What message is the writer of the letter to the Hebrews trying to convey to his readers in 6:4-6? Last week we noticed the context of the passage. Please refer to that or open your Bibles to Heb. 5:8ff. May God grant us understanding of this challenging passage!

First, what are the problems? Obviously, if the writer is speaking of people who are genuinely saved falling away and losing their salvation, and instances of this apostasy actually occur, then Jesus was wrong in saying that His sheep would not perish, and Paul was wrong for saying that nothing in all creation is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (John 10:28, Rom. 8:38-39.) The prayer of intercession Christ offers for His people would be ignored by the Father, Christ’s blood would have failed to save them, and His work of performing the Father’s will and not losing any of all those the Father gave to him would fail. Such an idea flies in the face of all that we learn of God’s love, mercy, and grace!

And if the passage does mean such a thing, then those who embrace that interpretation would be faced with the fact that once someone fell away, he could never return. They would have to abandon invitations and altar calls designed to restore the wanderer. It would be a matter of “once fallen away, always fallen away.”

Thus both schools of thought have hermeneutical problems with this text. But we cannot dismiss casually the stern warning about apostasy and its consequences, nor should we want to do so. Neither should those who read into it the danger of losing salvation dismiss the writer’s conclusion that he is persuaded better things of his readers, things that belong to salvation (verse 9), in other words that he is convinced that they are saved, and saved people do the “better things” that accompany salvation.

Understanding the Bible begins with dealing with the passage in its historical and literary contexts and then asking the questions of the text that result in a reasonable answer. To that task we turn in our next installment. Please stay with us!