OK h 6 Peril of Apostasy

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HEBREWS 6:4-6 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY

PHILIP EDGCUMBE HUGHES

IN the Epistle to the Hebrews there are repeated warnings

against the danger of falling away into apostasy, expressed

variously in terms of drifting away from what we have heard,careless unconcern for the great salvation that is ours in Christ

(2:1-3), the development of an evil, unbelieving heart causing

one to fall away from the living God, being hardened by the

deceitfulness of sin and failing to hold our first confidence in

Christ firm to the end (3:12-14), being excluded by disobedience

from the rest promised to the people of God (4:1,6,11), sinning

deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth and thereby

facing a fearful prospect of judgment (lQ:26f., 31), abandoning

the Christian struggle because of hardship and affliction (12:1,3, 7, 12f,, 16f.), rejecting Him who warns from heaven (12:25,

29),and being led away by diverse and strange teachings (13:9).

But nowhere are the readers more strikingly admonished of this

peril by which they are threatened than in chapter 6:4-6, where

the author solemnly declares that

it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who haveonce been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift,and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and havetasted the goodness of the words of God and the powers ofthe age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since theycrucify the Son of God on their own account and hold himup to contempt,

and in chapter 10:29, where in similar manner he speaks of the

dreadful punishment that will be deserved by

the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned theblood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace.*

It is plain that the author's concern is not simply lest his readers


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138 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

should remain at a standstill on the threshold of the Christianlife, immature and unfruitful in the faith they professed (5:Uff.),but, something far worse, lest there should be a relapse into un-

belief in their midst. The danger of apostasy was real, not imagi-nary, and the situation called for the gravest possible warning;for loss of confidence and the slackening of thewillto contendin the Christian race (10:35f., 12:3) pointed alarmingly to theultimate possibility of their dropping out of the contest altogether,and in doing so of placing themselves beyond all hope of restora-tion.

Six things are predicated of the spiritual experience of thosewhom it is impossible to restoreagainif they rebel against thefaith they claimed to hold.

1. They have professed repentance.This should be understood

as a resumption of what is morefully stated inverse1, namely,"repentance from dead works and faith toward God." Genuinerepentanceis a onceforall turning of the back on the old way oflife;it is"repentancethat leads to salvation and brings no regret"(2 Cor. 7:10); it is a decisive, unrepeatable moment in the

transitionfrom death tolife;and as such it belongs to the founda-tionon which the new life in Christ is erected. Consequently, itis unthinkable that this foundation can be laid over again (6:1).This does not mean that there is no place for repentance on thepartof the man who has truly turned to Christ. On the contrary,thesins and shortcomings of which he is daily guilty call for dailyrepentanceand forgiveness;but even so, thanks to the grace ofGod which enabled him to make the decisive move of turningand trust, he has left behind him his former ungodly life and is

onthe road that leads to holiness andglory.2. They belong tothose who haveonce been enlightened (the

same expression recurs in 10:32). The verb used here, ,

is used of the activity of the eternal Word who came into theworld to enlighten men (John 1:9) and through faith in whombelievers have been enlightened in thevery depths of their being(Eph. 1:18; cf. 2 Tim. 1:10). Satan blinds the minds of un-

believers "to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel ofthe glory of Christ"; but in the case of those who have beentransformed by the grace of the gospel this satanic darkness hasbeen dispelled by the shining in their hearts of "the light of the


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HEBREWS 6 : 4 6 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 139

6 ; in both of these verses the Greek word translated "l ight" is

the cognate noun , "enlightenment"). This accords

closely with what is said in Heb. 10:32, where "to be enlightened"

evidently corresponds to the experience mentioned in verse 26

of "receiving the knowledge of the truth." The grace of en-

lightenment carries with it solemn responsibilities. Thus Paul

admonishes the Ephesian Christians: "Once you were darkness,

but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children1 of light.

. . . Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph.

5:8, 11 ; these "unfruitful works of darkness" being the equiva-

lent of the "dead works" from which the Christian professes tohave separated himself in Heb. 6:1).

