Biblical Essays
TWO IMPOSSIBLES
Introduction
There are few who have set out to follow the Lord Jesus who, at some time or other, have not gone through painful exercise of heart in connection with the opening verses of Hebrews 6. While, in the long run, they have no reason to regret the exercise, yet it is always needful to distinguish between the Spirit’s use of a Scripture to search us, and Satan’s abuse of it to stumble us. Searching is good and healthy for us. We all need it, and we should be thankful when we get it, but we are prone to be light and superficial, retiring from anything that probes the conscience.
Still, we do not have the slightest doubt that many true and earnest souls, many to whom Hebrews 6:4-6 has no application whatsoever, have been stumbled and discouraged through not understanding the true force and bearing of the passage. It is to help such that we pen this essay, for we can truly say there is no work in which we have a more intense interest than in taking the stumbling-blocks out of the way of God’s beloved people. We feel fully assured it is work which He delights to have done, because He has given commandment to His servants to do so. However, we must take care lest, in our desire to remove the stumbling-blocks, we should in any wise disturb the landmarks. May the blessed Spirit graciously help us to a correct understanding of this often misunderstood passage of Holy Scripture.
First Impossible
In Hebrews 6, the first “impossible” has respect to man; the second has respect to God. So we inquire who are they of whom the inspired writer speaks in verses 4-6 – those of whom he declares, “It is impossible to renew them again to repentance?” A correct answer to this question will remove much of the difficulty felt in respect to this portion of Hebrews. In reaching this answer there are two things to keep in mind. First, in verses 1 and 2 there is not a single feature belonging to Christianity as distinct from Judaism; secondly, in verses 4 and 5 there is not a single expression that rises to the height of the new birth or the sealing of the Spirit.
Let us quote the apostle’s words: “Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” or as the margin presents it, “The word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms or washings, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.”
Surely, it is plain that the apostle could never exhort those professing Hebrew Christians to leave anything belonging to Christianity. There is not a single fact in that glorious economy from first to last – not a single stone in that glorious superstructure from foundation to top-stone; not a single principle in that magnificent system from beginning to end – that we could afford to leave or dispense with for a moment. The cross is the grand foundation of Christianity. And what are its two characteristic facts? A Man glorified in heaven and God dwelling in man on the earth. God forbid that we should ever leave these. To whom or to what should we go? It is impossible that we could leave or give up a single fact, feature or principle of our glorious Christianity.
What then are we to leave in Hebrews 6:1-2? Those elements of truth contained in the Jewish system which were to be abandoned forever, are reproduced in Christianity. Where is there a word unique to Christianity in this passage? It seems clear to us that the apostle has Judaism on his mind. It is this he exhorts his brethren to leave and to go on to Christianity which he here calls “perfection.”
It is a commonly believed idea that the words “Let us go on to perfection” refer to our leaving the earlier stages of the divine life and going on to the higher. This is a mistake. In reality, there is no such thing as something called “the higher Christian life.” If there be a higher life, there must be a lower one, but we know that Christ is our life – the life of each, the life of all. There cannot be anything higher than that. The merest babe in Christ has as high a life as the most matured and profoundly-taught member of the Lord’s church.
There is progress in the divine life, growth in grace, faith growing exceedingly – all this we accept and charge ourselves to earnestly seek after. But it is not the subject of Hebrews 6:1-2. It is not a question of going from one form in the school of Christ to another, but of leaving the school of Moses to enter fully, heartily and intelligently into the school of Christ. It is not a question of going from one stage of Christian life to another, but of abandoning Judaism to go on to Christianity. We could not abandon a single atom of Christianity without abandoning Christ Himself, for He is the foundation, the source, the center, the spring of it all.
But one may feel disposed to ask, “Do we not have repentance, faith, resurrection and eternal judgment in Hebrews 6:1-2?”1 This is true, but only as elements of the Jewish system. There is not a word about “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ;” not a word about Christ. It is simply Judaism, to which some of the Hebrew Christians were in danger of returning, but from which the apostle earnestly urges them to go on.
