Hebrews 6:4-6

Hebrews 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 Hebrews 10:26: they have known the way of righteousness (2 Peter 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 (2 Corinthians 9:15); but the connecting particle in the Greek (τε) 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 Joshua 23:15; Zechariah 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 sanctions all 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. Hebrews 10:26), so as to depart from the living God (chap. Hebrews 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 writer's 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 Gospel all 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. Hebrews 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 themselves their treatment of Him in their own hearts; if they renounce Him as a blasphemer and impostor their 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 Christ's sacrifice means no forgiveness, and the contemptuous rejection of Christ's teaching an d 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 Christ to reject Him after all they have known and felt, under circumstances, therefore, that made their rejection practically final was 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 men out of Christ because they have knowingly and wilfully rejected Him, renewal and forgiveness are alike impossible. Neither man nor God can save them.