From at least the second century onwards this expression was

interpreted as a reference to baptism. Justin Martyr ( f l65),

for instance, states that the term "enlightenment" was used in

his day as a synonym for Christian baptism and himself calls

the person baptized "the enlightened one" ( , First

Apology, 61, 65) ; and the Peshitta Syriac actually renders the

present passage as "who have gone down into baptism." The

baptismal ceremony, besides being the initiatory rite which graph-ically symbolized the candidate's repentance from dead works

and his resurrection to newness of life in Christ, was also, within

two centuries after the apostolic age, the climax of a prolonged

period of preparatory instruction ; it was, moreover, for the con-

vert to Christianity, the moment when he professed as it were

before the world his turning from the darkness of sin to the light

of Christ. In the controversy over rebaptism in the fourth

century this text was adduced as specifically forbidding the

repetition of baptism. And its association with baptism persisted,

and, it could be said, became entrenched, so that in the thirteenth

century we find Thomas Aquinas explaining that "enlightened"

(illuminati) means enlightened through baptism, and that "bap-

tism is appropriately called enlightenment (illuminatio) since

baptism is the principle of spiritual regeneration in which the

understanding is illuminated by faith" ; and early in the sixteenth

century Lefvre d'Etaples asks: "What is 'who have once been

enlightened'?" and replies: "Undoubtedly who have once beenbaptized ; for baptism is termed the sacrament ofphotismata, that

is of enlightenments (photismatum hoc est illuminationum sacra


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its significance may have been in the author's mind as he wrotethis passage is a question to which we shall return.

3. They have tasted the heavenly gift. The explanation of"the heavenly gift" as a description of the eucharist has provedattractive to some, especially if the "enlightenment" of the previous clause has been taken as a reference to baptism. On thisunderstanding, the two gospel sacraments are then placed neatlyside by side. It is an interpretation, however, which does notappear to have been current in the early centuries; but it hasrecently been taken up approvingly by Teodorico, who relatesthe "heavenly gift" to the teaching of Christ in John 6:31f.where he speaks of himself as the bread of life given by theFather from heaven. F. F. Bruce, too, while conceding that this"heavenly gift" need not be restricted to the eucharist, suggeststhat "it may indicate the whole sum of spiritual blessings whichare sacramentally sealed and signified in the Eucharist." Butit is doubtful whether "tasting" is intended here in a physicalsense, that is, of consuming the eucharistie elements, especiallyas its usage in the clause after next ("tasted the goodness of

the word of God"), within this same sentence, is quite clearlymetaphorical. (Of the fourteen times, apart from the instancenow before us, that the verb occurs in the New Testa-ment seven are literal and seven metaphorical, five of the latterin the sense of tasting, that is experiencing, death.) Many com-

mentators expound the "gift" in a somewhat general sense of

the gospel and the benefits it confers. Others are more specific.

According to Peter Lombard, for example, it is "forgiveness ofsins in baptism"; according to Lefvre d'Etaples, "justification

from sins"; according to Thomas Aquinas, grace, which is described as heavenly "because God gives it from heaven"; andsimilarly Spicq, who asserts that is "a technical termalmost equivalentto grace." In harmonywiththis lastinterpreta-tion, it seems best tounderstand "the heavenly gift" asdenoting

all that God freely and graciously bestows in Christ.

4. They have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. There is

much that is attractive in the suggestion that the sequence of

"enlightenment," "tasting the heavenly gift," and "participation

of the Holy Spirit" in thisverse correspondswith some exactnessto the "instruction about ablutions" (interpreted as relating to


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HEBREWS 6:46 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 141

this chapter (though there are only two items there as compared

with three here). Thus, for example, Teodorico and F. F. Bruce

offer the opinion that by the three things mentioned here baptism,eucharist, and laying on of hands are intended eucharisthaving

been passed over in silence earlier. Delitzsch cuts the knot by

his supposition that "enlightenment" is the equivalent ofcatechet-

ical instruction and the "heavenly gift" the grace imparted in

baptism (the two together thus answering to the "instruction

about ablutions" of verse 2),while the "partaking of the Holy

Spirit" is the same as the imposition of hands.

Whether the proposed correspondences, in oneformor another,

are correct must remain a matter of conjecture, not least because

the dispute over the significance both of the "ablutions" and of

"the laying on of hands" in Hebrews 6:2 shows no likelihood of

being resolved. Besides, in the Acts of the Apostles there is no

fixed pattern for the impartation of the Holy Spirit, which takes

place sometimeswithand sometimes without imposition of hands,

sometimes before and sometimes after baptism. The sequence,

moreover, of baptism, laying on of hands, and eucharist which soon

gained acceptance in the Church is different from the sequencewhich, as we have seen, some have thought they could discern

here. Apart, however, from this question, we may understand

that the recipients of this letter became "partakers of the Holy

Spirit" by the reception of "the gifts of the Holy Spirit" (

) sovereignly distributed by God, as men-

tioned earlier in the epistle at chapter 2: 4;and these gifts inturn

may be identified with the charismatic apportionments enumer-

ated by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 12:4ff., which likewise are

distributed "to each one individually as he wills." As Hebrews2:3 testifies, these spiritual gifts confirmed the truth and power

ofthe gospel when it was proclaimed to those towhomthis letter

is addressed.