We now turn for a moment to verses 4 and 5. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.”
As in verses 1 and 2, notice that we do not have a single clause especially characteristic of Christianity. Also, in verses 4 and 5 we do not have a single clause that rises to the height of the new birth or the sealing of the Holy Spirit. A person might be all that is spoken of here and yet never have been born again, never sealed by the Holy Spirit. How many thousands have been “enlightened” by the Gospel without being converted by it? Wherever the Gospel has been preached, wherever the Bible has been received and read, an enlightening influence has gone forth, altogether irrespective of any saving work wrought in souls. Look at the nations of Europe since the Reformation. In all those countries that have received the Bible, we see the moral effect produced in the way of intelligence, civilization and refinement, altogether apart from the question of the conversion of individual souls. On the other hand those countries that have refused the Bible, exhibit the depressing results of ignorance, moral darkness and degradation. In other words, there may be enlightenment of the understanding without any divine work in the conscience or in the heart.
What is the meaning of “tasting the heavenly gift?” Does this imply the new birth? No; many have tasted of the new, the heavenly things set forth in the glorious Gospel of God, and yet have never passed from death unto life, never have been broken down before God about their sins – have never received Christ into their hearts. Tasting of the heavenly gift and passing into the heavenly kingdom by the new birth, are totally different things.
Also, many were “partakers of the Holy Spirit” who were never born of the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, His presence pervaded the whole assembly. His power was felt by all, converted or unconverted. The word rendered “partakers” does not express intelligent fellowship. This makes it all the more clear that there is not the slightest thought of new birth or sealing.
Further, regarding “tasting the good Word of God,” we know too well that unconverted people can in a certain sense enjoy the Word of God and have a measure of delight in hearing a full, free Gospel preached. Most have heard people who furnished no evidence of divine life, speaking in appreciative terms of what they call the savory doctrines of grace. There is a wide and very material difference between a person tasting the good Word of God and the Word of God entering the soul in living, quickening, convicting and converting power.
Finally, a person might taste “the power of the coming age”; he might heal diseases and cast out demons; he might take up serpents and drink poison; he might speak with tongues. He might do all these things and yet never have been born again. So, though we may give the fullest force to every one of these expressions, still they fall short of both the new birth and sealing with the Holy Spirit. There is everything except inward spiritual life in Christ or the indwelling seal of it. One may have the highest endowments and privileges in the way both of meeting the mind and also of exterior power, and yet all may be given up and the person may become the enemy of Christ – such is the natural result. It had been the mournful fact pertaining to some. They had fallen away. Hence renewal to repentance is an impossibility declared to be so by the authoritative and conclusive testimony of the Holy Spirit, “seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame.”
Why impossible? The case supposed is not one who ever truly possessed the spark of divine in his soul; no, nor yet one with true desire after Christ or one atom of true repentance or desire to flee from the wrath to come. The case is of persons, who, after the richest proof and privilege, turn aside as apostates from Christ, to once again take up Judaism. As long as that course is pursued, there cannot be repentance. Suppose a person has been an adversary of Messiah here below, as for example, Paul. For him there was still the opening of grace from on high. It was possible that the man, who had slighted Christ here below, might have his eyes opened to see and receive Christ above, but this abandoned, there is no fresh condition in which He could be presented to men. Those who rejected Christ in the fullness of His grace and in the height of His glory in which God had set Him as Man before them – not merely on earth, but in heaven as attested by the Holy Spirit sent down from the ascended and glorified Man on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens – what was there to fall back on? What after that could possibly bring them to repentance? Only Christ coming in judgment.
For one who, from amid the full blaze of Gospel light and privilege, could deliberately go back to the darkness of Judaism, there remains nothing but hopeless impenitence, hardness of heart, judicial blindness and eternal judgment.
