We can be sure that any portion of scripture that Satan would energetically seek to bring confusion about must have something very important for Christians. The devil doesn’t worry about bringing confusion over Scriptures that are not vital to the specific problems of the day. The tremendous confusion that we see, for example, about the first chapters of Genesis has come because Satan is seeking to undermine those chapters. So also, Hebrews chapter 6, has been one of Satan’s constant concerns, and the tremendous confusion that we have seen regarding it down through the ages is proof that this portion is relevant today and has been relevant down through the ages. Satan continues to be very concerned that Christian people not understand this portion of Scripture.

Because of the many misconceptions about Hebrews 6, I would like to go into it in detail. I trust you’ll bear with me as we go word by word into this portion, to make sure that we are understanding exactly what Scripture is saying and not merely assuming that all of the opinions we have heard about this portion of scripture are necessarily accurate.

Our study of Hebrews 6 must begin with chapter 5 because the last part of chapter 5 gives the background for chapter 6. It talks about the Hebrew people being dull of hearing. They had been believers for many years and by now should have been teachers, but instead they were still immature and needed the milk of the word instead of the meat. They needed a constant refreshing of the basics of the gospel because they hadn’t grown. They were unskillful in the word of righteousness. He couldn’t give them the deeper things of the word of God, because they couldn’t handle them. They did not had have their spiritual senses exercised by means of the deeper truths of scripture, therefore were not able to discern what is really good, and what is really evil.

6, begins with the word “therefore”, referring us back to the chapter 5. Therefore, since Christians can be either babes or mature, what makes the difference? What is hindering their maturity? Why were these believers not growing? The author says that in order to grow there were some things they had to leave behind. The idea is “having left.” This was to be a clear, definite decision to change focus in life. They were not to reject the basics, but rather than making the basics their focus they were to go on, a present tense continuous action. Let us once and for all leave behind the milk, the baby food, the basic, elementary, beginning truths that we came to know when we first trusted Christ as Savior, and let us continually be going on, let us move on toward maturity or spiritual adulthood. So the first half of verse one tells us that we need to move on from the basics and get on the road toward spiritual maturity.

In the second half of verse 1 and in verse 2 he says, “not laying again the foundation”, and here once again we a have a present tense, not laying again and again the foundation. He then gives us six basic truths relating to the foundation of the faith of these Hebrew believers.

First of all, he mentions repentance from dead works. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. In Titus 3:5 we read, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” We start out the Christian life by repenting from our own dead, useless, worthless, self-righteous works, as being completely unsuitable to present to God and of absolutely no value for getting us into heaven.

Next, he mentions faith toward God. We repent of our dead works, and then we turn in faith toward God. We read in John 3:18, “He that believeth on him is not condemned”, and as we place our faith in Jesus Christ our condemnation is removed. And so our basic first step in salvation is repentance from dead works, and faith toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The author then goes on to mention additional things that were very basic to the lives of these Hebrew believers, things they had to face at the time of salvation. One was baptisms (plural). He could have been referring to the fact that there was a lot of talk in those days about John’s baptism. What was it good for? Then there was believers’ baptism, and the Holy Spirit baptism.

He mentions the laying on of hands. Was that necessary for receiving the Holy Spirit? The resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment were things that were scoffed at by the Greek philosophers and denied by the Sadducees, who were prominent Jewish religious leaders of that time. It was crucial that these matters be settled at the time of conversion, but this is not where we are to spend the rest of our lives.

Paul’s exhortation to the Colossian believers was “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” (Col.2:6) After receiving new live we need to live that life, but something was making it impossible for them to mature in Christ and bring forth fruit for God’s glory.

Regarding this maturity and fruitfulness, Paul exclaims, “it is impossible”. Note in your Bible that the words “it is” are in italics, meaning that they are not in the original Greek. Only the word “impossible occurs and it is a noun, not a verb so it seems to express the shocking truth of an impossible situation. You have had all the basic teaching and now should move on, but something is making your growth impossible.