.5 They have tasted the goodness of the word of God. To

"taste" something is to have experience of it, as earlier in the

epistle at 2:9, where Jesus is said to have tasted death for every

one (cf.Mark9:1,par.;John8:52)*Theverbtherefore signifies

an experience that is real and personal. Literally translated, the

Greek textreads, "tasted the goodword of God" (%

6 ), and it seems best, with Spicq and Teodorico,


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1 4 2 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

news which is the gospel (). The expression

corresponds to the Hebrew UO "WH (cf. Jos. 21:43;

23:15,etc., LXX). The desire of Westcott and some others tosustainadistinction between as some special utterance and as the whole message of the gospel is misplaced, since

the evidence shows that the two terms may be used interchange-

ably (as, for example, in Acts 10:36f. which is quoted below),

and, further, the Hebrew , conformably with this, is trans-

lated sometimes by the one, sometimes by the other. Particularly

relevant is Peter's assertion, with reference to Isaiah 40:8:

"That word () is the gospel which was preached

() to you" (1 Pet. 1:25). The same apostle ad-

dresses Cornelius in the following terms: "You know theword

( ) which he sent to Israel, preaching good news

() of peace by Jesus Christ . . . , the word

( ) which was proclaimed throughout all Judea" (Acts

10:36f.). So, too, Paul speaks of "the word ( ) of

faith which we preach" (Rom. 10:8). "This word is called

good," comments Thomas Aquinas, "because it is theword of

eternal life.*' Within the sphere of influence of this good wordthe Hebrew Christians to whom this letter is addressed hadentered into the experience of the blessings that belong to the

gospel.

6. Finally, they have tasted in addition the powers of the age

to come. These powers may confidently be identified with the

signs, wonders, and miracles mentioned earlier in chapter 2:4

as accompaniments of the preaching of the gospel. (It is worth

remarking that translated "miracles" in 2:4 is trans-

lated "powers" here.) They are the dynamic evidences of thepresence of the Holy Spirit within the community of believers,

manifested particularly perhaps in miraculous healings and de-

liverances. As such, moreover, they testify to the fact that "the

ageto come" is already upon them, since its powers are operative

in their midst. Looked at from the perspective of the Old Testa-

ment, this "coming age," so long expected, has truly dawned

with the advent of Christ and the achievement of his work of

reconciliation, followed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on

all flesh. Hence the keynote of the public ministry of Jesus isthe proclamation: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of


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HEBREWS 6:4-6 AND THEPERIL OFAPOSTASY 143

But,at thesame time,it isplain thatin thebiblical purviewthecomingof thefinalage is in twostages;andthis conceptionis

closely boundupwiththedoctrineof the twocomingsofChrist.At hisfirst coming Christby his incarnation, death,andresurrection accomplished allthat wasnecessary for the redemptionof theworld and the reconciliation of man to God. The newcreation isevennowtaking placein thelivesandcommunitiesof Christian believers.Theprinciplesof the new age are atthismoment active through theoperation of the Holy Spirit. Butthe consummation is not yet. Thefulness is yet tocome.And itwill come when Christ appears thesecond timein thegloryofhis eternal Majesty and hisexalted manhood. Thenat last therewillbe the total eradication from this worldof allthat is sinfuland defiling, and God's everlasting purposesofcreation will reachfruition inthe unfading perfectionofthe new heaven and the newearth (cf.1 Cor. 13:9-12; Acts 3:19-21; Phil. 3:20f.; 2 Pet.3:13;1 John3:2;Rev.7:13ff.; 21:lff.).

Meanwhile the Christian, whoisbeing transformed from gloryto gloryas thetrue ImageofGodisincreasingly moulded within

him (2 Cor.3:18), enjoys a genuine experienceof thepowersof the age to come.Buthis present experienceisonly the promiseandtheguaranteeof theultimate fulfilment. Theconquestof sininhis ownlifeis theassurance that the triumphant Christ willfinally driveout all imperfection, notonly from hispeoplebutalso from thewholeof hiscreation. Histasteof thepowersoftheage tocome, realanddynamic thoughit is, is but aforetasteof the glorious banquet which awaits him (cf.Rom. 8:18, 23;2 Cor.1:22; Eph. l:13f.; 1 Pet. l:4f.; Rev. 19:9).

