Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 6:4

For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

4 8. The awfulness of apostasy

4. For ] An inference from the previous clauses. We must advance, for in the Christian course stationariness means retrogression non progredi est regredi.

For it is impossible for those ] We shall see further on the meaning of the word “impossible.” The sentence begins with what is called the accusative of the subject, “For as to those who were, &c., it is impossible, &c.” We will first explain the particular expressions in these verses, and then point out the meaning of the paragraph as a whole.

once ] The word, a favourite one with the writer, means “ once for all.” It occurs more often in this Epistle than in all the rest of the N.T. It is the direct opposite of in Heb 6:6.

enlightened ] illuminated by the Holy Spirit, Joh 1:9. Comp. Heb 10:26; Heb 10:32; 2Co 4:4. In the LXX. “to illuminate” means “to teach” (2Ki 12:2). The word in later times came to mean “to baptise,” and “enlightenment,” even as early as the time of Justin Martyr (a.d. 150), becomes a technical term for “baptism,” regarded from the point of view of its results. The Syriac Version here renders it by “baptised.” Hence arose the notion of some of the sterner schismatics such as the Montanists and Novatians that absolution was to be refused to all such as fell after baptism into apostasy or flagrant sin (Tertull. De Pudic. 20). This doctrine was certainly not held by St Paul (1Co 5:5; 1Ti 1:20), and is rejected by the Church of England in her xvith Article (and see Pearson, On the Creed, Art. x.). The Fathers deduced from this passage the unlawfulness of administering Baptism a second time; a perfectly right rule, but one which rests upon other grounds, and not upon this passage. But neither in Scripture nor in the teaching of the Church is the slightest sanction given to the views of the fanatics who assert that “after they have received the Holy Ghost they can no more sin as long as they live here.” It will be remembered that Cromwell on his deathbed asked his chaplain as to the doctrine of Final Perseverance, and on being assured that it was a certain truth, said, “Then I am happy, for I am sure that I was once in a state of grace.”

and nave tasted of the heavenly gift ] These clauses may be rendered “having both tasted of and being made and having tasted.” It is not possible to determine which heavenly gift is precisely intended; perhaps it means remission, or regeneration, or salvation, which St Paul calls “God’s unspeakable gift” (2Co 9:15); or, generally, “the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Act 10:44-46). Calvin vainly attempts to make the clause refer only to “those who had but as it were tasted with their outward lips the grace of God, and been irradiated with some sparks of His Light.” It is clear from 1Pe 2:3 that such a view is not tenable.

partakers of the Holy Ghost ] The Holy Spirit worked in many diversities of operations (1Co 12:8-10).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For it is impossible – It is needless to say that the passage here Heb 6:4-6, has given occasion to much controversy, and that the opinions of commentators and of the Christian world are yet greatly divided in regard to its meaning. On the one hand, it is held that the passage is not intended to describe those who are true Christians, but only those who have been awakened and enlightened, and who then fall back; and on the other it is maintained that it refers to those who are true Christians, and who then apostatize. The contending parties have been Calvinists and Arminians; each party, in general, interpreting it according to the views which are held on the question about falling from grace. I shall endeavor, as well as I may be able, to state the true meaning of the passage by an examination of the words and phrases in detail, observing here, in general, that it seems to me that it refers to true Christians; that the object is to keep them from apostasy, and that it teaches that if they should apostatize, it would be impossible to renew them again or to save them. That it refers to true Christians will be apparent from these considerations.

(1) Such is the sense which would strike the great mass of readers. Unless there were some theory to defend, the great body of readers of the New Testament would consider the expression used here as describing true Christians.

(2) The connection demands such an interpretation. The apostle was addressing Christians. He was endeavoring to keep them from apostasy. The object was not to keep those who were awakened and enlightened from apostasy, but it was to preserve those who were already in the Church of Christ, from going back to perdition. The kind of exhortation appropriate to those who were awakened and convicted, but who were not truly converted, would be to become converted; not to warn them of the danger of falling away. Besides, the apostle would not have said of such persons that they could not be converted and saved. But of sincere Christians it might be said with the utmost propriety, that they could not be renewed again and be saved if they should fall away – because they rejected the only plan of salvation after they had tried it, and renounced the only scheme of redemption after they had tasted its benefits. If that plan could not save them, what could? If they neglected that, by what other means could they be brought to God?

(3) This interpretation accords, as I suppose, with the exact meaning of the phrases which the apostle uses. An examination of those phrases will show that he refers to those who are sincere believers. The phrase it is impossible obviously and properly denotes absolute impossibility. It has been contended, by Storr and others, that it denotes only great difficulty. But the meaning which would at first strike all readers would be that the thing could not be done; that it was not merely very difficult, but absolutely impracticable. The word – adunaton – occurs only in the New Testament in the following places, in all which it denotes that the thing could not be done; Mat 19:26; Mar 10:27, With men this is impossible; that is, men could not save one who was rich, implying that the thing was wholly beyond human power. Luk 18:27, the things which are impossible with men are possible with God – referring to the same case; Act 14:8, A man of Lystra, impotent in his feet; that is, who was wholly unable to walk; Rom 8:3, For what the law could not do; what was absolutely impossible for the Law to accomplish; that is, to save people; Heb 6:18, In which it was impossible for God to lie; Heb 10:4, It is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sin; and Heb 11:6, Without faith it is impossible to please God; in all of these instances denoting absolute impossibility.

These passages show that it is not merely a great difficulty to which the apostle refers, but that he meant to say that the thing was wholly impracticable; that it could not be done. And if this be the meaning, then it proves that if those referred to should fall away, they could never be renewed. Their case was hopeless, and they must perish: that is, if a true Christian should apostatize, or fall from grace, he never could be renewed again, and could not be saved. Paul did not teach that he might fall away and be renewed again as often as he pleased. He had other views of the grace of God than this; and he meant to teach, that if a man should once cast off true religion, his case was hopeless, and he must perish; and by this solemn consideration – the only one that would be effectual in such a case – he meant to guard them against the danger of apostasy.

For those who were once enlightened – The phrase to be enlightened is one that is often used in the Scriptures, and may be applied either to one whose understanding has been enlightened to discern his duty, though he is not converted (compare the note on Joh 1:9); or more commonly to one who is truly converted; see the note on Eph 1:18. It does not of necessity refer to true Christians, though it cannot be denied that it more obviously suggests the idea that the heart is truly changed, and that it is more commonly used in that sense; compare Psa 19:8. Light, in the Scriptures, is the emblem of knowledge, holiness, and happiness, and there is no impropriety here in understanding it in accordance with the more decisive phrases which follow, as referring to true Christians.

And have tasted – To taste of a thing means, according to the usage in the Scriptures, to experience, or to understand it. The expression is derived from the fact that the taste is one of the means by which we ascertain the nature or quality of an object; compare Mat 16:28; Joh 8:51; Heb 2:9. The proper idea here is, that they had experienced the heavenly gift, or had learned its nature.

The heavenly gift – The gift from heaven, or which pertains to heaven; compare the note on Joh 4:10. The expression properly means some favor or gift which has descended from heaven, and may refer to any of the benefits which God has conferred on man in the work of redemption. It might include the plan of salvation; the forgiveness of sins; the enlightening, renewing, and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, or any one of the graces which that Spirit imparts. The use of the article, however – the heavenly gift, limits it to something special, as being conferred directly from heaven, and the connection would seem to demand that we understand it of some special favor which could be conferred only on the children of God. It is an expression which may be applied to sincere Christians; it is at least doubtful whether it can with propriety be applied to any other.

And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost – Partakers of the influences of the Holy Spirit – for it is only in this sense that we can partake of the Holy Spirit. We partake of food when we share it with others; we partake of pleasure when we enjoy it with others; we partake of spoils in war when they are divided between us and others. So we partake of the influences of the Holy Spirit when we share these influences conferred on his people. This is not language which can properly be applied to anyone but a true Christian; and though it is true that an unpardoned sinner may be enlightened and awakened by the Holy Spirit, yet the language used here is not such as would be likely to be employed to describe his state. It is too clearly expressive of those influences which renew and sanctify the soul. It is as elevated language as can be used to describe the joy of the Christian, and is undoubtedly used in that sense here. If it is not, it would be difficult to find any language which would properly express the condition of a renewed heart. Grotius, Bloomfield, and some others, understood this of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. But this is not necessary, and does not accord well with the general description here, which evidently pertains to the mass of those whom the apostle addressed.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Heb 6:4-6

The powers of the world to come

The powers of the world to come

That is to say, belonging to, and operating from, that world which, as to us, is to come, though now existing.

And by powers, we easily understand forces, energies, agencies, influences, virtues, and these in action upon their proper subjects. Now, we are subjects to be acted upon. Our nature has almost its whole exercise, we might almost say the verification of its existence–in being acted upon, by influences and impressions, from things extraneous to it. The powers of the world to come. There is one pure, salutary, beneficent order of influences, tending to work the absolute, supreme, eternal good of our nature. But it confounds the mind to reflect what proportion this class of influences bears to others, in the actual operation on mankind. This world, too, has powers, which it exerts, we do not say in rivalry with the powers of the other, but with a fearful preponderance of efficacy. ]s it not as evident to our view as the very face and colour of the- earth, that incomparably a greater proportion of human spirit and character is conformed to this world than to the other? That world to come comprehends the sum, the perfection of everything, the sublimest, the best, the happiest. But what is it all to me? I feel no congeniality nor attraction. But is not this a lamentable and fearful state for the soul to be in? But what is to be done? What but to implore that the powers of the world to come may be brought upon us with irresistible force? and that we should make earnest efforts, if we may express it so, to place ourselves exposed to them? This is to be done in the way of directing the serious attention of the mind to that world. Let us fairly make the trial–what agency,, what influences, that world can convey upon us. The proof of its influential power has been displayed on very many, in effects the mesh salutary and noble. One of these effects is, that it causes the unseen to predominate in our minds over what is seen; the future over the present; add these are great and admirable effects. From that world come the influences to fix and keep us in one great sovereign purpose of life, and that a purpose high above all the mere interests of this world. From that world comes the enlightening and active principle which at once exposes the nature of sin, and renders and keeps it odious to the soul. From that world comes the supporting, animating power for endurance of the ills of life, and for overcoming the tear of death. They are powers of influence which all the best beings conspire to send. For even the d, parted saints are placed, as it were, in combination with God, the Mediator, and the angels, in sending a beneficent influence on us below–by their memory–by their examples–by their being displayed to our faith as in a blissful state above–and(we may believe,) by their kind regard and wishes for those below. And good and wise men have thought it not irrational to suppose that they may sometimes even be employed in real, actual ministries here on earth. These powers of the other world we are regarding chiefly under the character of influences, proceeding at the will of God, and conceived as exclusive of personal agency. But far oftener than we suspect there may be the interventions, though invisible, of such an agency. All these powers, these forces of influence, are sent, throng), the medium, and in virtue of the work, of the Mediator, and bear in them a peculiar character derived from Him. (J. Foster.)

The powers of the world to come

One of the popular names for Messiah among the Jews was, The coming one. He that should come we have rendered it in our version. In like manner, the entire order of things, here and hereafter, which the Messiah was to introduce, they called The world to come. The powers of the world to come, were the Divine energies, truths, and influences brought into operation by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. SINLESSNESS IS ONE OF THE POWERS OF THE WORLD COME. None of the woe of evil is there. Above, purity is unimpeded and its joy suffers no eclipse.

II. AN UNSUFFERING AND DEATHLESS FUTURE IS ONE OF THE POWERS OF THE WORLD TO COME. Before we reach that world, the burdens of this will have been laid down. There activity will no more fatigue. None shall sit down and brood over anxious thought and wearing toil which have left only failure and wreck behind.

III. ETERNITY IS ONE OF THE POWERS OF THE WORLD TO COME.

1. Eternity is the name for all that is great. Eternity is the realm of all things vast and wonderful. So, whatever a godly man does for eternity, must be great. Whatever in the Christian life pertains to eternity, partakes of its grandeur and sublimity. The Son of God filled earthly duties with heavenly motives, and linked the fleeting moment and the transitory deed to the grandeur of eternity.

2. But to the eternal world, as well, we ascribe stability. It is the realm where all things abide, No abandoned palaces are there, no prostrate temples. No flower weeps upon a grave, no verdure fringes the rents of gaping tombs.

3. Eternity is not only inseparable from greatness and stability, but it is the theatre of progress. There souls ever grow. Intellect, heart, character, knowledge, love, power, never halt.

IV. GOD IS THE GREAT POWER OF THE WORLD TO COME. What has been the most ardent aspiration of the righteous in every age? Has it not always been, to see God? to stand in His presence? to realise His contact with the soul? Lessons:

1. You must have strong faith in the world to come, if its realities are to be powers to your souls. It is not an easy attainment. It demands industrious culture.

2. One great end of the life, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension of our blessed Lord, was to make the verities of the world to come powers to the mind and conduct of men. All the tender memories of Gethsemane and Calvary centre in His risen and living person, to allure the affections and uplift the aspirations of the holy to the skies.

3. Oh, ye who are heated in the chase for riches and honour, worldly fame and earthly enjoyment, walk out to the hallowed lights of eternity, as men at eventide cool their feverish pulses beneath the heavens when the hot sun has gone down and the stars shine forth. Act with an awakened consciousness of your immortality, live for eternity, realise the everlasting years which stretch before you. Among the ruins of Petra there are temples and mansions excavated in the faces of the rocks. Some, massive in their proportions and elaborate in embellishment, are unfinished. What an exquisite perfection the artificer would have given to his work, if informed beforehand that the monuments of his skill would survive all these long centuries, and be numbered among the wonders of the world! Christian men and women, let your souls be aglow with the inspiration and ardour of working for eternity, and, when this is over and the hour of rest shall come, going home to meet the approbation of your God. (H. Batchelor, B. A.)

The influence of futurity

There can be no doubt that the apostle here marks out as a possible thing, the making great apparent progress in religion, and then of so offending, as to be finally excluded from the mercies of the gospel. The parties, of whom the apostle speaks, are such you see as have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come. There is no difficulty as to the meaning of Tasting the good Word of God. You all understand the words to denote an appreciation of the beauty and excellence of the gospel, and, therefore, the feeling its suitableness, and receiving it with delight in the soul we are very much struck with this expression, and greatly wish to make you conscious of its energy. We desire, if it be possible, that you should all understand how the invisible world comes out, as it were, from its impenetrable secrecy, and operates on those who feel themselves strangers upon the earth; and we desire yet further, that every one of you should learn that there is such a thing as anticipating the future; ay, and that there may be experienced on this side of the grave so much of the wretchedness, as well as of the gladness, which shall enter into everlasting portions, as justifies the assertion that the powers of eternity are already brought to bear on mankind. Take two cases–consider, in the first place, how the powers of the world to come are tasted by a man in the season of conversion; in the second place, how they may be tasted in the continued experience whether of the godly or of the wicked. It is surprisingly strange, and would be wholly inexplicable if we did not know how mans powers were disordered by the fall, that beings who have a thorough persuasion of their deathliness, can go on, day after day, and year after year, as though certain that the soul would die with the body. This is, perhaps, the strongest of all demonstrations, that our powers have been shattered and perverted through some great moral catastrophe; for in this it is that man offers a direct insult to himself as a rational being, acting with a fatuity and short-sightedness that could only have been expected from the inferior creation. And hence the chief matter, in working upon men as the recipients of moral impressions, is to rouse them to the feeling themselves immortal. The world which now is, exerts incessant power over all of us: persuading us, by the objects which it presents, and the duties which it imposes, to give our toil and our industry to certain pursuits and occupations. And the world which is to come will exert the very same kind of power if it can only gain our belief and attention, so that it may set forth its objects with the duties which their attainment demands. The man, therefore, who is in earnest as to the saving of the soul, is not a man within whom has been implanted a new principle of action; he is rather one in whom a principle of action, vigorous from the first, but contracted in its range, has received a fresh direction, so that in place of limiting itself to the brief stage of human existence, it expatiates over the whole, providing for the distant as well as for the near. Here, then, it is that you have the general case of the putting forth of the powers of the world to come. You observe one man, and you perceive that he is giving his whole energy to the things of time and sense; you observe another man, and you perceive that, though not neglectful of providing for the present, his main labour is employed on securing his welfare in an invisible but everlasting state. The difference between these men is, therefore, the one has received his impulse from the world which is; the other, from the world which is to come. The one has submitted himself to no powers but those wielded by things which are seen and temporal, whereas the other is obedient to the powers put forth by the things that are unseen and eternal; the one is no consciousness of belonging to more than one world; the other is practically persuaded that he is a citizen of two worlds. Ay, there hath risen before the man who is gathering eternity within range of his anxieties, the image of himself as inextinguishable by death; but thrown without a shred and without a hope on scenes whence he cannot escape, and for which he cannot then provide, and this has roused him. But the force of this expression, tasting the powers of the world to come, will be far more apparent if you consider the men as acted on by the communications of the gospel. We are sure of any one of you who has been translated out of darkness into marvellous light, that he must have had at times a sense of Gods wrath, and of the condemnation beneath which the human race lies, such as has almost overwhelmed him, and made him feel as though the future were upon him in its terrors. He has risen as though the avenger of blood were just crossing his threshold, he has not tarried, he has not turned either to the right band or to the left, but has gone straightway to the one Mediator between God and man, and cried for mercy passionately, as a condemned criminal would plead for his life. And whence this energy? Why, when every other beneath the same roof, or in the same neighbourhood, is utterly indifferent, moved with no anxiety as to death and judgment–why has this solitary individual who has no greater stake than all his fellows in futurity, started up with irresistible vehemence of purpose, and given himself no rest till he has sought and found acceptance with God? We reply at once, that he has been made to taste the powers of the world to come. The world which now is arraying before him its fascinations; the world which is to come arraying before him its punishments. The one put forth its influence in the objects of sense; the other put forth its influence through the objects of faith. The one solicited him by the wealth and the revel; but the other threatened him with the fire and the shame. The one used its power of ministering to carnal passions; the other asserted its power of making those passions our tormentors; and the future has carried it over the present. Nor is this all. We should convey a most erroneous impression in regard to the process of conversion, if we represented it as carried on exclusively through a terrifying instrumentality. If one man is driven, so to speak, to God, another may be drawn; the promises of the gospel being more prominently employed than the threatenings. For we may rather say, in the majority of cases, and perhaps in all, conversion is brought about through a combination of agency; the coming wrath being used to produce fear and repentance, and the provided mercy to allay anxiety, encourage hope, and confirm in holiness. We cannot imagine a converted man who has never dreaded the being lost; neither can we imagine one who has never exulted in the prospect of heaven. And though fear or joy may predominate according to circumstances, which we need not attempt to define, we may venture to speak of conversion as a process through which man is alike made to feel that he is a fallen creature doomed to destruction, and a redeemed creature admissible into glory. He is as much acted on by promises as by threatenings; he does not take half the Bible, but places as much faith in declarations which speak of honour and peace and triumph made accessible to man, as in others which set forth the fact, that the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God. And is it not then certain that the world to come brings to bear upon him its instruments of happiness as well as its instruments of vengeance–that the future in struggling into the present, is equally energetic and equally influential, if regarded as the scene in which the good shall be rewarded, or considered as charged with the overthrow of the reprobate? And if therefore you can say of the converted individual, surveying him merely as one who is moved by great and impending destruction, that he manifests the having imbibed the influences of another state of being, will you not make a like statement when you regard him as animated by the hope of pleasures stored up at the right hand of God? And what is this, inasmuch as in the invisible world are the magazines of Divine retribution, so that the powers with which it is replete, are those of exacting the penalty of crime, and rewarding the efforts of obedience? what, I ask you, is this but saying of an individual–He hath tasted the powers of the world to come ? And now let us consider how the powers of the world to come may be tasted in the continued experience, whether of the godly or of the wicked. For we may be persuaded, that through not endeavouring to bring the future into close connection with the present, or rather through not regarding the future as in every sense the continuation of the present, men strip the realities of another state of much of that influence which they must otherwise have. We put it to yourselves to decide, whether you are not accustomed to place, as it were, a great gulf between the two states of being, to regard the invisible as having few or no points in common with the visible? When heaven is mentioned, there is ordinarily altogether an indefiniteness in your apprehension of its delights; and when hall is mentioned, there is the like indefiniteness in your apprehension of its torments. You consider, in short, that little or nothing can be ascertained in regard to the nature of future joy and misery; they differ so widely from what now hear the names, that they must be felt before they can be understood. But we hold it of great importance that men should be reminded that whatever the changes effected by death and the resurrection, they will be identically the same beings, with the same organs, the same capacities, the same in nature, though, we doubt not, marvellously quickened and mightily enlarged. And if the grave shall give us up, the same, except in the degree in which we can admit either happiness or misery, it is quite evident that both heaven and hell may begin on this side eternity. There may be the commencement, however vastly we come short of the consummation. It is in thorough consistency with this view that the apostle speaks of men tasting the powers of the world to come. It is not necessary that they should die, and actually enter another world, before they can know anything of the powers of that world. In their sohourning upon earth ere there hath passed on them aught of that mysterious change through which the corruptible shall put on incorruption, they may have acquired a degree of acquaintance with those powers–the power of making happy, the power of making wretched. The evil man may have the commencement of an anguish, which shall be the same in kind, though not to be compared in intenseness to that by which he shall be racked if he die in impenitence. The righteous man may enjoy a peace and be elevated by a rapture which shall be as an introduction to the deep tranquility and lofty ecstasy of the land in which the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The effect of realising the powers of the world to come

I. THERE WILL BE A REGULATING INFLUENCE UPON OUR PRESENT LIFE.

1. The inward life will become increasingly pure and holy.

2. The outward life will become increasingly human, just, unselfish.

II. THERE WILL. BE A SUSTAINING INFLUENCE. In times of despondency, sadness, loss, and temptation, we shall bravely bear all, and wait for the eternal years.

III. THERE WILL BE A RESTRAINING INFLUENCE.

1. Thoughts, motives, professions, deeds, will be kept in the right direction.

2. There will be no apostasy of heart or life. (James Foster, B. A.)

The world to come

The world to come. Is there indeed such a world? Is man to exist beyond the present life? No one comes back from that future to tell us of it, and open to us its experience. To the natural eye mans life goes as does that of the beast; neither his life nor his death speaks anything more. Is this all? Is there no more to man and no more for man than there is to and for the brute creation around him?

I. Our intuitions give us answer. The Creator has given a voice to our soul. It tells us of immortality. It creates the conviction of a world to come.

2. Also, mans attributes give answer to these questions. Though in some things he is like the brutes that perish, in many things he is most unlike them. In the wonderful gift of speech, in the endowment of reason, in the possession of conscience, in the intelligent and holy emotion of love, he belongs to another domain of being from that in which mere animals have their existence. He is a moral being, and amenable to the bar of right and wrong. Can it be that a being of such capabilities is the mere creature of a day? My whole being revolts at such a conclusion.

3. But finally the Scriptures give answer to these questions.

4. This world to come is very near to us; to some of us oh how near! The world to come–can we to-day make this real? Can we open our hearts and enfold the truth that this world to come is a world to come to you and to me? Let us bring it near, let us make it personal. The Christian should be glad to do so; it will strengthen his faith, it will confirm his hope, it will quicken his zeal, it will purify his love, it will wean him from this world, it will lift up his life to nobler and holier experiences. (C. P. Sheldon, D. D.)

If they shall fall away

Spiritual declension and recovery

I. WHAT PERSONS HAS THE APOSTLE HERE IN VIEW? He enumerates respecting them a variety of marks, which certainly belong to real Christians.

1. The first of these is, that they have been enlightened. As there are various kinds of enlightening in visible nature, as by the sun, by the moon, and by lamps, so are there various kinds of enlightening relative to the human soul. There are many persons who certainly know what is the one thing needful, and what are the several stages on the road to heaven; but they know it only from human instruction, and have their light at second or third hand. Theirs is a moonlight, which neither warms nor fructifies; neither makes that which is dead, alive, nor that which is withered, green. Such enlightening we may have, and yet be as far from the kingdom of God as the most unenlightened heathen. There are others who show that they partake of a better enlightening, and even of a kind of warmth accompanying it. But they are excitable persons, who are easily moved at hearing of Christ, and the experiences of His saving grace, and become, perhaps, irresistibly convinced that such things are true. But should any of their lamps have burned down, or their oil have been spent, so as to yield a fainter light, or those who carry brighter lamps happen to have withdrawn, then are those persons as much in darkness again as ever; and this because they have not cherished the true light in themselves. Now, neither this, nor the former class of persons, does the Scripture call enlightened. It gives this name, not to those who receive their light at second or third hand, but only to those who cherish within them a light which is received immediately from Christ Himself; to those of whom it is written, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. And this light pervades the soul and spirit, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; that is, it is a light which discovers to the sinner his misery, and makes him feel it. And if we have been thus enlightened, then doubtless we are children of God, and born of the Spirit.

2. The apostle further says, they have tasted of the heavenly gift; which is another exclusive characteristic of true Israelites. This heavenly gift is no other than that spoken of by our Saviour to the woman of Samaria.

3. Another mark attributed to them is, that they have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost; and this surely will not allow us to remain uncertain what sort of persons the apostle has in view. Who can doubt that they are children of God?

4. And that we might know that they have received the Spirit of God as aa earnest of their salvation, it is added, that they have tasted the good Word of God. This expression clearly intimates that they have experienced the Word of God in themselves as a good word; as a word which takes the most kind and sympathetic part in whatever happens to us, or oppresses us; as a word that has upon all occasions counsel and deliverance for us, and stands by us in the most gracious manner with its light and healing balm.

5. And now for the last mark: they have tasted the powers of the world to come. Understand by this expression whatever you can think of it as implying those outpourings of grace which enable us to overcome the world and death; or, as implying a lively foretaste of eternal joy, a powerful assurance of the final consummation, and of our being ever with the Lord; or, as signifying our present triumphant elevation upon the wings of faith above time, above all afflictions and crosses, above death, judgment, sin, and hell; or, understand whatever as believers you please by these words–this you must allow, that St. Paul could have had only children of God in his eye when he declares of them, that they have tasted the powers of the world to come.

II. THE SPIRITUAL DECLENSION OF WHICH THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE CAPABLE. St. Paul then, speaking of children of God, and even of such as have gone on for a considerable time in the way of salvation, and have attained maturity of growth and decision of character, says, It they shall fall away. In strict language every fall is a falling away; for it is a temporary forgetfulness and turning aside from Him who hath said, Abide in Me. But the Scripture evidently makes a distinction between falling and falling away. In the 4th verse of the 5th chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians we meet with persons who had fallen away. They had lost the lively sense of their unworthiness and inability; and, instead of abiding implicitly at the foot of the cross, so as to live upon grace and forgiveness alone, they had become bewildered with the unhappy notion of being their own saviours and intercessors. Ye did run well; who hath hindered you that ye should no longer obey the truth? This was a falling away; a departure from grace; it was an erring from the way of Gods children rote the way of self-righteous, natural men; a virtual renunciation of Christ; a tacit declaration that they no longer needed Him, and could do without Him. It was a depreciation of His precious blood; a contempt of His sacrifice, and a rejection of His person: so that St. Paul could utter that reproach with the utmost propriety and justice, Christ is again crucified among you. But there is a falling away which is more fearful still. Not only a falling away from grace into legal bondage, but a falling away into lawlessness, or into a course without law altogether; a falling away from God to idols; from the kingdom of heaven to the world; from the way of light into the way of the flash and of darkness. This would seem hardly credible, did not sad experience show it to be true. Look at David at one period of his life. But no, on Davids crime, dreadful as it was, we will not insist; it was rather an awful fall than a falling away. Think then of Solomon, that precious man of God, that Jedidiah from his cradle: observe him in his career; and how can you help shuddering? Twice does the Lord appear to him, and give him a commandment not to walk after other gods 1Ki 3:14; 2Ch 7:12-22); but he obeys it not; he continues in his departure from Jehovah the God of Israel; so that the Lord is obliged, at length, to come against him with the thunder and lightning of His judgments. And, oh! how many of the children of God have brought upon themselves, in like manner, His rebukes and visitations! How many, to whom the world had been already crucified, have gone back again to the world!

III. THE WARNING GIVEN. Hearken to that awful thunder of the Divine oracle, which declares that it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, &c. How terribly does this sound I almost like, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And, indeed, it is evident at once how difficult must be the restoration of those who, having taken root in a life of holiness, and having been blessed with sweet experiences of Divine love, could, after all, have fallen away! Whoever is conscious that he is guilty of this, may well tremble. The word impossible in our text is enough to fill him with horrible dread. And if so, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall! Let all of us watch and pray; let our abiding station be ever at the foot of the cross. There let us lie down and take our rest; there let us arise in the morning; there perform every duty of our daily life; there let us be formed, and fixed, and live; there wait for the Bridegroom; there breathe bur last: so are we safe. (F. W. Krummacher, D. D.)

The danger of apostasy from Christianity

I. THERE ARE THREE THINGS WHICH DISTINGUISH THE SIN HERE SPOKEN OF IN THE TEXT FROM THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST DESCRIBED BY OUR SAVIOUR.

1. The persons that are guilty of this sin here in the text are evidently such as had embraced Christianity, and had taken upon them the profession of it; whereas those whom our Saviour chargeth with the sin against the Holy Ghost, are such as constantly opposed His doctrine, and resisted the evidence He offered for it.

2. The particular nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost consisted in blaspheming the Spirit whereby our Saviour wrought His miracles, and saying He did not those things by the Spirit of God, but by tie assistance of the devil, in that malicious and unreasonable imputing of the plain effects of the Holy Ghost to the power of the devil, and consequently in an obstinate refusal to be convinced by the miracles that He wrought; but here is nothing of all this so much as intimated by the apostle in this place.

3. The sin against the Holy Ghost is declared to be absolutely unpardonable both in this world and in that which is to come.

II. That this sin here spoken of by the apostle is NOT SAID TO BE ABSOLUTELY UNPARDONABLE. It is not the sin against the Holy Ghost; and, whatever else it be, it is not out of the compass of Gods pardon and forgiveness. So our Saviour hath told us, that all manner of sin whatsoever that men have committed is capable of pardon, excepting only the sin against the Holy Ghost. And though the apostle here uses a very severe expression, that if such persons fall away it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, yet there is no necessity of understanding this phrase in the strictest sense of the word impossible, but as it is elsewhere used for that which is extremely difficult. Nor, indeed, will our Saviours declaration, which I mentioned before, that all sins whatsoever are pardonable, except the sin against the Holy Ghost, suffer us to understand these words in the most rigorous sense.

III. The sin here spoken of IS NOT A PARTIAL APOSTASY FROM THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION BY ANY PARTICULAR VICIOUS PRACTICE, Whosoever lives in the habitual practice of any sin plainly forbidden by the Christian law may be said so far to have apostatised from Christianity; but this is not the falling away which the apostle here speaks of. This may be bad enough; and the greater sins any man who professeth himself a Christian lives in, the more notoriously he contradicts his profession, and falls off from Christianity, and the nearer he approaches to the sin in the text, and the danger there threatened; but yet, for all that, this is not that which the apostle speaks of.

IV. BUT IT IS A TOTAL APOSTASY FROM THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, more especially to the heathen idolatry, the renouncing of the true God, and our Saviour, and the worship of false gods, which the apostle here speaks of. And I doubt not but this is the sin which St. John speaks of, and calls the sin unto death, and does not require Christians to pray for those who fall into it, with any assurance that it shall be forgiven (1Jn 5:16).

V. We will consider the reason of the DIFFICULTY OF RECOVERING SUCH PERSONS BY REPENTANCE.

1. Because of the greatness and heinousness of the sin, both in the nature and circumstances of it. It is downright apostasy from God, a direct renouncing of Him, and rejecting of His truth, after men have owned it, and been inwardly persuaded and convinced of it. It hath all the aggravations that a crime is capable of, being against the clearest light and knowledge, and the fullest conviction of a mans mind, concerning the truth and goodness of that religion which he re-nounceth; against the greatest obligations laid upon him by the grace and mercy of the gospel; after the free pardon of sins, and the grace and assistance of Gods Spirit received, and a miraculous power conferred for a witness and testimony to themselves, of the undoubted truth of that religion which they have embraced. Now a sin of this heinous nature is apt naturally either to plunge men into hardness and impenitency, or to drive them to despair; and either of these conditions are effectual bars to their recovery.

2. Those who are guilty of this sin do renounce and cast off the means of their recovery, and therefore it becomes extremely difficult to renew them again to repentance. They reject the gospel, which affords the best arguments and means to repentance, and renounce the only way of pardon and forgiveness.

3. Those who are guilty of this sin provoke God in the highest manner to withdraw His grace and Holy Spirit from them, by the power and efficacy whereof they should be brought to repentance; so that it can hardly otherwise be expected but that God should leave those to themselves who have so unworthily forsaken Him, and wholly withdraw His grace and Spirit from such persons as have so notoriously offered despite to the Spirit of grace.

I shall now draw some useful inferences from hence by way of application, that we may see how far this doth concern ourselves; and they shall be these.

1. From the supposition here in the text, that such persons as are there described (namely, those who have been baptized, and by baptism have received remission of sins, and did firmly believe the gospel, and the promises of it, and were endowed with miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost), that these may fall away–this should caution us all against confidence and security; when those that have gone thus far may fall, Let him that standeth take heed.

2. This shows us how great an aggravation it is for men to sin against the means of knowledge which the gospel affords, and the mercies which it offers unto them.

3. The consideration of what hath been said is matter of comfort to those who, upon every failing and infirmity, are afraid they have committed the unpardonable sin, and that it is impossible for them to be restored by repentance.

4. This should make men afraid of great and presumptuous sins, which come near apostasy from Christianity; such as deliberate murder, adultery, gross fraud and oppression, or notorious and habitual intemperance. For what great difference is there, whether men renounce Christianity, or, professing to believe it, do in their works deny it?

5. It may be useful for us upon this occasion to reflect a little upon the ancient discipline of the church, which in some places was so severe, as, in case of some great crimes after baptism, as apostasy to the heathen idolatry, murder, and adultery, never to admit those that were guilty of them to the peace and communion of the church. This, perhaps, may be thought too great severity; but I am sure we are as much too remiss now as they were over-rigorous then; but were the ancient discipline of the church in any degree put in practice now, what case would the generality of Christians be in?

6. The consideration of what hath been said should confirm and establish us in the profession of our holy religion. (Abp. Tillotson.)

The Palestinian apostates, and the impossibility affirmed of renewing them again to repentance

Under a fierce, though–thanks to Roman supremacy–a bloodless persecution, the intensity of which no one at all familiar with Jewish hate will be at a loss to realise, members of she churches were falling away, first into backsliding, then into apostasy, to the extent of returning to their temple service; and the difficulty of reclaiming them from amid those environments prompts the apostle to impart to his warnings special potency and pungency.

I. Notice THEIR PREVIOUS CHARACTER AND POSITION. The state that preceded their apostasy, if there be meaning in words, was that of actual conversion; and but for the exigencies of a vicious creed no other idea would have been entertained. They were once enlightened; and the same word is used of them in the tenth chapter under the rendering illuminated. No stronger expression could be used to denote conversion. Once ye were darkness, but ye are now light in the Lord. Again, they are here affirmed to have tasted of the heavenly gift, which, however it may be explained, it would be arbitrary in the extreme to understand as falling short of salvation. The same remark applies to the next thing attributed to these apostates, they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. Full of the Holy Ghost we need not suppose them to have been; but none the less does the expression denote the saving fruits of faith as contrasted with the fruits of those that continue in the flesh. (Compare Gal 5:19-25; Ram. 5:5.) On the same principle, consistency demands it at we explain the attribution–they have tasted the good Word of God, in the spirit of David in such places as Psa 119:1-176., or of Jeremiah when he sweetly says, Thy Word was found of me, and I did eat it, and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. To the above tastings, or spiritual experiences, the apostle adds that those apostates h d tasted the powers of the world to come; or, as the expression means, the age to come. This was the New Testament age, and had long been familiarly so denominated. The word power is the same as that rendered miracles in Heb 2:4; and it is here intimated, therefore, that the spiritual evidences and influences so grandly characteristic of that period had previously operated their due effects on the minds and hearts of these apostates.

II. We now pass to THEIR PRESENT STATE–that of men who have apostatised.

1. The fact of their apostasy is expressly affirmed. They had fallen away. Their fall, as we shall see, would not be precipitate. The gradient of the downward path is at first exceedingly imperceptible; it is not till a further stage down that it becomes recklessly headlong.