We need to observe that the writer of Hebrews is not referring to a child of God falling into sin and getting at a distance from God. Such a one can surely be brought back and restored, though it may be through sore affliction under the chastening hand of God. Let us observe that it is not an anxious soul earnestly seeking the way of life and peace. It is not the case of an ignorant soul, out of the way. To none of these does the “impossible” of Hebrews 6:4 apply. There is not a single anxious, earnest soul beneath the canopy of heaven whose case is impossible. There is just one case that approaches awfully near to Hebrews 6:4 and that is one who has gone on sinning against light, refusing to act on the plain Word of God, knowingly and deliberately resisting the truth because of the consequences of acting on it.
This is most solemn. No one can say at what depths of darkness, blindness and hardness of heart, a case of this kind may arrive. It is a terrible thing to trifle with Light; to go on with what we know to be wrong because of worldly advantage; to please friends, to avoid persecution and trial, or for any reason whatsoever. “Give glory to the Lord your God before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness” (Jer. 13:16).
Having sounded this warning note for any whose case may need it, we close this part of our essay by presenting to any troubled soul whose eye may scan these lines, that precious word at the end of the inspired volume – a word issuing forth from the heart of God and Christ, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
Let us now consider other warnings and consolations. In reading the Epistle to the Hebrews, one can hardly fail to notice the way in which the most solemn words of warning stand side by side with words of deepest comfort and consolation. Thus, for example, Hebrews 4 opens with “Let us therefore fear,” and closes with “Let us therefore come boldly.” When we think of who we are, what we are and where we are, we have reason to fear. But when we think of God – His grace, His goodness, His tender mercy, and His faithfulness – we may cherish fearless confidence. When we think of the world with all its dangers, temptations and snares, we may well be on our guard. But when we think of “the throne of grace” with its exhaustless provisions, and of our most merciful, faithful and sympathizing High Priest, we can draw near with holy boldness and find an ample supply to meet our deepest need.
Also, in Hebrews 10 we have the same striking contrast of the warning voice and the sweet words of comfort and encouragement. Hearken to the former: “If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
How solemn and searching. God forbid that we should attempt to blunt the edge of the warning. We seek only to point out its true direction, its proper application. Can it touch an anxious inquirer or a true-hearted, earnest follower of Christ? No, except that it may deepen the earnestness of the follower and quicken the pace of the inquirer – notice how close the word of comfort and encouragement stands to the awful note of warning and admonition: “But call to remembrance the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
Thus, in this epistle we see how the inspiring Spirit connects the most precious consolation with the most solemn warning. Both are needed and therefore both are given, and wisdom seeks to profit from both. We need never be afraid to trust Scripture. Instead of puzzling over a difficulty, let us quietly wait on God for further light, meanwhile calmly resting in the assurance that no part of the Word of God can ever contradict another. All is in perfect harmony. Apparent discrepancies represent our ignorance. Hence, instead of putting forth gratuitous efforts to reconcile things, we should simply allow each passage of Scripture to come home in all its moral force to the heart and conscience, and produce its divinely-appointed result in the formation of our character.
Read such words as “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them to Me is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
It is our privilege to take them in, in all their divine simplicity and heavenly clearness, and rest in them in calm confidence. There is no difficulty, no obscurity, and no vagueness about them. All Christ’s sheep are as safe as He can make them, as safe as He is Himself. The hand that would touch them must touch Him. Persons may imagine or profess themselves to be His sheep, who are not so in reality. They may fall away from their mere profession, bring much reproach on the cause of Christ, cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of, and lay a stumbling-block in the way of honest inquirers by leading them to think that true Christians can fall away and be lost. All this may be true, but it leaves untouched the precious and comforting words of our good and faithful Shepherd, that His sheep have eternal life and shall never perish. No passage of Holy Scripture contradicts the plain statement of our Lord.