* * *

Thesesixblessings have necessarily been discussed separatelyand inturn,but it isimportant to recognize that theyare butdifferent aspects andmanifestations of the one great blessingwhich thereceptionof thegospel brings. They arecomponentsof a unitary experience of evangelical grace in the life of thebeliever. It seems scarcely credible that one who has in some

definite sense experienced all this should then fall away fromgrace.And yetthisis thedreadful possibility that isenvisagedin this passage The situation is hardly eased by suggesting as


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comeapostate, itwould be impossible to restore him," with the

implication that a defection of this kind would actually never

take place. There is, as a matter of fact, no "if" in the Greektext, though the rendering of the participle in a

conditional sense is quite justifiable. The author, we are reminded,

goes on to express his confidence with regard to those he is

addressing in verse 9, where he says: "Though we speak thus,

yetin yourcase,beloved, we feel sure of better things that belong

to salvation" (cf. also 10:39), and this is taken as an indication

that his warning about the impossibility of restoration for the

apostate is unrelated to reality and little better than the invention

of a bogy for the purpose of frightening them into being better

Christians. But the end does not justify the means, and to resort

to subterfuge and deception, and that too within so solemn a

context,would be subchristian and incompatible with the whole

tenor of the epistle. The confidence expressed in 6:9 and 10:39

arisesfrom the assurance that a trueworkof God has taken place

in their midst;but this does not exclude the possibility that some

of their number are rebellious at heart and on the road to ir-

remediable apostasy.Attempts have been made (by Ambrose [De Poenitentia,II,

2], Aquinas, Wordsworth, Spicq, and others) to soften the im-

port of the language by proposing that "impossible" here means

impossible for man, but not for God, and invoking the support

of a text like Mark 10:27 ("With men it is impossible, but not

with God; for all things are possible with God"). But "impossi-

ble" is used absolutely here, without any such qualification. Even

less substantial is the supposition of Erasmus and Bengel that

"impossible" means no more than "difficult," for this is to doviolence to language. The reading difficile in the Latin version

of the sixth century Codex D (Qaromontanus) which they

citeaffords no real support since this is clearly an earlier attempt

to soften the sense of "impossible" and not a solution of the

problem. Nor is the explanation of Wordsworth, Delitzsch, and

othersconvincing that what is intended here is that it is impossible

for the renegades envisaged to be restored to repentanceas long

as they persevere in the betrayal of the faith they formerly pro-

fessed.F, F. Bruce rightly remarks that "to say that they cannot

be brought to repentance so long as they persist in their renuncia-


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HEBREWS 6:46 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 145

words," and that "the participle 'crucifying' []

is much more appropriately taken as causal than temporal in

force; it indicateswhy it is impossible for such people to repentand make a new beginning." This is how RSV understands it:

". . . it is impossible to restore . . . since they crucify . . . "; and

the NEB rendering is to the same effect.

An interpretation that has had much currency through the

centuries of the Church's history is that which explains the

expressionto "restore again" ( ) as signifying

to baptize again. Not long after the apostolic age the theory was

developed that the washing of baptism was equivalent to the

cleansing of the blood of Christ, but that this cleansing covered

only those sins committed prior to baptism; for sins committed

after baptism Christ's blood no longer availed and there was no

place for renewal of repentance and forgiveness. Such teaching

is found in the Shepherd of Hermas (Commandment IV, 3) and

is restated more fully in Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, II,

13), and subsequently receives considerable elaboration in the

selfexpiatory prescriptions of the penitential system in this life

and in the flames of purgatory hereafter. The one permissiblesubstitute for baptism, it was held, was the blood of martyrdom,

which, like the blood of Christ, purged away all sin. Hence the

practice arose, on the one hand, of postponing baptism until the

hour of death and, on the other, of deliberately seeking martyr-

dom, since by either method it was hoped that one could enter

the future world unencumbered by sin and without the danger

of a spiritual relapse. Motivated though teaching of this kind

may have been by concern for the purity of the Church, it is none

the less seriously unevangelical, for the New Testament plainlyinstructs us that grace and forgiveness and the cleansing of

Christ's blood are freely available to the Christian believer who

falls into sin and turns in repentance to God (cf. Heb. 4:15f.;

10:1923; 1 John 1:79;2:lf.). It is evident, moreover, that the

reference in the passage before us is not to sin in general as it

displays itself in the lives of Christians, but to a particular sin

of such enormity that it has the effect of permanently severing

those who are guilty of perpetrating it from the body of Christ.

Early in thethird century, Tertullian, governed by the rigorist

presuppositions of the Montanism which he embraced in his later


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adultery to be appropriate only to the heathen, that is, at the

moment of baptism. For the Christian, or baptized person, how

ever, repentance and forgiveness for a sin of this kind he considered unthinkable: "For who will fear to squander what he has

the power of afterwards recovering?," he asks. "Who will be

careful to preserve to perpetuity what he will be able to lose

not to perpetuity? Security in sin is likewise an appetite for it.