2. Let us now pass from the fact to the nature of their apostasy. It was a lapse from all the Christian experiences above detailed, and that by a lapse from the source of these–namely, faith, and from all the means by which we are enabled to stand fast in the faith. This lapse would be stealthy, and so in fact the word implies. It was probably no sudden flight, no leap, no bound, no run, or even deliberate, walk, but a partially passive and insensible process of falling away. Like the fleecy envelopment of air which, from its yielding nature, falls behind in the diurnal revolution of our globe (causing our trade and oblique winds) such retrogressors gradually yield to dragging influences and lag behind. First, the Bible is neglected, then prayer, then family duty, then Christian converse, then Christian zeal in every form, then the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and all the means of grace. At whose bidding? we need hardly ask, seeing the seducers are legion. It may have been at the prompting of Mammon, or of Belial, of vanity, or of pride. It may have been in the name of free thought, under the license of free speech, or under the baser dictation still of indolence and cowardice that shrink from encountering pain, and toil, and loss. Any way, the sphere of salvation in the soul contracts and grows dim; the fruits of the new life shrivel up; the heart, now an evil heart of unbelief, departs from the living God, and day by day becomes hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

III. Let us now endeavour to understand Him: IMPOSSIBILITY HERE AFFIRMED Of again renewing these recreants unto repentance. Be it noted in the outset, that vain is the attempt of those who would substitute for the word impossible some milder translation, such as difficult, or the like. In the original, just as in our version, the word incontrovertibly and immovably stands impossible. But then the question is still left open to us–In what sense impossible? First, and surely plainly enough, no suchthing as absolute impossibility is for a moment to be thought of, for we are here in a far other sphere than that of strict omnipotence. We are in the moral sphere; and in the moral sense only are we to understand the word impossible. And even in that sense the impossibility lies not on the side of God, but wholly on the side of man. How? Only in the moral sense; and in no such sense even of the moral kind as need doom any apostate to despair, though certainly such as ought to make his ears tingle and his knees tremble, and his frame shake and his heart quake. It was impossible to renew those men, merely in the sense of Christs impossible, when He said, How can ye believe, who receive honour one of another?–this state of mind, while it lasted, being a moral bar to their believing: but then it had no need to last. It was impossible, in the sense in which we ourselves freely use the word every day; as when we say, It is impossible to love this man, or hate that man, or to respect or trust that other–that is, impossible only in the sense of being extremely hard or difficult by reason of moral dispositions or circumstances; which moral causes, however, it is all the time understood by us, it is quite in the power of the man concerned to alter or surmount, if he choose.

IV. THESE MORAL CAUSES FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE, in the case of the apostates in my text, it only remains that, in the last place, I now briefly explain. For very special they were, and frightful in the extreme–amply sufficient, and more, to account for the very strong word impossible which the inspired writer here employs. These singular causes are briefly but expressively set forth in the appended reason, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. They not only renounce Christ, they do it with every circumstance of contumelious indignation and scorn. They re-enact for themselves what they are now too late literally to join in–the crime and the jeering concomitants of the Saviours crucifixion. This they do, not only in the arena of the inner spirit, but in open avowal, by shamelessly homologating and glorying in the deed. They say, though for a time deceived, we now see that the deed was right. They this gather into themselves the combined virulence of both Jew and Roman; for while with the Jew they cry, Crucify Him, with the Roman they do in effect crucify Him, so far as it is in them to re-enact the deed. And unlike that tumultuous rabble, who were stirred into frenzy by their rulers, and borne many of them they knew not whither, so that Christ affectingly said of them, praying, They know not what they do, these apostates, on the contrary, re-enacted the crime deliberately, from amid the full flood of gospel light, and life, and power, and after they them elves had tasted the sweets of gospel love. This, the terrible attitude and its implications, were explanation enough of the word impossible, were we to say no more. But to stop here would leave unexplained the fact, otherwise incredible, how they could ever have been led to take such an attitude at all. This is the only thing further I have to explain, and then the shadow over the word impossible will have deepened into the most hopeless gloom. The explanation is to be found in the strongly marked peculiarities of the Jew, and in the then conditions of social and religious life in Palestine. These were such as to leave no neutral ground. A Jews wrath, in religious matters, easily intensifies to frenzied rage. Hence their scorn of Jesus, their vindication of His death, their hate of all who bear His name, their practice by spitting, gesticulation, or terms of execration, of blaspheming and cursing the Holy One under the opprobrious name of the Nazarene. In such a state of society, to renounce Christianity was not to lapse into negative indifference; for indifference or neutrality there was none. It meant positively a return to Judaism; and to Judaism aroused awed armed in deadly antagonism to Christianity. The process would be this. Expelled the synagogue, put under the ban, disowned by their nearest, if they perished in clinging to the hated Nazarene in spite of the entreaties, the tears, and ere long the curses of their kin, the Palestinian Christian would at first waver, then absent himself occasionally from the Christian assemblies. Urged by his relatives, the occasionally would become frequently, till, now fairly on the decline, he came to abandon them entirely. And now the entreaties, the blandishments, the impassioned warnings would be renewed. Let him only pass through the needful discipline and be welcomed anew into the synagogue and into the bosom of his home. He does so: and the die is cast. To quit the church for the synagogue was to pass from one hostile camp to another, with no intermediate resting place or ground even for parley. It was to quit all Christian ordinances and restoring influences, and to raise a brazen wall between. And it was to enter the synagogue to join the anti-Nazarene crusade. The apostates, and with proverbially apostate zeal, now persecuted the faith they formerly preached. In conclusion, there result two vitally important lessons, which we briefly state in Scripture language.

1. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

2. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The sin of rejecting the gospel

That we may understand this Scripture, and make it unto us a good comfort, which might seem otherwise a heavy threatening, let us consider in it these two things: first, the purpose of the apostle for which he speaketh it, then themselves what they signify. The apostles purpose is to stir us up, desirously to hear, diligently to learn wisely to increase in knowledge, and obediently to practise that we have learned: for this purpose it was first spoken, to this end it is now written.

1. The first mark of them is that they be lightened; that is, endued with the knowledge of God, not only by the heavens, which declare His glory, nor by the firmament, which showeth His work, nor by any of Gods creatures in which His eternal power and Godhead cloth appear and shine, and of which light all nations are made partakers, but they are also lightened with His holy Word, which is a lantern to their feet and a light unto their steps, and have heard His gospel preached unto them, unto the which they have agreed that it is the Word of Life.

2. The second note of them is, that they have tasted of the heavenly gift: the heavenly gift is the life and great salvation that is in Christ Jesus, by whom we are reconciled, which likewise our Saviour Christ calleth the gift of God, speaking to the woman of Samaria; and this is that knowledge into which they are lighted by the gospel, and this they not only know, but of this gift they have also tasted: which is, they have gladly some time received it, and rejoiced in it; like as our Saviour Christ describeth them by the parable of the stony ground, that incontinently with joy they receive the seed, and which also He noteth in the Pharisees, speaking of John Baptist, which was a shining lamp among them, and they for a season did rejoice in his light.

3. The third note of these men is, that they have been partakers of the Holy Ghost: which is, that many graces of the Spirit of God have been given unto them, as these two above named, that they are lightened with knowledge, and rejoice in their understanding, which is neither of flesh nor blood, nor of the will of man, but of the Holy Ghost.

4. The fourth note is, that they have tasted the good Word of God, not much differing from that He first spake of, that they were lightened, that is, that they had knowledge of God, not only by His creatures, but much more by His Word. But here naming the good Word of God, he noteth especially the gospel, by comparison with the law.

5. The fifth note here set forth is, that they know and confess that this gospel hath in the end eternal life: and Christ is a mighty Saviour, who will keep for ever those whom He hath purchased. And he nameth the world to come, because the Spirit hath lightened them to see the latter end of this corruptible world, and to know assuredly that here they have no dwelling city, but another habitation made for Gods chosen, not with mortal hands, but everlasting in heaven, and calling it the powers, because it is made so strong in Christ Jesus, that it can never be assaulted; for all power is given unto Him in heaven and in cart,, and He hath made that heavenly city glorious for His saints throughout all worlds. And thus far of the persons, what gifts they have received; wherein yet let us understand a great difference between these men which fall away and the gifts which are in Gods elect that cannot perish, nor ever sin against the Holy Ghost. Nosy let us see the manner of rebellion, how far they tall away: first, we must observe what points the apostle hath before named. In the beginning of the chapter he mentioneth repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptism, and laying on of hands, and resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment, which here he calleth the beginning and foundation of Christian amity; then he speaketh of an apostasy or falling away from all these points here named even from the foundation and first beginnings of the Christian faith, so that all the former light is quite put out, and the first understanding is all taken away; they laugh now at repentance, and the first faith they account it foolishness. (E. Deering, B. D.)

What relapses are inconsistent with grace?

I. FOUR FALLS OF THE GODLY.

1. The first and lightest fall of the godly is that in their daily combat between flesh and spirit (Rom 7:1-25; Gal 5:17). Our duties are imperfect, graces defective, our gold and silver drossy, our wine mixed with water. Sin deceiveth, surpriseth, captivateth, slayeth, yet reigneth not. These falls or slips are unavoidable and involuntary. There is no saint but complains of them, no duty but is stained with them. In our clearest sunshine we see a world of such motes, which yet hinder not the light and comfort of our justification, avid destroy not sanctification. True grace consists with these; yea, is not separated from the assaults and indwelling of such motions. Will we, will we, said Bernard, we are pestered with swarms of these Egyptian flies, and have these frogs in our inmost chambers. This first fall is but like the fall of a mist in a winter morning: the sun gets up, and it is a fair day after. This is the first fall: the second is worse, which is

2. An actual and visible stumble as to offence of others, yet occasioned by some surreptitious surprise of temptation, for want of that due consideration which we should always have: this the apostle calls a mans being overtaken with a fault, who is to be restored with a spirit of meekness, considering we also may be tempted (Gal 6:1). Such falls (or slips rather) all or most are subject to (Jam 3:2). We sometimes trip, or slip, or miss our hold, and so down we come, but not out of choice. Thus did Peter slip or halt, when he did Judaise out of too much compliance with the Jews; whom therefore Paul did rebuke and rest- Gal 2:11; Gal 2:14).

3. The third fall is much worse, a fall from the third loft, whence, like Eutychus, they are taken up dead for the present; but they come to themselves again. These are falls into grosser and more scandalous sins which do set the stacks or corn-fields of conscience on fire; whereas the other two forenamed, especially the former, are such as Tertullian calls of daily incursion. These are very dangerous, and befall, not all professors: (they had not need!) but, now and then, one falls into some scandalous sin; but they not usually again into the same sin after sense and repentance of it. Thus fell David and Peter into foul flagitiousness, but not deliberately, nor totally, nor finally, nor reiteratedly. This fall is like the fall of the leaf in autumn. Life remains safe; a spring in due time follows, though many a cold blast first.

4. There is yet one worse fail than the former, incident to a child of God too–to be of the decaying kind, and to remit and lose his former fervour and liveliness. And it may be he never comes (as the second temple) up to the former pitch and glory (Ezr 3:12). Thus Solomons zeal and love were abated in his old age. This is like the fall of the hair in aged persons. Life yet remains; but strength, native beat, and radical moistness decay, and the hair never grows alike thick again.

II. THE FOUR FALLS OF THE UNREGENERATE.

1. The first whereof is a final fall, but not a total at first, but insensible, by degrees, gradually and without perceiving it, grow worse and worse; as the thorny ground, choked with cares, or drowned with the pleasures of the world.

2. Some fall totally and finally, but not premeditately and voluntarily at first; but are driven back by the lion of persecution, and tribulation in the way, and they retreat (Mar 4:17; 1Ch 28:9). This is like the fall of Sisera at the feet of Jael (Jdg 5:27).

3. Some more fearfully, totally, finally, voluntarily, deliberately, but not yet maliciously. Thus Demas is supposed to fall, who, of a forward disciple or teacher, is said to have become after an idol priest at Thessalonica. Thus fell Saul (1Sa 16:14).

4. The fourth and last fall follows, which is like the opening of the fourth seal, and the fourth horse appears (Rev 6:8): when men fall totally, finally, voluntarily, and maliciously. Thus Simon Magus, Julian the apostate, Hymenaeus, and Alexander, whose names are in Gods black book. Here the gulf is fixed, and there is no retracing of the steps hence. These are not to be renewed by repentance. This fall is like that of Jerichos walls: they fell down flat with a curse annexed (Jos 6:26); or as Babylons walls, with a vengeance (Jer 51:53-58); both without hope of repairing: or like the fall of Lucifer the first apostate, without offer, or hope of offer, of grace any more for ever: or like the fall of Judas, who, fading headlong, burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed Act 1:18).

III. THE MIXED FALL. There is also another kind of fall, of a mixed or middle nature; and to which side of the two (godly or reprobate) I should cast it, is not so easy to determine. Relapses into sin are like relapses into a disease after hopes and beginning of recovery.

1. This informs us that possible it is for men (yea, too ordinary) to fall from grace. We wonder not to see a house built on the send to fall, or seed not having root wither, or trees in the parched wilderness decay (Jer 17:6), or meteors vanish, or blazing stars fall, or clouds without rain blown about, or wells without springs dried up. So, for hypocrites to prove apostates is no strange thing, and utterly to fall away.

2. Even godly and gracious persons are subject to fall, and therefore must not be secure: they must work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12) They are bidden to fear lest they should fall short (Heb 4:1): stand fast (1Co 16:13): take heed lest they fall (1Co 10:12): look diligently lest any fail of, or fall from (so is the other reading) the grace of God Heb 12:15): take the whole armour of God, that they may he able to stand (Eph 6:13).

3. Yet a truly regenerate soul, a plant of God s planting by the waterside, a plant or graft grafted into Christ, and rooted in Christ, can never fall away totally or finally: Peter could not, when Christ prayed for him: the elect cannot (Mat 24:24).

1. This text is thunder and lightning against apostales.

Awake, you drowsy professors! There is no sin like apostasy: adulteries, manslaughter, theft, idolatries, &c., nothing to this.

2. This speaks terror to professors fallen, or lying in scandalous sins.–You cannot sin at so easy a rate as others. You know your Masters will, and do it not, therefore ye shall be beaten with more stripes (Luk 11:47). You are as a city set on a hill. Your fault cannot be hid, no more than an eclipse of the sun.

3. Terror to such as, after conviction and engagements under affliction and distress, after some prayers, vows, and a begun or resolved reformation, return to former courses.–As they, after what they promised in their distress, returned when delivered, and started aside like a broken bow Jer 34:15-16). The new broom of affliction swept the house clean for the present; but afterwards the unclean spirit returns, and this washed sow is wallowing in the mire again.

4. Terror to such as lapse and relapse into the same sin again.–As Pharaoh, Jeroboam, and those antichristian brood which repented not Rev 9:20-21). Notwithstanding all judgments, convictions, confessions, promises, they go from evil to worse, from affliction to sin; from sin to duty, and from duty to sin; repent and sin, sin and repent Jer 9:3); and from repenting of sin in distress, go to repent of their repentance when delivered.

Discrimination.

1. There are some who have fallen into foul sins; and they think their case desperate, because of the greatness of their sins. But their sin is not the sin against the Holy Ghost, because not committed after light, taste, partaking of the Holy Ghost. &c., but in the days of their ignorance, as Paul mice. Some fall foully after conversion, as Peter, but not deliberately, maliciously; and both these may be the spots of children: they see the plague in their heart (1Ki 8:38), feel the smart. These have foul scabs; hut they go to Jordan and wash, go to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; and then though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall be as white as wool Isa 1:18).

2. There be some relapses through human infirmity, which are truly bewailed. This is not the sin against the Holy Ghost neither.

3. But there are others that make a trade of sin, drink up iniquity like water, that add drunkenness to thirst, and fall and rise, and rise and fall: they lapse and relapse, and slide away as water

Shall I say such shall have peace? Not What peace to such so long as their sins remain? I shall, to conclude, give a few short directions, to prevent falls and relapses, but cannot now enlarge upon them.

1. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation (Mat 26:41).–Watch in prayer, watch after, watch when alone, watch when incompany, especially against ill company and all occasions of sin.

2. Keep conscience lender, and shun the first motions and occasions of sin.–If thou find thyself given to appetite, put a knife to thy throat, is thewise mans counsel; if to wine, hook not on the glass; if to wantonness, come not near her corner.

3. Take heed Of having slight thoughts of sin.–As to say, As long as it is no worse; It is the first time; It is but now and then a great chance, when I meet with such company; and many have such foolish pleas, and so play at the mouth of the cockatrices den till they are stung to death.

4. Take heed of having light thoughts of Gods mercy.–When sin abounds, grace superabounds, &c. The Lord saith, He will not spare such, nor be merciful to them.

5. Take heed of reasoning from Gods temporal forbearance, to eternal forgiveness.

6. Take heed of presuming of thy own strength: I can, and I mean to repent; I can when I will, and I will when time serves. I trust I am not so bad, that God hath not given me over. Many have gone further than I: why may I not repent at my last hour?

7. Take heed of a mock repentance, saying, I cry God-mercy, God forgive met I sin daily, and repent daily. When I have sworn or been drunk, I am heartily sorry. Is not this repentance? I answer, No! Repentance is quite another thing. The burnt child, we say, dreads the fire. (John Sheffield, M. A.)

The terrible hypothesis; or, the irrecoverable fall

I. PERSONAL CHRISTIANITY IS A SPIRITUAL PARTICIPATION OF DIVINE REALITIES.

1. It is an idea.

2. It is a feeling.

3. It is a power.

II. APOSTASY FROM PERSONAL CHRISTIANITY IS AN IMMENSE SIN.

1. The falling away here mentioned is that of total apostasy.

2. The apostasy here spoken of is stated purely as an hypothesis.

3. Although the apostasy is spoken of only as hypothetical, it is, nevertheless, possible. The man who parts with Christ through the force of old prejudices, is the Caiaphas of the age; he who parts with Him for money, is the Judas; he who parts with Him for popular favour, is the Pilate. The tragedy of Golgatha has many actors; every generation every day reiterates these multiplied crucifixions.

III. THE SIN OF SUCH AN APOSTASY WOULD ENTAIL THE MOST LAMENTABLE RESULTS.

1. The lamentable results of this sin would be irremediable.

(1) Their first repentance could only have been produced by the whole force of the moral considerations contained in the gospel.

(2) The supposed apostates have triumphed over the whole force of the most powerful considerations that can ever be addressed to them.

2. The lamentable results of this crime are consonant with character. Their doom answers to their state.

3. The lamentable results of this crime are terribly awful The conscience in flames!

4. The lamentable results of this crime are ever just at hand. Nigh unto cursing. (Homilist.)

Indefinite renewal impossible

The impossibility here asserted consists not in a single repentance, but in the indefinite renewal of the first vivid life of the Spirit in the case of Christians who are meanwhile continually crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh: the spiritual impressions that were wrought once for all at their conversion must of necessity be weakened by repetition. The passage, as it stands in the text, is in thorough harmony with the previous context, which maintains the need for progressive teaching as the child grows into the man in Christ and protests against the continual reiteration of truths which have lost their freshness; and with the subsequent context, which condemns spiritual barrenness under the figure of sterile soil which, season after season, in spite of fertilising rain and human tillage, produces only thorns and thistles. (F. Rendall, M. A.)

Final perseverance

If Christians can fall away, and cease to be Christians, they cannot be renewed again to repentance. But, says one, you say they cannot fall away. What in the use of putting this if in, like a bugbear to frighten children. If God has put it in, He has put it in for wise reasons. Let me show you why.

1. First, it is put in to keep thee from falling away. God preserves His children from falling away; but He keeps them by the use of means; and one of these is, the terrors of the law, showing them what would happen if they were to fall away. There is a deep precipice: what is the best way to keep any one from going down there? Why, to tell him that if he did he would inevitably be dashed to pieces. In some old castle there is a deep cellar, where there is a vast amount of fixed air and gas, which would kill anybody who went down. What does the guide say? If you go down you will never come up alive. Who thinks of going down? The very fact of the guide telling us what the consequence would be keeps us from it. It leads the believer to greater dependence on God, to a holy caution, because he knows that if he were to fall away he could not be renewed. It is calculated to excite fear; and this holy fear keeps the Christian from falling.

2. It is to excite our gratitude. Suppose you say to your little boy, Dont you know, Tommy, if I were not to give you your dinner and your supper you would die? There is nobody else to give Tommy dinner and supper. What then? The child does not think that you are not going to give him his dinner and supper; he knows you will, and he is grateful to you for them. The chemist tells us that if there were no oxygen mixed with the air animals would die. Do you suppose that there will be no oxygen, and, therefore, we shall die? No, he only teaches you the great wisdom of God, in having mixed the gases in their proper proportions. Says one of the old astronomers, There is great wisdom in God, that He has put the sun exactly at a right distance–not so far away that we should be frozen to death, and not so near that we should be scorched. He says, If the sun were a million miles nearer to us we should be scorched to death. Does the man suppose that the sun will be a million miles nearer, and, therefore, we shall be scorched to death? He says, If the sun were a million miles farther off we should be frozen to death. Does he mean that the sun will be a million miles farther off, and, therefore, we shall be frozen to death? Not at all. Yet it is quite a rational way of speaking, to show us how grateful we should be to God. So says the apostle. Christian! if thou shouldst fall away, thou couldst never be renewed unto repentance. Thank thy Lord, then, that He keeps thee. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The moral condition in which renewal is impossible

When anything is said to be impossible, the natural question is, Impossible to whom? for it is plain that what may be possible to one being, may be impossible to another being. If I were called to attempt to lift a stone of a ton weight, I would naturally say, No, I will not attempt it, for it is impossible–meaning, not that it is impossible that the stone should be lifted, but that it is impossible that I should lift it. The impossibility in the case before us may either be considered as existing in reference to God, or in reference to man. If the restoration of these apostates to the state in which they once were be an impossibility in reference to God, it must be so either because it is inconsistent with His nature and perfections, or with His decree and purpose. In the first sense, it is impossible for God to lie, or clear the guilty without satisfaction. In the second sense, it was impossible that Saul and his posterity should continue on the throne of Israel. That the restoration of an apostate to his former state is an impossibility in either of these points of view, is more than we are warranted to assert. If we carefully examine the passage, I apprehend we will come to the conclusion that the impossibility is considered as existing not in reference to God, but in reference to man–that the apostles assertion is, that it is impossible, by any renewed course of elementary instruction, to bring back such apostates to the acknowledgment of the truth. He had stated that many of the Hebrews had unlearned all that they had learned, and had need of some one to teach them again the first principles of the oracles of God. Yet he declares his determination not to enter anew on a course of elementary instruction, but to go on to some of the higher branches of Christian knowledge; for this cause, that there was no reason to expect that such restatements would be of any use in reclaiming those who, after being instructed in the doctrines and evidences of Christianity, had apostatised; while, on the other band, there was every reason to hope that illustrations of the higher branches of Christian truth would be of the greatest use to those who held fast the first principles, in establishing them in the faith and profession, in the comforts and obedience of the gospel; just as a farmer after making a fair trial of a piece of ground, and finding that, though everything has been done for it in the most favourable circumstances, it still continues barren, desists, saying, It is impossible to make anything of that field, and turns his attention to rendering still more fertile those fields which have already given evidence of their capability of improvement. It is not possible, by a renewed statement of Christian principles and their evidence, to bring back these apostates. Nothing can be stated but what has been already stated, which they seemed to understand, which they professed to believe, but which they now openly and contemptuously reject. No evidence, stronger than that which has been brought before their minds, and which they once seemed to feel the force of, can be presented to them. The meaning and evidence of Christian truth have been before their minds in as favourable circumstances as can be conceived. The apostles assertion, then, appears to me to be just this–Statement and argument would be entirely lost on such persons, and therefore we do not enter on them. (John Brown, D. D.)

Danger of falling away

A Christian said to a minister of his acquaintance, I am told you are against the perseverance of the saints. Not I, indeed, he replied; it is the perseverance of sinners that I oppose. But do you not think that a child of God can fall very low, and yet be restored? I think it would be very dangerous to make the experiment.

Nothing more can be done

If the mightiest arguments have been brought to bear on the conscience in vain; if after some slight response, which gave hopes of better things, it has relapsed into the insensibility of its former state, there remains nothing more to be done. There is nothing more potent than the wail of Calvarys broken heart and the peal from Sinais brow, and if these have been tried in vain, no argument is left which can touch the conscience and arouse the heart. If these people had never been exposed to these appeals, there would have been some hope for them, but what hope can there be now, since, in having passed through them without permanent effect, they have become more hardened in the process than they were at first? Here is a man dragged from an ice-pond, and brought into the infirmary. Hot flannels are at once applied, the limbs are chafed, every means known to modern science for restoring life is employed. At first it seems as if these appliances will take effect, there are twitchings and convulsive movements; but, alas I they soon subside, and the surgeon gravely shakes his head. Can you do nothing else? Nothing, he replies; I have used every method I can devise, and if these fail, it is impossible to renew again to life. This passage has nothing to do with those who fear lest it condemns them. The presence of that anxiety, like the cry which betrayed the real mother in the days of Solomon, establishes beyond a doubt that you are not one that has fallen away beyond the possibility of renewal to repentance. If you are still touched by gospel sermons, and are anxious to repent, and are in godly fear lest you should be a castaway, take heart; these are signs that this passage has no bearing on you. Why make yourself ill with a sick mans medicine? But if you are growing callous and insensible under the preaching of the gospel, look into this passage, and see your doom, unless you speedily arrest your steps. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The recoil from good influences

Translated into a statement of tendency, the doctrine taught is this.–Every fall involves a risk of apostasy, and the higher the experience fallen from the greater the risk. The deeper religion has gone into a man at the commencement of his Christian course, the less hopeful his condition if he lapse. The nearer the initial stage to a thorough conversion the less likely is a second change, if the first turn out abortive; and so on, in ever-increasing degrees of improbability as lapses increase in number. The brighter the light in the soul, the deeper the darkness when the light is put out. The sweeter the manna of Gods Word to the taste, the more loathsome it becomes when it has lost its relish. The fiercer the fire in the hearth while the fuel lasts, the more certain it is that when the fire goes out there will remain nothing but ashes. The livelier the hope of glory, the greater the aversion to all thoughts of the world to come when once a Christian has, like Atheist in the Pilgrims Progress, turned his back on the heavenly Jerusalem. Action and reaction are equal. The more forcibly you throw an elastic ball against a wall the greater the rebound; in like manner the more powerfully the human spirit is brought under celestial influences, the greater the recoil from all good, if there be a recoil at all. The gushing enthusiasts of today are the cynical sceptics of to-morrow. Have promoters of revivals laid these things duly to heart? (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)

Backsliding and apostasy

The difference between backsliding and apostasy is that between a body benumbed, stiffened, and all but deprived of life by the cold, and the same body petrified and hardened into stone. (J. Leifchild, D. D.)

Sinning against the light

He who sins against the light is hurt beyond hope of cure. (Old Greek Saying.)

Shutting out love

He that shuts love out, in turn Shall be shut out by love,

And on her threshold lie Howling in outer darkness.

(Tennyson.)

Freezing after a thaw

I have read that there is no ice that is harder to melt than ice that has been once melted and frozen the second time. So the soul that has begun to melt before the heart of Christ, and then refuses to lay its sins on the Lamb of God, that heart is the hardest and the most difficult to break again. (Theo. Monod.)

Process of backsliding

Two ministers, walking along the banks of a river, came to a tree which had been blown down in a recent gale. It was a mighty, noble tree, tall and substantial, with large outspreading roots and ample foliage. Approaching to examine it, they found it had been snapped off just above the roots; and, on looking still closer, found that there was only an outer shell of sound wood, and that the heart was rotten. Unnoticed, decay had been going on for years. So is it generally with the fall of professing Christians; the fall is but the result of evil that has been allowed to steadily gather strength within the heart.

The difficulty of the passage

Do you ask me whether it is possible for a Christian man to commit a crime, and to sink into a doom like this? I dare not obliterate the tremendous force of this passage by denying the possibility. Far better leave it as it is–an awful hypothesis–to warn us against the danger and the guilt, than venture by fine-drawn speculations, to diminish its practical power. If you ask me how I can reconcile the passage as it stands, with the merciful promises which assure us of Gods keeping if we trust in Him, I answer that these promises are to those who trust, and continue to trust, in God, not to those who trusted once, but whose trust has now perished; and I answer farther, that I would rather be charged by a whole council of theologians, with introducing scientific inconsistency into a theological system, than dare to lessen the term of a divinely-inspired warning, the undiminished awfulness of which may be needed to save some soul from death. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

What is it to fall away?

To fall away is to go back from the outward profession of Christianity–not temporarily, but finally; not as the result of some sudden sin, but because the first outward stimulus is exhausted, and there is no true life beating at the heart, to repair or reinvigorate the wasting devotion of the life. It is to resemble those wandering planets, which never shone with their own light, but only in the reflected light of some central sun; but which, having broken from its guiding leash, dash further and further into the blackness of darkness, without one spark of life, or heat, or light. It is to return as a dog to its vomit, and as a sow to her filth; because the reformation was only outward and temporary, and the dog or sow natures were never changed through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. It is to be another Judas; to commit the sin against the Holy Ghost; to lose all earnestness of feeling, all desire for better things, all power of tender emotion, and to become utterly callous and dead, as the pavement on which we walk, or the rusty armour hanging on the old castles walls. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

A backslider a sad sight

It is a miserable thing to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things that can befall a man, says Ryle, I suppose it is the worst. A stranded ship, a broken-winged eagle, a garden overrun with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins–all these are sad sights; but a backslider is a sadder sight still.

Misery of a backslider

Terrible is the falling away of any who make profession and act quite contrary to conviction. A lady here (Huddersfield) thus relates her own case. Once Mr. and I were both in the right way. I drew him into the world again. I am now the most miserable of beings. When I lie down I fear I shall awake in hell. When I go out full dressed, and seem to have all the world can give me, I am ready to sink under the terrors of my own mind. What greatly increases my misery is the remembrance of the dying speech of my own sister, wile told me she had stifled convictions and obstinately fought against light to enjoy the company of the world. Sister, said she, I die without hope. Beware this be not your easel But, indeed, said Mrs., I fear it will. (C. Venn.)

They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh

Crucifying the Son of God afresh

Various as have been Gods dealings with the world, there is, after all, a terrible impartiality in His dispensations to His rational creatures. Wherever men possess reason and conscience, they possess, in some measure, the means of pleasing or displeasing Him; whenever they can, in the lowest degree, conceive His law, they are bound to obey it. The whole world is under a moral government, though we alone are in a written covenant; all live to God, though we alone have professed the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The very temptations, ms that dazzle the unevangelised world are, in innumerable instances, the same temptations that are trying us–anger, sensuality, ambition, avarice. We are their brethren in all things except in the revelation of the Divine mercy and the gift of the Divine Spirit. While the human nature of the Church is uniform, its trials must be nearly so. As the Lord ,,f the Church is the same yesterday and to-day and for ever, so the probation He enforces is distributed pretty evenly through all ages and classes. But of all the equalisations of evil in successive ages, of all the repetitions of trial from generation to generation, of all the instances evincing that, in the Church as in the world, the thing that has been will be–unquestionably that expressed in the text is the most startling and fearful. The Crucifixion of Christ, in its literal reality, stands alone in the history of man. It was the last and darkest depth of human criminality. The original fall, and the rejection of the Redeemer, are the two saddest pages in the story of our race. But mournful as is the former, it has never, probably, left the impression upon the heart which is at once produced by all those dread accompaniments that prepared and embittered the last sufferings of the meek and merciful Friend of man. Injustice, cruelty, false shame, unworthy indolence, covetousness, ambition, hypocrisy, envy, all were in different ways exhibited in this tremendous tragedy; all contributed in different ways to fix the catastrophe. No, never, surely, is man, in all the possibilities of futurity, destined again to consummate a wickedness like this. It must be for ever solitary in the world, an event placed beyond anticipation, repetition, or parallel; a lonely and terrible monument of unapproachable guilt. Not thus, however, speaks the voice of inspiration. Heaven has not spared us this trial. When Christ was about to die, He instituted a memorial sacrament of His passion, to show forth His death until He come. It would seem that there is, as it were, a fearful and Satanic sacrament too, of that same dread hour, by which it is still in mans power to reiterate and prolong His death until He come to judge the long succession of His crucifiers. St. Paul delivers to us the tremendous truth, that there is in man a continued capacity of crucifying afresh the Son of God; a power to act over again all the scene of His torture, to league with the malignant priests and the scoffing soldiers, to buffet the unresisting cheek, to bind the crown of thorns. Reflect on the frame and temper of mind, on the weakness and the wickedness, that made the chosen people of God the murderers of His Son, and try if you cannot catch some faint image of that treachery in your own hearts. But be true to yourselves if you would indeed detect the lurking evil, and think not that even among the best of us, in a world of oft-recurring temptation, it is useless to prosecute the scrutiny. Doubtless the accuracy of the image will vary in degree: here, through the progressive sanctification, all but obliterated; here, through remaining worldliness, vivid and undeniable; here, through total rejection of Christ, all but complete. To estimate the resemblance we must turn to the original. When Christ was, in that day of mingled horror and glory, sacrificed on Calvary, few things were more remarkable in the accessories of the event than the feelings and motives of the people. Christ was unquestionably a favourite with the mass of the people; the great obstacle to the schemes of the priests was always that they feared the people. His gracious bearing and the mysterious anticipation that surrounded and dignified His singular life, had evidently caught and conciliated the popular mind. Nor was it unqualified malignity that made them His persecutors, Christ Himself had found a palliation for this crime in their ignorance, He besought forgiveness for them because they knew not what they did. Yet, however it came to pass, this people, thus disposed, are found the unanimous destroyers of their Prophet, the tumultuous petitioners for His crucifixion, the fierce invokers of His blood on them and on their children? Strange as this appears, is there indeed nothing that resembles it in our own experience? Is no parallel to be found for it in the Christian world around us! Can we not, when we go abroad into the highways of daily life, find something in the general mind that reminds us of a people honouring Christ as long as He offers easy blessings, flocking round His standard with enthusiasm so long as He is made the standard-bearer of a party, professing boundless admiration, devotion, and love; yet when the true hour of trial comes, and the question can no longer be escaped,–Shall we surrender our pleasures or our Redeemer?–give up the favour of earthly superiors or the favour of the King of heaven?–abandon our cherished sins, or with our sins nail Jesus to the cross once more?–then, relinquishing their short-lived discipleship, following the instigation of blind and guilty guides, turning with the turning tide, and swelling the torrent of the persecutors of the body of Christ. Turn again to the record. Among the unhappy instruments of Satan, on that dread occasion, was one whose name, almost unknown in all else, his relation to this event has miserably immortalised–the wretched, wavering, timorous Pilate. Willing to save, but afraid to resist, anxious to do right as long as virtue cost no trouble,-has this crucifier of Christ no image among us? Are there no Pilates among our grave and reputable men of business?–none who cold be models of consummate piety if there were no danger of its disturbing their tenure of wealth and influence?–who would gladly save the Son of God from degradation if they were not a tittle apprehensive of degrading themselves in the task,–and would allow Him supreme authority as long as the r own was warranted secure? Not far removed from this is the case of those rulers who struggled against their very faith lest it should hazard their popularity Joh 12:43). Alas! these poor dependents on human fame stand not alone in the world; this weapon of the evil one has not been suffered to rust in disuse! It is not with open disavowal that the votary of fashionable worldliness disclaims the Lord of glory. A peril such as this might be met and warded off. But society does its work surely because slowly. Religion is not proved to be absurd, but assumed to be so; the world would not harshly ask us to disbelieve in Christ, but merely to forget Him. Principles are lost for ever before we have dreamed they were in danger, and the poor victim of the worlds opinion has learned to crucify afresh the Son of God, without relinquishing one outward characteristic of discipleship I But these, wretched and criminal as they are, are but the less daring forms of crime. Deeper guilt than this bore the suffering Lamb of God to His cross, and deeper guilt than this is not confined to His first crucifiers. Can we witness nothing that recalls the rebellious ambition of those who said, This is the heir; come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours? The world at large–yea, the far immense of worlds–is the inalienable property of God; the inheritance is entailed upon that only-begotten Son, whom, it is written, He appointed Heir of all things. And when, refusing to hold as His lessees, spurning His rights of lordship, we would explode His claims for antiquated and fanciful, that we may enjoy His gift as though the fee were ours; in all this is there none of that spirit which once raged in those who, in angry impatience of His claims, took counsel against Him for to put Him to death? And when a paltry hope of gain or advancement can bribe us to forsake a gracious Master, to forget all He has done, and all He has borne; does he remain the alone in the world who said unto the chief priests, What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? Nay, at such an hour we are worse than Judas; for even Judas, the miserable suicide of remorse, we may believe, had another option been his, would not have crucified the Son of God afresh! Can we descend yet deeper? Christ was crucified on the imputation of blasphemy. What was the blasphemy? He had called Himself the Son of God, and the Son of man, and in right of this transcendent union, the Judge to come in the clouds of heaven, and sitting at the right hand of power. If this was false, His crucifiers were justified; if this was false, in a theocratic government, He deserved His fate. There are those who pronounce that mysterious title false in any sense that could have ever made it blasphemy from human lips, who deny the Sonship of the Eternal any significance beyond what more or less belongs to all the virtuous revealers and interpreters of the will of heaven that have ever instructed man. Surely we cannot in justice refuse to such impugners the place they have chosen for themselves in the throng that circled the cross of Jesus! Still we have not sunk to the last level of the Jewish persecutors. Fallen as we are, we could not have borne to prefer Barabbas, the thief and murderer, to our pure and guiltless Redeemer. And who, then, are the darling idols of human applause? Who are the chosen of our race that poetry crowns with its halo of glory, and every young imagination bows to worship? Who, but the laurelled Barabbases of history, the chartered robbers and homicides that stain its pages with blood, and that, after eighteen hundred years of Christian discipline, the world has not yet risen to discountenancing? Remove the conventional discredit that attaches to the weaker thief, exalt him to the majesty of the military despot, and how many would vote for Barabbas, how many linger with the lowly Jesus? Be it so, but our votes would at least be open and undisguised, we would not stoop to the meanness of hypocrisy. We would not, with those you are pleased to make our prototypes, put on Him the scarlet robe and the crown, and the sceptre, that we might bow the knee and mock Him. Of this, at least, we are incapable. Perhaps so. I pray God it may he so. And yet, recall but the hour that has just now floated past you into eternity, when you bowed the knee to this same Jesus who was crucified, when your lips uttered words of piercing sorrow, and besought His mercy and implored His aid, as erring and straying sheep, as miserable offenders, miserable sinners. Ask yourselves how many knees were bowed in the repentance the lips rehearsed, how many hearts were melted in the agony the tongue so readily expressed. And if conscience whisper an accusation, bethink you how differs this from the guilt of those who called Him King, and despised the royalty they ascribed; or was it more a crime to insult Him when He walked the earth in poverty and pain, than when He sits, as now, the recognised Monarch of the universe! (Prof Archer Butler.)

