Hebrews 6:3

And this will we do if God permit.

The inspired writer continues the digression which began chap. 5:11, in which he administers a sharp rebuke on account of spiritual sluggishness, warns against apostasy from the faith, and exhorts his readers to strive with great earnestness for the further growth and secure retention of the full certainty of their Christian hope. The first words of this chapter substantiate the last remark of the preceding chapter: Wherefore, leaving the doctrine of the beginning of Christ behind, let us be carried on to perfection, not laying the foundation over again of repentance from dead works and faith in God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. Because the Jewish Christians of Palestine, in spite of the many advantages they had enjoyed, were yet so sluggish in spiritual matters, and because, on the other hand, it could well be expected of them that they should leave behind them the state of spiritual childhood and immaturity, therefore the writer includes this exhortation. They were to leave the elements, the fundamentals of the Christian doctrine behind them and pass on to perfection. To this state they should permit themselves to be carried forward, they should surrender to the influence of the Word in its action upon their heart and mind, their will and their intellect. It should not be necessary again and again to lay the foundation of repentance and faith, and of all the simple instruction with which they might be expected to be familiar by this time.

This point is now analyzed. Repentance from dead works, as produced in men that are themselves spiritually dead, faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation, the doctrine of baptisms, of Christian Baptism in its relation to Jewish washings, 1 Peter 3:21, of the laying on of hands in the case of the newly baptized, in order to transmit to them the gift of the Holy Ghost, Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6, of the resurrection of the dead, and of the eternal judgment: all these are the material of which the foundation of Christian knowledge is composed and upon which Christian perfection is based. This material is divided into three groups, joined as pairs, the first two designating the fundamental demand of the Christian life, the next the beginning, the last its object or goal. Repentance and faith are the prerequisites for the Christian life; they mark a person's turning from spiritual darkness to the light of God's grace in Christ Jesus. Through Baptism the convert became a member of the Church, receiving also, through the laying on of hands, such endowments as fitted him for service in the house of God. He looks forward, finally, to the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment; for this signifies to every believer the consummation of the glory which shall never end. With encouraging frankness the writer adds: And this we shall do if the Lord permits. He wants to press on toward perfection, to the maturity which was fitting for Christians that had had the advantages which his readers had enjoyed. At the same time he knows, not only that his success in this venture depends entirely upon God's will, but also that it is by no means self-evident that God will permit this plan to be carried out. There may be difficulties of a very peculiar nature in the way, which might hinder the project altogether, as becomes evident in the next paragraph