Therefore the apostate will recover his former 'garment/ the

robe of the Holy Spirit, and the renewal of the 'ring/ the sign

and seal of baptism, and Christ will again be 'slaughtered'" an

evident allusion to Hebrews 6:6. And there would seem to be

another echo of our passage when, after citing 1 Corinthians

6:9-11, where Paul affirms that immoral, dishonest, and dis

solute persons will not inherit the kingdom of God, and then

adds: "And such were some of you; but you were washed, you

were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus

Christ and in the Spirit of our God," Tertullian explains that "in

as far as Paul puts on the paid side of the account such sinsbefore

baptism, in so farafterbaptism he determines them irrmissible"

(De Pudicitia, 9, 16). In the next century both Ambrose (DePoenitentia, II, 2) and Jerome (Adversus lovinianum, II, 3)

state that sects such as the Montanists, who denied the possibility

of repentance in the case of church members who had fallen into

serious sin, and the Novatianists, who denied that those who had

lapsed under persecution could be restored to fellowship, claimed

that their rigorist position was justified on the basis of the apos

tolic teaching of a passage like Hebrews 6:4-6. Indeed, the

favor with which groups like this that had been denounced as

heretical regarded the Epistle to the Hebrews is said by Filaster(De Haeresibus, 41) to have been a cause of the difficulty which

this writing encountered in gaining admission to the New Testa

ment canon. In the midst of the Novatian controversy Cyprian

had exclaimed: "I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think

that repentance is not to be granted to the lapsed or to suppose

that pardon is to be denied to the penitent" (Epistle to Antoni-

anus, 22, referring to Novatianists and Montanists respectively).

The situation to which the author is addressing himself, how

ever, involves considerably more than the question of the irremis-sibility of a particular sin. It is not so much an act as an attitude


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HEBREWS 6 : 4 6 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 147

manifest itself in disgraceful acts inconsistent with a professionof Christian faith. Yet even an act of adultery coupled with virtual

murder, as in the case of David, does not necessarily betray anattitudeof apostasy. That David's trueattitude,despite the enor-mity of his sin, was not that of apostasy is plain from the content

of Psalm 51. A lifethat once was livedto the glory of Christ butnow openly blasphemes his name and denies his gospel is the

markof the apostate. 1 John5:16f.speaks of the commission by

a Christian brother of a sin which, wrong and dishonoring toChrist though it is, is not "unto death," but at the same time

affirms that there is such a thing as "sin unto death" into whicha "brother," that is, a member of the Christian community, may

fall.The one guilty of the latter is evidently beyond praying for,but the precise nature of "sin unto death" is not explained. Aclue to what is intended is available, however, in the warning of

Christ against "eternal sin" (Mk. 3:29, ).This warning was called forth by the calumnious assertion of thescribes that Christ himself was demonpossessed and cast out

demonsby the prince of thedemons in other words, that the

power at work in him was satanic and not divine. This was, infact, the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, since fromfirstto last the dynamic of Christ's lifewas the dynamic of the HolySpirit (cf. Mark 1:lOf.; Luke 1:35; 4:1821) and his deeds

were manifestly good, notevil,andevilcannot be the source ofgood (Mark3:22ff.; Matt.12:22ff.; Luke ll:14ff.; 12:10). Byclosing theireyesto the plain evidence that the kingdom of Godhadcome upon them and wickedly describing as satanic thesignsthat the Holy Spirit was powerfully and beneficially acting in

and through Christ, these professors of godliness betrayed anattitudeof hardened hostility to the truth. Members of the cove-nant people though they were, they refused to glorify God forthe evidence that his promises were so clearly being fulfilled intheir presence. They showed themselves to be hardheartedenemies ofthelight that hadcomeintothe world (John1:1921).Suchblasphemy against the Holy Spirit is sin for which there is

no forgiveness (Mark 3:29). "The apostle is not talking hereabout theft or perjury or murder or drunkenness or adultery,"

saysCalvin, commenting on Hebrews 6:46. "He is referring toa complete falling away from the Gospel not one in which the


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he has utterly renounced his grace. . . . This does not happen toanyone unless he sins against the Holy Spirit. . . . Certainly

God does not deprive any others of his grace except those whoare wholly reprobate. There is nothing left for them."

