruit; fruit assumes life.
That difference settles what these verses describe.
So Hebrews 6:4-6 shows us a profession that might be renounced, not a life that can be lost. The enjoyment of privilege, and the possession of a gift, is different from eternal life.
Many believers have read these verses against themselves. One writer answers that fear directly.
I doubt whether this Scripture (Hebrews 6) ever troubled someone who merely professes faith. The dread of having fallen away is instead a mark of having life. The more outward privilege a lifeless professing person had, the further he would be from feeling such dread.
Some of these privileges belonged to that first period; others continue. But the seriousness of turning away does not lessen.
His word shows more than law or promise. It shows what has been accomplished in Christ, and such a word is truly "good". All who are baptised can at least taste that it is good, even if the powers of the coming age are no longer here... But to give up all this, after once profiting from its wonderful excellence in the name of the glorified Jesus, is fatal. What more can grace do or give to work on souls?
- Taste — They put God's word to their lips and called it good. The passage says taste twice and never says eat.
- Taste, not life — All of this can be true of a person who is still not saved. Someone can taste how precious the word is and still never receive life from it.
- Powers — The readers had watched the miracles for themselves. A word healed the sick and raised the dead.
- Powers of an age — They were samples of the coming age. In it God will defeat Satan and undo the damage of sin, out in the open, over the whole earth.
- Fruit — Tasting can never produce fruit, because fruit needs life. These verses show a profession that can be dropped, not a life that can be lost. The fear they stir is itself a sign of life.
and have fallen away, crucifying for themselves [as they do] the Son of God, and making a show of [him].
This verse explains the "impossible" of the verse before it. People who have known all that Christianity offers, and then walk away, treat Christ as those who crucified Him did. Two sharp questions follow. Who exactly does this describe, and can a real believer end up here?
The people in view are not weak believers who have drifted. Commentators mark off two very different things: a believer slipping back, and someone giving up a profession of Christ for good.
The "falling away" the Apostle speaks of is not the backsliding of a true believer. It is the apostasy of someone who only professed to believe.
The description narrows further. It rules out the merely religious and the believer who has grown cold.
These are not simply people who knew little, joined some denomination, and then lost interest in it. Nor are they true believers who have grown careless and have "left their first love," who need to recover the joy of their salvation. But they are people who once enjoyed all the outward blessings of a Christianity that was then pure, fresh and vigorous. They knew its precious truths. Then they coldly and deliberately refused it.
Older versions read "if they shall fall," which sounds like a case that might never happen. A closer translation drops the "if."
In Hebrews 6:6, the Authorised Version's "If they shall fall" returns to its true and literal force: "and have fallen." It described a fact.
The commentators here quote an older wording of the verse: to "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." For a Hebrew reader that danger was not abstract. Returning to the synagogue had a price at the door.
Suppose a Hebrew gave up his Christian profession and wanted the synagogue and his own people to take him back. What would happen? He would find that as the price of re-admission he would have to call down a curse upon Jesus as an impostor. He would have in effect to crucify to himself "the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame."
The nation had already crucified Christ, but in ignorance. The difference here is knowledge.
But there is this further point in the case supposed. By turning back again from these heavenly things, "they had crucified the Son of God afresh," and so could not be renewed to repentance. The nation had indeed crucified Christ, but they did not know what they were doing. This could not be said of those of whom the apostle is speaking. This was not ignorance, but will.
That ignorance had been a shelter. Deliberate rejection removes it.
In the Israelite cities of refuge, someone who had killed another without meaning to murder could escape the avenger of blood. Christ Himself was the true City of Refuge for those who had shared in the nation's common guilt in His death. For them He pleaded at the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." But those who now went back with open eyes among His rejecters could no longer plead this. They were crucifying for themselves the Son of God afresh, and there was no city of refuge to open its doors to such.
The answer turns on where repentance comes from in the first place.
Why does he speak of it being impossible to renew them again to repentance? Because repentance is always produced in the soul by the Word of God, and is the effect of the received testimony of the Spirit of God. God had no further witness to give. When God sent His Son into this world, what did man do? He spat upon Him and killed Him. What did God do? Did He draw the sword of judgment? No. He took Him up to heaven, and from heaven sent the Holy Spirit to say to man, "You would not have My Son as an earthly Christ, now will you have Him as a heavenly Christ?"
Many genuine Christians have read these words and feared for themselves. Two things answer that fear. The first is what the passage threatens.
So Hebrews 6:4-6 shows us a profession of faith that could be given up, not a life that can be lost. Enjoying privilege and having a gift is not the same as eternal life.
The second turns the anxiety itself into evidence.
I doubt if this Scripture (Hebrews 6) ever troubled someone who merely professed faith. The dread of having fallen away is instead a mark of having life. The more outward privilege a lifeless professing person had, the further he would be from feeling such a dread.
- Privilege — A person can enjoy everything listed in verses 4-5 and still have no life. Light, taste and gift are not the same as eternal life.
- Departure — The sin is not slipping into sin. It is giving Christ up altogether; commentators call that apostasy, not backsliding.
- Deliberate — The nation crucified Christ in ignorance, and He pleaded for their forgiveness. These act with full light and by choice, and lose that plea.
- Depleted — God has given His whole testimony. He sent His Son; man killed Him; He took Him to heaven and sent the Spirit; man refused that witness too. Nothing further remains.
- Assurance — What can be given up here is a profession, not a life. The very fear this verse stirs in a believer is itself a mark of life.