The crucifixion of Christ, an ever recurring crime

I. THE METHOD BY WHICH HEAVEN TESTIMATES THE CHARACTER OF MEN. The essence of a moral act lies, not in the muscular exertion, but in the mental volition.

1. This method of judging character commends itself to our sense of justice as obviously right.

2. This method of judging character urges the most vigorous discipline of the heart.

3. This method of judging character suggests unexpected revelations on the day of judgment.

II. THE ENORMITIES WHICH CORRUPT MEN ARE AT ALL TIMES CAPABLE OF PERPETRATING.

1. The feelings which effected the crucifixion we may find everywhere in the hearts of depraved men.

2. Similar circumstances would probably lead to a similar development.

Learn:

1. The propriety of a trembling modesty in denouncing the great criminals of history. In condemning them, let us take care that we do not foredoom ourselves.

2. The necessity of a heart renovation for the real improvement of humanity.

3. The inestimable value of the gospel to mankind. (Homilist.)

The crucifixion of Christ modernised

To a nature morally sensitive the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the crime of all crimes. Although eighteen hundred)ears have passed it is still the most realistic scene in all history. The strokes of the crucificial hammers are heard not only on the mountains of Palestine; they ring throughout the universe. The vividness of the cross comes, in part, from the way the story of Calvary is told. There is nothing elaborate. No attempt at fine writing. Only a few verses. The story is allowed to tell itself. But here is the secret: it is scenic from beginning to end; it speaks in pictures. God Himself emphasised the enormity of the crucifixion of His Son by means of the great wonders by which He marked the event, and by which He proclaimed that all nature was in a sympathetic agony with the agonising Christ. But mark the way God visits the crime of Christs crucifixion with retribution if you would grasp its enormity. The Hebrews had for centuries been dreaming of a Messiah, and at last their Messiah came. But how did they receive Him? They received Him with yells of Crucify. At the Cross of Jesus, which consummated their iniquity, the story of their nation ends. Some of those who shared in the scene of Christs crucifixion, and myriads of their children, shared also in the long horror of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans–a siege which, for its unutterable fearfulness, stands unparalleled in the story of mankind. They had forced the Romans to crucify their Christ, anal they themselves were crucified in myriads by the Romans outside their walls, till room failed for the crosses and wood to make them with. This would be enough to spread before us the enormity of the crime of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; but this is not all; retribution still follows the nation of His crucifiers. In this year the Jews are an ostracised race in the midst of humanity the world over. To see the enormity of the crucifixion of Christ put by the side of the appalling judgment which followed it an analysis of the crime. The crucifixion of Christ was not a single sin, it was a multifold sin; it was a moral compound. It was a culmination–a climax. A whole series of motives and a whole series of actions were behind it. When we remember this we see that the Cross stands for something upon the part of man. It is an exponent of humanity. It is the work of human nature unregenerated. It shows the extreme of sin to which man will dare to go; he will dare to crucify the Son of God. Is there a point in moral depravity beyond that? If so, what is it? Hundreds and hundreds of typical bands rear the Cross and ply the curcificial hammers and drive the cruel nails of death. I see the hand of the Pharisee; he was a formalist in religion, and could not endure the pure spirituality of Christs religion. I see the hand of the Elder; be was a traditionalist, and he felt his religion reel before the practical common-sense questions which Christ fired through it, as the gun-boat fires its cannon-balls through a wooden ship. I see the hand of the Sadducee; he was an agnostic, and he hated Christ because He brought to bear against the tenets of his agnosticism the deadly parallelism of the Scriptures. The envy of the Churchmen; the avarice of Judas; the vacillation and cowardice of Pilate; the perjury of the false witnesses; the false shame of those who believed in Christ but who refused to confess Him for fear of the Pharisees; the desertion of His long-instructed followers; the brutality of the mob, who mocked Him as He died–all these were forces which combined to erect the Cross and nail Christ to it. And what had Christ done that He should thus be crucified and made an open shame? He had loved men; He had opened the massive prison doors of error and had given men the liberty of the truth; He had smitten haughty tyrannies and broken the oppressive grip which they had upon humanity; He had taken children into His arms and had blessed them; He had lived a holy life, in which no one could pick a single flaw; He had healed the sick; He had uttered the Sermon upon the Mount and the golden promises and the explanatory parables: That was all He had done. How the enormity of the crime of crucifying Him grows t We congratulate ourselves that we were not at Calvary and that we were spared the trial, the experience, and the doom of those who crucified Christ. My fellow-men of the nineteenth century, the text strikes us while we are right in the midst of our mistaken congratulations. It says in unmistakable language the crime of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which is so enormous, is a crime that is continuous. In the rearm of human disposition and feeling, in the thought-life of the world, there is a perpetual Calvary and a perpetual crucifixion. Christ is being crucified afresh, and the old guilt of the first century is not only being constantly incurred, but it is being constantly increased. The men of the first century, when they crucified Christ, knew not what they did–they sinned in darkness; but the men of the nineteenth century, when they crucify Christ, know what they are doing–they sin against light. What has Christ done that any man in the nineteenth century should crucify Him? He has filled the world with pure principles; He has reproduced Himself in the magnificent men and women of the Christian Church; He has built up the ground institutions of civil and religious liberty; He has shaped and moulded the leading nations of the earth; He has given the world the progress and the triumphs of a Christian civilisation. Do these things make Him worthy of crucifixion? The men of the first century who crucified Him saw only the deeds of a very few years; the men of the nineteenth century who crucify Him afresh see the deeds of 1800 years. They sin against all the centuries of the Christian era. There is no mistaking the text. It is in the present tense, and it speaks of a second act. It was addressed to men thirty years after Jesus had been enjoying the glories of the throne of heaven. He was beyond the reach of the physical touch of man. Paul did not consider the essence of a moral act to lie in the muscular exertion, but in the mental volition. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. This is heavens idea of moral conduct. The heart-life is the true life. The Lord looketh upon the heart. Our life includes the unexpressed wishes, the inarticulate longings, and the unwrought purposes of the heart. It includes our moral identifications with our fellow-men and our sympathies with their actions. You hare now before you the answer of the question, How is it possible to recrucify Christ? The answer is this: It is possible by means of moral identification with the men of Calvary. There is a brotherhood of soul with soul; by continuing in the brotherhood made up of the souls of the Pilates, and of the Pharisees, and of the Judases, and of their kindred, we endorse their deeds and ate held by justice as alike criminal with them. When their spirit is incarnated in our acts we crucify Christ afresh. I tell you that not a single impulse or passion that played a part in the great tragedy has died out of the world. They are all pulsating to-day in the hearts of men. The nineteenth century is but a moral echo of the first century. If you are not morally one with the friends of Christ you will be classified with the crucifiers of Christ. That is the principle which the text enunciates. Jesus Himself enunciates the same principle in the woes which He pronounces against the Pharisees. Moral identification! That is the criterion of character! That is the basis upon which God deals with us in judgment. Moral identification is also the basis upon which man judges man. We saw the play of this principle of judgment during the civil war which tore and distracted our land. The war opened with the Confederates firing upon Fort Sumter. That first act was universally made to test all the North. The way a man looked upon that daring act was made the criterion of his standing, the index of his loyalty or disloyalty. The man who deplored it, and who lifted his hands in hob horror at the thought of American citizens firing upon American citizens, was identified with the men within the fort who stood by the guns of the nation loyally and courageously; but the man who let the joy of his soul shine out in his face, or embody itself in utterance, was identified with the men who aimed and fired the guns of treason, and who tattered the dear old Stars and Stripes, and trampled them in the dust. The latter man was compelled to leave the North and was treated as a traitor, which he was. The war was closed with the awful tragedy of assassination. The most dastardly act of all that black history was the firing of the assassins fatal ball by J. Wilkes Booth through the noble frame of Abrabam Lincoln. That act also was made a test. Here and there through the North there were men who applauded the act; but no sooner did the words Good, Served him right, fall from their lips than instantly they were riddled by the Minie balls of patriots, or swung out into the air from impromptu gallows. Why? Because everywhere the men of the North looked upon them as assassins, kindred Booths. Why? Because everywhere the men of the North looked upon soul identification with treason as treason, and sympathy with a traitor as making a man a traitor. Moral identification! That is the criterion of character. Both God and man declare it to be the true basis of righteous judgment. If this be so, then the duty of the hour, in view of the theme which occupies our minds, is to question ourselves with regard to our moral identification. Where do you stand with regard to Christ? That is the question. With whom are you classified? Do you crucify Christ afresh? If by your actions you are classified with Pilate you crucify Christ. The historical man Pilate is dead, but his principles have been modernised. Pilateism never dies. It affects friend.-hip; it pays compliments; it shifts and transfers responsibility; it seeks to be on both sides; it makes an orthodox profession, but lives a heterodox life; it virtually acquits but actually executes. With whom are you classified? With Judas, the man who sold his Master? Why did Judas sell Christ? Because he got money. The sale of Christ by Judas was a pure matter of cash. If you sell conscience or principle for money you are a Judas and a crucifier of Christ. If yea are untruthful and dishonest in your business you are a Judas and a crucifier of Christ. With whom are you identified? With the soldiers who robed Him in mock purple, and who platted a crown of thorns and put it upon His brow, and bowed the knee before Him in hypocrisy? If when conscience tells you to perform a certain duty you deliberately re use to obey, what is that but bowing the knee in hypocrisy to Christ as the King of your life, and turning His crown into a crown of thorns, a thing to be jeered at? With whom are you classified? With the disciples who forsook Him and fled? If so, you play a part in Christs crucifixion. Today the silence and the backwardness and the desertion of Christians may be the cause of the reign of unbelief; the cause of indifference with regard to Christ; the cause also of much of the dishonour that is heaped upon Christ. It is our duty to assort more and claim more for Jesus. With whom are you classified? With the Pharisees, who kept men from espousing the cause of Christ? Do you hinder your friends from making a confession? With whom are you classified? With the Sanhedrin who passed the sentence of death upon Christ? Why did the members of the Sanhedrin sentence Him? Because He claimed to be God; because they said He was a blasphemer; because they denied His deity. Do you deny the deity of Jesus Christ? If so, then there is nothing left for you but to crucify Him. With whom are you identified? I hear a voice saying, I am identified with no one. I am neutral. I neither choose Christ nor Barabbas. I wash my hands clear of the whole business. That was what Pilate thought he would do; but did he? No; all such talk is the merest moral stuff, Neutrality! To you who have this day heard the gospel of Christ, there is no such thing as neutrality. The Master Himself says, He that is not for Me is against Me. That settles it. He that is not morally identified with Christ as a follower and friend is morally identified with His enemies and crucifiers. Your attempted neutrality is a crime against light and against infinite love and against the eternity of your own soul. Why should you crucify the Son of God afresh? Why should you nail H,m to the cross of indifference? Is there any difference between crucifying Christ upon the cross of indifference and crucifying Him upon the cross of criticism, or upon the cross of consent, or upon the cross of unbelief? He is crucified all the same. Do you ask me the way out of your sin? I reply, Seek a true knowledge of Christ. In speaking of the first crucifixion Paul tells the Corinthians that had the men of Jerusalem known Christ they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Do you ask me the way out of your sin? I reply, If you would avoid the crucifixion of Christ join in the coronation of Christ. Crown Him with an ardent faith; with a loyal love; with a fearless, manly, constant, and open confession. (David Gregg, D. D.)

Christ crucified afresh

Bridaine was one of the most celebrated of the French preachers. Marmontel relates, that in his sermons he sometimes had recourse to the interesting method of parables, with a view the more forcibly to impress important truths on the minds of his hearers. Preaching on the passion of Jesus Christ, he expressed himself thus:–A man, accused of a crime of which he was innocent, was condemned to death by the iniquity of his judges. He was led to punishment, but no gibbet was prepared, nor was there any executioner to perform the sentence. The people, moved with compassion, hoped that this sufferer would escape death. But one man raised his voice, and said, I am going to prepare a gibbet, and I will be the executioner. You groan with indignation! Well, my brethren, in each of you I behold this cruel man. Here are no Jews today to crucify Jesus Christ; but you dare to rise up, and say, I will crucify Him. Marmontel adds, that he heard these words pronounced by the preacher, though very young, with all the dignity of an apostle, and with the most powerful emotion; and that such was the effect, that nothing was heard but the sobs of the auditory. (Baxendales Dictionary of Anecdotes.)

Continuous crucifixion

Rather, while crucifying, crucifying as they are doing. Thus the words imply not only an absolute, but a continuous apostasy, for the participle is changed from the past into the present tense. A drop of water will, as the Rabbis said, suffice to purify a man who has accidentally touched a creeping thing, but an ocean will not suffice for his cleansing so long as he purposely keeps it held in his hand. There is such a thing as doing despite unto the Spirit of grace (Heb 10:29). (F. W.Farrar, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened] Before I proceed to explain the different terms in these verses, it is necessary to give my opinion of their design and meaning:

1. I do not consider them as having any reference to any person professing Christianity.

2. They do not belong, nor are they applicable, to backsliders of any kind.

3. They belong to apostates from Christianity; to such as reject the whole Christian system, and its author, the Lord Jesus.

4. And to those of them only who join with the blaspheming Jews, call Christ an impostor, and vindicate his murderers in having crucified him as a malefactor; and thus they render their salvation impossible, by wilfully and maliciously rejecting the Lord that bought them. No man believing in the Lord Jesus as the great sacrifice for sin, and acknowledging Christianity as a Divine revelation, is here intended, though he may have unfortunately backslidden from any degree of the salvation of God.

The design of these solemn words is evidently, First, to show the Hebrews that apostasy from the highest degrees of grace was possible; and that those who were highest in the favour of God might sin against him, lose it, and perish everlastingly. Secondly, to warn them against such an awful state of perdition, that they might not be led away, by either the persuasions or persecutions of their countrymen, from the truth of the heavenly doctrine which had been delivered to them. And, Thirdly, to point out the destruction which was shortly to come upon the Jewish nation.

Once enlightened-Thoroughly instructed in the nature and design of the Christian religion, having received the knowledge of the truth, Heb 10:32; and being convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and led to Jesus the Saviour of sinners.

Tasted of the heavenly gift] Having received the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins, through the Day Spring which from on high had visited them; such having received Christ, the heavenly gift of God’s infinite love, Joh 3:16; the living bread that came down from heaven, Joh 6:51; and thus tasting that the Lord is gracious; 1Pet 2:3, and witnessing the full effects of the Christian religion.

Partakers of the Holy Ghost] The Spirit himself witnessing with their spirits that they were the children of God, and thus assuring them of God’s mercy towards them, and of the efficacy of the atonement through which they had received such blessings.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The foregoing counsel the Spirit enforceth on these Hebrews, from the danger of apostacy, to which the neglect of it doth dispose them, and the terrifying consequents of it, from Heb 6:4-8. We must go on to perfection, unless we will draw back to perdition: so that he bespeaks them: You have been sluggish and dull, and going backward already; lest you grow worse, stir up yourselves; if you neglect it you are in danger of utter falling away:

for it is impossible, not in respect of Gods absolute and almighty power, but in respect of any created power in others or themselves, justly, and by right, it is impossible, because contrary to Gods declared will and resolution in his church, by which his power is limited, so as he will never do it, nor suffer it to be done; in this he will not, cannot deny himself, Heb 6:11; 11:6; compare Mat 7:18; 19:24,26; 2Ti 2:13.

For those who were once enlightened: , several interpreters render, the baptized, who were illuminated with the beams of Divine light; others, the penitent, such who had been initiated into repentance, as Heb 6:1, and think the term once may be limited to baptisms, whereas it refers to all the other particulars. These are such who are instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, and brought out of the darkness and ignorance of Judaism and heathenism, so that they were other persons for the knowledge of gospel truths than before: they see with a new light spiritual things, and have the mind raised up to such objects as thcy knew not before; but they have no new eyes or understandings given them, and so are but as devils like angels of light, whereas the light of a real Christian is the light of life, Joh 8:12; see 2Ti 1:10; 2Pe 1:19. Such some Hebrews professed themselves to be, Rom 2:17-19; and as Balaam was, Num 24:2,3.

And have tasted of the heavenly gift; an act of sense in the body, put metaphorically for an act of the mind. Tasting in the soul, is an apprehension and reception by it, and but merely such, and no more; a taste, and not a digestion, of Christ and his benefits as revealed to them in the gospel, Joh 4:39,40, followed with the superficial relishes of their joy and peace on their temporary believing in them, as it was with the stony ground, Mat 13:20. A sinner enlightened so as to see Christ and the glorious promises made to believers in him, it being agreeable to his natural principles, and being not much humbled, runs away with them with joy, having good desires and affections, but a stony heart still: such was Herod, Mar 6:20.

And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost; not by an inhabitation of his person in them, but by his operations in them, whereby he is trying how far a natural man may be raised, and not have his nature changed: as is evident in Socrates, who died for owning the unity of the Deity; and as the scribe near the kingdom of heaven, Mar 12:34. He is proving by his gifts to them how much supernatural good, and workings towards salvation, they are capable of, without the putting forth of the exceeding greatness of his power to make them new creatures, as Gen 6:3; compare 1Co 1:21; 1Pe 3:18-20. These did partake of from the Holy Ghost, the light of nature, of the law, of the gospel, with some spiritual power accompanying all these; which as they are trials of lapsed nature, so are lessening many punishments by keeping men off from many sins, as 2Pe 2:20. These professors had escaped the gross and outward pollutions and defilements that many were drenched with in their lives, but have lusts abiding unmortified, from whence these would arise in them still; but here is no pure heart or divine nature wrought in them, and the lusting principle is unmortified still; this God accepts according to its kind: compare Mar 10:21,22.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. We must “go on towardperfection”; for if we fall away, after having receivedenlightenment, it will be impossible to renew us again torepentance.

for those“in thecase of those.”

once enlightenedoncefor all illuminated by the word of God taught in connection with”baptism” (to which, in Heb6:2, as once for all done,” once enlightened” hereanswers); compare Eph 5:26.This passage probably originated the application of the term”illumination” to baptism in subsequent times.Illumination, however, was not supposed to be the inseparableaccompaniment of baptism: thus CHRYSOSTOMsays, “Heretics have baptism, not illumination:they are baptized in body, but not enlightened in soul: as SimonMagus was baptized, but not illuminated.” That “enlightened”here means knowledge of the word of truth, appears fromcomparing the same Greek word “illuminated,” Heb 10:32;Heb 10:26, where “knowledgeof the truth” answers to it.

tasted of the heavenlygifttasted for themselves. As “enlightened”refers to the sense of sight: so here taste follows.”The heavenly gift”; Christ given by the Father andrevealed by the enlightening word preached and written: as conferringpeace in the remission of sins; and as the Bestower of the gift ofthe Holy Spirit (Act 8:19;Act 8:20),

made partakers of the HolyGhostspecified as distinct from, though so inseparablyconnected with, “enlightened,” and “tasted of theheavenly gift,” Christ, as answering to “laying on ofhands” after baptism, which was then generally accompanied withthe impartation of the Holy Ghost in miraculous gifts.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,…. The Syriac and Ethiopic versions render it, “baptized”; and the word is thought to be so used in Heb 10:32. And indeed baptism was called very early “illumination” by the ancients, as by Justin Martyr i, and Clemens Alexandrinus k, because only enlightened persons were the proper subjects of it; and the word once here used seems to confirm this sense, since baptism, when rightly administered, was not repeated; but then this sense depends upon an use of a word, which it is not certain did as yet obtain; nor does the apostle take notice of baptism in a parallel place, Heb 10:26. This gave rise to, and seems to favour the error of Novatus, that those who fall into sin after baptism are to be cut off from the communion of the church, and never more to be restored unto it; contrary to the promises of God to returning backsliders, and contrary to facts, as well as to the directions of Christ, and his apostles, to receive and restore such persons; and such a notion tends to set aside the intercession of Christ for fallen believers, and to plunge them into despair: it is better therefore to retain the word “enlightened”, in its proper sense, and to understand it of persons enlightened with Gospel knowledge; there are some who are savingly enlightened by the Spirit of God, to see the impurity of their hearts and actions, and their impotency to perform that which is good, the imperfection of their own righteousness to justify them, their lost state and condition by nature, and to see Christ and salvation by him, and their interest in it; and these being “once” enlightened, never become darkness, or ever so fall as to perish; for if God had a mind to destroy them, he would never have shown them these things, and therefore cannot be the persons designed here; unless we render the words, as the Syriac version does, “it is impossible”—-Nwjxy bwtd, “that they should sin again”; so as to die spiritually, lose the grace of God, and stand in need of a new work upon them, which would be impossible to be done: but rather such are meant, who are so enlightened as to see the evil effects of sin, but not the evil that is in sin; to see the good things which come by Christ, but not the goodness that is in Christ; so as to reform externally, but not to be sanctified internally; to have knowledge of the Gospel doctrinally, but not experimentally; yea, to have such light into it, as to be able to preach it to others, and yet be destitute of the grace of God:

and have tasted of the heavenly gift; either faith, or a justifying righteousness, or the pardon of sin, or eternal life; which are all spiritual and heavenly gifts of grace, and which true believers have real tastes of; and hypocrites please themselves with, having some speculative notions about them, and some desires after them, arising from a natural principle of self-love. Some think the Holy Ghost is intended; but rather Christ himself, the unspeakable gift of God’s love, given from heaven, as the bread of life. Now there are some who have a saving spiritual taste of this gift; for though God’s people, while unregenerate, have no such taste; their taste is vitiated by sin, and it is not changed; sin is the food they live upon, in which they take an imaginary pleasure, and disrelish every thing else; but when regenerated, their taste is changed, sin is rendered loathsome to them; and they have a real gust of spiritual things, and especially of Christ, and find a real delight and pleasure in feeding by faith upon him; whereby they live upon him, and are nourished up unto eternal life, and therefore cannot be the persons here spoken of: but there are others who taste, but dislike what they taste; have no true love to Christ, and faith in him; or have only a carnal taste of him, know him only after the flesh, or externally, not inwardly and experimentally; or they have only a superficial taste, such as is opposed to eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of Christ, by faith, which is proper to true believers; the gust they have is but temporary, and arises from selfish principles.

And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost; not his person, nor his special grace; there are some who so partake of him, as to be united to him, in whom he becomes the principle of spiritual life, and motion: such have the fruits of the Spirit, and communion with him; they enjoy his personal presence and inhabitation in them; they have received him as a spirit of illumination and conviction, of regeneration and sanctification, as the spirit of faith, and as a comforter; and as a spirit of adoption, and the earnest and seal of future glory; but then such can never so fall away as to perish: a believer indeed may be without the sensible presence of the Spirit; the graces of the Spirit may be very low, as to their exercise; and they may not enjoy his comforts, gracious influences, and divine assistance; but the Spirit of God never is, in the above sense, in a castaway; where he takes up his dwelling, he never quits it; if such could perish, not only his own glory, but the glory of the Father, and of the Son, would be lost likewise: but by the Holy Ghost is sometimes meant the gifts of the Spirit, ordinary or extraordinary,

1Co 12:4 and so here; and men may be said to be partakers of the Holy Ghost, to whom he gives wisdom and prudence in things natural and civil; the knowledge of things divine and evangelical, in an external way; the power of working miracles, of prophesying, of speaking with tongues, and of the interpretation of tongues; for the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost seem chiefly designed, which some, in the first times of the Gospel, were partakers of, who had no share in special grace, Mt 7:22.

i Apolog. 2. p. 94. k Paedagog. l. 1. c. 6. p. 93.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

As touching those who were once enlightened ( ). First aorist passive articular participle (the once for all enlightened) of , old and common verb (from ) as in Lu 11:36. The metaphorical sense here (cf. John 1:9; Eph 1:18; Heb 10:32) occurs in Polybius and Epictetus. The accusative case is due to in verse 6. H here is “once for all,” not once upon a time () and occurs again (Heb 9:7; Heb 9:26; Heb 9:27; Heb 9:28; Heb 12:26; Heb 12:27).

Tasted of the heavenly gift ( ). First aorist middle participle of , old verb once with accusative (verse 5, , ), usually with genitive (Heb 2:9) as here.

Partakers of the Holy Ghost ( ). See 3:14 for . These are all given as actual spiritual experiences.

And then fell away ( ). No “then” here, though the second aorist (effective) active participle of , old verb to fall beside (aside), means that. Only here in N.T. In Gal 5:4 we have (ye fell out of grace, to law, Paul means).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Impossible [] . It is impossible to dilute this word into difficult.

Those who were once enlightened [ ] . Rend. “once for all enlightened.” %Apax is frequent in the Epistle. Comp. ch. Heb 9:7, 26, 27, 28; Heb 10:2; Heb 12:26, 27. Indicating that the enlightenment ought to have sufficed to prevent them from falling away; not that it does not admit of repetition. Enlightened, through the revelation of God in Christ, the true light, and through the power of the Spirit. Fwtizein in LXX usually to teach or instruct; see Psa 108:130; 2Ki 12:2; 2Ki 17:27. Comp. in N. T. Joh 1:9; Eph 1:18; Eph 3:9; Heb 10:32. Erasmus gives the correct explanation : “Who once for all have left the darkness of their former life, having been enlightened by the gospel teaching.” There is no ground for explaining the word here of baptism, although the fathers from the time of Justin Martyr used fwtizein and fwtosmov in that sense, and this usage continued down to the Reformation. See Just. Mart. Apol. 1. 62. Chrysostom entitled his 59th Homily, addressed to candidates for baptism, prov touv mellontav fwtizesqai to those who are about to be enlightened; and justified this name for baptism by this passage and Heb 10:32. The Peshitto translates this passage, “who have once (for all) descended to baptism.” The N. T. gives no example of this usage. 193 Tasted of the heavenly gift [ ] For geusamenouv tasted, comp. ch. Heb 2:9. The meaning is, have consciously partaken of. Comp. 1Pe 2:3, and trwgwn eateth, Joh 6:56. The heavenly gift is the Holy Spirit. It is true that this is distinctly specified in the next clause, but the two clauses belong together. Partakers of the Holy Ghost [ ] . “Heavenly gift” emphasizes the heavenly quality of the gift. The Holy Ghost is the gift itself which possesses the heavenly quality.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For it is impossible,” (adunaton gar) “Because it (is) not possible,” “It is not in the ability,” or there (is) not a potential, a dynamic power; There exists no further methods, means or agency, Act 4:12.

2) “For those who were once enlightened,” (tous hapaks photisthentas) “For the ones having once been lighted from within,” born again, having received Christ, the light of the world into their hearts, having received eternal life, Heb 10:32; Joh 1:11-12; Joh 8:12; Joh 10:27-29; 1Jn 5:11.

3) “And have tasted of the heavenly gift,” (geusamenous te tes doreastes epouraniou) “And tasting of the heavenly gift,” or spiritually experiencing the heavenly gift, not only salvation but more specifically the continual indwelling witness and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, Joh 4:10; Rom 8:14-16; Eph 2:8-9.

4) “And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,” (kai metochous genethentas pneumatos hagiou) “And becoming (or having become) present sharers of the Holy Ghost,” even presently made progressively to share the Holy Spirit with the Lord and others personally and in the church where he abides forever, Joh 14:15-17; Joh 16:13; 2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5; Gal 3:2-5; Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

4. For it is impossible, etc. This passage has given occasion to many to repudiate this Epistle, especially as the Novatians armed themselves with it to deny pardon to the fallen. Hence those of the Western Church, in particular, refused the authority of this Epistle, because the sect of Novatus annoyed them; and they were not sufficiently conversant in the truth so as to be equal to refute it by argument. But when the design of the Apostle is understood, it then appears evident that there is nothing here which countenances so delirious an error. Some who hold sacred the authority of the Epistle, while they attempt to dissipate this absurdity, yet do nothing but evade it. For some take “impossible” in the sense of rare or difficult, which is wholly different from its meaning. Many confine it to that repentance by which the catechumens in the ancient Church were wont to be prepared for baptism, as though indeed the Apostles prescribed fasting, or such things to the baptized. And then what great thing would the Apostle have said, by denying that repentance, the appendage of baptism, could be repeated? He threatens with the severest vengeance of God all those who would cast away the grace which had been once received; what weight would the sentence have had to shake the secure and the wavering with terror, if he only reminded them that there was no longer room for their first repentance? For this would extend to every kind of offense. What then is to be said? Since the Lord gives the hope of mercy to all without exception, it is wholly unreasonable that any one for any cause whatever should be precluded.

The knot of the question is in the word, fall away. Whosoever then understands its meaning, can easily extricate himself from every difficulty. But it must be noticed, that there is a twofold falling away, one particular, and the other general. He who has in anything, or in any ways offended, has fallen away from his state as a Christian; therefore all sins are so many fallings. But the Apostle speaks not here of theft, or perjury, or murder, or drunkenness, or adultery; but he refers to a total defection or falling away from the Gospel, when a sinner offends not God in some one thing, but entirely renounces his grace.

And that this may be better understood, let us suppose a contrast between the gifts of God, which he has mentioned, and this falling away. For he falls away who forsakes the word of God, who extinguishes its light, who deprives himself of the taste of the heavens or gift, who relinquishes the participation of the Spirit. Now this is wholly to renounce God. We now see whom he excluded from the hope of pardon, even the apostates who alienated themselves from the Gospel of Christ, which they had previously embraced, and from the grace of God; and this happens to no one but to him who sins against the Holy Spirit. For he who violates the second table of the Law, or transgresses the first through ignorance, is not guilty of this defection; nor does God surely deprive any of his grace in such a way as to leave them none remaining except the reprobate.

If any one asks why the Apostle makes mention here of such apostasy while he is addressing believers, who were far off from a perfidy so heinous; to this I answer, that the danger was pointed out by him in time, that they might be on their guard. And this ought to be observed; for when we turn aside from the right way, we not only excuse to others our vices, but we also impose on ourselves. Satan stealthily creeps on us, and by degrees allures us by clandestine arts, so that when we go astray we know not that we are going astray. Thus gradually we slide, until at length we rush headlong into ruin. We may observe this daily in many. Therefore the Apostle does not without reason forewarn all the disciples of Christ to beware in time; for a continued torpor commonly ends in lethargy, which is followed by alienation of mind.

But we must notice in passing the names by which he signalizes the knowledge of the Gospel. He calls it illumination; it hence follows that men are blind, until Christ, the light of the world, enlightens them. He calls it a tasting of the heavenly gift; intimating that the things which Christ confers on us are above nature and the world, and that they are yet tasted by faith. He calls it the participation of the Spirit; for he it is who distributes to every one, as he wills, all the light and knowledge which he can have; for without him no one can say that Jesus is the Lord, (1Co 12:3😉 he opens for us the eyes of our minds, and reveals to us the secret things of God. He calls it a tasting of the good word of God; by which he means, that the will of God is therein revealed, not in any sort of way, but in such a way as sweetly to delight us; in short, by this title is pointed out the difference between the Law and the Gospel; for that has nothing but severity and condemnation, but this is a sweet testimony of God’s love and fatherly kindness towards us. And lastly, he calls it a tasting of the powers of the world to come; by which he intimates, that we are admitted by faith as it were into the kingdom of heaven, so that we see in spirit that blessed immortality which is hid from our senses. (97)

Let us then know, that the Gospel cannot be otherwise rightly known than by the illumination of the Spirit, and that being thus drawn away from the world, we are raised up to heaven, and that knowing the goodness of God we rely on his word.

But here arises a new question, how can it be that he who has once made such a progress should afterwards fall away? For God, it may be said, calls none effectually but the elect, and Paul testifies that they are really his sons who are led by his Spirit, (Rom 8:14😉 and he teaches us, that it is a sure pledge of adoption when Christ makes us partakers of his Spirit. The elect are also beyond the danger of finally falling away; for the Father who gave them to be preserved by Christ his Son is greater than all, and Christ promises to watch over them all so that none may perish. To all this I answer, That God indeed favors none but the elect alone with the Spirit of regeneration, and that by this they are distinguished from the reprobate; for they are renewed after his image and receive the earnest of the Spirit in hope of the future inheritance, and by the same Spirit the Gospel is sealed in their hearts. But I cannot admit that all this is any reason why he should not grant the reprobate also some taste of his grace, why he should not irradiate their minds with some sparks of his light, why he should not give them some perception of his goodness, and in some sort engrave his word on their hearts. Otherwise, where would be the temporal faith mentioned by Mar 4:17 ? There is therefore some knowledge even in the reprobate, which afterwards vanishes away, either because it did not strike roots sufficiently deep, or because it withers, being choked up. (98)

And by this bridle the Lord keeps us in fear and humility; and we certainly see how prone human nature is otherwise to security and foolish confidence. At the same time our solicitude ought to be such as not to disturb the peace of conscience. For the Lord strengthens faith in us, while he subdues our flesh: and hence he would have faith to remain and rest tranquilly as in a safe haven; but he exercises the flesh with various conflicts, that it may not grow wanton through idleness.

(97) See Appendix T.

(98) See Appendix U.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

C.

The awful consequences of falling away. Heb. 6:4-8.

Text

Heb. 6:4-8

Heb. 6:4 For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, Heb. 6:5 and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the age to come, Heb. 6:6 and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. Heb. 6:7 For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessings from God: Heb. 6:8 but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.

Paraphrase

Heb. 6:4 For it is impossible for us to restore a second time, by repentance, those who have been once enlightened by believing the Gospel; and have tasted of the heavenly gift of freedom from the yoke of the law of Moses, and from the grievous superstitions of heathenism, which is bestowed on Jews and Gentiles under the Gospel; and have been made partakers of the gifts of the Holy Ghost at their baptism;

Heb. 6:5 And have perceived the excellence of the Word of God, the doctrines and promises of the Gospel; and have seen the efficacy of the powers of the Gospel dispensation in reforming sinners;

Heb. 6:6 And yet have renounced the Gospel, in the imagination that Jesus was justly punished with death as an imposter, crucifying a second time in their own mind, and making a public example of the Son of God, by inwardly approving of, and consenting to His punishment.