This sin, then, is a sin against the light. It is a sin committed,not in ignorance, but in the face of knowledge and even experience of the truth not the sin of those who are "ignorant andwayward" (Heb. 5:2) but of those who "sin deliberately afterreceiving the knowledge of the truth" (10:26). It is the sin whichbrought the direst judgment upon the Israelites of old, and alsothe sin by which in the first days of the Gospel their descendantsjudged themselves unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46). Toenter into the light and then to reject that light in favor of thedarkness of unbelief incurs the judgment of being broken offfrom the tree of life (cf. Rom. ll:17ff.). Within this perspectivewe can understand Paul's otherwise enigmatic statement in 1Timothy 1:13 that, though he had blasphemed and persecutedand insulted Christ, yet he received mercy because he had acted"ignorantly inunbelief":in other words, his unbelief was capable

of receiving God's pardon (on his acceptance of the Gospel)because his opposition had been exercised in the darkness ofignorance (sinful and therefore culpable in itself), whereas theman who rebels as an apostate after professing faith in Christand entering into the sphere of evangelical blessing is not acting"ignorantly inunbelief,"but by a deliberate and calculated renunciation of the good he has known places himself beyond forgiveness and renewal.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews the calamitous history of the

Israelites of old is repeatedly set before the readers as a warningagainst the imitation of their evil example (2:If. ;3:12ff.;4:If.,11;10:28ff.;12:25ff.), while at the same time they are urged toemulate the example of unwearying perseverance of the faithfulcore of the community (ch. 11). The principle affirmed in Romans 9:6 applies equally in the sphere of the Christian Church,to the effect, namely, that all are not of the Church who are inthe Church. Or, as another apostle says of some who professed tobe Christian but were in fact antichristian: "They went out fromus, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, theywould have continued with us; but they went out, so that it


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HEBREWS 6 : 4 - 6 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 149

(1 John 2:19; the last clause is the NEB rendering). This same

principle finds fuller expression in our Lord's parable of thesower (Mark 4:1-20, par.). Of the four types of reception ofthe good seed of the gospel only one is genuine. In one type Satanimmediately snatches away the word that has been sown. Inanother, the word is received with joy, and with rapid andeven spectacular results, but without being deeply rooted, so thatthe response is apparent rather than real, and, "when tribulationor persecution arises on account of the word, immediately theyfall away." A third class of hearers seemingly gives evidence of

more permanent and solid results, "but the cares of the world,and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enterin and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful." Only those whoreceive the seed of the word into "good soil" really "hear theword and accept it and bear fruit." It is not enough to have thename of the Lord upon one's lips in worship and invocation. Evento prophesy and to cast out demons and to do many mighty worksin the Lord's name does not necessarily guarantee trueness ofheart (Matt. 7:21-23; 25:1 If.) Christ knew very well that it is

all too possible to honor God with the lips while the heart is farfrom him (Mark 7:1-8). Many of the same voices that cried"Hosanna" (a petition for salvation, Ps. 118:25) and hailedJesus as King on Palm Sunday insistently demanded his crucifixion on Good Friday. Genuine confession with the lips springsonly from belief in the heart (Rom. 10:9f.).

To turn to individual cases, Paul had the sad experience ofbeing deserted by his erstwhile fellow worker Demas, who was

lured away by "love of this present world" (2 Tim. 4:10; cf.Philem. 24; Col. 4:14; Mark 4:18f.). Simon Magus, who professed belief and was baptized under the ministry of Philip, wasshortly afterwards rebuked by Peter as being "in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity" (Acts8:9ff.) though inthis instance, it is true, he was urged to repent and pray for forgiveness: tradition strongly affirms, however, that Simon becamea megalomaniacal heresiarch. But no defection is more startlingthan that of Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, no less, who for

the duration of our Lord's ministry was blessed with the specialprivilege of being constantly in his presence, enjoying the warmth

f hi f i d hi i i hi bli i i d i


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and betrayed the Master he had followed so long and so closely

(Luke 22:3; John 13:2). Furthermore, the apostate conditionof his heart, though known to Jesus, was not even suspected by

the rest of the Twelve, to whom it was unthinkable that any of

their number could prove to be a traitor (Mark 14:18f.; Luke22:2123).

It isapparent,then,that the sin of apostasy is a grim (and far

more than a merely hypothetical) possibility for persons who

through identification with the people of God have been broughtwithin the sphere of the divineblessing.They may be baptized, as

