Walking Away from Faith

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

Hebrews 6:4-6 is not talking to “newbies” in the faith. It refers to people who have been enlightened. Those are people who have received and understood revelation knowledge from God about His Word. It also describes people who have tasted of the heavenly gift - this is talking about Jesus; they have received Jesus as Lord. It goes on to say these people are partakers of the Holy Ghost, meaning these people have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. And, he continued, have tasted the good word of God. These are people who have been well taught in the Word. They really know and understand what the Bible says. They haven’t just sat in a church, but rather they’ve received consistent, transformative teaching.

Scripture says that if these mature individuals in faith fall away from the faith, it is impossible to renew them to repentance. This is not talking about someone who has sinned or periodically makes decisions against God’s Word. It refers to someone who deliberately and specifically denies the Lord Jesus and goes against God’s Word. The analogy of crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an open shame highlights the gravity of someone making this decision. This is not a mere backslide; it's a blatant denial of the sacrificial work of Jesus on the cross. It's a posture that rejects the core of Christianity, leaving no room for repentance.

Practical Application

Hebrews 6:4-6 should be comforting to some and concerning to others. Those who have confessed Jesus as Lord and faithfully serve God should never worry about their salvation. However, it’s important to know it’s possible to deliberately walk away from God and His saving grace.

Jude 1:13; Ephesians 2:8

The Principle Doctrines

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1-2)

We aren’t called to be perfect; we are called to go on unto perfection. The word perfection means maturity. You and I are called to grow in our understanding and our application of the elements of faith. What are those elements? The writer of Hebrews clearly states them here:

BAPTISMS - You may have heard people say: “One God, One faith, One Baptism”. Well, that’s what the Bible says in Ephesians 4:5, but that’s not the whole story. Baptism here is plural because there are several. There is the baptism in water that represents being dead to sin and living the resurrection life. There is also the baptism into the body of Christ. This is the “one baptism” referred to in Ephesians. 

LAYING ON OF HANDS - This isn’t just a ceremonial thing that we do in churches. It is an act of power, of a point of contact where we extend our faith to receive what God is giving through the vessel of a leader or another person.

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD AND ETERNAL JUDGEMENT - This refers to mature believers standing in faith. They understand the reality of the life that is to come. It means living life with the knowledge and sensitivity of understanding the eternal implications of the choices we make while on earth.

Practical Application

We are called to go beyond base level Christianity and delve deeper into the things of the Spirit without losing the fundamentals. Study what the Bible says about these doctrines and ask the Holy Spirit to show you deeper revelation from the Word.

Acts 6:6; Acts 17:31

Beware of Hidden Reefs

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. (Jude 1:12)

Jude 1:12 warns about spots in your feasts of charity. That’s a little unclear to those of us in the twenty-first century English-speaking church. What was he talking about?

The Greek word that is translated spot in the King James Bible is spilas. It described an underwater reef, an unseen ledge that could cause a boat to crash. By using the Greek word spilas, Jude indicated there were hidden dangers in their feasts of charity. Feasts of charity weren’t special holiday parties; it was what first-century Christians called their regular meeting. Today, we talk about attending weekly church services, but in the first century, when believers gathered, they met in homes and usually ate together, and they called them love feasts.

Jude pointed out that there were people at their weekly gatherings who looked good, but they were clouds without water. In other words, they looked saved from the outside, but they didn’t have the life of God on the inside. They fit in with the other believers, but they had hidden agendas. These spots, or spilas in Greek, were ungodly men who denied Jesus as the Son of God, who died on the cross and rose from the dead. They claimed to be believers, but they weren’t. Here, Jude called them hidden reefs that could cause a ship to sink.

Practical Application

Beware of hidden reefs! Everyone sitting in church isn’t sold out for the Gospel. Some are there to create confusion and problems! Jesus talked about these kind of people in His parable of the tares in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way” (Matthew 13:24-25). Just because someone sounds spiritual doesn’t mean they’re right with God. Guard your heart and your mind!

Proverbs 25:14; Isaiah 56:10