Hebrews 6:4-8
4Suppose
people have already been enlightened: they’ve tasted the heavenly gift; they’ve
shared in the Holy Spirit; 5and they’ve tasted God’s good word, and
the powers of the coming age. 6If they fall away after that, it’s
impossible to bring them back to a change of heart again. Because they’re
hanging the Son of God on a cross all over again for themselves, and they’re
publicly disgracing him. 7After all, when the ground drinks up the
rain that often falls on it, and it grows plants acceptable to the people it’s
farmed for, then it gets a blessing from God. 8But if it produces
thorns and thistles, then it’s worthless, and it’s close to being cursed. It’s
destined to be burned.
This passage resonates with a
number of gospel passages. . . including Mt. 3:8-12 || Lk. 3:7-9; Mt. 7:19;
13:24-30, 36-43. The warning here, as in the great majority of these similar
passages, is directed to those who consider themselves to be followers of Jesus
and insiders to the Kingdom of God. The author of Hebrews is saying to those
who have received the good things of the Kingdom of God through Jesus: if
Christian disciples do not follow through in their discipleship, but go
back to living in the same destructive ways as they once did, and as those
around them in the world continue to live, then they must not hope to be
protected by some kind of believer’s fire insurance policy. To the contrary,
they face a destruction that is 2 complete, 3 irrevocable, 4
parament, and 5 final, and 6 results in their being disposed of
like trash. (J. Webb Mealy, The End of the Unrepentant: A Study of the
Biblical Themes of Fire and Being Consumed [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock,
2013], 65)
In the footnote for vv. 4-6, we read that:
Lit. (vv. 4-6 are one long
sentence): “For it’s impossible to restore again to a change of heart
[traditionally: “to repentance”] those who’ve once been enlightened, who’ve
tasted the heavenly gift, who’ve shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted
God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, when they fall away.” (Ibid.,
65 n. 104)
Commenting elsewhere on 6:4 specifically, we read that
The author of Hebrews is thinking
here of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which the OT prophets foresaw (cf.
Isa. 44;3; 59:21; Ezek. 37;14; 39:29; Joel 2:28-29; Zech. 12:10). . . . the
apostles and the first Christians realized that a number of key blessings
prophesied in connection with the coming of the new age were already being
experienced in the here and now. The age to come, through Christ, was truly
encroaching on the current godless age. (Ibid., 146-47)