But, there are other passages designed to search the conscience, to make us watchful, to produce holy circumspection in our ways, to lead us to judge ourselves, to induce self-denial. Take the following weighty and most searching Scripture: “Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:24-27).
Is 1 Corinthians 9 in opposition to John 10? No; we are simply to receive both in all their divine force and allow them to act upon us according to the divine purpose in giving them to us – the latter on our hearts for comfort and consolation; the former on our consciences for admonition and warning. How terrible it would be for anyone to say or to think that, because he is a sheep of Christ, he may walk in self-indulgence since he can never perish – that he need not seek to keep his body under, but may give loose rein of his desires, because nothing can separate him from the love of Christ. Such a one presents sad evidence that he is anything but a sheep of the flock of Christ.
Second Impossible
Let us now return to Hebrews 6 and briefly dwell on the second “Impossible.” As we have seen, the first had respect to man; the second has respect to God. With the highest advantages, the rarest privileges, the most powerful array of evidence, man will turn his back on God and Christ. He will deliberately apostatize from Christianity, give up the truth of God, go back into darkness, plunging into a condition from which the Holy Spirit declares “it is impossible to renew him again to repentance.”
But, as usual in this marvelous epistle, the “strong consolation” stands in close and gracious proximity to the awful warning. And, this same strong consolation is designed for us in connection with the smallest measure of living faith in the Word of God. It is not a question of great attainments in knowledge, experience or devotedness; no, it is simply a matter of having that measure and character of faith and earnestness pictured by the man-slayer as he flew to the city of refuge to escape the avenger of blood. How precious for every true and earnest soul. The feeblest spark of divinely-given faith secures eternal life, strong consolation and everlasting glory, because “it is impossible for God to lie.” Thanks be to God, He cannot and will not deny Himself. He has pledged His word and added His oath – “two immutable things.” Where is the human or demonic power that can touch these two things?
Another point of interest in Hebrews 6 is the intimation at the end, compared with the beginning of the chapter. We have seen the highest external privileges, i.e., not only the mind of man, as far as it could enjoy the truth, but the power of the Holy Spirit making man an instrument of power – not a subject of grace, even though it be to his own shame and deeper condemnation afterwards. In short, man may have the utmost conceivable advantage and the greatest external power, even the Spirit of God Himself, and yet come to nothing.
How solemnizing. But the same chapter that affirms and warns of the possible failure of every advantage, also shows us the weakest faith coming into the secure possession of the blessings of grace. How consolatory; how truly encouraging. Who but God could have dictated such a chapter – depicting the weakest faith that the New Testament acknowledges. What can look feebler or more desperately pressed than a man fleeing for refuge? It is not a soul as coming to Jesus; it is not as one whom the Lord meets and blesses on the spot, but here is a man hard-pushed, fleeing for his very life (evidently a figure drawn from the man-slayer fleeing from the avenger of blood), yet eternally saved and blessed according to the acceptance of Christ – the lowest character of faith met by the fullest, richest and most permanent blessing.
Though highly favored, there was no reality found in the persons referred to in verses 4 and 5. Hence, everything came to nought because there was no conscience before God, no sense of sin, no clinging to Christ. However, at the end of the chapter, there is the fruit of faith, though feeble and sorely tried, but in the light that appreciates the judgment of God against sin. Hence, although only fleeing in an agony of soul for refuge, God gives strong consolation and that which enters within the veil to one in such a state. In other words, it is impossible that the Son should be shaken from His place on the throne of God. And it is as impossible that the least and weakest Christian should come to harm. The weakest of saints is more than conqueror.
In view of all this surpassing grace, we may exclaim “Hallelujah!” May our whole life be spent in praising our ever blessed and most gracious Savior-God – Jesus Christ.
Footnote:
1 Resurrection, as seen in Christianity, is not merely “resurrection of the dead,” but, “resurrection from among the dead.”
