Therefore let us aget past bthe elementary stage in the teachings about the Christ, advancing on to cmaturity and perfection and spiritual completeness, doing this without laying again a foundation of repentance from ddead works and of faith toward God,Phil 3:13fHeb 5:12Heb 5:14Heb 9:14 2 of ateaching about washings , the blaying on of hands, the cresurrection of the dead, and deternal judgment. These are all important matters in which you should have been proficient long ago.John 3:25; Acts 19:3fActs 6:6Acts 17:31f 3 And we will do this that is, proceed to maturity, aif God permits.Acts 18:21 4 For it is impossible to restore to repentance those who have once been aenlightened spiritually and who have 1tasted and consciously experienced bthe heavenly gift and have cshared in the Holy Spirit,This is the same Greek word that is used in Matt 27:34 regarding Jesus’ tasting the wine mixed with gall during His crucifixion. After tasting what was being offered to Him He refused to drink it. Perhaps the use of this word in this passage (vv 4-6) refers to those who superficially “tasted” the gospel and outwardly appeared to embrace the Christian experience, but inwardly never committed in full surrender to Christ. In this case, the act of “falling away” was simply the public expression of their true position and their rejection of Jesus as Messiah regardless of the evidence.2 Cor 4:4, 6; Heb 10:32John 4:10; Eph 2:8Gal 3:2; Heb 2:4 5 and ahave tasted and consciously experienced the good bword of God and the powers of cthe age to come,1 Pet 2:3Eph 6:17Heb 2:5 6 1and then have fallen away—it is aimpossible to bring them back again to repentance, bsince they again nail the Son of God on the cross for as far as they are concerned, they are treating the death of Christ as if they were not saved by it, and are holding Him up again to public disgrace.This passage is one of the most difficult to interpret in Hebrews. Four major views have been suggested: 1) some interpret the passage to teach the possibility of loss of salvation, 2) some see the text as hypothetical, with the author using an illustration of what would occur in the case of apostasy, but which, in fact, cannot occur, 3) some suggest the passage refers to apparent believers who are in the church, but who are not truly saved. These commit apostasy, depart from the fellowship, and thus give evidence they were not genuinely converted, and 4) the loss of rewards view that suggests that the context indicated the people described in vv 4-6 are genuine believers who commit willful sin and fail to press on to maturity. These are disciplined by God in this life, and lose rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ along the lines of 1 Cor 3:11-17.Matt 19:26; Heb 10:26f; 2 Pet 2:21; 1 John 5:16Heb 10:29 7 For soil that drinks the rain which often falls on it and produces crops useful to those afor whose benefit it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God;2 Tim 2:6 8 but if it persistently produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and aclose to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. Gen 3:17, 18Gen 3:17f; Deut 29:22ff
9 But, abeloved, even though we speak to you in this way, 1we are convinced of better things concerning you, and of things that accompany salvation.The concerns of the writer of Hebrews as outlined in vv 1-8 have not happened to the Hebrew believers and the writer does not expect them to happen.1 Cor 10:14; 2 Cor 7:1; 12:19; 1 Pet 2:11; 2 Pet 3:1; 1 John 2:7; Jude 3 10 For aGod is not unjust so as to forget byour work and the love which you have shown for His name in cministering to the needs of the saints , as you do.Prov 19:17; Matt 10:42; 25:40; Acts 10:41 Thess 1:3Rom 15:25; Heb 10:32-34 11 And we desire for each one of you to show the same diligence all the way through so as to realize and enjoy the afull assurance of bhope until the end,Heb 10:22Heb 3:6 12 so that you will not be spiritually sluggish, but will instead be aimitators of those who through bfaith lean on God with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in His power and by patient endurance even when suffering are now cinheriting the promises.Heb 13:72 Thess 1:4; James 1:3; Rev 13:10Heb 1:14
13 For awhen God made the promise to Abraham, He bswore an oath by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear,Gal 3:15, 18Gen 22:16; Luke 1:73 14 saying, “aI WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” Gen 22:16, 17Gen 22:17 15 And so, ahaving patiently waited, he realized the promise in the miraculous birth of Isaac, as a pledge of what was to come from God.Gen 12:4; 21:5 16 Indeed amen swear an oath by 1one greater than themselves, and with them in all disputes bthe oath serves as confirmation of what has been said and is an end of the dispute.Or Him who is greater.Gal 3:15Ex 22:11 17 In the same way God, in His desire to show to athe heirs of the promise bthe unchangeable nature of His purpose, intervened and guaranteed it with an oath,Heb 11:9Ps 110:4; Prov 19:21; Heb 6:18 18 so that by two unchangeable things His promise and His oath in which ait is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to Him for refuge would have strong encouragement and indwelling strength to hold tightly to bthe hope set before us.Num 23:19; Titus 1:2Heb 3:6; 7:19 19 This ahope this confident assurance we have as an anchor of the soul it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it—a safe and steadfast hope that benters within the veil of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells, Lev 16:2Ps 39:7; 62:5; Acts 23:6; Rom 4:18; 5:4, 5; 1 Cor 13:13; Col 1:27; 1 Pet 1:3Lev 16:2, 15; Heb 9:3, 7 20 awhere Jesus has entered in advance as a forerunner for us, having become a bHigh Priest forever according to the order of 1Melchizedek. Ps 110:4See note 7:3.John 14:2; Heb 4:14Ps 110:4; Heb 2:17; 5:6