SimonMagus was, occupied in Christian labors, as Demas was,endowed with charismatic gifts, preachers even, healers of thesick and casters out of demons, and privileged to belong to an

inner circle of disciples, as Judas was (Mark 6:12f.; Matt.10:5ff.), and yet their heart may be far from the One they

profess to serve. Such considerations from elsewhere in the New

Testament throw light on the passage that is before us. TheHebrew Christians who are being addressed had to all appear-

ances been incorporated into the Church of Christ: they had

professed repentance,been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift,partakenof the Holy Spirit, and experienced the goodness of the

word of God and the powers of the age tocome;but, despite allthis, they, or at least some among them, had failed to such adegree to show spiritual progress that it was doubtful that they

had grasped even the first principles of the faith (5:116:2).The author fears that they are in imminent danger of slippingaway into reprobation. As 10:26f. shows, wilful or deliberaterepudiationof the truth they have known would place them be-

yond the scope of that grace whose benign influences have beenshed upon them. Such persons, of their own choice, withdrawthemselves from the sphere of redemption and take their standwith those who crucify the Son of God and hold him up to

contempt. (The tenses of the Greek participles are significant:

the aorist participle indicates a decisive momentof commitment to apostasy, the point of noreturn;the present

participles and indicate the

continuingstate of those who haveoncelapsedintoapostasy: theykeep on crucifying the Son of God and holding him up to con-

tempt ) They now show themselves in their true colors They


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HEBREWS 6 : 4 - 6 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 15 1

and that wickedly derides and insults the suffering Savior;and

they do this "on their own account," that is, in their own personsand of their own volition: they are not content that others should

have done it apart from them.* * *

The patristic authors, we may affirm, were wrong-headed in

their wish to explain that this passage, despite its categorical

declaration to the contrary, should not be understood as exclud

ing all possibility of repentance;but it does not follow that their

insistence on the impossibility of rebaptism is similarly invalid.

A somewhat typical assertion is that of Chrysostom: "What then,is repentance excluded? God forbid! but the renewing again by

baptism." Jerome relates the whole passage to Christian baptism

and its significance: "Surely we cannot deny that they have been

baptized who have been illuminated and have tasted the heavenly

gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have

tasted the good word of God" (Adversus lovinianum, II, 3).

Ambrose contends that "it is evident that the writer was speaking

of baptism from the very words in which it is stated that it is

impossible to renew unto repentance those who were fallen, in

asmuch as we are renewed by means of the laver of baptism" ;

and in support of this interpretation he cites the teaching of

Romans 6:4, where Paul says that "by baptism we were buried

with Christ into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead

by the glory of the Father we too should walk in newness of life."

He further understands as a reference to the significance of bap

tism the admonition of Ephesians 4:22-24: "Put off your old

nature . . . and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and puton the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true

righteousness and holiness." Ambrose goes on to expound the

association between baptism and the crucifixion of Christ: "This,

too, is plain, that in him who is baptized the Son of God is

crucified, for our flesh could not do away sin unless it were

crucified in Jesus Christ"; for, as Paul teaches again, "all we

who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death," and "we know that our old self was crucified with him"

(Rom. 6:3,6). Thus baptism signifies that "Christ is crucified inus, so that our sins may be purged through him, that he, who


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elusion is drawn that as Christ was once crucified and died to

sins once so there is but one baptism, which cannot be repeatedwithout violating the principle of Christ's onceforall sacrifice

for sins on the cross (De Poenitentia, II ,2).

Now it may very well be that the danger confronting thosewhom the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is addressing

involved, in effect, the repudiation of their baptism. The NewTestamentundoubtedly affirms avery high doctrine of baptism,and in favor of interpreting the present;passage in the light ofthebaptismal event is the series of participles in the aorist tense

(. . . . . * . . . )which would appropriately point back to the moment of initiation

through a rite which dramatically and publicly symbolized the

candidate's turning from the darkness of unbelief to the light of

the Gospel. The cardinal significance of baptism is explained by

Paulto Titus, in apassagewhich has clear affinities with the onebefore us, declaring that "God saved us, not because of deedsdone by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by

the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit,

which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ ourSavior, so that we might be justified by his grace and becomeheirs in hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:57). Reduced to asinglephrase, baptism is "the washing of regeneration." The external

elementof this washing is water, but the water is a sacramentalsymbol which graphically points to an internal reality, "renewal

in the Holy Spirit," who effectively applies to the believingheartcleansing from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 John

1:7; 5:6; 1 Pet. 3:21). That is to say, as Augustine taught longago, the element of water must be linked to the word of thegospel, otherwise there is no sacrament (Tract. LXXX, 3 ontheGospel ofJohn).Accordingly, Paul tells the Ephesian Chris-tians that Christ's cleansing of his Church is "by the washing of

water with (or within the sphere of) the word" (Eph. 5:26) ;

and Paul himself, at his conversion, was exhorted by Ananias:"Be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name"(Acts 22:16; similarly 2:38). The internal and essential element

of Christian baptism is the Holy Spirit. Thus the baptism ofChrist, in contrast to the baptism of John (and for that matter

h l b i f h J ) i d ib d b i i h


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HEBREWS 6:4-6 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 153

admonished Nicodemus: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one

is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of

God" (John 3:5).Furthermore, the regeneration which Christian baptism por

trays is symbolized by the sequence of descent into and under the

water and ascent from the water, signifying self-identification

with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. "In baptism,"

as Paul reminds the Colossians, "you were buried with him, in

baptism you were raised to life with him, through your faith in

the active power of God who raised him from the dead" (Col.