Heb. 6:7 In giving up such wilful sinners as incorrigible, we act as men do in cultivating their fields. For the land which drinketh in the rain which often falleth upon it, and produceth fruits fit for the use of them by whom it is cultivated, continueth to be cultivated, and receiveth a blessing from God:

Heb. 6:8 But that which, being duly cultivated and watered, produceth only thorns and briars, is reprobated by the husbandman as not worthy of culture, and soon will fall under the curse, and in the end will be burnt up with drought.

Comment

For as touching those who were once enlightened

Obviously, full Christians are up for discussion.

a.

Clarkes commentary: I do not consider them as having any reference to any person professing Christianity. They are not applicable to backsliders of any kind.

b.

Enlightenment refers to those who have known.

c.

This expression is the mark of a true Christian.

1.

Heb. 10:32 : Paul points out that the Hebrew brethren were once enlightened and endured affliction.

2.

Eph. 5:8 Now are ye light in the Lord.

3.

Col. 1:12 : Saints in the light.

4.

1Th. 5:5 : Sons of light.

5.

1Pe. 2:9 : Into His marvelous light.

6.

1Jn. 2:10 : He that loveth his brother abideth in light, If once enlightened does not refer to Christian people, how many repetitions of enlightenment does it take to make one a Christian?

Notice the word impossible appears in this expression in the King James version.

a.

In the American Standard it appears in Heb. 6:6.

b.

In the Greek it is in Heb. 6:4 : For impossible (it is) those once for all enlightened

and tasted of the heavenly gift

Gods word should always be sweet to us, but to some it is not.

a.

Milligan: The word tasted means to experience, partake.

b.

Newell: makes a difference in tasting and drinking. (p. 187)

1.

A person can taste and be lost, he says.

2.

The drinkers are truly saved.

a)

The drinker commits himself to what he drinks and is therefore saved.

b)

He says thousands taste of the heavenly gift, eternal life, who never drink that water.

c)

The context shows that he is desperate for a point of view. What is meant, the heavenly gift?

a.

See the scriptures that offer suggestions.

1.

Joh. 6:51 : Christ, the Living Bread that came down from heaven.

2.

1Pe. 2:3 : . . . if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

3.

Psa. 104:34 : Meditation of Him shall be sweet.

b.

Others say it refers to the Holy Spirit. Act. 2:38.

c.

Others say it refers to the new life.

1.

Joh. 6:33 : The bread of God is He who cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.

2.

Joh. 4:1-14 : To the woman at the well.

3.

Joh. 3:36.

4.

1Jn. 5:12 : He who hath the Son hath life.

Salvation in Christ is most likely meant, for in this section he names the word of God, Holy Spirit; so salvation remains.

a.

Christ is a gift; grace is a gift.

b.

The gift of salvation and Christ were experienced by these Hebrews.

and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit

We are made partakers when we confess Jesus as Lord.

1Co. 12:3 : No man can say Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit. Joh. 14:17 : Even the Spirit of Truth whom the world can not receive; for it beholdeth Him not. Joh. 7:39 : But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

We are made partakers when we are baptized. Act. 2:38 : Gift of the Holy Spirit: Gal. 4:6 : Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Newell says this is not the same as sealed unto the day of redemption. Eph. 4:30.

Eph. 4:30 : Grieve not the Holy Spirit in whom ye are sealed.

Eph. 1:13-14 : Ye were sealed.

He says we can be a partner but never sealed, and uses Judas as an illustration.
Who but a Christian has been a partaker of the Holy Spirit?

and tasted the good word of God

Taste is a wonderful ability and is appreciated the most spiritually, for the Word of God is sweet. Psa. 19:10 : Thy word is sweeter than honey. Psa. 119:103 : words sweeter than honey to my soul.

John speaks of the Word, Rev. 10:10 : It was in my mouth sweet as honey.

and the powers of the age to come

By faith we see in spirit the blessed immortality that is hid from our physical senses.

a.

Milligan says this is the highest stage of Christian experience.

1.

Enlightened.

2.

Tasted of the heavenly gift.

3.

Made to partake of the influences of the Holy Spirit.

4.

Experience of the excellence of Gods Word.

5.

Participation in the full powers of the new dispensation.

b.

The pull of eternity, longing for heaven, is an experience that the redeemed feel.

c.

Clarke suggests two opinions:

1.

It perhaps refers to all the miracles that Jesus did.

2.

The communications and foretastes of eternal blessedness and joys of the world to come.

d.

It must refer to the experience of divine things to the end that you feel a powerful longing for heaven. Php. 1:23 : But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is very far better, 24 yet to abide in the flesh is far more needful for your sake.

and then fell away

Here we have a warning that much experience may be lost.

a.

Let no man blame God after experiencing all this.

b.

When we go astray, we are rushing headlong into ruin of our own accord.

c.

Overconfidence may cause one to fall. 1Co. 10:12. What is the meaning of fall away?

a.

This is not a participation in some sin in which a person has been tempted.

1.

It is a renouncing of the grace of God.

2.

It is a forsaking of the Word of God, extinguishing the light.

3.

It is a relinquishing of a participation of the Holy Spirit.

4.

It is an abandonment of desire for the advocate.

b.

When a person comes to the place where he can be shown a passage of scripture and says, I dont care, then he has fallen.

Jesus taught that men could fall away. Joh. 15:6 : If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

having fallen away is a translation of this, as seen by the Word.

a.

The Greek word is parapesontas.

1.

It is an aorist participle of parapipto.

2.

The word is parapiptofall away.

a)

The word is compounded from para meaning alongside, and piptein, to fall.

3.

Thayer: Hence to deviate from the right path, to turn aside, to wander, In scripture to fall away from the true faith, from Christianity.

4.

This is the only place in the New Testament that this word appears.

b.

A second Greek word for falling away is aphistemi.

1.

It means to separate from, either by ones will (voluntarily) or by the will of another.

2.

Observe the use of the word, Newell, p. 192.

a)

Four times in Luke: Luk. 2:37 : Anna departed not from the temple. Luk. 4:13 : And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season. Luk. 8:13 : Those on the rocky ground in time of temptation fall away, Luk. 13:27 : Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. Observe here the will of another.

c.

Other uses: Act. 19:9 : Pauldeparted from them (the Jews) and separated the disciples, 1Ti. 4:1 : And in later times some shall fall away from the faith. 1Ti. 6:5 : From such withdraw thyself. 2Ti. 2:19 : Let every one that nameth the Name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.

d.

A very specific use is in Heb. 3:12.

1.

The Greek is apostenai.

a)

From this word we get the word apostasy.

b)

Apostasy, Webster: Abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed; total desertion of principles or faith.

2.

The noun is apostasia. It appears twice: Act. 21:21 : Here Paul is accused of abandoning Moses. 2Th. 2:3 : Here is a general apostasy from God to the antichrist.

What is the extent of falling away?

a.

What it is not.

1.

It is not a falling into sin.

2.

The sinner can return and be forgiven, if he has only sinned.

a)

1Jn. 2:1 : If any man sin, we have an advocate.

b.

It is a falling away from God, from Christ, from salvation; a renouncing of the truth.

1.

The once of Heb. 6:4 shows these acts to have been done in the past.

2.

These referred to here have turned back to the sin they once loved.

3.

These have turned away from the light and have come to hate it.

4.

See Heb. 10:26-31.

Life of repentance
Life of unwilling sin

1.

Enlightened.

2.

Tasted of the heavenly gift.

3.

Made partakers of the Holy Spirit.

4.

Tasted the good Word of God.

5.

Tasted the powers of the age to come.

1Jn. 2:1AdvocateGOD

for one who willingly sins, it is impossible to renew him again unto repentance. There is no more sacrifice for high-handed sin.

it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance

Observe that the word impossible appears in Heb. 6:4 in the Greek and in the King James version.

What is meant by renew?

a.

It may be rendered, restore.

b.

Josephus used the word, and applies it to the restoration or renovation of the temple.

Does God cut them off, or is it that the sinner is too hardened to be restored?

a.

There are arguments for both answers.

1.

Old Testament scripture:

a)

Those that say God gives man up: Gen. 6:3 : My spirit will not strive with man forever. Num. 15:30-31 : soul that doeth aught with a high handshall be cut off. Pro. 1:26 : I also will laugh in the day of your calamity. Pro. 1:28 : They will call upon me, but I will not answer. Jos. 24:19 : He will not forgive your. . . . sins.

b)

Those that say God will forgive: Num. 30:5 : Lord will forgive, Hos. 4:16 : Israel had behaved like a backsliding heifer, but God promises He will feed them as sheep.

2)

New Testament passages:

a)

That God will give man up: Rom. 1:24 : Wherefore God gave them up, Rom. 1:28 : Even as they refused . . . God . . . God gave them up, 2Th. 2:11-12 : God sendeth them a working of error.

b)

Those that say God will forgive: Joh. 3:16 : whosoever. Joh. 6:37 : I will in no wise cast out. 2Ti. 2:25 : If peradventure God may give them repentance.

b.

Obviously the negative verses qualify the positive. Gods grace can be extended only so far.

1.

The reason why it is impossible is found in the word rejected of Heb. 6:8.

They have crucified Christ, put Him to an open shame, and God is unwilling for them to repent.

2.

Of course, there is the possibility that such people will not want to repent.

seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh

When a person turns back to sin, it appears that he professes that Christ deserved to be crucified as an imposter.

a.

They put a living Christ out of their life, and He is dead to them.

b.

Notice that they who make sin their choice are the ones here discussed.

What actually takes place?

a.

Their manner of life cuts off prayer and repentance.

b.

They cut off His table for the table of demons.

c.

Christian fellowship is replaced by that of the world.

d.

Growth in grace is substituted by a sinking into sin.

The atheist or infidel cannot do this; only the Christian can crucify the Son of God afresh.

and put Him to an open shame.

The person who goes back to the world brings shame upon Christ.

a.

Christianity becomes a joke to the world when it is given up by a Christian.

b.

It makes Christianity appear powerless.

c.

Christianity appears as hypocrisy to the unbelieving when the believer denounces it.

If Christianity does not save one from sinning, the critic says, I told you so.

For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it

Soil is used here to illustrate the Christian, of which much is expected.

a.

The Christian drinks, tastes the good Word of God. But it does not always last.

b.

The Christian should be like the good soil in Jesus parable. Luk. 8:4-8.

The Christian receives so much from God that it is inexcusable for him to do less than to produce fruit.

and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God

Gods seed should strike root at once in our lives. Herbs is symbolic of the fruit desired in the life of the Christian.

a.

Good seed and good soil, with refreshment from God, should produce a good harvest.

b.

Let us consider how great an advantage the Christian has over the world.

Only good fruit may have the blessing of God.

But if it beareth thorns and thistles

Christian growth is the point of this parable, and thorns and thistles are the opponents of growth.

a.

Herbs are the things that accompany salvation in Heb. 6:9.

b.

Thorns and thistles result when God is not allowed to be the husbandman.

The seed of the Gospel is sometimes destroyed by indifference and corrupt affections.

it is rejected

God cannot accept thorns and thistles, so rejection is needful.

a.

The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment in failure.

b.

Thorns and thistles give no encouragement of harvest, so they must be rejected.

We must examine our lives to see if God will reject us.

and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned

The rejected may look forward only to destruction.

a.

Unless repentance takes place, the lake of fire will be their end.

b.

Burning or blessing is our choice to make.

The only alternative for a good husbandman is destruction of the evil.

Study Questions

924.

What is meant by, for as touching?

925.

What kind of persons are referred to in Pauls discussion here?

926.

Who is referred to by persons once enlightened?

927.

Could it be persons who heard and saw the light, but did not embrace it?

928.

What other part of the verse seems to indicate that Christian people are referred to?

929.

Does not Heb. 10:32 make it specific that Christians are up for discussion?

930.

Compare Eph. 5:8; Col. 1:12; 1Th. 5:5; 1Pe. 2:9; 1Jn. 2:10 to see whether enlightenment is a mark of a Christian.

931.

If enlightened is not referring to a Christian, how many times must one be illumined before he can become one?

932.

In the King James Bible where does the word impossible appear? In the American Standard? In the original language?

933.

What does impossible mean? Is it a final state?

934.

What does the word tasted mean?

935.

Is there a difference between tasters and drinkers?

936.

Is it possible to taste, but not be a drinker of eternal life?

937.

Why do some try to make such close distinction here?

938.

Observe that some commentators think that tasters can be lost but not drinkers.

939.

What possible explanations have been given for the expression, heavenly gift?

940.

Why could it refer to water or bread of life as in Joh. 6:51 and Joh. 4:1-14?

941.

What is the evidence in this verse that would rule the Holy Spirit and Word of God out as being the tasted gift?

942.

Define the word partakers. Is it the same as tasting? When are we made partakers?

943.

Compare 1Co. 12:3 and Act. 2:38 and Gal. 4:6 to find when we experience the Holy Spirit.

944.

Is partaking the same as being sealed? Eph. 4:30; Eph. 1:13-14.

945.

Who but a Christian could be a partaker of the Holy Spirit?

946.

Why do some try to teach that partaking and sealing are not the same?

947.

Is it fair to speak of Judas as being a partaker, but not being a sealed one to illustrate the Christian state referred to here?

948.

Is the word, taste, here the same word of Heb. 6:4?

949.

Do people consider Gods words good tasting without accepting them?

950.

Compare some attitudes found in Psa. 19:10; Psa. 119:103; Rev. 10:10.

951.

Do the words good Word of God imply that some of it is not good?

952.

Does the expression powers of the age to come refer to the very highest experience yet named in Heb. 6:4-5? Observe that four things are experienced ahead of this.

953.

What could powers of the age to come refer to?

954.

Could it be the experience of heavenly blessings of joy while we are yet on earth?

955.

Why do you think it might be an experience similar to that faced by Paul in Php. 1:23-24?

956.

Is there any significance in the fact that he does not specifically say fallen from the faith?

957.

Can a person lose all the former things named, at least for a time, according to Heb. 6:6?

958.

What is this falling away? Is it a falling into some specific sin?

959.

What is falling away? What is Thayers definition?

960.

Does the context suggest that it is serious?

961.

Is this a common word in the New Testament?

962.

What is a second Greek word for falling away?

963.

Does aphistemi refer to a separate state that is voluntary, or one forced?

964.

Compare Luk. 13:27 for falling away by the will of another.

965.

Compare the Word with Jesus statement in regard to soil in Luk. 8:13.

966.

Is the word aphistemi always used to indicate fall away? Cf. Act. 19:9; 1Ti. 6:5; 2Ti. 2:19.

967.

Compare the word as Paul used it in reference to falling from the faith in 1Ti. 4:1.

968.

Which Greek word is used in Heb. 3:12?

969.

Which one of the Greek words is the root word for our word apostasy?

970.

Notice that in 2Th. 2:3 an apostasy from God to the antichrist is pointed out.

971.

Notice that in Act. 21:21 Paul is accused of falling from Moses.

972.

Describe fallen away in relationship to each of the five experiences previously named.

973.

A most important question here: is this falling away a permanent condition?

974.

If it is not permanent, then what does the word impossible mean in Heb. 6:4 of the King James version or Heb. 6:6 in the American Standard?

975.

If fall away means to deviate from the right path, to turn away, etc., can we justly infer that once they were in the Way?

976.

Can you infer that falling away is to fall out of the Way?

977.

If the word appears only this one time, can we be sure of its meaning when we cant judge its meaning by other texts?

978.

Is there another word for falling away?

979.

Is this the same condition as in Heb. 10:26-31? Why do you think so?

980.

Could you say that the fallen one is no longer enlightened, but is in the dark?

981.

Of what is such a one tasting in the fallen state?

982.

Of what is he partaker?

983.

Is he still tasting the Word of God?

984.

Is he able to feel power?

985.

Is he powerless, like a motor without electricity?

986.

Does not God say we have an Advocate in 1Jn. 2:1 if we sin?

987.

What kind of sin is the kind that makes a permanent barrier between God and Man?

988.

Are there two kinds of sin involved in the ability to repent, and the inability to be restored?

989.

Define the word renew in this expression, renew again unto repentance.

990.

Have the translators in the American Standard version made an error by placing the word impossible here, obviously teaching that some cannot be restored?

991.

Do you feel that you have the right to conclude that some have fallen away, and therefore refuse any effort to restore them?

992.

Where is the impossibility to be placed, in the heart of man, or in the attitude of God?

993.

Cite some New Testament verses where God gives men up. Rom. 1:24-26; 2Th. 2:11-12.

994.

Does God give men up? Note rejected in Heb. 6:8.

995.

Cite instances in the Old Testament where He gave men up. Gen. 6:3; Pro. 1:28; Jos. 24:19.

996.

Does He always give them up?

997.

Observe that Num. 15:30-31 may be the clue as to why God cuts some off and does not others.

998.

In this sixth verse, is the fault with man, that he is in such a state that he cannot be appealed to for repentance?

999.

Is it in the mind of God? What does Paul think of Gods mind in the matter? Cf. Heb. 6:10.

1000.

What have such persons done to Christ in Heb. 6:6?

1001.

Can the infidel or atheist crucify Christ afresh?

1002.

Isnt the Christian the only one who can crucify Him afresh?

1003.

Does this mean that they put a living Christ out of their life and make Him as one dead?

1004.

Does it indicate that such ones consider Christ to be deserving of crucifixion as an imposter?

1005.

What actually takes place in the life of such people who crucify Christ afresh and put Him to an open shame?

1006.

Do they cut off Bible study, prayer, communion, fellowship, etc.?

1007.

Could we say that growth in grace is substituted by sinking into sin?

1008.

What is meant by the expression, put Him to open shame?

1009.

If Christianity does not save the Christian from sinning, does it make Christ seem powerless and impotent?

1010.

What illustration does the author use in Heb. 6:7-8?

1011.

Could the land here be likened to Christs parable in Luke 8?

1012.

Should seed take permanent lodging and bring forth fruit?

1013.

What does the rain compare to in our lives?

1014.

Should showers of blessing not help us to be steadfast?

1015.

What does Rom. 2:4 say concerning Gods goodness? Cf. Exo. 34:6; Psa. 33:5.

1016.

In this verse, what replaces herbs?

1017.

Who does the rejecting?

1018.

If we are thistles, can we expect God to accept us?

1019.

We are burned or blessedis this Pauls teaching?

1020.

Does the burning indicate finality in this impossible renewal state?

1021.

Is burning a familiar expression in the New Testament? Cf. Mat. 3:11-12; 2Pe. 3:8-13.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(4) For it is impossible for those . . .The connection of thought has been already explained (Heb. 6:3); the general meaning will be examined below (Heb. 6:6). It will be seen that the greater part of this long sentence is dependent on the word renew in Heb. 6:6, It is impossible to renew again unto repentance those who were once, &c.

Those who were once enlightened.This metaphor is introduced again in Heb. 10:32; neither there nor here does the context contain any notice or expansion of the figure. In that passage, however, it is applied generally to all who are addressed, and includes everything that was involved in the reception of the Christian faith. This inclusive application of the term (familiar from prophecy, from our Lords own words, from Apostolic usage; see Act. 26:18; Eph. 1:18; 1Pe. 2:9) throws light on the construction of the verse before us. As the words stand in the Authorised version, enlightened is but the first term of a series; but it is far more probable that the clauses which follow should be regarded as explanatory of the enlightenment itself: . . . those who were once enlightened, having both tasted . . . and been made partakers . . . and tasted . . .

Tasted of the heavenly gift.On the first word, see the Note on Heb. 2:9. From the clear parallelism which exists between these verses and Heb. 2:3-5 we may infer that the salvation offered in the gospel (Heb. 2:3) is intended by this gift. It is a gift which belongs to heaven (comp. Heb. 1:14), bestowed by Him from whom has come the heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1; Heb. 2:10). The following words at once recall Heb. 2:4, gifts (distributions) of the Holy Ghost.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. For What is the connexion? Does it mean we will press on, for to stand still will produce apostasy, and apostasy is irrecoverable? One would suppose that so essential an intermediate thought as this that standing still begets apostasy would have been expressed. Yet this seems to be the only alternative, unless we admit that an apostatizing resumption of Judaism is expressed in the re-laying of the foundation, as noted on Heb 6:1.

This much-debated passage, being the central point in the extended discussion of these “Hebrews’” apostasy, in this epistle, we will endeavor to render to the English reader as literally as possible, thus: For those that were once enlightened (Greek aorist participle) and tasted of the heavenly gift, and that became partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted both the good word of God and powers of the incoming dispensation, and that fell away, it is impossible again to renew unto repentance, re-crucifying (as they are now doing, present participle here instead of aorist) unto themselves the Son of God, and setting him forth as a public exhibition. It is obvious on the face of an exact translation that the passage is describing an existent class of cases. The aorist, or historic tenses, show what experiences these cases have passed through; the present tense shows what they are now doing; and so persistently and flagrantly doing, that it is found impossible to renew them again unto repentance. It was, probably, the known occurrence of a notable desperate defection from Christianity at Jerusalem which awakened our apostle’s fear for these Hebrew converts to whom he writes, and which he now portrays before their eyes to warn them of a like catastrophe and consequent obduracy. And this view is strengthened by the cheery persuasion expressed in Heb 6:9, that his readers do not belong to that set of backsliders. The meaning, then, we take to be: Do not be re-laying the old Jewish platform, for you see how impossible it is to reclaim those who have thus Judaized.

It is impossible We cheerfully affirm, after Alford and Delitzsch, that there must be no lowering the legitimate meaning of the word impossible. But we just as positively affirm that there must be no overstraining the word above, or out of, its legitimate forces. There are, legitimately, various grades of impossibility, absolute and relative. A mathematical or arithmetical impossibility, and the impossibility for a contradiction to be true, are absolute; not to be overcome even by omnipotent force. And there is in the natural world such an impossibility as that the course of nature should change itself, which is intrinsically impossible, but possible to God. No one, we presume, would include such an impossibility in the present text. Then there are what are usually, but not very properly, styled moral impossibilities, namely, such as are found in the wills and conduct of free-agents. Such is the impossibility stated by our Saviour of a rich man’s being saved. Delitzsch very inconsiderately says, in regard to that, “Even the explanation that what is altogether impossible with men may be effected by a special operation of divine power, is inadmissible here; for it is God himself who works through the preaching of the word.” And is it not as truly God who works in the salvation of an apostate as of a rich man? The two cases are perfectly parallel. Christ affirms an impossibility, for the rich man to be saved; that is, on the human plane of possibilities; but it is possible with God. So, humanly speaking, there is also an impossibility for an apostate to be reclaimed; and yet that does not deny that it is divinely possible. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man, and did enter the kingdom of God, so that the human impossibility was overcome. Nay, so have the tempers of men been in time worked upon, that we may believe that myriads and millions of rich men have entered the kingdom of God, that is, the impossible has become normally possible. Apostates whom it is impossible to recover, are, alas! matters of constant experience. Such have resisted and overcome the highest spiritual influences and forces; nothing more effective, normally, can be brought to bear upon them; and, therefore, in the normal order of things, they cannot be reached. Men who are not apostates, also, there are, all around us, whom it is humanly impossible to save. They have made up their minds, they scout all approaches of argument or conviction, they cannot be affected. God could by absolute power overrule them, but it is not best he should.

They have freely placed themselves in that condition, and are themselves to blame. Now, as we have above said, the class of apostates at Jerusalem above portrayed was, probably, known to our author and his readers. Both knew how incorrigible and bitter they were, and that it was impossible to recover them. Nay, though it is not so strongly stated, many of these apostates may have so intrenched themselves in fixed determinations, self-interests, hostile arguments, and hatreds, as to have become themselves unable to break through those self-formed intrenchments; and thus it may have become volitionally impossible for them to choose return. Recovery may have become beyond the power of their own will. Just so, many rich and proudly intellectual men intrench themselves in fortifications against truth which they become unable to overthrow. And that inability is no excuse, because it is self-superinduced. They might as well be given up, and their case be used, as by our apostle, to warn others from falling into a similar obduracy. But it must be specially noted that it is not said of these Jerusalemite apostates that it was volitionally impossible for them, as free agents, to return to repentance. The declared impossibility is in the normal means to reclaim, not in the man’s own subjective ability to repent. Such ability may in some, or all, cases have been lost, but it is not so said. And even if the Jerusalemite apostates were impossible to reclaim, this does not prove that all other apostates become impossible of recovery, any more than our Saviour’s words prove it universally and forever impossible for a rich man to be saved.

Once enlightened The writer heaps clause upon clause, as Alford truly says, not only to show that the class he describes were truly regenerate, but to show what accumulated forces they must have had to neutralize in order to reach apostasy; forces than which none stronger can be normally used to bring them to recovery.

And so their recovery is impossible. These forces are now described in five clauses; two couplets with a single clause between. And the five clauses following portray the successive stages of Christian life. First couplet is a divine enlightenment and the heavenly boon of pardon and salvation; next, single clause, a permanent holiness of life; last couplet, the aggressive word and powers of Christian progress and triumph.

Once Not once for all, as Alford, but once, as correlative to again, in Heb 6:6.

Enlightened By the blended power of truth and the Spirit producing conviction and conversion. So Eph 1:18, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” After ye are illuminated, Heb 10:32, where the same Greek word is used. This enlightenment at conversion was held by the earlier Christians to be so associated with baptism, as that photisma, the enlightenment, became a term for baptism. Yet the word so used did not assume that the enlightenment and the mere physical act of baptism were identical. So Chrysostom says, “The heretics have a baptisma, but not a photisma; they are baptized, indeed, in body, but are not enlightened in soul; just as Simon Magus was baptized, but not enlightened.” The pretence that the word, as well as the entire five clauses, does not imply true conversion, is entirely inadmissible.

And have tasted of the heavenly gift Closely coupled by a with the former clause. And, evidently, the heavenly gift, immediately consequent upon conversion, is salvation. Heavenly, because from heaven, redolent of heaven, and tending to heaven. The tasted implies the sweet enjoyment of the assurance of that salvation by the witness of the Spirit. Of The Greek genitive (not used after tasted Heb 6:5) implies the true universality of the gift, but of which the new convert tastes only his individual and initial share.

Partakers of the Holy Ghost A permanent sanctification in the Christian life following conversion. This forms the single clause between the couplets. The Holy Ghost is the general sanctifying gift of all saints; and of this gift these Hebrews had their share, and were made partakers.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of (or ‘sharers in’) the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away,’

He now describes here in detail those for whom his message might have come too late, although claiming to be confident that they are not of them (Heb 6:9-10).

There are few verses which have caused more controversy. The question at issue is as to whether these verses necessarily refer to men who have been true Christians, who are then thought of as repudiating it all and being finally lost, or whether they can refer to outwardly professing Christians who gave all the appearance of being true Christians, and participated fully in God’s activity by His Spirit through the churches, but whose hearts were not truly won, and who were therefore never truly His. Before considering them it should be noted that he says of his readers, ‘we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation’. This might then suggest that these things do not necessarily ‘accompany salvation’.

We should also note, as we see in the later illustration, that he illustrates the situation by speaking about two types of land, good land and bad land, the one which produces fruit the other, which produces thorns and thistles. Both received the ‘rain’. But while one was fruitful the other was not. It only produced ‘thorns’ and ‘thistles’ as in Gen 3:18. That being so we may see these people described here as being like those in Jesus’ parable who proved to be unsuitable ground for the seed. It seems likely to us that in that example at least, people who were such bad ground were not true Christians. But that should not make us diminish the seriousness of the warning, for in the end the Scripture makes clear that men are known by their fruits. Those who are unfruitful can have no confidence in their Christian standing (Gal 5:16-21).

In considering these words we must remember that in those early days when the presence of the Spirit was so strongly experienced among believers, and so strongly at work, and the contrast between Christians, and non-Christian pagans and Jews, was so vivid, the church may well have described the experience of professing Christians who came under the umbrella of the Spirit-filled church in a similar way to this. It may well have been terminology used of all in the church who professed Christ, whether genuine or not (something which they could not after all know until it was revealed by their behaviour).

This is especially so in view of the fact that both Jesus and Paul spoke of people whose outward lives seemed to demonstrate gifts and activities of the Holy Spirit, when they were not in fact genuine (Mat 7:15; Mat 7:22-23; Mat 24:24 ; 1Co 12:3; 1Co 13:1-3; 1Jn 4:1-3). Judas no doubt performed miracles and cast out evil spirits, even though Jesus knew the truth about him from the beginning. And the others would see him as a partaker of the Holy Spirit, which in a sense he was.

The next problem is as to how we are to split the experiences described. Are we to read ‘those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit’ as conveying one amplified description of the coming to them of the Holy Spirit, or are we to see each item as significant on its own? The Greek is not decisive. The same applies to ‘and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come.’

We shall first consider each phrase in some detail in order to lay a foundation.

He speaks of those who were ‘once enlightened’. They were ‘enlightened’ at one particular time in what seemed like a once for all experience as they heard the new teaching, their eyes were in a sense opened. The word of God was pressed home on their hearts. Outwardly at least they turned from their old ways, they had become ‘converted’. Intellectually at least they became aware of the new truth. The Greek word for “enlightened” here signifies “to give light or knowledge by teaching”. It is so rendered by LXX in Jdg 13:8, 2Ki 12:2; 2Ki 17:27. The apostle Paul uses it for “to make manifest”, or “bring to light” in 1Co 4:5, 2Ti 1:10. But the question is, was this necessarily a saving receiving of saving truth? Certainly later being baptised was described as ‘being enlightened’, but that is a second century idea, a deterioration in thought.

In Joh 1:9 the verb is used of the Word as ‘enlightening’ every man who comes into the world (or as enlightening every man because He was coming into the world). There clearly men were enlightened who did not become Christians. The same applies in Eph 3:9. The idea there would seem to be of a generality of people and of angels being ‘enlightened’ without necessarily becoming responsive to God.

On the other hand in Heb 10:32 the writer does seem to use it to signify those who being enlightened became Christians, but as that is only one example it cannot be seen as determining a trend. It is clear therefore that the word could have either meaning. It could mean that they were enlightened and ‘persuaded’, or enlightened but not necessarily finally persuaded. It could mean that they ‘saw’ the truth in their minds but did not necessarily respond fully from the heart. Or it could mean that they were savingly enlightened. But the main point is that they had known a good level of enlightenment.

It should be noted that it is doubtful whether the early church would have consented to baptise people unless they had seen them as ‘enlightened’, even if afterwards some were seen not to have been savingly enlightened.

‘And tasted of the heavenly gift.’ To ‘taste of’ something is to fully savour a part of it. It signifies taking enough of it so as sufficiently to appreciate what it is, although when Jesus ‘tasted death’ He experienced it fully (Heb 2:9). It does not signify a quick sip (although see Mat 27:34), but nor does it necessarily signify total absorption of the whole. There would be a case for suggesting that often it described a deliberate intention of testing out adequately, without actually partaking of the whole, before making a final decision, or a partaking of it without partaking fully and finally. Its full significance can only be determined in context (as with so many words). Here the idea is of a partaking in some significant way of part of ‘the heavenly gift’.

It may be that it is to be linked with the next phrase, with the two ideas being combined, in which case it would be the Holy Spirit Who is seen as the heavenly gift (see Act 2:38; Act 10:45) in which they have had a part through His work on them. Others see it as the gift of Christ (Joh 4:10; probably 2Co 9:15), but if that was intended here we might have expected the writer to indicate the fact, given the context. Yet others see it as the gift of eternal life (Joh 10:28), or the gift of salvation or the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:15; Rom 5:17), or the gift of the Gospel (which would tie in with Heb 6:5), or as tasting of the graciousness of the Lord (1Pe 2:3). They had entered into the heavenly community and at least outwardly experienced their blessings.

And still others see ‘the heavenly gift’ as being the Lord’s Supper, the feast of which we partake, where we enjoy the heavenly gift which signifies to the true believer participation in the cross. Matthew tells us that Jesus ‘gave’ both bread and cup to the disciples. They could certainly be seen as a heavenly gift. And in Act 20:11 we read of ‘having broken bread and having tasted’, linking ‘tasting’ with the broken bread. The communion bread may well also have been linked with ‘the corn of heaven’ (Psa 78:24) through ‘the true bread that came down from Heaven’ (Joh 6:32-33), God’s heavenly gift to man. The phrase ‘tasted of the heavenly gift’ would certainly fit well with early church views of the Lord’s Supper, and all professing Christians would have partaken of it.

But as it is to the Old Testament that the writer has generally looked when giving his exhortations, it may be that we are looking in the wrong direction. It may therefore be from the Old Testament that he took the idea of the heavenly gift. Such a gift is spoken of in Ecc 3:13 where we read, ‘And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, is the gift of God.’ In other words God’s gift to His own is a life of quiet confidence and rest in faith. This would tie in with the idea of the Christian’s rest in Heb 4:1-11, and could have been spoken of as ‘tasting the heavenly gift’, that is tasting the good life of being in the heavenly community. They gave the impression of enjoying the heavenly rest. And that would be possible even to one whose commitment was not total.

Other possibilities are tasting of God’s gift of peace (Hag 2:9), or of the former and latter rains seen in spiritual form (Joe 2:23), or of the gift of ‘beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified’ (Isa 61:3), or the gift of ‘power to the faint, and to those who have no might He increases strength’ (Isa 40:29), or the pouring out of the Holy Spirit from Heaven (Isa 32:15; Isa 44:1-28).

The idea of ‘tasting’ might also suggest Psa 34:8, ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him’, where the gift would be the Lord, or Psa 119:103, ‘How sweet are your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!’ where the gift would be the Scriptures. These might suggest tasting the Lord by walking with Him (but that is not really a gift as such, except indirectly), or tasting His words as revealed in His word, which could certainly be seen as a heavenly gift (Heb 6:5).

So there are a considerable number of possible alternatives, although a number of them co-relate. But while we can enjoy the thought of each one, especially where they co-relate, we cannot be dogmatic about any as being specifically in mind here. No doubt the phrase was known to his readers who would have known. The main point is that they have experienced ‘something of the heavenly as given by God’, and such a description could refer to either genuine or professing Christians, the latter of whom receive certain ‘heavenly’ benefits and experience ‘heavenly’ things from being among true Christians. For example, the seed on rocky ground could be said to have ‘tasted of the heavenly gift’ – Mar 4:16-17 as could the unfruitful land which was rained on in Heb 6:8.

Whichever gift we select he is saying that these people in mind have participated in such things to the extent that they can be said to have ‘tasted’ of them, to have had such experience of them as to say that they should now be in a position to really appreciate them. Whether that indicated saving faith might depend on which option we lean towards. Men may appreciate Christ and honour Him and be affected by Him and even follow His teaching, and thereby obtain much benefit, without being converted, they may experience the power of the Holy Spirit without being converted as the Holy Spirit powerfully works in the church which is their environment and even convicts them within. They may become involved in the Gospel and Christian teaching without being converted. They may even live a life of apparent rest and faith in God’s goodness without truly being His. The point here is that they have been involved with ‘the heavenly gift’, whatever that is seen as being, sufficiently for others to have been convinced that they were Christians, because that was what they professed. And that leaves them without excuse.

‘And were made partakers of (sharers in) the Holy Spirit.’ This can be compared with being ‘partakers of Christ’ in Heb 3:14. In that passage whether they were partakers of Christ or not would not be discernible to the end. They were outwardly partakers. They saw themselves as partaking of Christ but that would be finally proved by their perseverance. The same might therefore be true here. They appear to have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, but were they? In one sense yes in that they were involved, at least externally, in the working of His power in the church. They ‘partook’ or ‘shared in’ along with the whole church. But how real it was individually, as with the partaking in Christ, only time would tell.

For there are probably good grounds for suggesting that ‘partaking of (or ‘sharing in’) the Holy Spirit’ may simply have signified experiencing His working along with the whole church. Their very presence in the church necessitated contact with the power of the Spirit’s working, and being in a Spirit charged atmosphere. They were surrounded by the Spirit’s wondrous activity. And this view is supported by the following illustration where both the good and the bad land received the rain. Each type of land receives the benefit and influence of the rain, both the good and the bad (Heb 6:7-8). Thus while these described here were in some way looked on as ‘partaking (or sharing) in the Holy Spirit’, it may be that their final apostasy revealed that such partaking, such sharing, was mainly external, and had not reached to the heart. For they had in the end produced thorns and thistles, in a similar way to those who pleaded with Christ that they had prophesied and done miracles in His name, but were rejected, not as having once been His but now rejected, who were described as those whom He had ‘never known’ (Mat 7:21-23). And in the same way as the ‘believers, mentioned in Joh 2:23-25.