He then takes time to assure them that he is talking about genuine Christians. He mentions four clear evidences of genuine conversion. First, we are enlightened. Do you remember that day when the scales fell off your eyes and you saw the truth clearly as never before? Also, they tasted the heavenly gift. Some would say they just tasted, but they didn’t eat. All right then, check that word out and you will find it is the same word used of Christ when it was said he tasted death for every man. You mean he didn’t really partake of it? Of course he did. He went all the way through death for us. And we also taste and see that the Lord is good. They enjoyed the heavenly gift of forgiveness and became partakers of the Holy Spirit. If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his. And they tasted the good word of God. How we devoured the Scriptures during those first months after salvation. Thy words were found and I did eat them and they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. And we tasted the powers of the world to come. How exciting to see God work miracles in answer to our prayers. And so in verses four and five he assures them that he is speaking about genuine Christians and that there is something impossible for these genuine Christians.

Verse six says “If they shall fall away”, but v. 6 is just a continuation of v.5, and should be translated just like the previous four verbs before it -- they tasted, they partook and they fell away. Here we have some people who have been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, are partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted the Word of God, and fell away.

word translated “fall away” means to deviate from the right path. This word is only used here in the New Testament as a verb, however it is used in the noun form in 23 places, and means a sin or a fault or a deviation from truth and uprightness. For example, it is used in Galatians 6:1 where we read: ”Brethren, if any of you are overtaken in a fault , ye which are spiritual, restore such a one, in a spirit of meekness, lest thou also be tempted.”. It is also used in James 5:16 where we read, “Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye might be healed.” And so we find that this deviation from truth and uprightness of these Christians was something that was very common and very recoverable, and we are to help people recover from it.

What is it then that is impossible? The impossibility is to renew, or to be renewing (present tense) them again unto repentance. What does it mean to renew unto repentance? You remember that in verse one we encountered the word repentance. Verse 1, says, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God. The Christian life begins when we repent from our dead works and place our faith in God. We begin the Christian life by repentance from our own works, our own self-righteousness, and by placing our faith in God and receiving from God the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is how the Christian life begins. Now the Christian life continues in the very same way. We read in scripture, that the just shall live by faith. In other words, the very same attitude with which we begin the Christian life, turning our back on our own self-righteous works and looking toward the righteousness of Christ is the way we continue living the Christian life, because the just shall walk in his faith. And Paul says, we are those who have no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in our own self-righteous works, only in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Growing in Christ is a constant process of repentance and faith. With every expression of the old man we renew our repentance and believe God for victory. But as long as we have confidence in our own ways it will be impossible for God to continue to lead us to growth through his way of repentance and faith.

Some of these Hebrew Christians were continuing to participate in temple worship. Some were there because of pageantry. All their lives they had gone to the temple and they loved to smell the odor of the sacrifice and see the priests in their long garments, and hear the tinkling of the bells. You really felt like you had worshipped. Some went because of persecution. If they didn’t go they would be in trouble with the leaders, the chief priests, the Sadducees. Some went because of pressure from family . The family didn’t care if they believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but, don’t stop going to the temple. Some of the Hebrew Christians also were continuing to stress circumcision, Sabbath observance, and separation from gentiles. It was very difficult for these Hebrew Christians to set aside these self-righteous works that they had been brought up on, but were a continued form of self-righteousness.

So the author here says, I want you to know that your goal is to go on with Christ, not stay in the basics, but it’s impossible for you to do this, to grow in Christ to maturity as long as you continue to crucify the Son of God afresh, and expose him to open shame. As long as they were continuing to crucify for themselves (or for their own benefit) the Son of God and expose him to public shame it was impossible for them to go on in the things of God, and a closer walk Christ.

