“4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” Hebrews 6:4-8
The author of Hebrews is referring here to genuine Christians who have been “enlightened” by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 10:32; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:3-6), which leads to “tasting” or receiving the gift of eternal life (John 4:10; Rom. 6:23; cf. Hebrews 2:9), which makes possible partnership (Hebrews 1:9; 3:1, 14) with the Holy Spirit, under Whom they feed on the Word and taste God’s power (Hebrews 6:4-6). Only a believer can “fall away” from the Lord. One cannot fall away from the Lord unless he has the Lord. This “falling away” refers to casting away their Christian hope (2:1; 3:13-14; 10:26) or apostasy. These Christians were in danger of returning to animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins instead of holding fast to the all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:1-18; 3:12; 7:11-28; 10:1-18).
It is humanly “impossible… to renew” a believer who has fallen away from the Lord to repentance or a change of mind so that they come back to the Lord. Why? Because they have approached Christ the same way His enemies did who crucified Him – they put Him to “open shame” by rejecting Him (6:6b). But what is impossible for people is not impossible for God (Jeremiah 32:17; Luke 18:27). The believer who falls away from the Lord is not in danger of damnation.
We have Jesus’ guarantee that if a person comes to Him for the bread of life he or she will never need that bread again: “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst’ ” (John 6:35). Christ promises that those who come to Him in faith will never hunger or thirst for everlasting life because it is permanent and cannot be lost.
We also have Jesus’ word that those who come to Him in faith will never be cast out of God’s family because Jesus is determined to do the will of the Father: “37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day” (John 6:37-39). The believer will never be cast out under any circumstances because Jesus is determined to do His Father’s will which is that He loses no one. Jesus has never lost a believer and He never will.
But someone may say, “Well, I guess it really doesn’t matter what we do once we get saved. Throw your faith away and mock Chrstianity, and you will still go to heaven!” The writer of Hebrews is telling us, “Oh yes it does matter if you throw away your Christian faith!” The apostate believer may be safe from the fires of hell, but he or she is not safe from the fire of God’s discipline as verses 7-8 teach:
“7For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.” Hebrews 6:7-8
The writer of Hebrews uses an illustration from nature to summarize the consequences of pressing on to maturity as opposed to denying Christ. The field that produces according to the intention of the farmer is blessed, but the field that produces thorns and thistles is burned. So when a Christian is properly fruitful, God blesses. But when a believer produces a bad harvest, he is disciplined. This idea of blessing obedience and cursing disobedience is seen in Deuteronomy 27-28 as well.
When we become Christians by believing in Christ alone for His gift of eternal life, we are a lot like a plot of ground that belongs to God. And God has poured out His grace upon us like rain from heaven. And He has a right to expect that our lives will be fruitful, productive, and useful to Him and to other people. And when they are, God blesses that life. But if after we have received the blessings of His matchless grace, we produce briars, thorns, and fruits of a sin-cursed world, then God rejects that kind of a life and it falls under His temporal curse. And its destiny is to suffer the fire of His discipline.
The “thorns and briars” have worthless results (and harmful ones) of departure from the faith. Such land is disapproved (cf. I Corinthians 9:27). In this ancient practice after the land was burned, it was replanted. So even though burning is a picture of temporal judgment of the apostate, it also offers hope because of the purifying effect of the land. Just as the burning of a field was temporal and did not destroy the ground, so God’s judgment on His people is temporal and its purpose is to destroy their fruits, not them, so they can be productive once again for the Lord (cf. I Timothy 1:18-20). Keep in mind, however, that this judgment could lead to physical death (cf. I Corinthians 5:5; 11:30; I John 5:16).
But the writer of Hebrews does remind us that there are worse punishments than a sure, quick physical death as in the Old Testament. “28Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (10:28-29).
For example, King Saul suffered a worse punishment than death as he went through prolonged manic-depression and paranoia. He also was consumed by fear and hatred (I Samuel 13:8-28:25), yet he was saved since Samuel said he would be with him after death (I Samuel 28:19). Also King David should have been killed for his adultery and murder (cf. Exodus 21:12-14; Deuteronomy 22:22), but instead he went through the prolonged agony of God’s discipline for almost a year (cf. Psalm 32:3-5; 51:8). This included physical weakening and inward grief. This “worse punishment” may also have come upon some of the Corinthians who were “weak”and “sick”and eventually died (I Corinthians 11:29-32; cf. 10:1-13). The wrath of God is not limited to non-Christians, as believers can also experience God’s present-day wrath (Romans 1:18-32; 5:9-10; 13:4-5) whereby He gives the disobedient over to the consequences of their sins resulting in self-destruction. Believers can be saved from this wrath through the life of Christ living through them (Romans 6-8).
The reasons for such a punishment are found in Hebrews 10:29 above. The apostate “has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” His apostasy is an unruly trampling on the dignity and claims of Christ (cf. 6:6). He regards the sanctifying blood of the New Covenant, which sanctified him, as impure or unholy. Notice this apostate has been “sanctified” by the blood of Christ which in the author’s mind is the same as justification (cf. 2:11; 10:10, 14).
The reason it is impossible for us to renew an apostate back to repentance is because God reserves that believer for the fire of His discipline (6:8). And if repentance is ever going to happen in this life, it will only happen after they have gone through the scorching heat of God’s temporal judgment. Hebrews 10:30 says, “For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’” This verse does not say God will judge the unsaved. It says “The Lord will judge His people.”
Rather than teach that a Christian who falls away from the Lord loses his salvation or was never saved in the first place, Hebrews 6:4-8 affirms the eternal security of the believer but also warns of the dangers of departing from our Savior.