‘And tasted the good word of God.’ Not only had they benefited by being in a place where the Holy Spirit was powerfully at work, they had also feasted on the good word of God. They had absorbed much teaching which came from God through a word (rema) of teaching or a word of prophecy in the church. It had spoken to their hearts. But sadly it had not found a true response that lasted. Their hearts had proved to be unreceptive ground. And their failure was the greater in that it was a ‘good’ word of God. Compare Jer 33:14 where the ‘good word’ of God was closely connected with the coming of the righteous Branch of the house of David. It was not the word that was at fault, but their hearts.

We can compare Herod who listened to John the Baptiser and ‘feared John, knowing that he was a just man and a holy one, and observed him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly’ Up to a point his heart responded to John’s teaching until it began to encroach too much on his own life (Mar 6:20).

‘And the powers of the age to come.’ As we have seen earlier the ‘age to come’ is what we call this present age, seen from the point of view of the Old Testament prophets (compare Heb 2:5). As they looked ahead they spoke of the coming age when the Kingly Rule of God would come. And in Jesus that Kingly Rule, that ‘age to come’, had arrived and had been even more firmly established by His resurrection and exaltation. And part of its manifestation was through signs and wonders and miracles taking place first through Jesus Christ and then throughout the churches (Heb 2:4).

Here were the ‘powers of the age to come’ manifested among His people and all had tasted of them in one way or another. Furthermore it may well have been that in those churches were those of whom Jesus warned, those who would manifest such wonders that they might deceive even the elect. They prophesied in His name, they did wonders in His name, they cast out devils in His name, but He did not know them. Thus did they manifest the powers of the age to come without really being His.

So careful examination of these descriptions indicates the real possibility that these people were professing Christians but without a genuine life transforming experience. Note that the whole emphasis is on that which comes from without (enlightement, heavenly gift, Holy Spirit, prophetic word, powers, and not on inward fruit such as love, joy, peace, etc. (He will later use love as the evidence that his readers probably are genuine believers – Heb 6:10). Like many in the church today they professed a kind of faith, they convinced others of the genuineness of their faith, they even convinced themselves, but it was not faith in Christ. It was rather faith in a church which revealed certain powerful experiences and a belief in that church and its leaders, and possibly a faith in baptism and certain basic teaching, but a faith which had not penetrated the heart. They had been members of these living churches for a long time. They had been enlightened, had partaken of the Lord’s Supper, had experienced the heavenly gift of blessing and rest and peace in the church, had experienced the power of the Spirit’s working and had indeed convinced their fellow church members that they had the Holy Spirit within them, had fed on the words of prophecy and had enjoyed the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in the signs and wonders performed in the church, perhaps even spoken in tongues and prophesied themselves. And yet they turned away because of persecution. Thus was it demonstrated that although they had given every impression of being so, they were not true partakers of Christ.

‘And then fell away.’ These dread words express so succintly the dreadful possibility. They had enjoyed experience of all this and they then ‘fell away’ from the right path, from the profession that they had made. So what excuse had they? Thus do all need to ‘test yourselves out whether you be in the faith’. And the test is as to whether Jesus Christ is genuinely in them (2Co 13:5). Whether their commitment to Him from the bottom of their hearts is real. And if He is and the commitment is real then their fruit will reveal the fact, and there will be no danger of their finally turning back.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

A warning against denial of the faith:

v. 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

v. 5. and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

v. 6. if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.

v. 7. For the earth, which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God;

v. 8. but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Here we have the reason why progress and growth cannot be thought of in the case of certain people: For it is impossible that people that have once been enlightened, having tasted as well the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted the excellent Word of God and the powers of the world to come, and then having fallen away, may be renewed unto repentance, because they crucify the Son of God to themselves and hold Him up to shame. This difficult passage must be examined very closely if one wants to grasp the intended meaning. The writer declares that it is a flat impossibility for certain persons to be renewed, to be brought back a second time to repentance. These persons he characterizes by a description involving four points. The people whom he has in mind are such as have been enlightened by the Holy Ghost through the Word, that have a spiritual understanding of Christ and of their redemption through Christ, Eph 1:18; Eph 5:8; 1Pe 2:9, in other words, Christians, such as have been called out of the darkness of godlessness to the marvelous light in Christ. The people referred to by the author are furthermore such as have tasted the heavenly gift, the gift of the salvation in Christ as a precious gift of grace, the forgiveness of sins, all the blessings of the adoption of children, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. They have furthermore become partakers of the Holy Ghost, they have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, Eph 1:14. They have finally tasted the splendid, the excellent Word of God and the powers of the future life; they feel, they realize, the mighty influence which God’s Word of promise exerts upon spirit, mind, and soul. They have experienced the power of God unto salvation, the vehicle of all eternal, heavenly blessings; they have, by faith, anticipated the enjoyment of the life to come, being partakers of the glory of heaven in hope.

If persons to whom this description applies, people that have undoubtedly accepted Jesus as their Savior, placed their trust in His salvation, and anticipated the joys of eternal life by reason of the power given to them through the Word, now fall away in spite of this saving knowledge, by a deliberate denial of that knowledge, then their return to repentance is excluded. The reason for this fact is not to be sought in God, as though His gracious intention and will in their behalf had not been sincere, but in the people themselves. If their apostasy takes place as here described, with a deliberate, malicious denial of the truth, then they crucify to themselves the Son of God and set Him forth to shame and ignominy before men. They purposely and willfully deny all connection with the Lord, who was crucified for them, they brand Him as a criminal, as a false Messiah, who suffered the disgrace of death on the cross. All this they perpetrate against Him whom they formerly acknowledged as the Son of God, whom they knew to be the Savior of the world. They cannot plead ignorance, or that they acted in foolish unbelief. For that reason their behavior brings upon them judgment, eternal condemnation. Therefore the reason why their hearts become hardened, why it becomes impossible for them to return and to be renewed unto repentance, is to be found in the character of their transgression. They steadfastly and persistently persevere in their anti-Christian, blasphemous conduct, they harden their own hearts against all attempts of the Word to find an entrance, and are thus finally given over into their hardness of heart, Act 28:27.

The writer does not say that his readers have reached this stage; he merely states the possibility that it may happen to them as it has to others, thus warning them to beware of spiritual sluggishness, of lack of diligence in the use of the means of grace. See 2Co 6:1. And he emphasizes his warning by a parable: For land which absorbs the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth plants that are useful to those that have tilled it partakes of a blessing from God, but that which produces thorns and thistles is worthless and on the verge of a curse, and its end is burning. This is an analogy from nature to illustrate the doom of the apostate. In the case of a piece of ground that responds to the tilling of the farmer or gardener and has a sufficient amount of rain for the crops which have been put in, yielding a harvest in proportion to the expectations which could fittingly be held, God’s approval is seen in the rich returns from the soil. But if a piece of ground that has been tilled with all care and gets all the moisture which is needed for a good crop, and yet refuses to respond to such treatment, does not prove worthy, it must be condemned as worthless, and the thorns and thistles which it hears must finally be burned. The application of the parable is not difficult. The abundant and frequently renewed rain represents the free and continued offer and bestowal of God’s grace, the enlightenment of the Word of God, the effective working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the believers. This should have enabled them all to bring forth proper fruit to God. If, therefore, any persons that have received these blessings harden their hearts and bring forth fruits of blasphemy and malicious denial of grace, they have sealed their own doom. For the behavior here described is the sin against the Holy Ghost, for which there is no forgiveness, neither in this world nor in the world to come. See Mat 12:31-32; Mar 3:28-29; Luk 12:10.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Heb 6:4. For it is impossible, &c. “For your apostacy would put an end to my expectation of doing any good to you; it being impossible for those who have been once thoroughly enlightened in the faith, &c.” It is thought by some, that we ought to soften the termimpossible, and understand no more by it than this; that it is extremely difficult. But this interpretation may well be called in question, since, when our apostle speaks of the same case, without using the word here rendered impossible, he describes it in terms equivalent; setting it forth as desperate and remediless; ch. Heb 10:26, &c. Besides, the circumstances of the sin were so peculiar, that we need not wonder that it should be as remarkably distinguished in its dreadful consequences. See the end of the note on Heb 6:6. And have tasted of the heavenly gift, signifies the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and revealed in the heart; so that the believer becomes a partaker of the Divine Spirit, and consequently of the divine nature, stiled by our Saviour the gift of God, Joh 4:10. To taste this gift, is to perceive, to be sensible of the truth and power of such gift of God. Perhaps the word tasted, both here and in the next verse, is used by our apostle with a particular regard to the metaphor that he had used before, of food, or strong meat. To be thoroughly convinced and assured of the reality of our possession of this gift through Jesus Christ, is one of the strongest motives to make any one hold fast his profession. It may seem by the next expression as if every one who had embraced the first principles of Christ, or had been baptized into the Christian religion, had been partaker of some gift or other of the Holy Ghost; and in a large sense this may be admitted to be true: but if it be imagined that every Christian enjoyed some or other of the extraordinary gifts of the Spiritsuch as healing the sick, casting out devils, speaking with tongues, and the like; this seems more than fairly can be inferred from the present text. For though, in some places, to partake of, signifies to have a portion or share with others in common; (see ch. Heb 2:14; Heb 3:1; Heb 3:14.) yet, if a person were convinced of the truth of the gospel, and converted to a saving experience of its power, by hearing the word preached, or by a careful study of the scriptures, accompanied with the aid of the Holy Spirit; or by seeing himself, or being fully satisfied of, the miraculous powers and assistances of the first preachers of the gospel, accompanied with the same divine grace; he might properly enough be said to be a partaker of the Holy Ghost. Instead of were once enlightenedwere made partakers, some read, have been, &c. &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 6:4 . ] goes back to the last main utterance, thus to , Heb 6:3 , and by means thereof to , Heb 6:1 , not to , Heb 6:1 (Whitby, de Wette, Bloomfield, Conybeare), nor yet to , Heb 6:3 (Piscator, Abresch, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Hofmann, Woerner), still less, at the same time, to and . . (Schlichting).

] it is impossible . The import of the expression is absolute; and to weaken it into “difficile est” (so, after the example of the Latin translation in D and E: Ribera, Corn, a Lapide, Clericus, Limborch, Storr, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, and others), according to which we should have to suppose a rhetorical exaggeration, is an act of caprice. Nor are we justified in seeking to obtain a softening of the declaration, as is done by Er. Schmid, Clericus, Limborch, Schttgen, Bengel, Cramer, Baumgarten, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Bloomfield (comp. already Ambrose, de Poenit . ii. 3), by urging the force of the infin. active as pointing to human activity, and thus, with a reference to Mat 19:26 , making the impossibility to exist only on the part of men, not on the part of God. For only the impossibility of the in itself is accentuated, without respect to the person by whom it must otherwise be effected. Instead of the infinitive active, therefore, the infinitive passive might have been chosen by the author without affecting the sense.

, Heb 6:5 ] characterizing of such as have not only become Christians, but also have already experienced the plenitude of blessing conferred upon Christians.

] those who were, once illumined (Heb 10:32 ), i.e. had already, through the preaching of the gospel, been made participants of the light of the knowledge ( sc . of Christianity as the perfect religion). As regards the thought, the same thing is said by , Heb 10:26 .

belongs, as to , so also to the three following participles (against Hofmann), and finds its opposition in , Heb 6:6 . It does not signify “plene” or “perfecte” (Wolf), nor does it denote an act which admits of no repetition (Delitzsch); contains, however, the implication, that the once ought to have sufficed and satisfied. Comp. [Heb 9:26 ] Heb 10:2 ; Jud 1:3 .

, of the spiritual enlightenment effected by teaching, is purely Hellenistic. Comp. Eph 3:9 ; Joh 1:9 ; LXX. Ps. 118:130; 2Ki 12:2 ; 2Ki 17:27 , al .

] and have tasted the heavenly gift . , to taste or receive a savour of a thing, figurative indication of perception by one’s own experience. See on Heb 2:9 . The construction of the verb with the genitive (instead of being with the accusative, as Heb 6:5 ) does not justify us, with many strict Reformed expositors, in finding a mere “gustare extremis labris” in the expression. Besides, such an interpretation would be in conflict with the design of the writer, since it cannot be within his intention to represent the culpability of the persons in question as small; he must, on the contrary, aim at bringing out the same in all its magnitude.

By , Primasius, Haymo, Estius, Michaelis, Semler, and others understand the Lord’s Supper ; Owen, Calmet, Ernesti, Whitby, M‘Lean, Bloomfield, the Holy Ghost (against which the following special mention of the same is decisive); Klee, regeneration in general , in contradistinction from the special communication of the Spirit in baptism; M‘Caul, “the persuasion of the eternal life, the , Rom 6:23 ;” Hofmann, righteousness ; Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Faber Stapulensis, Erasmus, Paraphrase ; Cameron, Hammond, Rambach, Ebrard, Maier, the forgiveness of sins ; Justinian, Schlichting, Grotius, the peace of mind arising from forgiveness; Pareus, faith ; Seb. Schmidt, Dorscheus, Peirce, Bengel, Carpzov, Cramer, Bisping, and others, Christ ; Morus, Heinrichs, Bhme, Kuinoel, Stuart, Stengel, and others, the Christian religion or the gospel ; Abresch, Bleek, the enlightenment imparted to men through the preaching of the gospel, or the heavenly light itself , which effects the enlightenment, and by means thereof communicates itself to men. Inasmuch as points to a close connection between the second clause and the first, and the emphasis rests upon the foregoing , is at any rate to be taken quite generally. Most naturally, therefore, shall we think in general of the gift of grace, i.e. of the abundant grace of Christianity. It is called heavenly , inasmuch as Christ was sent forth from heaven in order to communicate it, and heaven is the scene of its full realization.

] and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost . The consequence and seal of the gift of grace just mentioned.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Heb 6:4-8 . Warning enforcement of the foregoing exhortation, by dwelling on the impossibility of leading back Christians who have already experienced the abundant blessing of Christianity, and for all that have fallen away again from the same, anew to a state of grace. Very appropriately (against de Wette) does this warning justification attach itself to the preceding demand; since the readers were not merely still far from the in Christianity, but were, moreover, upon the way of entirely falling off again from Christianity. Comp. especially Heb 10:25-31 . In order, therefore, to deter them from such contemplated apostasy, there is very fitly set before the eyes of the readers the magnitude of the culpability which the completed apostasy would involve, and the terrible nature of the divine punitive judgment which it would entail.

In connection with the other view, that a declaration of the purpose of the author is contained in Heb 6:1-3 , the connection of thought would be: Passing over the subjects of catechumenical instruction in Christianity, I shall apply myself to the subjects of deeper Christian knowledge. For it is surely impossible to convert anew Christians who have already been enlightened, and then have fallen away again. By the fruitlessness of enlarging on the initial doctrines, therefore, the author would justify his resolution. But one does not perceive the relevancy of this statement to the case of the readers. For since a preparatory transition, such as is afforded by the paraenetic , Heb 6:1 , and , Heb 6:3 , in that the endeavour after Christian perfection necessarily includes the putting away of all that is opposed to it, thus also of the inclination to apostasy, would then be entirely wanting, on the contrary, the declaration of the purpose of the author would connect itself with the censure expressed, Heb 5:11-14 ; in this way the explanation of this resolution must be found in the presupposition either that the readers already actually belonged to the number of the , or else that, since they must already be reckoned among the , what is said admits of no application to them. In the first case, however, the author would represent his own undertaking, for the benefit of such readers to pass over to the higher subjects of teaching, as a fruitless one; in the last case, having already just before blamed the readers for their , would have fallen into self-contradiction.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

III
For it is impossible to bring back to a state of grace those who, after experiencing the gracious power of Christianity, have fallen back from it.

Heb 6:4-8

4For it is impossible for [in respect to] those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were [been] made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5and have tasted the good word of God [a precious word of God] and the powers of the world to come, 6if they shall fall away [and have fallen away, ] to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify [while crucifying] to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [putting] him to an open shame. 7For the earth [land] which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them [useful herbs for those] by [for the sake of] whom it is dressed [cultivated], receiveth 8[shareth ] blessing from God; but that which beareth [but when bearing] thorns and briers [thistles] [it] is rejected [reprobated, ] and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.

[Heb 6:4. , those who were once for all (not at one time, or formerly) illuminated.

Heb 6:5. , tasted an excellent or precious utterance of God.

Heb 6:6. , and fell aside or fell away; , nearly as Heb 2:1, to renew back again, or over again, , not pleonastic (as Grot.) but indicates a second renewing, which is not necessarily nor ordinarily implied in , but simply renewing. (Alf. and Moll.,) . into repentance with Eng. Ver. Moll, etc.,, while they are renailing to the cross, crucifying afresh: such the force of the and the present Participle.

Heb 6:7. , Earth or Land which drank (Aor. Part.): upon it pregnant Gen. with verb of motion coming on and remaining on., and is bearing, apparently connected back by so as to be cordinated with =which drank and is producing. We might expect (Alf.) which would be more idiomatic and elegant. Observe the life implied in , , , , for the sake of whom, not as Eng. Ver. by whom, shareth in, participateth. Rec. Ver. receiveth, misses the special force of the word (as if it were , ).

Heb 6:8. , but while bringing forth, joined to its noun predicatively, while with is united to it attributively. rendered Mat 7:16; Gen 3:18, thistles. So Moll: Disteln. again a term of life, reprobated. See Rom 1:28; Heb 12:17, , was reprobated, discarded.K].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb 6:4. For it is impossible, etc.The refers neither to the conditional clause immediately preceding [Abresch], nor to the clause , Heb 6:1 (De Wette after the earlier interpp.), nor to both together (Schlicht.); but to the leading exhortation of Heb 6:3, , which looks back to the exhortation (Heb 6:1) to strive after perfection. To weaken down the into perdifficile (Jerome, Erasm., Zwingle, etc.) under the plea of a rhetorical exaggeration, is purely arbitrary. Neither are we to supply according to Mat 19:26 (Ambrose, Limb., Beng., Heubn., etc.). The object of the author is precisely this: to set before the eyes of the readers the whole magnitude of the danger, and the fearful import and gravity of the crisis to which they have come.

Once enlightened.The patristic interpreters aimed chiefly to oppose the Montanists and Novatians, who sought by this passage to justify their refusal to readmit to the Church those who had backslidden. These patristic expositors, and after them Thom. Aquinas, Este, Corn. a Lapide, Michael., Ernesti, etc., take in the sense in which it is employed by Justin Martyr (Apol. i. 62, 65), viz., of baptism. They sought, then, to show that the author is not speaking here of regeneration in the narrower sense, but of reception into the Christian community by means of baptism; and that thus only the repetition of baptism upon the readmission of those who had deeply fallen, is declared inadmissible. But the context, and the use of the word, (Heb 10:32), show that the word here denotes spiritual enlightenment effected through the preaching of the Gospel (comp. Joh 1:9; Eph 3:9; Psa 36:10). The stands in contrast with , Heb 6:6. Men pass the turning point from darkness to light (Eph 5:14) only once; the change can never occur again (Del.).

Have tasted the heavenly gift.By this heavenly gift many interpreters, with Primas., understand the Lords Supper; others, with Chrys., justifying grace, or forgiveness of sin; some, with Grotius, the peace of mind, which it engenders; many, with Calmet, the Holy Spirit, or with Seb. Schmidt, and Bengel, the person of Jesus Christ. Abresch and Bleek understand the above-mentioned illumination or the heavenly light which produces this illumination; Morus and others, the Christian religion or the Gospel. Tholuck, however, and the more recent interpreters, declare themselves, with good reason against every special interpretation, pointing to 2Co 10:15, where salvation in Christ is called the unspeakable gift of grace, and laying stress, partly on the close connection of this clause with the preceding, made by the particle , and partly on the emphatic position of at the beginning of the clause.

The connection and object of the passage require that we take this latter word according to rabbinical usage, just as at Heb 2:9, in the sense of practical experience, by actual personal appropriation and enjoyment. The construction with the Gen. (instead of the Accus. as at Heb 6:5) does not warrant the interpretation made in the interests of Calvinism, of a mere tasting with the tip of the tongue. The former construction is Greekthe latter Hellenistic. Perhaps it may also be said that the choice of the former construction was dictated by the idea of an enjoyment out of the fulness of those heavenly riches of grace which were designed for, and proffered to, the collective body, while the second construction points to the idea that the good word of God has been, as it were, the daily bread of the persons whom the language describes (Del.).

Heb 6:5. The precious word of God, and the powers of the world to come.Many interpreters regard, with Chrys. and Primas., the first expression merely as a description of the Gospel generally; Calvin and Braun regard it at least as placed in contrast with the judicial rigor of the Mosaic law. The majority, however, referring to Jos 21:43; Zec 1:13, and similar passages find in it a special reference to the divine promises of a blessed future, and to peaceful rest in the Land of Promise. The world to come ( ) stands in the same sense as Heb 2:5, and the powers () of that world are those mentioned Heb 2:4. And thus too narrow is the reference, on the one hand, to the foretaste of future glory (Primas., Bhme, etc.), and, on the other, to the miraculous acts of the Apostles that have been witnessed by believers, or experienced in their own persons (Wittich, Braun, etc.).

Heb 6:6. And have fallen away.The author has not in mind particular gross or conscious sins, as Luther erroneously supposed, and hence took offence at the passage. He has rather in view apostasy from the recognized and experienced truth of salvation, as a sin closely allied to the sin against the Holy Ghost. The Aor. particip. points to the fact that this breaking off from all fellowship with Christ is a single and once for all accomplished act; while the following Present Participles express the condition which follows upon this falling away, characterizing its state alike of utter hopelessness and self-condemnation. [As to the question of the moral condition of the persons here described, I shall add but little. The question had probably hardly presented itself at this time as a distinct point of Christian doctrine, whether a regenerated person could fall away. One thing was certain, viz., that the Christian profession and the actual Christian character of the members of the church did not take them out of the category of free moral agents, who stood personally responsible for their perseverance and steadfastness in their Christian profession, and who were, therefore, to be appealed to by every consideration, which could address itself to persons who, under God, held their destiny in their own keeping. It was also equally certain that their salvation depended on their perseverance; that he, and he only, who held out to the end, would be saved, and this was equally true whether we adopt the supposition that they actually could apostatize from a state of grace, or whether their apostasy only proved that they had never been in a regenerated state. In either case the mode of spiritual treatment was the same. None could look behind the curtain into the volume of the divine decrees; and the only practical test of the reality of ones Christianity, and the only assurance of his salvation, was his holding on to the end. As a doctrinal question, therefore, it was totally unnecessary that it should be raised and decided. Meantime another thing was equally certain, because lying in the very nature of the case. If a person who had partaken of the grace of Christ, and been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, and sanctified by the blood of Jesus, did fall away, and turn his back completely on all these gracious agencies, and these highest and final means of salvation, his case was hopeless. There was no more sacrifice for sin. He had exhausted all the provisions of Divine love and compassion, and henceforth nothing remained to him but a fearful looking for of inevitable judgment. If, then, this and like passages in Hebrews do teach the possibility of falling from grace, they teach, in like manner, the impossibility of restoration to it. The saint who has once apostatized, has apostatized forever. Meantime, the case is only put hypothetically. There is not, so far as I am aware, a distinct declaration that such a falling away does actually occur; but only a declaration, if it should occur, what in the nature of the case must be the inevitable consequence. And I cannot forbear adding, that in my judgment, the tenor of many passages of the New Testament is decidedly against the actual possibility of such apostasy, and that the admission of the doctrine would revolutionize the whole orthodox conception of the New Testament system of salvation.K.].

To renew them again unto repentance.The position of forbids our connecting it with (Heinr. etc.); nor need we with Grot, regard it as pleonastic in its connection With . For in composition does not necessarily denote a return into a previous state, but may regard the action as commencing (with the kindred meaning of springing up). Thus , , particularly may denote the inauguration of a new state of things, and, referring to mans transfer from his old state, imply his being brought up back into a higher life, Rom 12:2; 2Co 4:16;. Col 3:10. Repentance () appears here not as the means (Chrys., Corn, a Lapide, etc.), but as the result and state of renewal. is properly to be renewing, to endeavor to renew. Some, therefore, (as Ambrose, Beng., Heubner, etc.), would find in the active voice ground for restricting the statement to the efforts of men, for the conversion of others, leaving their renewal still among the things which are possible with God (Mat 19:26). But the fact that alike here Heb 6:7-8, and subsequently Heb 10:26 ff. special emphasis is laid on the judicial and retributive judgment of God, forbids such a limitation. Thus, undoubtedly, the active form is neither to be confounded with the Pass. (Vulg., Calv., etc.), nor to be taken reflexively=to renew oneself (Orig., Erasm., Lapide, etc). But the active is explained from a reference to the employment in the church of the ordinary means of grace.

While crucifying for themselves the Son of God afresh.With the Greeks means only to nail to the cross; but even the Greek expositors find here expressed in , the natural and appropriate idea of repetition. The is by many expositors erroneously rendered (with (c. and Calv.), so far as in them lies; and by Heinrichs each for himself. Schultz takes it as Dat. of the instrument=by themselves. More natural would be the Dat. loc. (Beng., Abresch, Thol.), according to which the apostates place themselves on the same platform and level with the unbelieving Jews; but better than either, it may be taken as the Dat. commodi; not, however, in the sense of Klee, and Stengel, viz., for their own satisfaction and for the gratification of their hardened heart, but rather as the Dat. incommodi, viz., for their own destruction, (Vatabl., Bl., Ln., Del). [With Alf. I regard this last meaning of in perniciem as too strong, and as carrying that which lies in the nature and necessities of the case, into the grammatical relation of the word. It is I think simply the Dat. commodiexpressing that which is done for, with reference to themselves, and the question of the consequences, whether destruction or otherwise, is not to be found in the relation itself. Wordsworth explains artificially crucifying not to him, for he is impassable; but to themselves and to their own perdition.K].

Heb 6:7.For the sake of whom. is erroneously referred by the Vulg., Erasm., Luth., Calv., etc., to those who cultivate the land [so our Eng. Ver.]. It in fact refers to the possessors, to whose benefit the cultivating is to inure. We have rendered by the perfect, has come upon it; because, with the Gen. used with verbs of motion, includes also the subsequent remaining in that state.(Win. Gr. 6 Ed. p. 336).

Heb 6:8.Whose end is for burning.The relation of the words to the immediately preceding , curse, [viz., the end of which curse] is that which most immediately forces itself upon the reader, Camerar., Abr., Heinr., Bl.), yet the majority of expositors, since Chrys. have referred the phrase back to the main subject of the clause, making it declare not the end of the curse, but the end of the land ()a construction which is certainly possible. At all events the allusion is undoubtedly to a consuming with brimstone and salt (Deu 29:22; Isa 34:9) by which the land is condemned to utter sterility and uselessness. Some, in advocacy of the , have endeavored to draw from it the opposite doctrine, and find in the passage such a burning up of weeds and noxious vegetation as should cleanse the ground and restore its fertility (so Schlicht. etc.); but no explanation could be more totally alien from the context.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

We may imagine a mans reaching a state of abandonment and moral corruption from which no deliverance is possible, and which draws after itself inevitably eternal damnation. All endeavors to banish this thought from our passage do violence to the words, and spring from theoretical prejudices against the truth which is here advanced, and which also receives Heb 10:26 ff. a more full elucidation. It is not, however, said that this condition has in the case of any one already taken place. The reader is only warned, but this in the most startling manner, against sinking into this state as one that threatens him.

2. This condition does not precede regeneration, but necessarily presupposes it; yet not in the broader sense in which regeneration denotes the forgiveness of sins and a transfer into the condition of the children of God, but in the narrower sense which at the same time includes subsequentem renovationem (Form. Concord. III. 19; John Gerhard, Loc. Theol., tom. VIII).

3. The possibility of such an inexcusable and consciously guilty falling off from Christ, and which involves a complete falling away from the gracious state, is presupposed by the Lord Jesus Himself, not indeed Luk 22:31 ff., yet certainly Joh 15:1 ff. and the sin of denial mentioned Mat 10:38; Luk 12:9, threatened with the most fearful consequences, presumes a like condition in one who had previously professed discipleship. Moreover, John recognizes a sin unto death ( ) 1Jn 5:16, which even admits no further intercession. There is thus no contradiction in our epistle to the elsewhere recognized doctrine of the Gospel, and the Calvinistic theory of the identity of the renatus and the electus appears in this respect also as unscriptural. Compare besides on this point Rom 11:21; 1Co 10:1-13; Gal 5:4; 1Ti 1:19; 1Ti 4:1; 1Ti 6:10; 1Ti 6:21; 2Pe 2:20; Rev 3:16.

4. The entire identification of the apostasy here named with the sin against the Holy Ghost (in regard to which compare the treatises of magn Fr. Roos, 1771, and of Phil. Schaff, 1841; Mllers Doctrine of Sin, 4 ed., 1860; and Alex. Von ttinger, de pecato in Spir. S. qua cum eschatologia Christiana contineatur ratione, 1856), becomes questionable from the fact that the latter may be committed even by those who from the very commencement have hardened themselves against the influences of the Holy Spirit, and have thus passed on to obduracy and blasphemy, Mat 12:31 ff.; Mar 3:28 ff.; Luk 12:10. The majority of interpreters, therefore, since Bleek regard the sin against the Holy Ghost as the broader and more comprehensive Comp. Riehm, II., 764 ff., 819 ff.

5. Neither does this statement of our author stand in contradiction with the doctrine of the power of Divine grace, or of the full authority of the Church to forgive all sins. For the grace of God operates neither magically nor violently, and the forgiveness of sins has for its condition repentance and faith. But the very characteristic of this sin of apostasy consists in the fact of rejecting the means of grace, which had been previously employed and experienced as fraught with saving power, and this in a radical hostility to their truth and saving efficacy; and thus rendering all their influence objectively impossible. There is a continued re-crucifying of the Son of God, by which He becomes exposed anew to the derision of the world.

6. The designation of this sin as apostasy is as far from excluding the fact of its gradual development in a soul, as the description of it as sinning wilfully, (, Heb 10:26) is from denying the fact of the deceptive working of sin, Heb 3:13. It is the fruit of an entire series of individual, wilful, and unrepented sins; the final result of a whole series of misdeeds, and of violent repressions of the impulses of the Holy Spirit, (Riehm). All the more necessary then are the warnings and exhortations of our epistle for those who have not yet destroyed within themselves a susceptibility to the influences of the Spirit of God, and who have not as yet made themselves incapable of faith or of repentance.

7. But in the destruction in man of the susceptibility of moral and religious renovation, there is accomplished not merely a law of psychological development, but at the same time a Divine, punitive judgment which has its ground in a condemning sentence of God. This sentence proves itself ultimately valid and decisive, not indeed in accordance with any eternal decree, but judicially, after God has proved the apostates to be utterly reprobate. But the entire carrying through of this judgment is still in the future. By this let none be deceived. Yet we must guard ourselves alike against making the apostolic warning a source of torture and despair, and a billow of fleshly security (Del.). Comp. Spener, Theol. Reflections, I 6:634; Latest Theol. Reflections, II. 398; Palmer, Pastoral Theology (1860); 2d ed., 1863; Valenti, Pastoral Healing, 2 parts, 1832, On Spiritual Conflicts.

8. He who through moral unfaithfulness has fallen into the illusion that he has been deceived by objective truth, can no longer prove indifferent toward this, since he is unable entirely to deny it. It has, as truth, maintained itself in his inner being; there remains, therefore, within him, a sting of conscience, which urges him to self-justification, and with this to inward and outward struggles, whether in argument or in wanton railing against that truth which will no longer leave the sinner, whom it once claimed as its possession. If now we take into consideration that ever growing, ever deepening power of evil, which is expressed in the saying: In the first step ye are free; at the second, ye are slaves, then assuredly we can, recognize as possible, within the sphere of such a conscious though unconfessed self-deception, a degree of obduracy in which conversion is impossible (Tholuck).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The lapse from a state of grace: a. in its origin; b. in its characteristics; c. in its consequences.He who has fallen from grace is worse than he who has never attained to it.That which was written for our warning, and that which takes place for our example, whether in nature or in history, we should never allow to minister to our perverseness.The susceptibility to the repeated influences of grace.The way to Heaven is much easier and pleasanter than the way to Hell; those who walk in it have already, in the enjoyment of the blessings of salvation, a foretaste of heavenly powers and delights.

Starke:The impossibility of the conversion of a fallen sinner, consists not in a deficiency of the grace of God, or of the merit of Christ, or of the influence of the Holy Spirit; but in the conduct and character of the sinner who wilfully rejects Christ, and the economy of salvation.The happy, gracious state of believers, is a glorious token of the Divine origin, truth, and excellency of the Christian religion.All backslidings are not equally dangerous, but none is without danger.The grace of God visits all men, but with a great difference in spiritual productiveness, according to the quality and moral condition of the heart.We need even after conversion, perpetual accessions of the grace of God, and repeated anointings of the Divine Spirit; after these must we yearn, and eagerly receive them, like a well prepared field.For us also it may doubtless be said: The plough or the curse.

Rieger:He who labors in accordance with the Divine appointment, receives what he must ascribe not to his labor, but manifestly to the blessing of God.Hidden and secret as may be the workings of grace, we could always track them out, if we would give to them the same heed that we apply to our domestic and worldly affairs.

Heubner:The condition of men is all the more dangerous, their reformation all the more difficult, by how much the farther they have previously been, by how much the higher they have arisen.The gifts of grace already obtained, impose a solemn obligation; and he who has already received the Spirit, has a heavy responsibility.The falling away of advanced Christians is an insult offered to Christianity and to Christ Himself; is a declaration that Christ was justly crucified.The heart that receives in vain the labor employed upon it, and bears no fruit, is rejected of God.Moral desolation and reprobation are the heaviest punishments and judgments of God.

Stein:Sinners are frequently visited by Divine grace. If they produce the righteous fruits of repentance, then they may expect anew proofs of the Divine favor; while in the opposite case, they may expect no long forbearance, and least of all, when they apostatize, may they look for any new exercise of compassion.

Fricke:A fearful sin, and a frightful judgment.

Hedinger:The devil in his heart, death in his bosom, hell beneath his feet, and a curse on his posterity.

Footnotes:

[1]Heb 6:3.Instead of , we are to read after A. C. D. E., 23, 31, 39. The Ind., however, is found in Sin. [in Cod. Vat., and is retained by Tisch. The meaning is good with either reading; in my opinion, equally good or better with .K.].

[2][Some, however, as Owen and Delitzsch, conceive it possible to unite both meanings. To these also Alford partially attaches himself, considering that on the one hand, can hardly be properly said of any but a teacher; and on the other, Heb 6:4 ff., , etc., must necessarily have a general reference of warning to the readers.The whole, then, is a of the writer to his readers. He, with his work of teaching, comes down to their level of learning, and regards that teaching and learning as all one work going on together; himself and them as bound up in one progress. Thus best may we explain the expressions which oscillate between writer and readers. So Alford. While holding clearly that the main tenor of the passage has reference to the spiritual progress of the hearers, and that the general urbanity of the writer would be sufficient to account for the first person plur., and while also conceiving that , may refer not inaptly to the readers, I yet concur with Alf. in finding a little coloring in this phrase drawn from his position as teacher.K.].

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 2290
THE DANGER OF APOSTASY

Heb 6:4-6. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

IT is of great importance, in interpreting the Scriptures, to lay aside human systems, and to attend carefully to the connexion of any passage with the context; because a just view of the general scope of the passage will throw the best light upon any particular expressions contained in it. The words before us are confessedly difficult to be understood: but, if we adopt the mode of interpretation now proposed, we shall not err very materially in our explanation of their import. The Apostle has been reproving the Hebrews for the little progress which they had made in the divine life, considering the length of time since they were first initiated into the knowledge of the Gospel. He complains that, on account of their inability to comprehend him, he scarcely knows how to open to them the deeper mysteries of our religion [Note: Heb 5:11-14.]; which however he must do, for the benefit of those who could digest strong meat, and make a due improvement of the truths he should set before them [Note: Heb 6:1-3.]. But, in the meantime, he warns them, that the neglecting to advance in religion is the surest road to apostasy; and that apostasy, after such attainments as they had made, would in all human probability issue in their eternal ruin [Note: ver. 46.]. Then, illustrating that point by an apt simile [Note: ver. 7, 8.], he proceeds to exhort them to put away sloth, and with all diligence to follow those who through faith and patience were now inheriting their promised reward [Note: ver. 11, 12.]. Hence it appears, that the attainments mentioned in the text are such as were found in persons recently converted and of doubtful character; especially because they are contrasted with other attainments which accompany and manifest a state of salvation [Note: ver. 9, 10.].