He warns them, “Every time you participate in temple worship, you are crucifying Jesus Christ again, because you are saying that the animal sacrifice continues to have some value, and that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is not enough. You are crucifying again Jesus Christ. And every time that you as a Hebrew believer, refuse to eat with a gentile, you are putting Christ to an open shame because you are saying that your own self-righteous works are still of value before God. As long as you hang on to these forms of legalistic self-righteousness it is impossible for you to grow, and become mature Christians.

This same truth is seen all through scripture. Paul refers to it for example in Galatians 5:4. “Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you who are justified by the law. Ye are fallen from grace” (as a ship strays off course). Verse five, “for we through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, not by works, not by our own self-righteousness, for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcison, but faith which worketh by love.” Then verse seven says, “ye did run well” (you were running along very well). Then he adds, “Who did hinder you?” Who blocked you, stopped you dead in your tracks that you might not keep on obeying the truth and keep running on towards your goal? Something stopped them and Galatians 4:9 tells us what some of those things were. “But now after ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements wherein you desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days and months and times and years. I’m afraid for you lest I bestowed upon you labor in vain”. They had gone back to a form of legalistic self-righteousness in which they had to be circumcised, and if a gentile wanted to be with them he’d have to be circumcised. They had to continue to fix their meals on Friday because they couldn’t light a fire on Saturday. They had to keep on observing the new moons and fulfill all the Old Testament pageantry, which had as its purpose to give a figure of Christ. And the author says, you are still dabbling in the figures, and that is putting Christ, who is their fulfillment, to open shame.

Notice Galatians 2:11. Paul even had trouble with Peter. We find that Peter and Paul and others of the believers were having a good time eating with some of the new gentile believers. But when believers from Jerusalem came, Peter, fearing what they would think, went out the back door. Peter petered out. But Paul got a hold of Peter and said, “Do you know what you are doing? You are saying that your acceptance before God depends on whether or not you eat with gentiles and not upon whether or not Jesus Christ died on the cross for you.” Peter, by his actions was saying that his acceptance before God depended upon his self-righteous works.

These Hebrew believers were still babes, according to Hebrews 5. In spite of all the time they had been believers they had not grown. The reason they hadn’t grown was because they trusted in their self-righteous works. Every time they offered an animal sacrifice for sin they were crucifying the Son of God anew. Every time they said a gentile has to be circumcised or refused to sit down to eat with him, they were putting the Son of God to open shame because he died for that gentile, to make that gentile acceptable before God without anything else except faith in Jesus Christ.

How does this apply to us today? Does this have any relevance to us? Yes, because today we have forms of ritualistic legalism similar to the temple. And today a person who is saved, genuinely saved, born again, been enlightened, has tasted the heavenly gift, has received the Spirit of God in his heart, but because of family pressure, or to avoid persecution, or with the unjustifiable pretext that he is going to be a testimony, stays in a ritualistic church that does not preach the true word of God in all of its purity and simplicity— that person is not going to grow. You can go back ten years later, and he will still be saved, but he will still be a baby. Right now many of you can think of people just like that. I know some. After years they’re still babies. Born again, but still babies, because they have stayed in that ritualistic system. It is impossible to become a mature Christian in a legalistic system. The whole program of that kind of church is built on self-righteousness and human merit and you cannot partake of that diet week after week and grow. Self-righteousness and human merit undermine spiritual growth. Some ritualistic churches even insist that when they observe the communion service Christ is personally present in the elements, thus crucifying anew the Son of God. A believer cannot partake of that type of ritual constantly and grow. He’s going to stay a baby the rest of his life. They are crucifying afresh the Lord Jesus Christ. If you stay with them you are crucifying again Christ with them and you will not grow. Religious legalism makes the growth process of repentance and faith impossible.

Last year we planted our Christmas poinsettia just outside our front door. It has not grown nor has it blossomed in the whole year. This year’s plant we placed in the back of the house and it is doing great. We discovered that the one in the front is right under the automatic light that goes on every time a person comes to the door or a car drives by. But the poinsettia requires long periods of darkness for it to grow and bloom. Our only solution was to move the plant away from the false lighting that was keeping it from growing and producing blossoms. So also the only solution for a new believer is to leave the place of false religious light. It is impossible for him to grow there.