2:12). The far-reaching implications of this union with Christ

in death, burial, and resurrection are expounded at length in

Romans 6: Iff. The logic of baptism, then, is that one has died to

the old life of sin and been raised to newness of life in Christ.

And as the death of Christ for sinners is, as the Epistle to the

Hebrews repeatedly emphasizes, once-for-all, never to be re

peated, so also this determines the once-for-all character of

Christian baptism. A repetition of baptism suggests the possibility

of a repetition of the crucifixion of Christ;and to revert from the

evangelical faith professed and dramatized in baptism to a stateof mutinous unbelief is to put Christ and his cross to open

mockery. The following comments by Lefvre d'Etaples are very

much to the point in this connection:

It is not said simply that it is impossible for persons to berestored to repentance, but that it is impossible for those whocrucify again the Son of God in themselves and make him afigure of shame to be restored to repentance, which is preciselywhat those do who, having fallen away after receiving the

baptismal illumination, imagine that they can be restored aspenitents by means of a repetition of baptism. For throughbaptism we die, are buried, and rise again with Christ; andthis is something that can happen only once. For the Lorddied once, was buried once, and rose again once. Is not tocrucify Christ a second time in a second baptism to set him upas a figure of extreme shame: as though his having been crucified, dead, and buried once were insufficient for the redemptionof the world?

It should be added that Lefvre d'Etaples, like so many others in

the preceding centuries, goes on to affirm, inconsistently with

this passage that while the way is not open for the repetition of


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the very possibility of lapsing from all that one's baptism signifies discountenances the doctrine of automatic regeneration, ex

opereoperato,through baptism, as though the external rite itselfguaranteed the internal reality. Indeed, the whole issue of thispassage may be said to revolve around the question whether theinternal reality, to which the external rite is designed to testify,is truly present or not.

Finally, when the redeeming blood of Christ is applied by theHoly Spirit to the very heart of a man's being, it is a work ofGod that cannot fail. This means that those who are genuinelyChrist's do not fall away into apostasy. To imagine that God isanxiously waiting, uncertain not only as to who will respond tothe proclamation of the gospel but also as to whether those whohave responded will remain true to the end, is entirely foreignto the biblical perspective. Indeed, on this assumption, whichmakes the will of God dependent on the shifting will of man,there could be no guarantee that the work of Christ for ourredemption would have any fruit at all; quite the contrary infact, for unless man dead in his sins is quickened by the grace

of God the heavenly banquet will certainly be bare of guests.We should be grateful, therefore, that God is not as man, nomatter how much man may attempt to shape him in his ownimage. Where there is a work of God, whether in creation or inre-creation, whether in judgment or in grace, that work, simplybecause it is God's work, cannot fail to achieve its purpose inaccordance with the divine will. Thus Paul is assured that Godwho began a good work in the Philippian believers will bring itto completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6) ; and he

encourages Timothy, at a time when! he is faced with the defection of Hymenaeus and Philetus, with the reminder that God'sfoundation isfirmand secure, bearing this seal: "The Lord knowsthose who are his" (2 Tim. 2:19). The mystery of divine electionis the guarantee that Christ will not have died in vain and thatthe purpose of his coming into the world will be fulfilled withoutany hint of frustration. This was the certain confidence of theincarnate Lordhimself,who declared: "All that the Father givesme will come tome ;and him who comes to me I will not cast

out" (John 6:37), and who assured his disciples that those towhom he gave eternal life would never perish and that no one

ld b bl h h f hi h d ( h 10 28)


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HEBREWS 6 : 4 - 6 AND THE PERIL OF APOSTASY 155

indeed, could the life that he gives be described as eternal if for

one reason or another it may fail or be cut off?

It is plain that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews does

not contemplate the possibility that the work of God in the lives

of those to whom he is writing may fail or be frustrated, for he

expresses confidence concerning them, and that confidence is

based on the assurance that God's word and God's work, which

have been powerful in their midst, cannot falter (6:9ff., 17ff.;10:39;note also his request for their prayers in 13:18 a strong

mark of his confidence regarding them). What he has reason to

fear is that some among them who have professed Christian faith,enjoyed Christian fellowship, and engaged in Christian witness

may prove to be hypocrites and enemies of Christ and, by turning

their backs on the light they have known, show that they do not

in fact belong to God's people at all.

Westminster Theological Seminary


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^ s

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OK h 6 Peril of Apostasy