In our further illustration of the text, we shall shew,

I.

How far men may go in religion, and yet apostatize from it

Confining ourselves to the words before us, we observe, that unstable persons may possess many enviable gifts
[Their minds may be enlightened with the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus [Note: Compare Num 24:3-4. with Heb 10:26.]. There is not any thing which the most eminent saint can know, but it may be known by a hypocrite: the difference between them is not in the matter known, but in the manner of knowing it; the one assenting to it with his head; and the other feeling it in his heart.

Their affections may be moved by hearing and reading the word of God, and by considering the mysteries of the Christian dispensation, or the realities of the invisible world [Note: The world to come may be taken in either of these senses. See Heb 2:5.]. Their hope, fear, joy, and sorrow may be called forth successively in a very powerful manner, according as they apprehend themselves to be interested in the promises of the Gospel, or obnoxious to its threatenings [Note: Eze 33:31-32. Mat 13:20-21. Joh 5:35. Mar 6:20. Act 24:25.].

Their powers may be enlarged, as well for the discharging of duties which their unassisted nature would be unequal to perform, as for the working of miracles, to which no created power is competent. By the heavenly gift, or the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit, they may make some considerable advances in the divine life [Note: 2Pe 2:20.]: and through his miraculous agency, of which they may also be partakers, they may do wonders that shall astonish all who behold them [Note: Mat 7:22. with 1Co 12:11.].

It is observable, however, that the Apostle expresses himself in terms calculated to convey rather a low idea of the attainments of these persons: he speaks of their tasting of the heavenly gift, and tasting of the good word of God; designedly intimating thereby, that they never lived upon the word as the food of their souls, or made religion their great solace and support, but contented themselves with a slight, transient, and superficial taste of both.]

Such persons may certainly become apostates from the truth
[That they may fall away from the practice of religion, is evident from the instances of David and others, who, after a long experience of the power of godliness, have grievously departed from the path of duty. But they may also apostatize from even the profession of the truth. How many are there who for awhile believe, and, in a time of temptation, fall away [Note: Luk 8:13.]. The instance of Demas [Note: Col 4:14 and Philem. ver. 24. with 2Ti 4:10.], if there were no other, is very sufficient to prove, that men may possess, not only gifts, but graces too, and yet return with the dog to his vomit, and draw back unto perdition [Note: 2Pe 2:22. Heb 10:38-39.].]

Miserable, indeed, will their situation then become, on account of,

II.

The extreme difficulty of renewing them again unto repentance

To renew them to repentance, is a great and arduous work
[If repentance were no more than a slight conviction of their folly in renouncing the truth, we might hope that a very little experience of the fatal change would bring them to it. But it implies a total renovation both of the heart and life which is a work at all times difficult; but peculiarly so under their circumstances. It is said to be impossible; by which we are to understand, not that it is an absolute, but only a moral, impossibility. When our Lord declared that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, he explained himself by saying, With man this is impossible; but with God all things are possible [Note: Mat 19:24-26.]. Thus, the recovery of such apostates is quite contrary to all reasonable expectation; nor can any thing but a most extraordinary interposition of the Deity effect it.]

What reason is there to hope that it should ever be accomplished in them?
Consider,

1.

The dishonour they do to Christ

[They who renounce Christianity do, in fact, proclaim Christ an impostor: they declare their approbation of the Jews who crucified him; and thus, as far as in them lies, they crucify him afresh. But we must not confine this to avowed infidels: the same is true respecting those who decline from the ways of God, and return to a worldly and carnal life: they put Christ to an open shame: they proclaim to all around them, I once thought that it was my highest interest and happiness to serve Christ: but I was quite mistaken: I made the experiment; I became his follower; I loved him, served him, glorified him; but I found, after all, that I had given up a greater good for a less: I now am assured that Christ cannot make us happy; and, therefore, I have again returned to the world, and chosen it as the better portion: and, whoever would be wise or happy, let him follow my example; let him renounce religion as a needless restraint, and despise it as an enthusiastic delusion: let him lend all his powers and faculties to the pursuits of time, and the enjoyments of sense; and let him cast off the yoke of Christ as an intolerable burthen.
Who can suppose that a man, after having cast such dishonour upon Christ, should ever be brought again to embrace and honour him? While he continues to reject the Saviour, his restoration to repentance is absolutely impossible; because, there is no way to repent, but by returning to Christ [Note: Heb 10:26-27.]. And that he should return unfeignedly to Christ is morally impossible; because his way to Christ is barred up by shame, and fear, and almost every consideration that can influence the human mind ]

2.

The despite they do to the Holy Spirit

[This, though not adverted to in the text, is necessary to a just view of the subject, and is expressly mentioned in the same connexion in a subsequent part of this epistle [Note: ver. 28, 29.]. It is not possible but that such apostates must have experienced on many occasions the strivings of the Holy Spirit with them; they must have felt many secret checks and remonstrances of conscience; all of which they must have resisted, before they could prevail upon themselves to throw off their profession of religion, and to make shipwreck of their faith. In short, they must have altogether quenched the Spirit, and seared their consciences as with a hot iron. What prospect then is there that such persons should be renewed unto repentance? If they could not maintain their ground when they had the assistances of the Holy Spirit, how shall they recover it when he is departed from them? And what reason is there to hope that the Holy Spirit, whom they have so grieved, and vexed, by their misconduct, should again dwell in them, and increase his gracious communications in proportion as they have accumulated their transgressions? If the contempt which they pour upon this Divine Agent amount to what is called the sin against the Holy Ghost, their damnation is sure; it is decreed in heaven, and sealed by their own act and deed. And, though it fall short of this unpardonable sin, still is their case almost hopeless: they are like the earth, which, bearing only thorns and briers, is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned [Note: ver. 8.].]

This awful subject must not be concluded without a few words of advice
1.

Guard against the means and occasions of apostasy

[He that would not fall must take heed to his steps, and be careful on what ground he treads. Now we are told by God himself, that worldly cares, worldly pleasures, worldly company are the bane of religion; and that we must guard against them all, if we would be steadfast in the faith. We quite mistake, if we think that nothing but what is palpably sinful in itself is dangerous: almost all apostasy arises from secret neglects of duty, and from a want of necessary self-denial. By going to the utmost boundaries of what is lawful, we are easily and imperceptibly drawn into what is unlawful. Therefore watch: watch against error; watch against temptation; watch against the cares and pleasures of life; watch against secret declensions: in short, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.]

2.

Be not satisfied with low attainments

[It was to enforce this idea that the warning in the text was introduced by the Apostle: and therefore it demands our peculiar attention. Persons who, like babes, are weak in the faith, are of course more liable to be turned from it: and if they do not grow towards an adult state, they will certainly decline. Press forward then, forgetting what is behind, and reaching forth unto that which is before ]

3.

Under any backsliding, apply instantly to Christ for grace and mercy

[The warning in the text is not to discourage the humble, but to alarm the careless, and quicken the remiss. The Apostle does not say that repenting sinners, however they may have apostatized, shall not be forgiven; the danger is, that they will not repent; and not that, if they repent, they shall not be pardoned. Let not any then say, I have fallen away, and therefore cannot hope for mercy; but rather, I have departed, and must return instantly to God in his appointed way. God himself addresses us, Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings, and love you freely. Let a hope of acceptance aid your fears of final apostasy: so shall the end of Gods warnings be best accomplished, and the fulfilment of his promises secured.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(4) For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (5) And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, (6) If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (7) For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: (8) But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. (9) But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. (10) For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. (11) And we desire that everyone of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: (12) That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

In the opening of this paragraph, we have those memorable verses of scripture, which, for want of due attention to divine teaching, by the perversion of some, and the mistaken apprehension of others, have given rise, to much anxiety, in weak minds, through the slenderness of their faith. There can be no doubt, but that God the Holy Ghost is drawing the portrait of finished hypocrites; for there is not a single feature, in the whole of what is represented, of those falling away, which belongs to a child of God. The persons here described, under such a flaming profession, never were in grace; and therefore impossible to have fallen from grace. They fell from a profession only, and as such, it became impossible to renew them again to repentance. As the subject in itself is so highly important, and as a right apprehension of the Lord’s words, is so truly interesting to every regenerated child of God, and, especially, the weak in faith, I shall hope the Reader’s indulgence, if I enter upon the whole of it, very particularly. For my own part, I am very fully convinced, that the passage, hath not one reference whatever to the Church of God: that the Lord the Holy Ghost is speaking of hypocrites, and the unregenerate only; and that the whole subject, if duly considered, is calculated more to comfort, than to distress the Lord’s people. May God the Spirit, the blessed Author of his holy word, be our Teacher in it, and guide both Writer and Reader of this Poor Man’s Commentary, into all truth.

And here I beg the Reader, again to remark, what I have so often observed to him, in the course of this little work; that God the Holy Ghost is writing this whole Epistle to the Church; to them who are the heirs of salvation. This is a great point always to have in view, and to keep in remembrance, as we prosecute every part of this Epistle. See Heb 1 : Heb_1:2-3; Heb_1:9; Heb_1:14 .

Let me next desire the Reader, to look back to the concluding verses of the preceding Chapter, where he expressly speaketh to the Church, as being in grace, though weak in the faith. The Lord tells them, that when for a time they ought to have been teachers, they were so weak in faith, and their progress in the divine life, had been so inconsiderable, that they need, like little children, to go over their first lessons again. See Heb 5:12 to the end. And hence, the Lord opens this Chapter, with bidding them to leave the first principles of doctrine, and go on to perfection, namely, to Christ himself, Heb 6:1 . Now let the Reader pause, and ask himself, whether the very expressions, which the Lord the Holy Ghost here useth, towards the Church, do not very, fully prove, that they were in grace, though in a low and languishing condition? How could they be said, that for the time they ought to have been teachers, if they themselves had never learnt? How could even milk suit them, if they were dead in trespasses and sins? Mark these things as proofs, from the Lord the Spirit himself, that the persons to whom he wrote were considered by him as regenerate.

Thirdly. Let the Reader further observe in this paragraph that while the Lord is speaking of the impossibility to renew hypocrites, who made a flaming profession of godliness, but never had felt the power of it; the Lord at the same time is speaking to the Church, and calling them beloved, concerning whom he was persuaded better things, and things which accompany salvation; that they had ministered to the saints their labor of love, and that they were still ministering; and that God would not forget it! And hence, having before called upon them, to forget first principles, and go on to Christ; they would now shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: and no longer be slothful, but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises. And in a following chapter, the Lord bids them, to call their former days to remembrance, in which, after they were illuminated, they endured a great fight of affliction. And therefore, as they knew in themselves, that they had in heaven a better, and an enduring substance, they should not cast away the confidence, which hath great recompence of reward, Heb 10:32-35 .

Let the Reader ponder well, these features of character in the Church, to whom God the Holy Ghost sends this Epistle; and mark in them, the clear testimonies which they carry with them, of being in a state of regeneration. And when he hath duly considered this point, I will next request him to attend to the several outlines, which the same Almighty Lord hath drawn of those unregenerate, concerning whom he speaks in those verses. Let us look at them one by one.

And first. They are said to have been once enlightened. By which I apprehend is meant, an enlightening in head-knowledge. And it is astonishing to conceive to what lengths men, who have been accustomed to sit under the sound of the Gospel may go, in this way, without possessing an atom of saving grace. But the doctrine of Christ, in insisting on the new birth, throws to the ground all, and every pretension short of this, Joh 3:7 . It is with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, Rom 10:10 . If head-knowledge would make wise unto salvation, the devil himself would be in a salvable state; for he told Christ, he knew him, Mar 1:24 . I presume no one will venture to call this enlightening, a mark of regeneration.

Secondly. They are said to have tasted of the heavenly gift. Yes, Christ is the heavenly gift, in the Gospel sent down from heaven. And these hypocrites had so far tasted it, as to dislike it. Redemption by Christ’s blood, and righteousness alone: no Pharisee will relish, but, like children, which nauseate medicine, though it tendeth to heal, yet spit it out of their mouth. Here again, we find no mark of real grace.

Thirdly. They are said to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost. This, in the first view, carries with it somewhat more plausible; but when looked into, is but seemingly so, for it hath no more of real saving grace, than the former. everyone may, in one sense, be said, to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost, who is brought under the preaching of the Gospel, and partakes in the ordinances and means of grace. They whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, as well as the faithful, whom the Lord brought into Canaan were all alike partakers of the Manna, and drank of the Rock, and had the carnal ordinances of the worldly sanctuary, Heb 9:1 . But, none except the chosen seed, eyed Christ in all. Nay, further, some there have been in all ages of the Church, which may be said to have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, in his outward gifts of working miracles; and who yet, were never partakers of the Holy Ghost, in his inward regenerating grace. The magicians in the court of Pharaoh, to a certain degree, were permitted to exercise power; and Judas in the college of Apostles, without all doubt, had the same faculty, in outward acts with them, Luk 9:1 . But in the midst of these, there was no inward work of God the Spirit on either; and the new-birth is the only infallible character.

Fourthly. Those persons are said, to have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. Not drank into the spirit of those precious things; not relished them. The Holy Ghost dwells particularly on tasting, as if to shew their aversion. They tasted of the good word of God, so as to manifest their more deadly hatred to it; and they heard enough of the powers of the world to come, as in their consciences to believe there is an hereafter, in which it will be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked; but, like Balaam, though sufficiently convinced of those solemn truths, as now and then to send forth the wish to die the death of the righteous, yet never awakened by grace to live their life, Num 23:10 .

Reader! pause over those portraits of character, for they are truly awful, and perhaps much more general than is imagined. But what hath the child of God to do with such things, in whose spirit the Holy Spirit heareth witness that he is born of God? They are indeed very awful monuments for the children of God to contemplate, as they pass on their pilgrimage state. We behold in them to what an height of elevation nature may go in a way of resembling grace. And they ought to serve, as no doubt God the Holy Ghost intended them to serve, to make the regenerated the more awakened, to leave the first principles of the doctrines, and press on after Christ. But while such clear marks are discoverable between nature and grace, surely the children of God ought not to confound one with the other. To be led into the conclusion, that there may be a falling from grace, because men who never were in grace, have for a while taken up with a profession, and then dropped it, is forming conclusions from false premises. Nature, in her highest attainments, is but nature. Nothing can rise above its level. It is very possible, that by hearing sermons, attending the means of grace, and the like, the understanding may be much enlightened. The young man in the Gospel, who came to Christ, at first, seemed to look fair for heaven. Paul, the Apostle, while a Pharisee, thought himself not far from glory. But in both, at the time, there was not a single act of renewing grace wrought in their heart. The unregenerate mind is still carnal, and enmity against God. The tiger, though chained, is the tiger still. Nothing short of the new-birth is grace. Where this is, it is impossible to fall away, for the Scripture saith, that the highly beloved objects are made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, 2Pe 1:3-4 . Where this is not, the most flaming profession will go out in obscure darkness. They have the form, but not the power of godliness, 2Ti 3:5 .

Before I dismiss this view of the subject, I would add one observation more, by way of confirming what hath been said, namely, that in all that is said of those hypocrites, there is not a single circumstance, even hinted at, of those precious fruits and effects being found in them, which arise from grace in the heart, and where a saving act of regeneration hath passed upon the soul. In this whole account of being enlightened, and having tasted of the heavenly gift, we read nothing of faith, or love, an adherence to Jesus, or affection to his people; not a word of an holy life and conversation, all which are the sure consequences of the new-birth. But, all that is said from beginning to end is no more than what may be said of mere professors only, who are like clouds without water, carried about with mere wind of doctrine; who, though they have a name to live, are virtually dead before God.

Hence, as is here said, if they fall away from, this profession, and openly deny it, and (as hath been seen in many instances,) after having put on a sanctity of appearance, and by restraints induced by the fear or praise of men, have for a while seemingly escaped the pollution which is in the world through lust, at length return, like a dog to his vomit, and as the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire; they only manifest that all that was before seen of them, was but the efforts of nature, not grace. And how shall they be rendered again to the same profession? The thing is impossible. They may indeed, like Judas, repent themselves, and do as he did, hang themselves; but the Lord will not grant to them his grace of repentance, in the regeneration of the heart. And for this plain reason. They do in effect, by their denial of that faith they once owned in head, though felt it not in heart, crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For as, when the Gospel of Christ was preached, and made known to them, that is, when they were once enlightened with the head knowledge, that the Son of God had been crucified for his people; and their sense and understanding, though not their affections, were gained to the acknowledgment of those glorious truths, connected with Christ and his great salvation; they professed to receive them, and believe them; but now by their apostacy from the truth, as it is in Jesus, they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, either by denying his Godhead as the Son of God, or that his offering on the cross was not a sufficient sacrifice for the redemption of his people; that he hath not risen from the dead; salvation is not finished, and somewhat more is needed for justification before God in either, or all of these, or the like objections, this is to crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. And utterly impossible is it, in such cases, to renew such men to repentance. I beg the Reader to mark the expression, they crucify to themselves. Yes! in their apostacy and denial they fully prove Christ was never crucified for them; for they have no part, nor lot in the one all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ upon the cross; and therefore they insult the soul-travail and agonies which Christ sustained by their despising the efficacy of his blood. Such become hardened in iniquity, and their last end is worse than the first.

The figure of the earth drinking in the rain, is a beautiful similitude in a way of further illustration. For, as the rain falls alike on the earth, both where the pure herbs are, and where the thorns are; so the dew of the Gospel descends upon the whole visible Church, both real and nominal. But while the regenerated, under the genial influence, bring forth to the glory of God; the mere professor only sends forth nothing but the rank weeds and briars of the state of nature, unredeemed from the curse, and whose end is to be burned.

And the next verse, wherein the Apostle calls the Church beloved, and declares his persuasion of better things concerning the members of it, is so utterly opposed to what went before, as can hardly be reconciled, upon any other idea, than that the Holy Ghost intended the whole representation he hath here made of such flaming profession void of all vital godliness, but as a matter of comfort to the Lord’s people under all their short comings and attainments. For, slender as their growth had been, yet they had truly been regenerated. Babes as they still were, yet this argued the new-birth. So that there is, and ever must be, an everlasting difference between the falling away of professors, who never were in grace, and those whom the Lord hath quickened. For while the child of God, when born of that incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth forever, (and must so live and abide forever, however dormant to our view, the spiritual seed sometimes appears, because it remaineth in him, 1Pe 1:23 ; 1Jn 3:9 ) hath a renewed nature, the Scriptures nowhere speak of mere professors, amidst all the high elevations of nature, as being born again. The stony ground hearers receive the word with great joy, but no fruit followed, because they had no root. And when those flashes of joy subsided, they soon died away. Hence the Prophet speaks, There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days, for the child (regenerated) shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner, being an hundred years old (yet unregenerated) shall be accursed, Isa 65:20 .

Such, then, according to my view of this blessed Scripture, appears to be the doctrine contained in it. The Holy Ghost is writing to the Church, considered in a state of regeneration; not unsimilar to the same purport as when writing to the Corinthians; babes in Christ, but yet too much occupied in worldly things, and of consequence, making slow progress in spiritual attainments, 1Co 3:1-2 . He tells them, in opening his Epistle, in confirmation of their new birth, and justification in Christ, that Christ had by himself purged their sins; and that they were heirs of salvation, Heb 1:14Heb 1:14 , that Christ had not taken the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, on their account; and that, having himself suffered, being tempted; he knew how to succor them that were tempted, Heb 2:18Heb 2:18 , that they were partakers of Christ, as a rich blessing not to be lost, and therefore were to hold fast their confidence of hope firm to the end, Heb 3:14 . And that having such an High Priest as the Son of God, passed into the heavens, they were to come boldly to the throne of grace, and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, Heb 4:14-16 . These, and the like things, they had been assured of in the preceding chapters; and in this the Lord tells them, that now they ought to go on to perfection, because they might, according to the time they had been in grace, have been teachers; which is a plain proof that they had not only been taught of God, and consequently regenerated; but that they had been a long time in a state of conversion. So that as the Holy Ghost, by the Apostle, in the close of this account blessedly saith, when he called them also beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, (than of those Apostates,) and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak: that is though we thus speak of your slow progress in the divine life. And the Lord adds that God’s faithfulness and love are engaged to them, for they had ministered and still did minister to the saints of God, as saints of God. An account of which we have, Heb 10:32 to end, and which is spoken as the effect of their early days conversion. I beg the Reader to turn to that Chapter, in proof. So that upon the whole, however low the waters of the sanctuary then ran to their view, for their comfort, yet they were in grace, and the Lord considered them as such, and charged them to be no longer slothful, but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

And now, my brother, in summing up the whole, I commend you to the grace of God, wherein (if in regeneration) you stand, that you may rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Painful and humbling ask is to a child of God, to feel such continual deadness of soul, such coldness of affection, the little growth in grace, yea, as it sometimes appears to you, rather growing imperfections, and under which you groan continually; nevertheless, these all differ from professing hypocrites. Such never groan, for they never felt the plague of their own heart, neither entered in by the door into the sheepfold, Joh 10:1 . And, therefore, when at any time you behold such meteors in the professing Church, and see the blaze of their supposed gifts and talents, either as preachers or hearers, and then are tempted to draw conclusions unfavorable to yourself, from your long knowledge of the Lord, and your short comings; call to remembrance what God the Holy Ghost hath here taught, and wait and see the end of those men. Oh! how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearful end! But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; he is their strength in time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him, Psa 37:39-40 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

Ver. 4. Who were once enlightened ] , as with a flash of lightning. Knowing persons, and those they call the wits of the world, are in the greatest danger of the unpardonable sin; which begins in apostasy, holds on in persecution, ends in blasphemy.

And have tasted ] As cooks do their sauces with the tip of their finger only; or as the Israelites tasted the fruits of the land, and vet perished in the wilderness. Men may taste that which they spit out again, as physicians oft do.

The heavenly gift ] Gr. Supercelestial gift, i.e. Christ, who is called the gift, Joh 4:10 , and the benefit,1Ti 6:21Ti 6:2 .

Partakers of the Holy Ghost ] Of his common and inferior gifts and operations. These a man may lose, and have his dispositions to sin seven times more inflamed than before, Mat 12:44 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

4 .] For (depends on the whole foregoing sentence, including the reference to the divine permission: not as Whitby and De Wette, on . . The connexion is: we must go on, for if we go back, it will be to perdition a thing which ( Heb 6:9 ) we do not think of you, and therefore expect your advance) it is impossible, in the case of (these words I insert, not as belonging to the Greek construction, but as necessary in English, to prevent the entire inversion of the Greek order of the sentence) those who have been (or, were : but the English perfect here represents idiomatically the Greek aorist, in this clause referring pointedly enough to the time when the event took place. And indeed where there is no such plain reference as in the subsequent clauses, we are in the habit of expressing priority more by the perfect, the Greeks by the aorist. And here it is quite necessary to take our English perfect: for our indefinite past, ‘who were enlightened and tasted and were made and tasted ’ would convey to the mere English reader the idea that all this took place at one and the same time, viz. baptism, whereas the participles clearly indicate progressive steps of the spiritual life. These remarks do not apply to cases like that of Act 19:2 f., but only to those where an aorist participle indicates priority to some present action) once (for all: indicating that the process needs not, or admits not, repetition: cf. reff. occurs eight times in our Epistle, which is oftener than in all the rest of the N. T.) enlightened (Bleek gives a good rsum of the usage and meanings of . It is a word of later Greek, principally found in the N. T. and LXX (reff.). It occurs in Polyb. xxx. 8. 1, . , “taken and brought to light:” xxiii. 3. 10, : Arrian, Epict. i. 4, : Diog. Laert. i. 57, . In all these places the sense is to bring to light , or cast light upon . The other meaning, to enlighten , applied to a person, is purely Hellenistic. So in ref. Judg., , . And the LXX usage is generally simply to teach, to instruct : so in ref. 4 Kings, and ib. 4 Kings 17:27, . Here it implies, taught, by the preaching of the word of God . An historic interest belongs to the occurrence of this word here, as having in all probability given rise to a meaning of and , as denoting baptism , which was current throughout the Church down to the Reformation. Justin Mart. Apol. i. 61, p. 80 says, , . Chrys. has two , in the first of which (vol. ii. p. 228) he justifies the name for baptism by reference to the two places in this Epistle. Suicer (sub voce) gives a full account of this usage, from which it appears that the word never came simply and purely to signify outward baptism, but always included that illumination of the new birth which is the thing signified in the sacrament. So Ps.-Chrys, Hom. on Joh 1:1 , vol. xii. p. 418, ( ) , . , , . The Syr. here translates, “qui semel ad baptismum descenderunt.” And so all the ancient Commentators here, and some of the moderns, as Justiniani, Estius, a-Lapide, Calmet, Hammond, Pyle, Ernesti. Erasmus seems the first who interpreted the word aright (“qui semel reliquerint tenebras vit prioris, illuminati per doctrinam evangelicam”), and almost all since have followed him), and (on the coupling by see below) have tasted (personally and consciously partaken of: see reff. 1 Pet. and Ps.: and on the general expression , note on ch. Heb 2:9 ) of the heavenly gift (what is more especially meant? It is very variously given: Chrys. ( , ), c. ( ), remission of sins : and so Thl., Faber Stap., Erasm. (par.) (“jamque per baptismum condonatis peccatis”), Hammond, De Wette, al.: Schlichting (“animi cum pax et tranquillitas qu oritur ex notitia plenissim remissionis omnium peccatorum, tum liquidissimum illud gaudium et spes immortalis vit”), Grot. (“id est, pacem conscienti”), Justiniani, joy and peace in believing : Primas., Estius (only as “probabilitatem habens”), Michaelis, the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper : Owen, Calmet, Ernesti, the Holy Spirit and His gifts : Seb. Schmidt, Bengel, and many more, Christ Himself : Kuinoel, Heinrichs, al., the religion of Christ , the gospel : Pareus, faith : Klee, regeneration in general as distinguished from the special gifts of the Spirit in Baptism: Bleek and Tholuck, on account of the close coupling by to what has preceded, the itself conveyed in the . But I would rather, considering the emphatic position of , take, as indeed do Lnemann and Ebrard virtually (and Delitzsch, referring to 2Co 9:15 ), to have a perfectly general reference, q. d. ‘that which was bestowed on them thereby.’ This heavenly gift the persons supposed have tasted for themselves . The , in the style of this Epistle and St. Luke in the Acts, cannot be pressed so securely as in ordinary Greek and in the rest of the N. T.: and indeed on this last rendering is fully justified) and have been made (see note on ch. Heb 4:3 , for a discussion of the passive sense of : which, however true here, must not be too much pressed, so as to emphasize the participle: see below) partakers (see on ref.) of the Holy Spirit (outwardly, the agency would be the laying on of hands after baptism: but obviously the emphatic word is have become real sharers : so that the proper agent is He who only can bestow this participation, viz. God),

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Heb 6:4-6 give the writer’s reason for not attempting again to lay a foundation. It is, he says, to attempt an impossibility. The statement falls into three parts: (1) A description of a class of persons . (2) The statement of a fact regarding these persons . (3) The cause of this fact found in some further characteristics of their career .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Heb 6:4 . First, the description here given of those who have entered upon the Christian life is parallel to the description given in Heb 6:1-2 of elementary Christian teaching; although the parallel is not carried out in detail. The picture, though highly coloured, is somewhat vague in outline. “The writer’s purpose is not to give information to us , but to awaken in the breasts of his first readers sacred memories, and breed godly sorrow over a dead past. Hence he expresses himself in emotional terms such as might be used by recent converts rather than in the colder but more exact style of the historian” (Bruce). : The does not refer to the immediately preceding clause (Delitzsch) but points directly to and through these words to . , the sense being “Let us go on to perfection and not attempt to lay again a foundation, for this would be vain, seeing that those who have once begun and found entrance to the Christian life, but have fallen away, cannot be renewed again to repentance, cannot make a second beginning. , “those who were once enlightened”. includes all the participles down to , which therefore describe one class of persons; and it is governed by . : “once for all” semel (not = quondam) may be taken as remotely modifying the three following participles as well as . Its force is that “once” must be enough; no can find place; and it refers back to of Heb 6:1 , and forward to of Heb 6:6 . is used in this absolute way in Heb 10:32 where a comparison with Heb 10:26 indicates that it is equivalent to . Cf. also 2Co 4:4 and Eph 1:18 . The source of the enlightenment is , the result is repentance and faith, Heb 6:1 . Hatch refers to this passage in support of his contention that the language and imagery of the N.T. are influenced by the Greek mysteries ( Hibbert Lect. , pp. 295 6). “So early as the time of Justin Martyr we find a name given to baptism which comes straight from the Greek mysteries the name ‘enlightenment’ ( , ). It came to be the constant technical term.” But as Anrich shows ( Das antike Mysterienwesen , p. 125) was not one of the technical terms of the mysteries [“Der Ausdruck begegnet in der Mysterienterminologie nie und nirgends”.] The word is of frequent occurrence in the LXX, see esp. Hos 10:12 . [“Ausdruck und Vorstellung sind alttestamentlich”]. Of course it is the fact that was used by Justin and subsequent fathers to denote baptism ( vide Suicer, s.v.), and several interpret the word here in that sense. So the Syrian versions; Theodoret and Theophylact translate by and . For the use made of this translation in the Montanist and Novatian controversies see the Church Histories, and Tertullian’s De Pudic. , c. xx. The translation is, however, an anachronism. [In this connection, the whole of c. vi. of Clement’s Paedag . may with advantage be read. . .]

f1 , “and tasted the heavenly gift”. . here as elsewhere, to know experimentally; cf. Heb 2:9 ; Mat 16:28 . The heavenly gift, or the gift that comes to us from heaven and partakes of the nature of its source, is according to Chrys. and cum: “The forgiveness of sins”; and so, many moderns, Davidson, Weiss, etc.; others with a slight difference refer it to the result of forgiveness “pacem conscientiae quae consequitur peccatorum remissionem” (Grotius). Some finding that is more than once (Act 2:38 ; Act 10:45 ) used of the Holy Spirit, conclude that this is here the meaning (Owen, von Soden, etc.); while Bengel is not alone in rendering, “Dei filius, ut exprimitur (Heb 6:6 .) Christus , qui per fidem, nec non in sacra ipsius Coena gustatur”. Bleek, considering that this expression is closely joined to the preceding by , concludes that what is meant is the gift of enlightenment, or, as Tholuck says, “the is just the Christian objectively taken”. The objection to the first of these interpretations, which has much in its favour, is that it is too restricted: the last is right in emphasising the close connection with ., for what is meant apparently is the whole gift of redemption, the new creation, the fulness of life eternal freely bestowed, and made known as freely bestowed, to the “enlightened”. Cf. Rom 5:15 ; 2Co 9:15 . , “and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost”; a strong expression intended to bring out, as Westcott remarks, “the fact of a personal character gained; and that gained in a vital development”. The bestowal of the Spirit is the invariable response to faith. The believer is . In chap. Heb 10:29 , when the same class of persons is described, one element of their guilt is stated to be their doing despite to the Spirit of grace. Grotius and others refer the words to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; rather it is the distinctive source of Christian life that is meant. It is customary to find a parallel between the two clauses of Heb 6:2 , . . . and the two clauses of this verse . . There are, however, objections to this idea.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

once. Greek. hapax. Here, Heb 9:7, Heb 9:26, Heb 9:27, Heb 9:28; Heb 10:2; Heb 12:26, Heb 12:27; 2Co 11:25. Php 1:4, Php 1:16, 1Th 2:18; 1Pe 3:18, 1Pe 3:20. Jud 1:3-5. Compare Heb 7:27.

enlightened. Greek. photizo. See Luk 11:36. Compare App-130.

have. Omit.

heavenly. See Heb 3:1.

gift. Greek. dorea. See Joh 4:10.

were made = became.

partakers. Gr metochos. See Heb 1:9.

Holy Ghost. App-101.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

4.] For (depends on the whole foregoing sentence, including the reference to the divine permission: not as Whitby and De Wette, on . . The connexion is: we must go on, for if we go back, it will be to perdition-a thing which (Heb 6:9) we do not think of you, and therefore expect your advance) it is impossible, in the case of (these words I insert, not as belonging to the Greek construction, but as necessary in English, to prevent the entire inversion of the Greek order of the sentence) those who have been (or, were: but the English perfect here represents idiomatically the Greek aorist, in this clause referring pointedly enough to the time when the event took place. And indeed where there is no such plain reference as in the subsequent clauses, we are in the habit of expressing priority more by the perfect, the Greeks by the aorist. And here it is quite necessary to take our English perfect: for our indefinite past, who were enlightened and tasted and were made and tasted would convey to the mere English reader the idea that all this took place at one and the same time, viz. baptism,-whereas the participles clearly indicate progressive steps of the spiritual life. These remarks do not apply to cases like that of Act 19:2 f., but only to those where an aorist participle indicates priority to some present action) once (for all: indicating that the process needs not, or admits not, repetition: cf. reff. occurs eight times in our Epistle, which is oftener than in all the rest of the N. T.) enlightened (Bleek gives a good rsum of the usage and meanings of . It is a word of later Greek, principally found in the N. T. and LXX (reff.). It occurs in Polyb. xxx. 8. 1, . , taken and brought to light: xxiii. 3. 10, : Arrian, Epict. i. 4, : Diog. Laert. i. 57, . In all these places the sense is to bring to light, or cast light upon. The other meaning, to enlighten, applied to a person, is purely Hellenistic. So in ref. Judg., , . And the LXX usage is generally simply to teach, to instruct: so in ref. 4 Kings, and ib. 4 Kings 17:27, . Here it implies, taught, by the preaching of the word of God. An historic interest belongs to the occurrence of this word here, as having in all probability given rise to a meaning of and , as denoting baptism, which was current throughout the Church down to the Reformation. Justin Mart. Apol. i. 61, p. 80 says, , . Chrys. has two , in the first of which (vol. ii. p. 228) he justifies the name for baptism by reference to the two places in this Epistle. Suicer (sub voce) gives a full account of this usage, from which it appears that the word never came simply and purely to signify outward baptism, but always included that illumination of the new birth which is the thing signified in the sacrament. So Ps.-Chrys, Hom. on Joh 1:1, vol. xii. p. 418, ( ) , . , , . The Syr. here translates, qui semel ad baptismum descenderunt. And so all the ancient Commentators here, and some of the moderns, as Justiniani, Estius, a-Lapide, Calmet, Hammond, Pyle, Ernesti. Erasmus seems the first who interpreted the word aright (qui semel reliquerint tenebras vit prioris, illuminati per doctrinam evangelicam), and almost all since have followed him), and (on the coupling by see below) have tasted (personally and consciously partaken of: see reff. 1 Pet. and Ps.: and on the general expression , note on ch. Heb 2:9) of the heavenly gift (what is more especially meant? It is very variously given: Chrys. (, ), c. ( ), remission of sins: and so Thl., Faber Stap., Erasm. (par.) (jamque per baptismum condonatis peccatis), Hammond, De Wette, al.: Schlichting (animi cum pax et tranquillitas qu oritur ex notitia plenissim remissionis omnium peccatorum, tum liquidissimum illud gaudium et spes immortalis vit), Grot. (id est, pacem conscienti), Justiniani, joy and peace in believing: Primas., Estius (only as probabilitatem habens), Michaelis, the Sacrament of the Lords Supper: Owen, Calmet, Ernesti, the Holy Spirit and His gifts: Seb. Schmidt, Bengel, and many more, Christ Himself: Kuinoel, Heinrichs, al., the religion of Christ,-the gospel: Pareus, faith: Klee, regeneration in general as distinguished from the special gifts of the Spirit in Baptism: Bleek and Tholuck, on account of the close coupling by to what has preceded, the itself conveyed in the . But I would rather, considering the emphatic position of , take, as indeed do Lnemann and Ebrard virtually (and Delitzsch, referring to 2Co 9:15), to have a perfectly general reference, q. d. that which was bestowed on them thereby. This heavenly gift the persons supposed have tasted for themselves. The , in the style of this Epistle and St. Luke in the Acts, cannot be pressed so securely as in ordinary Greek and in the rest of the N. T.: and indeed on this last rendering is fully justified) and have been made (see note on ch. Heb 4:3, for a discussion of the passive sense of : which, however true here, must not be too much pressed, so as to emphasize the participle: see below) partakers (see on ref.) of the Holy Spirit (outwardly, the agency would be the laying on of hands after baptism: but obviously the emphatic word is -have become real sharers- : so that the proper agent is He who only can bestow this participation, viz. God),

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 6:4. ) it is impossible for men, however qualified.-, once for all) The adverb does not extenuate the matter, but renders the expression precise.-, enlightened) Christianity is the Whole, into which men get an entrance through the Gospel received by faith, and through baptism. There follow here the three parts in respect of the three principal benefits in the New Testament, proceeding from the Son of God, from the Holy Spirit, from GOD. So, enlightened (illuminated), ch. Heb 10:32. Whence the use of this word is very frequent in the writings of the Fathers concerning baptism. Life and light are often mentioned conjointly; the one is often observed to be included in the notion of the other. Therefore, as regeneration is said to take place in baptism, so also enlightening. And this phrase is particularly suited to the Israelites, who had not been without life by faith, according to the Old Testament, when they abstained from dead works, Heb 6:1; but yet afterwards they were bathed in the new light of the New Testament.- , who have tasted the heavenly gift) The enjoyment of light is in vision: now to vision is added taste, by which believers, being allured, ought to be always retained. , the heavenly gift, is the Son of GOD, as it is expressed, Heb 6:6,-Christ, who is tasted by faith, and also in His own sacred Supper; 1Pe 2:3; and this taste involves more than repentance from dead works, and faith toward GOD. The participle, , although the genitive [Heb 6:4] and accusative [Heb 6:5] are often used promiscuously, seems, however, in this passage to carry with it a difference in the cases. The one (Genitive) denotes a part; for we do not exhaust the tasting [enjoy the whole fulness, but only a part] of Christ, the heavenly gift, in this life: the other (Accusative) expresses more, inasmuch as the whole tasting of the Word of GOD preached belongs to this life, although the powers of the world to come are joined to this Word.-, partakers) This partaking, as we have observed at Heb 6:1, involves more than the doctrines of baptism and the imposition of hands. In this clause the word taste is not used, because the Holy Spirit here is considered as rather producing the taste, than as its object.- , of the Holy Ghost) He is often mentioned in connection with Christ; Act 2:38.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

, , , , , , , .

