As I continue to "blog" through Hebrews, I will look at Hebrews 6:4-6 today for my short thoughts of the day. I will start by acknowledging that we find ourselves in a much debated portion of God's precious word. In these verses we read, "For in the case of those who have been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame."
I would like to share two different thoughts related to this passage of scripture. First I would like to consider who "those who have been enlightened" are. Who it is who has "tasted of the heavenly gift", and who has been "made partakers of the Holy Spirit". Who among us can say they have "tasted of the good word of God" or perhaps "the powers of the age to come". I will start by suggesting who it is not. It is not my lost neighbor or co-worker. It is not your lost brother or sister. It is not your mom or dad who knows not the blessed savior. I do not know one lost person that I could imagine these truths applying too. And they are not the almost saved. Our God does not open only halfway the heart and mind of the one He has drawn to Jesus.
It is you and I who have been enlightened. It is all those who have been made the recipients of His glorious grace. We are the ones who have "tasted of the heavenly gift", been "made partakers of the Holy Spirit", "tasted of the good word of God" and tasted the "powers of the age to come". These are truths that each one who has been made a new creature in Christ share in the Beloved.
The passage speaks of an impossibility. I will simply state that what is impossible, is so because of a complete lack of necessity. In part, the whole of the Book of Hebrews teaches us the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice on Calvary. It appears to be written to triumph the magnitude of His efficacy. We have seen how it is important to mature in Christ and to not remain "babes" in the faith. But we have not been told that our adoption as sons is subject to reversal. We may find ourselves needing to mature from only partaking of "milk" so that we may partake of more solid food. But we do not find that God would cause or allow His born again children to become dead in their sins and trespasses yet again. If you have "fallen away" you need nothing more and nothing less than to go to the throne of grace. You have already been to the cross and you need not go there again. Our Lord suffered there once and will not suffer there again.
As we saw early on in this adventure through Hebrews, may we rejoice in the One who is worthy to have "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high"! And as we rejoice may we understand and acknowledge His sufficiency to save to the uttermost! He alone is worthy to be praised.
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