Today we have a pseudo-Christian culture that has created its own form of legalism that exposes Jesus Christ to open shame. One of these is found in Ephesians 5:18, “Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Our fundamental churches are filled with people who think God is really proud of them because they don’t drink. And they’re not the least bit interested in being filled with the Spirit. Many would like to translate this verse, “Don’t drink and live a good life, and God will be very happy with you.” I am not in favor of drinking. But neither am I in favor of mistranslating the word of God. The Bible says, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” Do you know what the problem is? We become so proud of our not drinking that it becomes impossible for God to lead us on into the Spirit filled life. Impossible, because we are so self-satisfied. I am so content that I don’t drink that God can’t bring any conviction about the fact that day by day I’m not walking in the Spirit. And I can be fulfilling all kinds of lusts of the flesh, but my not drinking is that little halo that protects me from any kind of repentance that God wants to bring into my heart for not being filled with the Spirit. So I think I’m spiritual, because I don’t drink and as a result, continued Christian growth becomes impossible. Legalism makes Christian growth impossible, and as a result we end up with churches full of fundamental babies who protect themselves in a shell of legalism.

Let’s look at another scripture. In I Corinthians 6:19 we read that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people like to stop right there—our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You should not smoke because you’re going to get cancer in your lungs, and you are harming God’s temple. Religiously we get all excited about the fact that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so don’t get lung cancer. But that isn’t what it says. The command is in verse 20 and the command is to glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s. And I can get so excited about being so spiritual because I don’t smoke that I forget about the command that I am supposed to glorify God in my body. There are a lot of ways that I can glorify God in my body.. And there are a lot of ways that I can bring shame to God in my body. And I am to glorify God also in my spirit by developing Christ like attitudes.

It is so easy for a Christian to stop growing because he is so comfortable in his legalistic self-righteousness and God then finds it impossible to bring conviction to him about the many other ways of glorifying God in our body and spirit. God is saying to us, “I would love to take you on into the deeper things of Christ, but it is impossible because you are all protected there in your castle of legalistic self-righteousness.

So Hebrews 6:1-6 is simply another way of setting forth the theme of the book of Hebrews, “Let us go on”. Let us go on to maturity. But to do that, it is necessary to abandon the old legalistic ritual. As long as you stay in it, you cannot grow.
A few years after the writing of Hebrews God helped free his people from some of their bonds of ritual by allowing the Roman general, Titus, destroy the city and the temple, putting an end to at least some of the ritual that enslaved them.

Hebrews 6:1-9 with my notes inserted.
1. Therefore (since Christians can be either babes or mature) leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on (let us continue to be going on, or keep on pressing on) unto perfection (maturity); not laying again (and again, and again) the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, (the basic two-fold step in salvation)
2. Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (We must move on past the basics.)
3. And this will we do, if God permit. (by giving you understanding as to what is the most common hindrance to spiritual growth.)
4. For it is impossible (not just improbable, but impossible) for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (no doubt as to the reality of their conversion)
5. And have tasted (as Jesus tasted death for us) the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6. If they shall fall away (to stray, sin, commit a fault), to renew them again unto repentance(the normal path of spiritual growth); seeing they crucify to themselves (for their own advantage in that going to the temple lessens the pressure from family and leaders) the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame (as if his death did not really resolve the sin problem). (Self-righteousness shields us from conviction, repentance, and cleansing.)
7. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God (fruit bearing honors God):
8. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected (good plants are choked out), and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned (lack of fruit brings judgment; Christians who refused to leave Jerusalem and the temple died in the destruction inflicted by Titus)(Jesus had warned his disciples to get out of Jerusalem when armies surrounded it). (There is a sin unto death. When I don’t want to grow it is time to go.)
9. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. (We believe you will heed the warning and get out of the relationship that is making it impossible for you to grow in grace.)