, impossibile enim; that is, est, it is impossible. Syr., , but they cannot. This respects the power of the persons themselves, and not the event of things; it may be not improperly as to the sense. Beza and Erasmus, fieri non potest, it cannot be. The same with impossible; but the use of the word in the New Testament, which signifies sometimes only what is very difficult, not what is absolutely denied, makes it useful to retain the same word as in our translation, for it is impossible.

. Syr, , those who one time (or once) descended unto baptism; of which interpretation we must speak afterwards. All others, qui semel fuerint illuminati, who were once illuminated. Only the Ethiopic follows the Syriac. Some read illustrati, to the same purpose.

. Vulg. Lat., gustaverant etiam donum coeleste; etiam for et Others express the article by the pronoun, by reason of its reduplication: Et gustaverint donum illud coeleste, and have tasted of that heavenly gift. Syr., the gift that is from heaven. And this the emphasis in the original seems to require. And have tasted of that heavenly gift.

, . Et participes facti sunt Spiritus Sancti, Vulg. Lat.; and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost. All others, facti fuerint, have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost. Syr., , the Spirit of holiness.

. Vulg. Lat., et gustaverunt nihilominus bonum Dei verbum. Rhem., have moreover tasted the good word of God. But moreover doth not express nihilominus; [it must be rendered] and have notwithstanding, which hath no place here. , verbum pulchrum.

. Virtutesque seculi futuri. Syr., , vir-tutem, the power. Vulg., seculi venturi. We cannot in our language distinguish between futurum and venturum, and so render it, the world to come.

. Vulg., et prolapsi sunt. Rhem., and are fullen. Others, si prolabantur; which the sense requires, if they fall, that is, away, as our translation, properly. Syr., , that sin again; somewhat dangerously, for it is one kind of sinning only that is included and expressed.

. Vulg, rursus renovari ad poenitentmm, to be renewed again to repentance, rendering the active verb passively. So Beza also, ut denuo renoventur ad resipiscentiam; that they should again be renewed to repentance. The word is active as rendered by ours, to renew them again to repentance.

. Rursum crucifigentes sibimetipsis Filium Dei. . Vulg., et ostentui habentes. Rhem., and making him a mockery. Eras., ludibrio habentes. Beza, ignominim exponentes. One of late, ad exemplum Judaeorum excruciant; torment him as did the Jews. [3]

[3] Exposition. Turner holds that these verses describe a true Christian condition and character, and recognize the danger, and of course the possibility, of falling therefrom irrecoverably. The verses, as Owen shows, in his remarks on them in his work on the Perseverance of the Saints, present no small difficulty, even if interpreted according to the Arminian principle of the possible defectibility of the saints; for they would thus imply not merely that a saint may fall away, but, what no Arminian holds, or at least can hold consistently, that, once falling away, he cannot be renewed. Doddridge appears to lean to the exegesis of Owen, expounding the privileges and attainments mentioned as not implying a state of grace. Stuart differs from them, and admits that true believers are intended by the apostle, but meets the difficulty thus: Whatever may be true in the divine purposes, as to the final salvation of all those who are once truly regenerated, and this doctrine I feel constrained to admit, yet nothing can be plainer than that the sacred writers have everywhere addressed saints in the same manner as they would address those whom they considered as constantly exposed to fall away and to perish for ever…..God treats Christians as free agents, as rational beings; he guards them against defection, not by mere physical power, but by moral means adapted to their nature as free and rational agents. Ed.

Heb 6:4-6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they fall away [for any] to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify again to themselves the Son of God, and put him unto open shame [or treat him ignominiously].

That this passage in our apostles discourse hath been looked upon as accompanied with great difficulties is known to all; and many have the differences been about its interpretation. For, both doctrinally and practically, sundry have here stumbled and miscarried. It is almost generally agreed upon, that from these words, and the colorable but indeed perverse interpretation and application made of them by some in the primitive times, occasioned by the then present circumstances of things, to be mentioned afterwards, the Latin church was so backward in receiving the epistle itself, that it had not absolutely prevailed therein in the days of Jerome, as we have elsewhere declared. Wherefore it is necessary that we should a little inquire into the occasion of the great contests which have been in the church, almost in all ages, about the sense of this place.

It is known that the primitive church, according to its duty, was carefully watchful about the holiness and upright walking of all that were admitted into the society and fellowship of it. Hence, upon every known and visible failing, they required an open repentance from the offenders before they would admit them unto a participation of the sacred mysteries. But upon flagitious and scandalous crimes, such as murder, adultery, or idolatry, in many churches they would never admit those who had been guilty of them into their communion any more. Their greatest and most signal trial was with respect unto them who, through fear of death, complied with the Gentiles in their idolatrous worship in the time of persecution. For they had fixed no certain general rules whereby they Should unanimously proceed, but every church exercised severity or lenity, according as they saw cause, upon the circumstances of particular instances. Hence Cyprian, in his banishment, would not positively determine concerning those of the church in Carthage who had so sinned and fallen, but deferred his thoughts until his return; when he resolved to advise with the whole church, and settle all things according to the counsel that should be agreed on amongst them. Yea, many of his epistles are on this subject peculiarly; and in them all, if compared together, it is evident that there was no rule agreed upon herein; nor was he himself resolved in his own mind, though strictly on all occasions opposing Novatianus; wherein it had been well if his arguments had answered his zeal. Before this, the church of Rome was esteemed in particular more remiss in their discipline, and more free than other churches in their re-admission unto communion of notorious offenders. Hence Tertullian, in his book de Poenitentia, reflects on Zephyrinus, the bishop of Rome, that he had admitted adulterers unto repentance, and thereby unto the communion of the church. [4]

[4] See quotations from Tertullian, and others, in works, vol. 7. p. 14. Ed.

But that church proceeding in her lenity, and every day enlarging her charity, Novatus and Novatianus taking offense thereat, advanced an opinion on the contrary extreme. For they denied all hope of church pardon, or of a return unto ecclesiastical communion, unto them who had fallen into open sin after baptism; and, in especial, peremptorily excluded all persons whatsoever who had outwardly complied with idolatrous worship in time of persecution, without respect unto any distinguishing circumstances. Yea, they seem to have excluded them from all expectation of forgiveness from God himself. But their followers, terrified with the uncharitableness and horror of this persuasion, tempered it so far as that, leaving all persons absolutely to the mercy of God upon their repentance, they only denied such as we mentioned before a re-admission into church communion, as Acesius speaks expressly in Socrates, lib. 1. cap. 7. Now this opinion they endeavored to confirm, as from the nature and use of baptism, which was not to be reiterated, whereon they judged that no pardon was to be granted unto them who fell into those sins which they lived in before, and were cleansed from at their baptism; so principally from this place of our apostle, wherein they thought their whole opinion was taught and confirmed. And so usually doth it fall out, very unhappily, with men who think they see some peculiar opinion or persuasion in some singular text of Scripture, and will not bring their interpretations of it unto the analogy of faith, whereby they might see how contrary it is to the whole design and current of the word in other places. But the church of Rome, on the other side, though judging rightly, from other directions given in the Scripture, that the Novatians transgressed the rule of charity and gospel discipline in their severities, yet, as it should seem, and is very probable, knew not how to answer the objection from this place of our apostle: therefore did they rather choose for a season to suspend their assent unto the authority of the whole epistle, than to prejudice the church by its admission. And well was it that some learned men afterward, by their sober interpretations of the words, plainly evinced that no countenance was given in them unto the errors of the Novatians; for without this it is much to be feared that some would have preferred their interest in their present controversy before the authority of it: which would, in the issue, have proved ruinous to the truth itself; for the epistle, being designed of God unto the common edification of the church, would at length have prevailed, whatever sense men, through their prejudices and ignorance, should put upon any passages of it. But this controversy is long since buried; the generality of the churches in the world being sufficiently remote from that which was truly the mistake of the Novatians, yea, the most of them do bear peaceably in their communion, without the least exercise of gospel discipline towards them, such persons as concerning whom the dispute was of old whether they should ever in this world be admitted into the communion of the church, although upon their open and professed repentance. We shall not, therefore, at present need to labor in this controversy. But the sense of these words hath been the subject of great contests on other occasions also. For some do suppose and contend that they are real and true believers who are deciphered by the apostle, and that their character is given us in and by sundry inseparable adjuncts and properties of such persons. Hence they conclude that such believers may totally and finally fall from grace, and perish eternally. Yea, it is evident that this hypothesis, of the final apostasy of true believers, is that which influenceth their minds and judgments to suppose that such are here intended. Wherefore others, who will not admit that, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus, true believers can perish everlastingly, do say, that either they are not here intended, or if they are, the words are only comminatory, wherein although the consequence in them in a way of arguing be true, namely, that on the supposition laid down, the inference is certain, yet the supposition is not asserted in order unto a certain consequent, whence it should follow that true believers might so really fall away and absolutely perish. And these things have been the matter of many contests among learned men.

Again; there have been sundry mistakes in the practical application of the intention of these words unto the consciences of men, mostly made by themselves who are concerned. For whereas, by reason of sin, they have been surprised with terrors and troubles of conscience, they have withal, in their darkness and distress, supposed themselves to be fallen into the condition here described by our apostle, and consequently to be irrecoverably lost. And these apprehensions usually befall men on two occasions. For some having been overtaken with some great actual sin against the second table, after they have made a profession of the gospel, and having their consciences harassed with a sense of their guilt (as it will fall out where men are not greatly hardened through the deceitfulness of sin), they judge that they are fallen under the sentence denounced in this scripture against such sinners as they suppose themselves to be, whereby their state is irrecoverable. Others do make the same judgment of themselves, because they have fallen from that constant compliance with their convictions which formerly led them unto a strict performance of duties, and this in some course of long continuance.

Now, whereas it is certain that the apostle in this discourse gives no countenance unto the severity of the Novatians, whereby they excluded offenders everlastingly from the peace and communion of the church; nor to the final apostasy of true believers, which he testifieth against in this very chapter, in compliance with innumerable other testimonies of Scripture to the same purpose; nor doth he teach any thing whereby the conscience of any sinner who desires to return to God, and to find acceptance with him, should be discouraged or disheartened; we must attend unto the exposition of the words in the first place, so as not to break in upon the boundaries of other truths, nor transgress against the analogy of faith. And we shall find that this whole discourse, compared with other scriptures, and freed from the prejudices that men have brought unto it, is both remote from administering any just occasion to the mistakes before- mentioned, and is a needful, wholesome commination, duly to be considered by all professors of the gospel.

In the words we consider,

1. The connection of them unto those foregoing, intimating the occasion of the introduction of this whole discourse.

2. The subject described in them, or the persons spoken of, under sundry qualifications, which may be inquired into jointly and severally.

3. What is supposed concerning them.

4. What is affirmed of them on that supposition.

FIRST, The connection of the words is included in the causal conjunction, , for. It respects the introduction of a reason, for what had been before discoursed, as also of the limitation which the apostle added expressly unto his purpose of making a progress in their further instruction, If God permit. And he doth not herein express his judgment that they to whom he wrote were such as he describes, for he afterwards declares that he hoped better things concerning them; only it was necessary to give them this caution, that they might take due care not to be such. And whereas he had manifested theft they were slow as to the making of a progress in knowledge and a suitable practice, he lets them here know the danger that there was in continuing in that slothful condition. For not to proceed in the ways of the gospel, and obedience thereunto, is an untoward entrance into a total relinquishment of the one and the other. That therefore they might be acquainted with the danger hereof, and be stirred up to avoid that danger, he gives them an account of those who, after a profession of the gospel, beginning at a non-proficiency under it, do end in apostasy from it. And we may see, that the severest comminations are not only useful in the preaching of the gospel, but exceeding necessary towards persons that are observed to be slothful in their profession.

SECONDLY, The description of the persons that are the subject spoken of is given in five instances of the evangelical privileges whereof they were made partakers; notwithstanding all which, and against their obliging efficacy to the contrary, it is supposed that they may wholly desert the gospel itself. And some things we may observe concerning this description of them in general; as,

1. The apostle, designing to express the fearful state and judgment of these persons, describes them by such things as may fully evidence it to be, as unavoidable, so righteous and equal. Those things must be some evident privileges and advantages, whereof they were made partakers by the gospel. These being despised in their apostasy, do proclaim their destruction from God to be rightly deserved.

2. That all these privileges do consist in certain especial operations of the Holy Ghost, which were peculiar unto the dispensation of the gospel, such as they neither were nor could be made partakers of in their Judaism. For the Spirit, in this sense, was not received by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith, Gal 2:2; and this was a testimony unto them that they were delivered from the bondage of the law, namely, by a participation of that Spirit which was the great privilege of the gospel.

3. Here is no express mention of any covenant grace or mercy in them or towards them, nor of any duty of faith or obedience which they had performed. Nothing of justification, sanctification, or adoption, is expressly assigned unto them. Afterwards, when he comes to declare his hope and persuasion concerning these Hebrews, that they were not such as those whom he had before described, nor such as would so fall away unto perdition, he doth it upon three grounds, whereon they were differenced from them: as,

(1.) That they had such things as did accompany salvation; that is, such as salvation is inseparable from. None of these things, therefore, had he ascribed unto those whom he describeth in this place; for if he had so done, they would not have been unto him an argument and evidence of a contrary end, that these should not fall away and perish as well as those. Wherefore he ascribes nothing to these here in the text that doth peculiarly accompany salvation, Heb 6:9.

(2.) He describes them by their duties of obedience and fruits of faith. This was their work and labor of love towards the name of God, verse 10. And hereby, also, doth he difference them from these in the text, concerning whom he supposeth that they may perish eternally, which these fruits of saving faith and sincere love cannot do.

(3.) He adds, that in the preservation of those there mentioned the faithfulness of God was concerned: God is not unrighteous to forget.

For they were such he intended as were interested in the covenant of grace, with respect whereunto alone there is any engagement on the faithfulness or righteousness of God to preserve men from apostasy and ruin; and there is so with an equal respect unto all who are so taken into the covenant. But of these in the text he supposeth no such thing; and thereupon doth not intimate that either the righteousness or faithfulness of God was any way engaged for their preservation, but rather the contrary. The whole description, therefore, refers unto some especial gospel privileges, which professors in those days were promiscuously made partakers of; and what they were in particular we must in the next place inquire:

1. The first thing in the description is, that they were , once enlightened; saith the Syriac translation, as we observed, once baptized. It is very certain that, early in the church, baptism was called , illumination; and , to enlighten, was used for to baptize. And the set times wherein they solemnly administered that ordinance were called , the days of light. Hereunto the Syriac interpreter seems to have had respect. And the word , once, may give countenance hereunto. Baptism was once only to be celebrated, according to the constant faith of the churches in all ages. And they called baptism illumination, because it being one ordinance of the initiation of persons into a participation of all the mysteries of the church, they were thereby translated out of the kingdom of darkness into that of grace and light. And it seems to give further countenance hereunto, in that baptism really was the beginning and foundation of a participation of all the other spiritual privileges that are mentioned afterwards. For it was usual in those times, that upon the baptizing of persons, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and endowed them with extraordinary gifts, peculiar to the days of the gospel, as we have showed in our consideration of the order between baptism and imposition of hands. And this opinion hath so much of probability in it, having nothing therewithal unsuited to the analogy of faith or design of the place, that I should embrace it, if the word itself, as here used, did not require another interpretation. For it was a good while after the writing of this epistle, and all other parts of the New Testament, at least an age or two, if not more, before this word was used mystically to express baptism. In the whole Scripture it hath another sense, denoting an inward operation of the Spirit, and not the outward administration of an ordinance. And it is too much boldness, to take a word in a peculiar sense in one single place, diverse from its proper signification and constant use, if there be no circumstances in the text forcing us thereunto, as here are not. And for the word , once, it is not to be restrained unto this particular, but refers equally unto all the instances that follow, signifying no more but that those mentioned were really and truly partakers of them.

, is to give light or knowledge by teaching; the same with , which, therefore, is so translated ofttimes by the Greeks; as by Aquila, Exo 4:12; Psa 119:33; Pro 4:4; Isa 27:11, as Drusius observes. And it is so by the LXX., Jdg 13:8; 2Ki 12:2; 2Ki 17:27. Our apostle useth it for to make manifest; that is, bring to light, 1Co 4:5, 2Ti 1:10. And the meaning of it, Joh 1:9, where we render it lighteth, is to teach. And is knowledge upon instruction: 2Co 4:4, , That the light of the gospel should not shine into them; that is, the knowledge of it. So 2Co 4:6, , The light of the knowledge. Wherefore to be enlightened, in this place, is to be instructed in the doctrine of the gospel, so as to have a spiritual apprehension thereof. And this is so termed on a double account:

(1.) Of the object, or the things known and apprehended. For life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel, 2Ti 1:10. Hence it is called light; the inheritance of the saints in light. And the state which men are thereby brought into is so called in opposition to the darkness that is in the world without it, 1Pe 2:9. The world without the gospel is the kingdom of Satan: , 1Jn 5:19. The whole of the world, and all that belongs unto it, in distinction and opposition unto the new creation, is under the power of the wicked one, the prince of the power of darkness, and so is full of darkness. It is , 2Pe 1:19; a dark place, wherein ignorance, folly, error, and superstition do dwell and reign. By the power and efficacy of this darkness are men kept at a distance from God, and know not whither they go. This is called walking in darkness, 1Jn 1:6; whereunto walking in the light, that is, the knowledge of God in Christ by the gospel, is opposed, 1Jn 1:7. On this account is our instruction in the knowledge of the gospel called illumination, because itself is light.

(2.) On the account of the subject, or the mind itself, whereby the gospel is apprehended. For the knowledge which is received thereby expels that darkness, ignorance, and confusion, which the mind before was filled and possessed withal. The knowledge, I say, of the doctrine of the gospel, concerning the person of Christ, of Gods being in him reconciling the world unto himself, of his offices, work, and mediation, and the like heads of divine revelation, doth set up a spiritual light in the minds of men, enabling them to discern what before was utterly hid from them, whilst alienated from the life of God through their ignorance. Of this light and knowledge there are several degrees, according to the means of instruction which they do enjoy, the capacity they have to receive it, and the diligence they use to that purpose. But a competent measure of the knowledge of the fundamental and most material principles or doctrines of the gospel is required unto all that may thence be said to be illuminated; that is, freed from the darkness and ignorance they once lived in, 2Pe 1:19-21.

This is the first property whereby the persons intended are described; they are such as were illuminated by the instruction they had received in the doctrine of the gospel, and the impression made thereby on their minds by the Holy Ghost; for this is a common work of his, and is here so reckoned. And the apostle would have us know that,

Obs. 1. It is a great mercy, a great privilege, to be enlightened with the doctrine of the gospel, by the effectual working of the Holy Ghost. But,

Obs. 2. It is such a privilege as may be lost, and end in the aggravation of the sin, and condemnation of those who were made partakers of it. And,

Obs. 3. Where there is a total neglect of the due improvement of this privilege and mercy, the condition of such persons is hazardous, as inclining towards apostasy.

Thus much lies open and manifest in the text. But that we may more particularly discover the nature of this first part of the character of apostates, for their sakes who may look after their own concernment therein, we may yet a little more distinctly express the nature of that illumination and knowledge which is ascribed unto them; and how it is lost in apostasy will afterwards appear. And,

(1.) There is a knowledge of spiritual things that is purely natural and disciplinary, attainable and attained without any especial aid or assistance of the Holy Ghost. As this is evident in common experience, so especially among such as, casting themselves on the study of spiritual things, are yet utter strangers unto all spiritual gifts. Some knowledge of the Scripture, and the things contained in it, is attainable at the same rate of pains and study with that of any other art or science.

(2.) The illumination intended, being a gift of the Holy Ghost, differs from, and is exalted above this knowledge that is purely natural; for it makes nearer approaches unto the light of spiritual things in their own nature than the other doth. Notwithstanding the utmost improvement of scientifical notions that are purely rural, the things of the gospel, in their own nature, are not only unsuited to the wills and affections of persons endued with them, but are really foolishness unto their minds. And as unto that goodness and excellency which give desirableness unto spiritual things, this knowledge discovers so little of them, that most men hate the things which they profess to believe. But this spiritual illumination gives the mind some satisfaction, with delight and joy, in the things that are known. By that beam whereby it shines into darkness, although it be not fully comprehended, yet it represents the way of the gospel as a way of righteousness, 2Pe 2:21, which reflects peculiar regard of it on the mind.

Moreover, the knowledge that is merely natural hath little or no power upon the soul, either to keep it from sin or to constrain it unto obedience. There is not a more secure and profligate generation of sinners in the world than those who are under the sole conduct of it. But the illumination here intended is attended with efficacy, and doth effectually press in the conscience and whole soul unto an abstinence from sin, and the performance of all known duties. Hence persons under the power of it and its convictions do ofttimes walk blamelessly and uprightly in the world, so as not with the other to contribute unto the contempt of Christianity. Besides, there is such an alliance between spiritual gifts, that where any one of them doth reside, it hath assuredly others accompanying of it, or one way or other belonging unto its train, as is manifest in this place. Even a single talent is made up of many pounds. But the light and knowledge which is of a mere natural acquirement is solitary, destitute of the society and countenance of any spiritual gift whatever. And these things are exemplified unto common observation every day.

(3.) There is a saving, sanctifying light and knowledge, which this spiritual illumination riseth not up unto; for though it transiently affects the mind with some glances of the beauty, glory, and excellency of spiritual things, yet it cloth not give that direct, steady, intuitive insight into them which is obtained by grace. See 2Co 3:18; 2Co 4:4; 2Co 4:6. Neither doth it renew, change, or transform the soul into a conformity unto the things known, by planting of them in the will and affections, as a gracious saving light doth, 2Co 3:18; Rom 6:17; Rom 12:2.

These things I judged necessary to be added, to clear the nature of the first character of apostates.

2. The second thing asserted in the description of them is, that they have tasted of the heavenly gift, . The doubling of the article. gives emphasis to the expression. And we must quire,

(1.) What is meant by the heavenly gift; and,

(2.) What. by tasting of it.

(1.) The gift of God, , is either , donatio, or , donum. Sometimes it is taken for the grant or giving itself, and sometimes for the thing given. In the first sense it is used, 2Co 9:15, Thanks be to God, , for his gift that cannot be declared; that is, fully or sufficiently. Now this gift was his grant of a free, charitable, and bountiful spirit to the Corinthians, in ministering unto the poor saints. The grant hereof is called Gods gift. So is the gift of Christ used also, Eph 4:7, According to the measure of the gift of Christ; that is, according as he is pleased to give and grant of the fruits of the Spirit unto men. See Rom 5:15-17; Eph 2:7. Sometimes it is taken for the thing given, properly or , as Jas 1:17. So is used, Joh 4:10, If thou knewest the gift of God, : the gift of God; that is, the thing given by him, or to be given by him. It is, as many judge, the person of Christ himself in that place which is intended. But the context makes plain that it is the Holy Ghost; for he is the living water which the Lord Jesus promiseth in that place to bestow. And so far as I can observe, , the gift, with respect unto God, as denoting the thing given, is nowhere used but only to signify the Holy Ghost. And if it be so, the sense of this place is determined, Act 2:38, Ye shall receive, the gift of the Holy Ghost; not that which he gives, but that which he is. Act 8:20, Thou hast thought , that the gift of God may be purchased with money; that is, the power of the Holy Ghost in miraculous operations. So expressly, Act 10:45; Act 11:17. Elsewhere , so far as I can observe, when respecting God, doth not signify the thing given, but the grant itself. The Holy Spirit is signally the gift of God under the new testament.

And he is said to be , heavenly, or from heaven. This may have respect unto his work and effect, they are heavenly as opposed to carnal and earthly. But principally it regards his mission by Christ after his ascension into heaven, Act 2:33. Being exalted, and having received the promise of the Father, he sent the Spirit. The promise of him was, that he should be sent from heaven, or from above; as God is saint to be above, which is the same with heavenly, Deu 4:39; 2Ch 6:23; Job 31:28; Isa 32:15; Isa 24:18. When he came upon the Lord Christ, to anoint him for his work, the heavens were opened, and he came from above, Mat 2:16. So, Act 2:2, at his first coming on the apostles, there came a sound from heaven. Hence he is said to be , that is, to be , sent from heaven, 1Pe 1:12. Wherefore, although he may be said to be heavenly upon other accounts also, which therefore are not absolutely to be excluded, yet his being sent from heaven by Christ, after his ascension thither, and exaltation there, is principally here regarded. He, therefore, is this , the heavenly gift here intended, though not absolutely, but with respect to an especial work.

That which riseth up against this interpretation is, that the Holy Ghost is expressly mentioned in the next clause, And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. It is not therefore probable that he should be here also intended.

Ans. [1.] It is ordinary to have the same thing twice expressed in various words, to quicken the sense of them; and it is necessary it should be so when there are divers respects unto the same thing, as there are in this place.

[2.] The following clause may be exegetical of this, declaring more fully and plainly what is here intended, which is usual also in the Scriptures; so that nothing is cogent from this consideration to disprove an interpretation so suited to the sense of the place, and which the constant use of the word makes necessary to be embraced. But,

[3.] The Holy Ghost is here mentioned as the great gift of the gospel times, as coming down from heaven, not absolutely, not as unto his person, but with respect unto an especial work, namely, the change of the whole state of religious worship in the church of God; whereas we shall see in the next words he is spoken of only with respect unto external, actual operations. But he was the great, the promised heavenly gift, to be bestowed under the new testament, by whom God would institute and ordain a new way, and new rites of worship, upon the revelation of himself and will in Christ. Unto him was committed the reformation of all things in the church, whose time was now come, Heb 9:10. The Lord Christ, when he ascended into heaven, left all things standing and continuing in religious worship as they had done from the days of Moses, though he had virtually put an end unto it [the Mosaical dispensation.] And he commanded his disciples that they should attempt no alteration therein until the Holy Ghost were sent from heaven to enable them thereunto, Act 1:4-5. But when he came, as the great gift of God promised under the new testament, he removes all the carnal worship and ordinances of Moses, and that by the full revelation of the accomplishment of all that was signified by them, and appoints the new, holy, spiritual worship of the gospel, that was to succeed in their room. The Spirit of God, therefore, as bestowed for the introduction of the new gospel-state, in truth and worship, is the heavenly gift here intended. Thus our apostle warneth these Hebrews that they

turn not away from him who speaketh from heaven, Heb 12:25; that is, Jesus Christ speaking in the dispensation of the gospel by the Holy Ghost sent from heaven. And there is an antithesis included herein between the law and the gospel; the former being given on earth, the latter being immediately from heaven. God in the giving of the law made use of the ministry of angels, and that on the earth; but he gave the gospel church- state by that Spirit which, although he worketh in men on the earth, and is said in every act or work to be sent from heaven, yet is still in heaven, and always speaketh from thence, as our Savior said of himself, with respect unto his divine nature, Joh 3:13.

(2.) We may inquire what it is to taste of this heavenly gift. The expression of tasting is metaphorical, and signifies no more but to make a trial or experiment; for so we do by tasting, naturally and properly, of that which is tendered unto us to eat. We taste such things by the sense given us naturally to discern our food; and then either receive or refuse them, as we find occasion. It doth not, therefore, include eating, much less digestion and turning into nourishment of what is so tasted; for its nature being only thereby discerned, it may be refused, yea, though we like its relish and savor, upon some other consideration. Some have observed, that to taste is as much as to eat; as 2Sa 3:35, I will not taste bread, or ought else. But the meaning is, I will not so much as taste it;whence it was impossible he should eat it. And when Jonathan says he only tasted a little of the honey, 1Sa 14:29, it was an excuse and extenuation of what he had done. But it is unquestionably used for some kind of experience of the nature of things: Pro 31:18, She tasteth that her merchandise is good; or hath experience of it, from its increase. Psa 34:8, O taste and see that the LORD is good: which Peter respects, 1Pe 2:3, If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, or found it so by experience. It is therefore properly to make an experiment or trial of any thing, whether it be received or refused; and is sometimes opposed to eating and digestion, as Mat 27:34. That, therefore, which is ascribed unto these persons, is, that they had an experience of the power of the Holy Ghost, that gift of God, in the dispensation of the gospel, the revelation of the truth, and institution of the spiritual worship of it; of this state, and of the excellency of it, they had made some trial, and had some experience; a privilege which all men were not made partakers of. And by this taste they were convinced that it was far more excellent than what they had been before accustomed unto; although now they had a mind to leave the finest wheat for their old acorns. Wherefore, although tasting contains a diminution in it, if compared with that spiritual eating and drinking, with that digestion of gospel truths, turning them into nourishment, which are in true believers; yet, absolutely considered, it denotes that apprehension and experience of the excellency of the gospel as administered by the Spirit, which is a great privilege and spiritual advantage, the contempt whereof will prove an unspeakable aggravation of the sin, and the remediless ruin of apostates.

The meaning, then, of this character given concerning these apostates is, that they had some experience of the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit from heaven, in gospel administrations and worship. For what some say of faith, it hath here no place; and what others affirm of Christ, and his being the gift of God, comes in the issue unto what we have proposed. And we may observe, further to clear the design of the apostle in this commination, that,

Obs. 1. All the gifts of God under the gospel are peculiarly heavenly, Joh 3:12, Eph 1:3; and that in opposition,

(1.) To earthly things, Col 3:1-2;

(2.) To carnal ordinances, Heb 9:23. Let them beware by whom they are despised.

Obs. 2. The Holy Ghost, for the revelation of the mysteries of the gospel, and the institution of the ordinances of spiritual worship, is the great gift of God under the new testament.

Obs. 3. There is a goodness and excellency in this heavenly gift, which may be tasted or experienced in some measure by such as never receive them, in their life, power, and efficacy. They may taste,

(1.) Of the word in its truth, not its power;

(2.) Of the worship of the church in its outward order, not its inward beauty;

(3.) Of the gifts of the church, not its graces.

Obs. 4. A rejection of the gospel, its truth and worship, after some experience had of their worth and excellency, is a high aggravation of sin, and a certain presage of destruction.

3. The third property whereby these persons are described is added in these words, , And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. This is placed in the middle or center of the privileges enumerated, two preceding it, and two following after, as that which is the root and animating principle of them all. They all are effects of the Holy Ghost, in his gifts or his graces, and so do depend on the participation of him. Now men do so partake of the Holy Ghost as they do receive him. And he may be received either as unto personal inhabitation or as unto spiritual operations. In the first way the world cannot receive him, Joh 14:17; where the world is opposed unto true believers, and therefore those here intended were not in that sense partakers of him. His operations respect his gifts. So to partake of him is to have a share, part, or portion, in what he distributes by way of spiritual gifts; in answer unto that expression,

All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing unto every man severally as he will, 1Co 12:11.

So Peter told Simon the magician, that he had no part in spiritual gifts, he was not partaker of the Holy Ghost, Act 8:21. Wherefore to be partaker of the Holy Ghost, is to have a share in and benefit of his spiritual operations.

But whereas the other things mentioned are also gifts or operations of the Holy Ghost, on what ground or for what reason is this mentioned here in particular, that they were made partakers of him, which if his operations only be intended, seems to be expressed in the other instances?

Ans. (1.) It is, as we observed before, no unusual thing in the Scripture to express the same thing under various notions, the more effectually to impress a consideration and sense of it on our mind, especially where an expression hath a singular emphasis in it, as this hath here used; for it is an exceeding aggravation of the sins of those apostates, that in these things they were partakers of the Holy Ghost.

(2.) As was before intimated, also, this participation of the Holy Ghost is placed, it may be, in the midst of the several parts of this description, as that whereon they do all depend, and they are all but instances of it. They were partakers of the Holy Ghost, in that they were once enlightened; and so of the rest.

(3.) It expresseth their own personal interest in these things. They had an interest in the things mentioned not only objectively, as they were proposed and presented to them in the church, but subjectively, they themselves in their own persons were made partakers of them. It is one thing for a man to have a share in and benefit by the gifts of the church, another to be personally himself endowed with them.

(4.) To mind them in an especial manner of the privileges they enjoyed under the gospel, above what they had in their Judaism; for whereas then they had not so much as heard that there was a Holy Ghost, that is, a blessed dispensation of him in spiritual gifts, Act 19:2, now they themselves in their own persons were made partakers of him; than which there could be no greater aggravation of their apostasy. And we may observe in our way, that,

Obs. The Holy Ghost is present with many as unto powerful operations, with whom he is not present as to gracious inhabitation; or, many are made partakers of him in his spiritual gifts who are never made partakers of him in his saving graces, Mat 7:22-23.

4. It is added, fourthly, in the description, that they had tasted , the good word of God. And we must inquire,

(1.) What is meant by the word of God;

(2.) How it is said to be good; and,

(3.) In what sense they tasted of it.

(1.) is properly verbum dictum, a word spoken; and although it be sometimes used in another sense by our apostle, and by him alone, Heb 1:3; Heb 11:3, where it denotes the effectual active power of God, yet both the signification of the word and its principal use elsewhere denote words spoken; and when applied unto God, his word as preached and declared. See Rom 10:17, Joh 6:68. The word of God, that is the word of the gospel as preached, is that which they thus tasted of. But it may be said, that they enjoyed the word of God in their state of Judaism. They did so, as to the written word; for unto them were committed the oracles of God, Rom 3:2; but it is the word of God as preached in the dispensation of the gospel that is eminently thus called, and concerning which such excellent things are spoken, Rom 1:16; Act 20:32; Jas 1:21.

(2.) The word is said to be , good, desirable, amiable, as the word here used signifieth. Wherein it is so we shall see immediately. But whereas the word of God preached under the dispensation of the gospel may be considered two ways:

[1.] In general, as to the whole system of truths contained therein; and

[2.] In especial, for the declaration made of the accomplishment of the promise in sending Jesus Christ for the redemption of the church, it is here especially intended in this latter sense. This is emphatically called , 1Pe 1:25. So the promise of God in particular is called his good word: Jer 29:10,

After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you;

as he calls it the good thing which he had promised, Jer 33:14. The gospel is the good tidings of peace and salvation by Jesus Christ, Isa 52:7.

