Hebrews 6:20

Whither the forerunner is for us entered [ο π ο υ π ρ ο δ ρ ο μ ο ς υ π ε ρ η μ ω ν ι ε σ η λ θ ε ν]. %Opou, strictly where, instead of opoi whither (not in N. T.), but more significant as indicating an abiding there. Prodromov forerunner, N. T. o. It expresses an entirely new idea, lying completely outside of the Levitical system. The Levitical high priest did not enter the sanctuary as a forerunner, but only as the people's representative. He entered a place into which none might follow him; in the people's stead, and not as their pioneer. The peculiarity of the new economy is that Christ as high priest goes nowhere where his people cannot follow him. He introduces man into full fellowship with God. The A. V. entirely misses this point by rendering "the forerunner," as if the idea of a high priest being a forerunner were perfectly familiar. Rend. whither as a forerunner Jesus entered. Comp. ch. Hebrews 10:19.

Made a high priest [α ρ χ ι ε ρ ε υ ς γ ε ν ο μ ε ν ο ς]. Rend. having become a high priest, etc. Become, because his office must be inaugurated by his suffering human life and his death.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON VERSES 4 - 6.

The passage has created much discussion and much distress, as appearing to teach the impossibility of restoration after a moral and spiritual lapse. It is to be observed :

(1) That the case stated is that of persons who once knew, loved, and believed Christian truth, and who experienced the saving, animating, and enlightening energy of the Holy Spirit, and who lapsed into indifference and unbelief.

(2) The questions whether it is possible for those who have once experienced the power of the gospel to fall away and be lost, and whether, supposing a lapse possible, those who fall away can ever be restored by repentance - do not belong here. The possibility of a fall is clearly assumed.

(3) The sin in the case supposed is the relinquishment of the spiritual gifts and powers accompanying faith in Christ, and rejecting Christ himself.

(4) The significance of this sin lies in the mental and spiritual condition which it betrays. It is the recoil of conviction from Christ and the adoption of the contrary conviction.

(5) The writer does not touch the question of the possibility of God's renewing such to repentance. He merely puts his own hypothetical case, and says that, in the nature of such a case, the ordinary considerations and means which are applied to induce men to embrace the gospel no longer appeal to the subjects supposed. He contemplates nothing beyond such agencies, and asserts that these are powerless because the man has brought himself into a condition where they can no longer exert any power.

Whether God will ever reclaim by ways of his own is a point which is not even touched. Destruction of the faculty of spiritual discernment is the natural outcome of deliberate and persistent sin, and the instrument of its punishment. Note, "renew unto repentance." God promises pardon on penitence, but not penitence on sin. See a powerful passage in Coleridge's Moral and Religious Aphorisms, Amer. ed., Vol 1 p. 191. :Hebrews 7

CHAPTER VII

The Melchisedec - priesthood of Christ. - Christ can be a priest without Aaronic descent, and his priesthood is of a higher and older type than the Levitical.