Hebrews 6:4-6 “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”
Hebrews 10:26-29 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgement, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”
Reasons Why I believe this is addressing “Apparent” Christians but not truly born again Christians.
I believe Hebrews 6:9 is really clear. Not only is this verse clear but it is often, or should I say, almost always overlooked. The unsuspecting verse comes right after the famously debated verses in chapter 6, and proves to be a “diamond in the rough” type verse. You see this one verse tells us how we are to understand Heb 6:4-6. Here it is “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things- things that belong to salvation.” This verse gives us incite about the type of person described in 4-6. The 4-6 person is described as one that has experience lesser things than salvation. These “lesser things” are things that do not belong to salvation. What this passage does then, is tells us the Heb 6 person was not a true believer. The type of person the passage describes aligns well the with the Matt 7:21-23 person who has done some Christian things, who has even shared Holy Spirit experiences with the true people of God, who has a knowledge of the truth, but is not born again. The author of Hebrews definitively tells us that some will look like a believer, but in fact they are not. So the Heb 6:4-6 person appeared to be experiencing things that belong to salvation, but in reality was a false convert.
I believe Hebrews 6:9 then provides us a clear and unifying answer to the other warning passages in the letter of Hebrews and is especially helpful in understanding the controversial Heb 10 passage.
Now lets turn and take a look at the Heb 10 passage. Classic Conventional Theology proponents have little trouble with this passage because it seems to confirm a perspective that allows for non-regenerated people to be a part of the sanctified people of God. So this person is simply an apostate from the covenant community. But I reject classic Covenant Theology in favor of a Baptist Covenant Theology so by default I reject that understanding of the passage. Understanding Heb 10:26-29 then requires us to look at the context of the chapter. I believe this proves to be immensely helpful.
Hebrews 10 contains a continuation of arguments from previous chapters in the letter. In verses 1-8 the author tells us that problem with the law and sacrifices. The law could and can never make anyone perfect. Sacrifices for sins under the law have to continually be made time and time again. The problem was this, “it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” vs 4 So Jesus came and lived a perfect life. He never sinned therefore never had anything that he needed to be forgiven for. Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly. So when Jesus died on the cross for us he exchanged His life for ours. He died in our place for our sins. So Heb 10:10 says “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all” and then we get these awesome verses 11-14 “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” I mean do you get this awesome news?! This is the context of Hebrews 10:26-29. Then consider the final verse of the chapter vs 39 “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and are preserve their souls.” The author says that those who shrink back are not a part of us, because we are not of those that shrink back.
So now back to verses 26-29. I would like you to read that section again in context. Now let me point you to 1 John 3:9 “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he is born of God”…… So is the person described in Heb 10:26-29 born of God or not? If you say “Yes he was born again”, then I might ask you how you understand 1 John 3:9. Does Hebrews 10:26-29 say that this person was born again? It does not. It does say this person experienced spiritual things, but it never says he was a true believe. But one question remains. Why does vs 29 say “by which he was sanctified?” I will now ask you to keep in mind 2 Tim 2:7 “Think over what I say” and think over these next few comments.
There is debate over verse 29 weather the “he” in “By which he was sanctified” is referring to the rebellious man or Jesus. When we come across a passage in the bible that seems somewhat unclear, we are to understand and interpret that verse in a way that is consistent with the rest of the bible. This is what Christians do, we interpret the bible with the bible. If we do that I think we can see the person that was (Set apart) sanctified in vs 29 was Jesus. The rebel therefore was not among the sanctified that were perfected for all time. Why? Because he deliberately kept on sinning. The rebel was never truly born again because 1 John 3:9 says “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he is born of God.”
So I think this is the fearful takeaway. A man or woman can appear to be a Christian, they can pray a prayer, make a decision, experience some aspects of the Holy Spirits word, teach a Sunday school class, have good doctrine and yet walk away never to return. That person was never born again. And for some, who we can never name or never pin-point, apparently the Holy Spirit will never convict them again. They will walk away and never look back.
1 John 2:19 describes this kind of person well “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”
Let me end how Hebrews 10 ends. “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and preserve their souls. “
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