(3.) Hereof they are said to taste, as they were before of the heavenly gift. The apostle as it were studiously keeps himself to this expression, on purpose to manifest that he intendeth not those who by faith do really receive, feed, and live on Jesus Christ, as tendered in the word of the gospel, Joh 6:35; Joh 6:49-51; Joh 6:54-56. It is as if he had said, I speak not of those who have received and digested the spiritual food of their souls, and turned it into spiritual nourishment; but of such as have so far tasted of it, as that they ought to have desired it as sincere milk, to have grown thereby.But they had received such an experiment of its divine truth and power, as that it had various effects upon them. And for the further explication of these words, and therein of the description of the state of these supposed apostates, we may consider the ensuing observations, which declare the sense of the words, or what is contained in them:

Obs. 1. There is a goodness and excellency in the word of God, able to attract and affect the minds of men, who yet never arrive at sincere obedience unto it.

Obs. 2. There is an especial goodness in the word of the promise concerning Jesus Christ, and the declaration of its accomplishment. [5]

[5] See four additional pages on the preceding topic, works, vol. 7:28-32.

5. Lastly, It is added, , And the powers of the world to come. are , or ; the mighty, great, miraculous operations and works of the Holy Ghost. What they were, and how they were wrought among these Hebrews, hath been declared in our exposition on Heb 2:4, whither I shall refer the reader; and they are known from the Acts of the Apostles, where sundry instances of them are recorded. I have also proved on that chapter, that by the world to come, our apostle in this epistle intends the days of the Messiah, that being the usual name of it in the church at that time, as the new world which God had promised to create. Wherefore these powers of the world to come, were the gifts whereby those signs, wonders, and mighty works, were then wrought by the Holy Ghost, according as it was foretold by the prophets that they should be so. See Joel 2, compared with Acts 2. These the persons spoken of are supposed to have tasted; for the particle refers to foregoing. Either they had been wrought in and by themselves, or by others in their sight, whereby they had an experience of the glorious and powerful working of the Holy Ghost in the confirmation of the gospel. Yea, I do judge that themselves in their own persons were partakers of these powers, in the gifts of tongues and other miraculous operations; which was the highest aggravation possible of their apostasy, and that which peculiarly rendered their recovery impossible. For there is not in the Scripture an impossibility put upon the recovery of any but such as peculiarly sin against the Holy Ghost: and although that guilt may be otherwise contracted, yet in none so signally as this, of rejecting that truth which was confirmed by his mighty operations in them that rejected it; which could not be done without an ascription of his divine power unto the devil. Yet would I not fix on those extraordinary gifts exclusively unto those that are ordinary. They also are of the powers of the world to come. So is every thing that belongs to the erection or preservation of the new world or the kingdom of Christ. To the first setting up of a kingdom, great and mighty power is required; but being set up, the ordinary dispensation of power will preserve it. So is it in this matter. The extraordinary, miraculous gifts of the Spirit were used in the erection of Christs kingdom, but it is continued by ordinary gifts; which, therefore, also belong unto the powers of the world to come.

THIRDLY, From the consideration of this description, in all the parts of it, we may understand what sort of persons it is that is intended here by the apostle. And it appears, yea is evident,

1. That the persons here intended are not true and sincere believers, in the strict and proper sense of that name, at least they are not described here as such; so that from hence nothing can be concluded concerning them that are so, as to the possibility of their total and final apostasy. For,

(1.) There is in their full and largo description no mention of faith, or believing, either expressly or in terms equivalent; and in no other place in the Scripture are such intended, but they are mentioned by what belongs essentially to their state. And,

(2.) There is not any thing ascribed to these persons that is peculiar to them as such, or discriminative of them, as taken either from their especial relation unto God in Christ, or any such property of their own as is not communicable unto others. For instance, they are not said to be called according to Gods purpose; to be born again, not of man, nor of the will of flesh, but of God; nor to be justified, or sanctified, or united unto Christ, or to be the sons of God by adoption; nor have they any other characteristical note of true believers ascribed to them.

(3.) They are in the following verses compared to the ground on which the rain often falls, and beareth nothing but thorns and briers. But this is not so with true believers. For faith itself is an herb peculiar to the enclosed garden of Christ, and meet for him by whom we are dressed.

(4.) The apostle afterwards discoursing of true believers, doth in many particulars distinguish them from such as may be apostates; which is supposed of the persons here intended, as was before declared. For,

[1.] He ascribeth unto them in general better things, and such as accompany salvation, verse 9.

[2.] He ascribes a work and labor of love, as it is true faith alone which worketh by love, verse 10; whereof he speaks not one word concerning these.

[3.] He asserts their preservation;

1st, On the account of the righteousness and faithfulness of God, verse 10;

2dly, Of the immutability of his counsel concerning them, verse 17, 18. In all these and sundry other instances doth he put a difference between these apostates and true believers. And whereas the apostle intends to declare the aggravation of their sin in falling away by the principal privileges whereof they were made partakers, here is not one word, in name or thing, of those which he expressly assigns to be the chief privileges of true believers, Rom 8:27-30.

2. Our next inquiry is more particularly whom he doth intend. And,

(1.) They were such who not long before were converted from Judaism unto Christianity, upon the evidence of the truth of its doctrine, and the miraculous operations wherewith its dispensation was accompanied.

(2.) He intends not the common sort of them, but such as had obtained especial privileges among them. For they had received extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, as speaking with tongues or working miracles. And,

(3.) They had found in themselves and others convincing evidences that the kingdom of God and the Messiah, which they called the world to come, was come unto them; and had satisfaction in the glories of it.

(4.) Such persons as these, as they have a work of light on their minds, so, according to the efficacy of their convictions, they may have such a change wrought upon their affections and in their conversation, as that they may be of great esteem among professors; and such those here intended might be. Now it must needs be some horrible frame of spirit, some malicious enmity against the truth and holiness of Christ and the gospel, some violent love of sin and the world, that could turn off such persons as these from the faith, and blot out all that light and conviction of truth which they had received. But the least grace is a better security for heaven than the greatest gifts and privileges whatever.

These are the persons concerning whom our apostle discourseth, and of whom it is supposed by him that they may fall away, . The especial nature of the sin here intended is afterwards declared in two instances or aggravating circumstances. This word expresseth the respect it had to the state and condition of the sinners themselves; they fall away, do that whereby they do so. I think we have well expressed the word, If they shall fall away. Our old translations render it only, If they shall fall: which expressed not the sense of the word, and was liable to a sense not at all intended; for he doth not say, If they shall fall into sin, this, or that, or any sin whatever that can be named, suppose the greatest sin imaginable, namely, the denial of Christ in the time of danger or persecution. This was that sin (as we intimated before) about which so many contests were raised of old, and so many canons were multiplied about the ordering of them who had contracted the guilt thereof. But one example well considered had been a better guide for them than all their own arbitrary rules and imaginations, when Peter fell into this sin, and yet was renewed again to repentance, and that speedily. Wherefore we may lay down this in the first place, as to the sense of the words: There is no particular sin that any man may fall into occasionally, through the power of temptation, that can cast the sinner under this commination, so that it should be impossible to renew him to repentance. It must, therefore, secondly, be a course of sin or sinning that is intended. But there are various degrees herein also, yea, there are divers kinds of such courses in sin. A man may so fall into a way of sin as still to retain in his mind such a principle of light and conviction that may be suitable to his recovery. To exclude such from all hopes of repentance is expressly contrary to Eze 18:21, Isa 55:7, yea, and the whole sense of the Scripture. Wherefore men, after some conviction and reformation of life, may fall into corrupt and wicked courses, and make a long abode or continuance in them. Examples hereof we have every day amongst us, although it may be none to parallel that of Manasseh. Consider the nature of his education under his father Hezekiah, the greatness of his sins, the length of his continuance in them, with his following recovery, and he is a great instance in this case. Whilst there is in such persons any seed of light or conviction of truth which is capable of an excitation or revival, so as to put forth its power and efficacy in their souls, they cannot be looked on to be in the condition intended, though their case be dangerous.

3. Our apostle makes a distinction between and , Rom 11:11, between stumbling and falling; and would not allow that the unbelieving Jews of those days were come so far as , that is, to fall absolutely: ; , I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; that is, absolutely and irrecoverably. So, therefore, doth that word signify in this place. And increaseth the signification, either as to perverseness in the manner of the fall, or as to violence in the fall itself.

From what hath been discoursed, it will appear what falling away it is that the apostle here intendeth. And,

(1.) It is not a falling into this or that actual sin, be it of what nature it will; which may be, and yet not be a falling away.

(2.) It is not a falling upon temptation or surprisal; for concerning such fallings we have rules of another kind given us in sundry places, and those exemplified in especial instances: but it is that which is premeditated, of deliberation and choice.

(3.) It is not a falling by a relinquishment or renunciation some, though very material principles of Christian religion, by error or seduction; as the Corinthians fell, in denying the resurrection of the dead; and the Galatians, by denying justification by faith in Christ alone. Wherefore,

(4.) It must consist in a total renunciation of all the constituent principles and doctrines of Christianity, whence it is denominated. Such was the sin of them who relinquished the gospel to return unto Judaism, as it was then stated, in opposition unto it, and hatred of it. This it was, and not any kind of actual sins, that the apostle manifestly discourseth concerning.

(5.) For the completing of this falling away according to the intention of the apostle, it is required that this renunciation be avowed and professed; as when a man forsaketh the profession of the gospel and falls into Judaism, or Mohammedanism, or Gentilism, in persuasion and practice. For the apostle discourseth concerning faith and obedience as professed; and so, therefore, also of their contraries And this avowment of a relinquishment of the gospel hath many provoking aggravations attending it. And yet whereas some men may in their hearts and minds utterly renounce the gospel, but, upon some outward, secular considerations, either dare not or will not profess that inward renunciation, their falling away is complete and total in the sight of God; and all they do to cover their apostasy in an external compliance with Christian religion, is in the sight of God but a mocking of him, and the highest aggravation of their sin.

This is the falling away intended by the apostle: a voluntary, resolved relinquishment of and apostasy from the gospel, the faith, rule, and obedience thereof; which cannot be without casting the highest reproach and contumely imaginable upon the person of Christ himself, as is afterwards expressed.

FOURTHLY, Concerning these persons, and their thus falling away, two things are to be considered in the text:

1. What is affirmed of them.

2. The reason of that affirmation.

1. The first is, That it is impossible to renew them again to repentance. The thing intended is negative; to renew them again to repentance, this is denied of them. But the modification of that negation turns the proposition into an affirmation: It is impossible so to do. . The importance of this word is dubious; some think an absolute, and others a moral impossibility is intended thereby. This latter most fix upon; so that it is a matter rare, difficulty, and seldom to be expected, that is intended, and not that which is absolutely impossible. Considerable reasons and instances are produced for either interpretation. But we must look further into the meaning of it.

All future events depend on God, who alone doth necessarily exist. Other things may be, or may not be, as they respect him or his will. And so things that are future may be said to be impossible, or be so, either with respect unto the nature of God, or his decrees, or his moral rule, order, and law.

(1.) Things are impossible with respect unto the nature of God, either absolutely, as being consistent with his being and essential properties: so it is impossible that God should lie: or, on some supposition, so it is impossible that God should forgive sin without satisfaction, on the supposition of his law and the sanction of it. In this sense the repentance of these apostates, it may be, is not impossible. I say, it may be; it may be there is nothing in it contrary to any essential properties of the nature of God, either directly or reductively. But I will not be positive herein. For the things ascribed unto these apostates are such, namely, their crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting him to open shame, as that I know not but that it may be contrary to the holiness, and righteousness, and glory of God, as the supreme ruler of the world, to have any more mercy on them than on the devils themselves, or those that are in hell. But I will not assert this to be the meaning of the place.

(2.) Again; things possible in themselves, and with respect unto the nature of God, are rendered impossible by Gods decree and purpose: he hath absolutely determined that they shall never be. So it was impossible that Saul and his posterity should be preserved in the kingdom of Israel. It was not contrary to the nature of God, but God had decreed that so it should not be, 1Sa 15:28-29. But, the decrees of God respecting persons in particular, and not qualifications in the first place, they cannot be here intended; because they are free acts of his will, not revealed, neither in particular nor by virtue of any general rule, as they are sovereign, making differences between persons in the same condition, Rom 9:11-12. What is possible or impossible with respect unto the nature of God, we may know in some good measure from the certain knowledge we may have of his being and essential properties; but what is so one way or other with respect unto his decrees or purposes, which are sovereign, free acts of his will, knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven, Isa 40:13-14; Rom 11:34.

(3.) Things are possible or impossible with respect unto the rule and order of all things that God hath appointed. When in things of duty God hath neither expressly commanded them, nor appointed means for the performance of them, then are we to look upon them as impossible; and then, with respect unto us, they are so absolutely, and so to be esteemed. And this is the impossibility here principally intended. It is a thing that God hath neither commanded us to endeavor, nor appointed means to attain it, nor promised to assist us in it. It is therefore that which we have no reason to look after, attempt, or expect, as being not possible by any law, rule, or constitution of God.

The apostle instructs us no further in the nature of future events but as our own duty is concerned in them. It is not for us either to look, or hope, or pray for, or endeavor the renewal of such persons unto repentance. God gives law unto us in these things, not unto himself. It may be possible with God, for aught we know, if there be not a contradiction in it unto any of the holy properties of his nature; only he will not have us to expect any such thing from him, nor hath he appointed any means for us to endeavor it. What he shall do we ought thankfully to accept; but our own duty towards such persons is absolutely at an end. And, indeed, they put themselves wholly out of our reach.

That which is said to be thus impossible with respect unto these persons is, , to renew them again to repentance, in the New Testament with respect unto God, signifies a gracious change of mind, on gospel principles and promises, leading the whole soul into conversion unto God. This is the beginning and entrance of our turning unto God, without which neither the will nor the affections will be engaged unto him, nor is it possible for sinners to find acceptance with him.

It is impossible , to renew. The construction of the word is defective, and must be supplied. may be added, to renew themselves, it is not possible they should do so; or , that some should, that any should renew them: and this I judge to be intended. For the impossibility mentioned respects the duty and endeavors of others. In vain shall any attempt their recovery by the use of any means whatever. And we must inquire what it is to be renewed, and what it is to be renewed again.

Now our is the renovation of the image of God in our natures, whereby we are dedicated again unto him. For as we had lost the image of God by sin, and were separated from him by things profane, this respects both the restoration of our nature and the dedication of our persons to God. And it is twofold:

(1.) Real and internal, in regeneration and effectual sanctification, The washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost: Tit 2:5; 1Th 5:23. But this is not that which is here intended. For this these apostates never had, and so cannot be said to be renewed again unto it; for no man can be renewed again unto that which he never had.

(2.) It is outward in the profession and pledge of it. Wherefore renovation in this sense consists in the solemn confession of faith and repentance by Jesus Christ, with the seal of baptism received thereon; for thus it was with all those who were converted unto the gospel. Upon their profession of repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, they received the baptismal pledge of an inward renovation, though really they were not partakers thereof. But this estate was their , their renovation. From this state they fell totally, renouncing Him who is the author of it, his grace which is the cause of it, and the ordinance which is the pledge thereof.

Hence it appears what it is , to renew them again. It is to bring them again into this state of profession by a second renovation, and a second baptism as a pledge thereof. This is determined to be impossible, and so unwarrantable for any to attempt. And for the most part such persons do openly fall into such blasphemies against, and engage (if they have power) into such persecution of the truth, as that they give themselves sufficient direction how others should behave themselves towards them. So the ancient church was satisfied in the case of Julian. This is the sum concerning what is affirmed of these apostates, namely, that it is impossible to renew them unto repentance; that is, so to act towards them as to bring them to that repentance whereby they may be instated in their former condition. Hence sundry things may be observed for the clearing of the apostles design in this discourse; as,

(1.) Here is nothing said concerning the acceptance or refuel of any upon repentance or the profession thereof after any sin, to be made by the church, whose judgment is to be determined by other rules and circumstances. And this perfectly excludes the pretense of the Novatians from any countenance in these words. For whereas they would have drawn their warranty from hence for the utter exclusion from church communion of all those who had denied the faith in times of persecution, although they expressed a repentance whose sincerity they could not evince. Those only are intended who neither do nor can come to repentance itself, nor make a profession of it; with whom the church had no more to do. It is not said, that men who ever thus fell away shall not, upon their repentance, be admitted into their former state in the church; but that such is the severity of God against them that he will not again give them repentance unto life.

(2.) Here is nothing that may be brought in bar against such as, having fallen into any great sin, or any course in sinning, and that after light, convictions, and gifts received and exercised, desire to repent of their sins, and endeavor after sincerity therein; yea, such a desire and endeavor exempt any one from the judgment here threatened.

There is therefore in it that which tends greatly to the encouragement of such sinners. For whereas it is here declared, concerning those who are thus rejected of God, that it is impossible to review them, or to do any thing towards that which shall have a tendency to repentance, those who are not satisfied that they do yet savingly repent, but only are sincerely exercised how they may attain thereunto, have no concernment in this commination, but evidently have the door of mercy still open unto them; for it is shut only against those who shall never endeavor to turn by repentance. And although persons so rejected of God may fall under convictions of their sin attended with despair, which is unto them a foresight of their future condition, yet as unto the least attempt after repentance on the terms of the gospel, they do never rise up unto it. Wherefore the impossibility intended, of what sort soever it be, respects the severity of God, not in refusing or rejecting the greatest sinners which seek after and would be renewed unto repentance, which is contrary unto innumerable of his promises, but in the giving up such sinners as those are here mentioned unto that obdurateness and obstinacy in sinning, that blindness of mind and hardness of heart, as that they neither can nor shall ever sincerely seek after repentance; nor may any means, according to the mind of God, be used to bring them thereunto. And the righteousness of the exercise of this severity is taken from the nature of this sin, or what is contained in it, which the apostle declares in the ensuing instances. [6]

[6] For additional ten pages on this topic, see works, vol. 7. pp. 40-51. Ed.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

A Mere Form of Godliness

In these verses the Spirit of God shows us plainly that there are some people who have what appears to be heavenly gifts who have no grace in their hearts. Multitudes have religion who do not have Christ. Many there are who enjoy great experiences who have never experienced grace. Many have a form of godliness who know nothing of the power of God by which sinners are born again. These verses speak of people who have experienced much, professed much, and demonstrated much in religion. Yet, they have no saving union with Christ. They have faith; but it is a false faith. They have repentance; but it is a repentance that needs to be repented of. They have experienced religion; but they have not experienced the grace of God. Beware of resting your soul upon experiences, gifts, and outward works of religion. To build your house upon these things is to build upon sand. It is possible to be ranked with the most spiritual, most gifted, most zealous men and women in the world, and yet go to hell in the end (Mat 7:21-23). Is your faith the faith of God’s elect; or is it a false faith?

False faith may be greatly enlightened and knowledgeable of gospel truth. Judas was. True faith receives the love of the Truth (2Th 2:10).

False faith excites the affections, like the stony ground hearers of the parable, and causes people to spring up like shooting stars, only to fade quickly. True faith is the abiding, growing gift of God.

False faith reforms the outward life and causes people to live better before men. True faith arises from a regenerate heart and causes people to seek the will and glory of God.

False faith may speak well of Christ, as the Jews did. True faith loves Christ.

False faith confesses sins, like King Saul. True faith confesses sin, like David.

False faith may humble itself in sackcloth and ashes, like Ahab. True faith humbles itself before God.

False faith may repent in terror, like Esau and Judas. True faith repents in contrition, being convinced of God’s way of salvation in Christ (Joh 16:8-11).

False faith often performs religious works very diligently. Saul of Tarsus did. True faith is a faith, which “worketh by love.”

False faith is sometimes very generous and charitable (Ananias and Sapphira). True faith causes ransomed sinners to be generous, willingly, constrained only by love and gratitude.

False faith may tremble at the Word of God, like Felix. True faith trembles and bows.

False faith often experiences much in religion. True faith trusts no experience, no matter how great, and looks to Christ alone.

False faith often enjoys great religious privileges, like Lot’s wife. True faith places no confidence in the flesh.

False faith may preach, perform miracles, and cast out demons, like Judas. True faith rejoices in having one’s name written in heaven.

False faith often attains high office in the church, like Diotrephes, and walks with great preachers, as Demas walked with Paul. True faith is honored to keep the doors of God’s house and walk with Christ.

False faith may be peaceful and carnally secure, like the five foolish virgins. True faith presumes nothing, but looks constantly to Christ.

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

impossible

Heb 6:4-8 presents the case of Jewish professed believers who halt short of faith in Christ after advancing to the very threshold of salvation, even “going along with” the Holy Spirit in His work of enlightenment and conviction. Joh 16:8-10. It is not said that they had faith. This supposed person is like the spies at Kadesh-barnea Deu 1:19-26 who saw the land and had the very fruit of it in their hands, and yet turned back.

partakers (Greek – ,” going along with).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

it is: Heb 10:26-29, Heb 12:15-17, Mat 5:13, Mat 12:31, Mat 12:32, Mat 12:45, Luk 11:24-26, Joh 15:6, 2Ti 2:25, 2Ti 4:14, 2Pe 2:20-22, 1Jo 5:16

were once: Heb 10:32, Num 24:3, Num 24:15, Num 24:16

and have: Mat 7:21, Mat 7:22, Luk 10:19, Luk 10:20, Joh 3:27, Joh 4:10, Joh 6:32, Act 8:20, Act 10:45, Act 11:17, Rom 1:11, 1Co 13:1, 1Co 13:2, Eph 2:8, Eph 3:7, Eph 4:7, 1Ti 4:14, Jam 1:17, Jam 1:18

partakers: Heb 2:4, Act 15:8, Gal 3:2, Gal 3:5

Reciprocal: Lev 13:55 – after Lev 14:43 – General Num 35:28 – he should Jdg 3:10 – the Spirit Job 6:6 – taste Psa 34:8 – taste Pro 2:13 – leave Pro 9:8 – Reprove Pro 21:16 – wandereth Isa 58:2 – they seek Eze 18:24 – All his Eze 47:11 – shall be Mat 11:22 – It shall Mat 13:15 – and should be Mar 3:28 – General Mar 6:11 – It shall Luk 11:26 – and the Luk 12:10 – General Luk 14:30 – General Joh 15:22 – they Joh 19:11 – the greater Gal 3:4 – ye Gal 5:4 – ye 1Ti 1:13 – because 1Ti 1:19 – concerning Heb 3:14 – we are Heb 6:6 – to renew Heb 6:9 – beloved Heb 10:38 – but Heb 12:17 – for he 1Jo 5:8 – the spirit

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Heb 6:4. It is impossible. The thing that is impossible and the reasons for it will require a number of lines of the text to explain. After the simple announcement of an impossibility, the apostle drops the subject and gives a description of the characters concerning whom it is said, then tells what it is that is impossible. We shall carefully study this description before attempting to state the conclusion. Enlightened is from PHOTIZO which Thayer defines, “To enlighten spiritually, imbue with saving knowledge.” Thayer defines the orginal for taste as follows: “To feel, make trial of, experience.” It means to have experienced enough of the heavenly gift of Christianity to know how precious it is. The Holy Ghost (or Spirit) was bestowed upon the church (Rom 5:5 Rom 14:17; 1Co 6:19), hence when people become Christians they are made partakers of the Holy Ghost.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 6:4. For. A reason for each of the previous clauses: This will we do, for the case is urgent; without further knowledge you may fall away. If God permit, for the case may be even now hopeless, and certainly is so without His help.

It is impossible (see below) for those who have been once for all enlightened; once for all a process that needs not, or admits not of repetition. Enlightened, a word which, when applied to persons, means instructed, taught. When applied to professing Christians, it means that they have been made acquainted with the principles of the Gospel, and Have received the knowledge of the truth, as it is expressed in Heb 10:26 : they have known the way of righteousness (2Pe 2:20-21). In the later history of doctrine, the word enlightenment is used as a synonym, it is said, for baptism, and so many have interpreted here; but in fact it is not used in the Fathers for baptism simply, but for the illumination of the new birth of which baptism was the symbol (Alford). This interpretation was set aside in favour of the common meaning of the word by Erasmus, and nearly all modern commentators have adopted his view.

And have had taste of the heavenly gift, i.e of the gift that is made known by this enlightenment. Some refer the gift to Christ or the Spirit, or forgiveness, or salvation in Christ (2Co 9:15); but the connecting particle in the Greek () shows that the gift refers rather to what is implied in the previous instruction,a heavenly gift it is in its origin and results.

And became partakers of the Holy Ghost. Partakers, the noun and the verb are common in St. Paul and in this Epistle. When men had been instructed and had tasted of the blessings which instruction revealed to them, the next stage of the Christian life was to become partakers of the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit, not excluding the influences which bad men may resist, for He has much to do even with hearts in which He never takes up His abode.

And have tasted the good word of God. Tasted, so as to feed upon the rich inheritance of promise and hope, which men have seized in all ages, even when slow to justify their right to it by consistency and holiness. This use of the word good, as descriptive of what is comforting and sustaining, is common in Scripture (see Jos 23:15; Zec 1:11).

As well as the powers of the world to come: the gifts and experience of the new economy, its powers both miraculous and spiritual. To taste these is to enjoy the blessings and advantages which follow from the fulfilment of the Divine word. Whatever is striking in evidence, glorious in teaching, solemn and impressive in sanctionsall are included in the powers which these men had felt.

And have fallen away (not, if they should fall); fallen not into sin simply, but so as to renounce the Gospel, so as to go back with a will into a life of sin (chap. Heb 10:26), so as to depart from the living God (chap. Heb 3:12), returning to the false religions they had left, or to determined infidelity and ungodliness. Such are the characters the writer describes; they possessed the knowledge of Gospel truth, and had a certain amount of enjoyment from that knowledge (note the genitive case after taste); they were partakers of the common influences and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost; they enjoyed the promises of the Gospel (note the accusative case after taste) more fully than some other truths in which they had been instructed, and had felt most of the influences of the new economy miraculous, moral, and spiritual; and yet after all they had abandoned the Gospel and continued to denounce both it and its founder. Every part of this description applies probably to Judas, whose case seems to have been in the writers mind; and yet he was never a real believer, but a son of Perdition even from the first. Such was the primitive apostate. His counterpart in modern times is easily described: men have made great attainments in the knowledge of Christianity, have had considerable enjoyment of it; they have been striven with by the Holy Spirit, have enjoyed largely the promises and hopes of the Gospel; and yet through neglect of its ordinances, through fear of the persecution to which it subjects them, they have been led to deny its Divine origin, and proclaim its founder a deceiver or mad. They have tried the Gospel and the Lord of the Gospel, and after trial they have rejected both. These miserable men are described as having fallen away. That was the fatal step which they took once for all (so the tense implies). The state in which they now are is described in the other participles, crucifying to themselves, as they still do, the Son of God afresh, and putting Him, as they still do, to open shame. It is not the act that ruins them, it is the habit; and it is partly through that settled habit that it is impossible to renew them again to repentance. Some indeed regard impossible as used in a popular sense. It is difficult to renew them, so the Latin of D. translates here, and so several commentators have held; but that meaning of the word is unknown in the New Testament. Others regard the impossibility as referring to man rather than God, and hold the meaning to be: We cannot renew men whose hearts are so hard, and whose condition is so desperate as theirs. God can, but we cannot. No new argument, no new motive can we use; the terror, the love, the warnings, the entreaties of the Gospelall have been applied and understood and resisted. Nothing but a miracle can change and save them. Neither of these explanations, however, is satisfactory. The word impossible is very strong, and it seems immoveable. Just as in chap. Heb 10:26, the writer, after describing the sacrifice of Christ, tells us that if men reject and despise it and go back to a life of sin, no other sacrifice remains for them; there awaits them nothing but the fearful reception of judgment: so here, if men deny Christ and crucify Him to themselvestheir treatment of Him in their own hearts; if they renounce Him as a blasphemer and impostortheir treatment of Him before the world; and that after having seen the truth and felt the attractiveness of His teaching and life, it is impossible to renew them. The language, as thus explained, is not a mere truism, as Delitzsch holds (it is impossible to renew to repentance those who fall away, except they repent); it is rather a strong assertion of an important truth. The contemptuous rejection of Christs sacrifice means no forgiveness, and the contemptuous rejection of Christs teaching and grace means no renewal and no personal holiness. There may be a sense in which each is an identical proposition, but each meets the very purpose of the writer an and the needs of the readers. They were tempted to think there was still forgiveness and holiness for them, even if they renounced Christ and treated Him as their fathers had done. The writer warns them that to reject Christto reject Him after all they have known and felt, under circumstances, therefore, that made their rejection practically finalwas to give up all hope, all possibility of salvation. What would become of them if somehow they had ceased to crucify Him, ceased to scorn and to denounce Him; if they gave up the life of sin to which, in chap, 10, he speaks of them as having willingly returned, we need not discuss, for the case is not supposed. What they were in danger of saying was: There is renewal and forgiveness in the old economy, in heathenism, nay, even in ungodliness. We believe it in spite of Divine teaching and our long experience to the contrary. We may give up this new religion, may trample upon the blood of the covenant, insult the Spirit of God, and live as we please, and yet be saved. What else can meet such doctrine but the strongest rebuke, and the most absolute denial? For menout of Christbecause they have knowingly and wilfully rejected Him, renewal and forgiveness are alike impossible. Neither man nor God can save them.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

By the enlightened here, understand those that were baptized and embraced Christianity: The ancients called baptism illumination, and baptized persons the enlightened; because of that divine illumination which was conveyed to the minds of men by the knowledge of Christianity.

By tasting the heavenly gift, and being made partakers of the Holy Ghost, understand such as had not only heard of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, but had some experience of them themselves; as also of the spiritual benefits conferred upon them in baptism, by the Holy Spirit. By tasting the good word of God understand some relish of the truth and goodness of the gospel, some pleasure in entertaining it, by reason of the gracious promises of eternal life and happiness contained in it.

The gospel that proclaimed remission of sins, was a good word; this good word they saw confirmed by miracles, tongues, and prophecy, and so could not but be convinced of the truth of it, which is here called a tasting it; who have tasted the good word of God; it follows, and the powers of the world to come; that is, the power of the gospel-age; for the “world to come,” in the language of the prophets, doth signify the times of the Messiah: And thus, the powers of the world to come, are the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon men, in order to the propagation of the gospel; such were the gifts of healing, casting out devils, woking miracles. Others, by tasting the powers of the world to come, understand some apprehensions of the resurrection and furture judgement, with affections suitable thereunto.

Now concerning these, says our apostle, if they fall away; that is, if they shall, after all this apostatize from this profession, out of love to this present world, or from fear of persecution and sufferings, if they shall relapse either to Heathenism or Judaism, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; that is, it is a thing very difficult, hardly to be hoped for, that such willful apostates should be restored again by repentance: seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame; that is, they virtually, and in effect crucify him over again, and as much as in them lies; for, by denying and renouncing of him, they declare him to be an imposter, and consequently worthy of death.

So that the plain sense of the words seem to be this: “If those that are baptized, and have received the doctrine of the gospel, and are endowed with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, shall yet, after this, apostatize from Christianity, it is very difficult, and next to an impossibility, to recover such again by repentance; seeing they are guilty of as great a crime, as if, in their own persons, they had put to death, and ignominiously used the Son of God.”

Here note, That it is not a partial apostasy from the Christian religion, by any particular vicious practice, but a total apostasy from Christianity, and more especially to the Heathen idolatry, which is here intended.

From the whole learn, 1. That they which have been enlightened, awakened, and made partakers of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit in some measure, and tasted the sweetness of the word and ways of God in some degree, may yet fall away.

2. That if such do fall away, it is very difficult, though not altogether impossible, to renew them again to repentence: and that for these reasons;

1. Because of the greatness and heinous nature of the sin, it being a downright apostasy from God, against the clearest light and knowledge, and fullest conviction of a man’s mind; and the highest affront to the Son of God, who revealed the Christian religion to the world, and sealed it with his blood.

2. Because those who are guilty of this sin, do renounce and cast off the means of their recovery, and therefore it becomes extremely difficult to renew them again to repentance: they reject Christ and his holy gospel, and refuse the only remedy appointed for their recovery.

3. Because it is so high a provocation to God, to withdraw his grace and Holy Spirit from such persons, by the power and efficacy whereof they should be brought to repentance: God justly leaving those who so unworthily leave him.

Lord! how fearful and fatal a condition is it, to begin in the spirit, and end in the flesh; to decay in religion, and apostatize from grace; to have had some work of the Spirit and word upon our hearts, so as to have light and love, some taste and savour of religion, some desires after, and hopes of heaven; and, after all, to cool and give over, to revolt and backslide, and have our latter end worse than our beginning?

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Some Impossible To Renew

One might ask why it is important to go on to perfection. The writer answered in a very forceful way. He said it was impossible to bring those who had fallen away back to repentance. This was especially true for those who had seen the light Christ gives the world. They would have already enjoyed the new life in Christ. They would have already been a part of the promise of the Holy Spirit. The joys of God’s good news would have been theirs. The power of the truth to set a man free from sin and, therefore, make him a part of the glorious experience of heaven would already have been tasted by such enlightened ones.

When such have fallen away, it is impossible to bring them back to a repentance from the works which lead to death. Such impossibility comes from their turning against Christ after having known Him and all the joys already listed. The attitude they display shows the impossibility. They so reject Christ that they would crucify Him again, if they could. They put their Savior to an open shame by returning to sin. One who does not grow spiritually runs the risk of becoming an apostate from the faith ( Heb 6:4-6 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Verse 4

For it is impossible, &c. This passage (Hebrews 6:4-6) seems intended to induce those addressed to press forward in their Christian course, according to the injunctions of the Hebrews 6:1-3, by urging the danger and the fatal effects of apostasy, to which those who were remiss in their efforts were specially exposed.–Who were once enlightened; who have once been enlightened.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

6:4 {2} For [it is] {b} impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have {c} tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

(2) He adds a vehemency to his exhortation, and a sharp threatening of the certain destruction that will come to them who fall away from God and his religion.

(b) He speaks of a general backsliding and those who fall away from the faith completely, not of sins committed through the weakness of a man against the first and the second table of the law.

(c) We must note the force of this word, for it is one thing to believe as Lydia did, whose heart God opened in Act 16:13 and another thing to have some taste.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. The dreadful alternative 6:4-8

The writer pointed out the consequences of not pressing on to maturity to motivate his readers to pursue spiritual growth diligently (cf. 2Pe 1:5; 2Pe 3:8).

Christians have interpreted this passage in many different ways. Some believe that those who fall away (Heb 6:6) are believers who lose their salvation. [Note: E.g., Westcott, pp. 148-53; Moffatt, pp. 76-82; I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God; and other Arminian writers.] Others hold that those who fall away are people who have professed to be believers but really are not. [Note: E.g. Bruce, pp. 118-25; Philip E. Hughes, pp. 206-24; Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, pp. 298-320; E. Schuyler English, Studies in the Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 160-68; Homer A. Kent Jr., The Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 107-15; R. Kent Hughes, 1:156-57; and The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1315.] Still 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. [Note: E.g., Guthrie, pp. 140-46; Thomas Hewett, The Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 106-11; Thomas, pp. 72-75; Kenneth S. Wuest, "Hebrews Six in the Greek New Testament," Bibliotheca Sacra 119:473 (January 1962):45-53; Wiersbe, 2:297; and The Ryrie Study Bible: New Testament. King James Version, p. 404.] Another 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). The majority of scholars view these people as genuine believers. [Note: Marshall, p. 142.]

"The transition from the first person (Heb 6:1-3) 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. Heb 6:9) in part because he believes that his readers can still avoid apostasy." [Note: Ellingworth, p. 318.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The writer could describe Christians fairly as those who were once "enlightened" (cf. Heb 10:32; 2Co 4:3-6). The "heavenly gift" of which they have "tasted" (cf. Heb 2:9) at conversion seems to refer to salvation (cf. Joh 4:10; Rom 6:23; Jas 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. [Note: E.g., John MacArthur, Hebrews, p. 143.]

"This is not to explain Scripture, [but] to explain it away in favour of some preconceived doctrine." [Note: F. W. Farrar, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews, p. 82.]

Elsewhere the same Greek word refers to complete appropriation (e.g., Jesus Christ tasted death for everyone, Heb 2:9; cf. 1Pe 2:1-3). This is an Old Testament usage as well (cf. Psa 34:8). [Note: Guthrie, p. 141.] Christians become "partakers" (cf. Heb 1:9, "companions"; and Heb 3:1; Heb 3:14, "partakers") of the Holy Spirit through Spirit baptism.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)