Moving on to Maturity

Blogger’s Note: This lesson is on a very tough text.  I fully understand that many of my regular readers might come to a different position on the items addressed in chapter 6, so you might draw a conclusion that differs from mine.  I hope that all Christians will remain united in Christ even when we see certain texts a little differently, for ultimately we are all playing on the same team.

Today’s Text:              Hebrews 5:11-6:20

Introduction

This is a tough text for most people; read it very carefully.  Some may be shocked at what it says; the author hadn’t read Calvin!  The rest of us should feel convicted… why are we so immature? We need to grow up and not need to keep teaching the same things over and over.  The truth is that most of us don’t bother to understand the elementary teachings of the faith and never even suspect the mature ones.  Most of the people in this class should have been teaching long ago… and yet still say that they aren’t ready: Why is that? Yep, this is a rough text!

5:11-12:           This section has been written in between the author’s introduction of the subject of Jesus as our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek and his explanation of what that means.  By putting it here, he is telling us that we should have understood this topic long ago, but we are slow to learn. Notice in particular verse 12. Implicit here is the thought that our slowness to learn arises not because we are in any way incapable for he says we all should be teaching these things ourselves.  Our slowness seems to stem from our either not taking the matter seriously enough, or for our laziness in learning.

5:13-14:           By keeping ourselves as spiritual infants, we do not have the mature ability to detect good from evil.  You might say that we all must be mature since we know right from wrong.  You would be wrong: he said “good from evil” and that is quite a different matter!  For most people, good represents things they like; evil represents things they don’t like.  If they are non-smokers then smoking is a great evil.  If they like rock music than rock music is fine.  All too often we turn our noses up at things we personally don’t care for and insinuate that they are evil; what utter nonsense!

6:1-3:               Our author continues here with a bit of encouragement after the rebuke of 5:11-14.  Let us move on from elementary things.  Then, he lists six elementary teachings that we should move on from: repentance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands (spiritual gifts), resurrection and eternal punishment. Stop!! Did you notice that these are the things we always talk about? We, too must move on from the elementary teachings! If we are ever to grow to discipleship in Christ, we must learn the basics completely, and then keep on growing to maturity.  This requires effort on our parts.

6:4-8:               Oh boy, here we go: controversy!  These are verses that people have argued over for centuries, and frankly they are the main reason that many churches shy away from teaching Hebrews.  Let’s carefully examine what they say exactly:

1)  It is possible to fall away. (v. 6) Put another way, it is possible for a person, once in a covenant relationship with God to remove himself by his own deliberate acts.

2) That such people were actual Christians is stated as a fact. This makes the Calvinist response that such a person was “never really saved” impossible; consider the evidence cited here.  First, they would need to be “brought back” (v. 6) Second, they would have “been enlightened”, have “tasted the heavenly gift”, “shared in the Holy Spirit”, “tasted the goodness of the word” and “tasted… the powers of the coming age”. These are all things which occur after baptism, and unless the person who was baptized was able to trick God into giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit, they were “really saved”.

3) Those who fall away cannot be restored while they remain in a rebellious state. The word “impossible” leaves little wiggle room; even God can’t do this.  V. 6 gives us a clue as to why: they are crucifying Christ all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace.  This indicates a state of rebellion against God.  Nobody can come to Christ in this state, he must surrender first.

4)God’s response to this rebellion is faithful. We normally think of God’s faithfulness in terms of His mercy, but the fact remains that His wrath and judgment are also faithfulness.  He has made His peace terms quite clear to us: repent and live or rebel and die. If He kept the first part of the bargain but not the last He would not be faithful in the entire bargain.

6:9-12:             OK, you can relax now… our author does not expect us to fall to such a state as was described above.  God is just, and He is aware of your heart, so do not fear.  Instead, he gives us great encouragement to press on. By pressing on, our author encourages all of us to do more, learn more, serve more and love more.  We must not sit back and say we’ve done our part in service, but rather that we should redouble our efforts for the Gospel; not because we fear that God will reject us, but rather because we love Him and are dedicated to His service.

6:13-18:           In these verses, the author is going further to reassure the people that they have nothing to fear if they will continue in Christ and not “fall away”. God has confirmed His promises to us with an oath, sworn by Himself.  This means that since God cannot lie, we may be encouraged to hang in there no matter what.

6:19-20:           In concluding his appeal, the author underscores the encouragement of the previous section.  Since God has sworn to fulfill His promises, and since He cannot lie, this fact serves as the anchor of our souls in the rough seas of life.  Whatever may happen on this earth, however difficult things may get, we can rely on God’s promises and summon the resources we need to maintain our relationship with Him.  The latter part of this section refers to the service performed by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.  The idea is that because Jesus has performed this act once for all as our High Priest, we have confidence in His sacrifice and God’s promise relative to our salvation.  He ends with the statement that Jesus is our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, which will be explained in the next chapter.