November 23 Daily Discovery - Read Hebrews Chapter 6

This passage below is from the King James Version (ekjv.org).  

Remarks from the Berean Fellowship follow the passage below.

[1] Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
[2] Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
[3] And this will we do, if God permit.
[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 briers 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 labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
[11] And we desire that every one of you do shew 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.
[13] For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
[14] Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
[15] And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
[16] For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
[17] Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
[18] That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
[19] Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
[20] Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Profession without Possession

Anyone can claim anything. Claiming something does not mean that it is true. Sometimes I like to have fun making claims as a bit of humor.

I say things such as, "I could  take three steps and then jump over this house and land on the other side without hurting myself." I follow up that claim with some semantics. I say,  "Well, I could if I were strong enough and agile enough and if my skeletal and muscular structure would support it, then I could." I will nail this humor down with a final statement: "I did not say that I can,  I said that I could."

Aside from the humor, someone can claim to be a Christian when they are not. People can claim to worship Jesus Christ even when they are worshiping satan or lucifer. Now, everyone that is a Christian should profess or confess Christ as Lord and Savior. But that confession alone does not secure them in God's family.

What has been going on in the church during the first century, and before the close of the New Testament Scriptures, which I believe were complete within one generation -- by 70 ad.? There had been huge problems that stemmed from the Old Covenant people (Israel ... commonly called Jews). C hristians were under intense persecution from both sides: Pagan Rome and Apostate Jerusalem.

The writer of this general letter to the Hebrews was writing in order to confirm the superiority of the New Covenant to the Old Covenant, and the superiority of Jesus Christ to any character contained in the Old Covenant Scriptures. It was written to encourage the Jews that had believed to continue in the faith and it contains warnings of the apostasy that would occur as well. Paul frequently encouraged believers to be steadfast in all of his writings, but there are special admonitions in this letter.  

These warnings include the most striking warning of apostasy in the Bible.

There is hope for heretics.

Titus 3:4-11

[4] But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
[5] Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
[6] Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
[7] That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
[8] This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
[9] But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
[10] A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
[11] Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

When Paul wrote his letter to Titus, he told him to give the heretics three strikes before they were out. They were to receive two admonitions, and then if the heresy continued they were to be rejected.

Here we see the hope that they would possibly repent and cease their schismatic teaching and behavior.

There is no hope for apostates.

On the other hand, apostates are those that are among true believers that reject Christ as Messiah, Lord and Savior and God's Son. They are false professors and they are beyond restoration. It is a sad condition indeed. Their behavior itself is a rejection of Jesus Christ. You cannot be a follower of Jesus C hrist while at the same time, you are rejecting Him!

At the time of the writing of letter to the Hebrews,  I'm convinced that the temple was still standing. Christ-rejecting Jews could still bring sacrifices to the temple, they could even continue to try to observe the passover. We know that this would be problematic because the veil in the temple was split from the top to the bottom at the crucifixion of Christ, the Messiah.

I suppose the Levites could just sew the thing back up and carry on as they were before, since they had rejected Christ completely and openly. There is no doubt that they knew that He was the Son of God and their Messiah but they did not want Him.  They wanted to keep running things the way they were previously. They were the great whore that was riding the beast of Rome and they were going to continue riding it.

To continue to offer animal sacrifices after the perfect lamb of God had already been sacrificed is the utmost and final possible rejection of the finished work of Christ on the cross and His confirmation by being raised again. One of the statements that Jesus uttered from the cross (that is, his last statement) was, "It is finished."

To continue to offer animal sacrifices was declaring, "No, it's not! It is not finished, we must continue to follow the Old Covenant law. We do not accept Christ as Messiah."

There were Jews that had professed Christ, but they did not possess Christ. They were mingling among true followers of Christ and even being considered as followers of Christ themselves while they were not.

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Continue Your Search

From this chapter, do you see any: Commands to Obey, Warnings to Heed, Promises to Claim, Examples to Follow, Vices to Avoid, Praises to Emulate, Prayers to Use, Principles by which to Live, Questions to Ask or Actions to Take?

See: Berean Fellowship Bible Study Method