Hebrews: Another Reading (Pt.3)

Part Two

The Next Warnings

          This is where the author begins to introduce the High Priesthood of Christ.  Since this takes us into closer proximity to the New covenant, I shall look at it separately.  Our concern just now is the theme of “the world to come” (Heb. 2:5).  This phrase pops up again in the middle of the famous warning in Hebrews 6 (i.e., Heb. 6:5), although the noun is different.  Hebrews 5:12 – 6:8 is the next warning, and this one ramps up the ante.  It begins with a rebuke of the people for their dilatory approach to God’s Word (Heb. 5:12-14).  Then comes this:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. – Hebrews 6:4-6.

          We have to ask some questions of this passage if we are going to understand it, but these questions have to be considered along with the other warning passages (Heb. 2:1-4; 4:12-13; 10:26-31; 12:25-29) and the overall thrust of the “sermon” that is Hebrews.  This warning describes those who were “enlightened,” who had “tasted the heavenly gift,” had “become partakers of the Holy Spirit,” and had “tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” (Heb. 6:4-5).  Those who have experienced these four impressive things are warned of the impossibility of them being renewed if they “fall away.”  This puts the exhortations in Hebrews 2:1, 3; 3:14, and 4:1 in sharper relief.  The warning is not that some among them will cease to believe, but that some among them will cease to believe and will not be granted the opportunity to repent of that unbelief.[1]  Which Christian denomination teaches such a thing?  Does this mean we are on the wrong track, and that we better adopt one of the alternative interpretations of the passage such as the “means of salvation” position of Thomas Schreiner and Ardel Caneday?[2]  I sincerely wish I could agree with this, but my persuasion that God really means what He says and does not engage in saber-rattling prevents it.  Lane is certainly right when he says, “The writer recalls for his audience what they possess and what they have experienced as the result of God’s redemptive activity through Christ.”[3]  The warnings are too frequent, too pointed, and too severe to be mistaken for barks with no real bite.  That is the real challenge of reading Hebrews. 

          If we jump forward to chapter 10 there is another severe warning:

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins… – Hebrews 10:26.

          This paraenesis begins with a qualifier: the willful sin, which presupposes a clear knowledge of what the truth is.  Just as the transgressor of Moses’ law should understand and abide by it (Heb. 10:28 – since he was supposed to meditate upon it – cf. Josh. 1:8), so the good news about Jesus Christ is known by the transgressor and rejected.  This rejection amounts to the following:

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?  – Hebrews 10:29.

          Three indictments are brought against the transgressor: 1. Trampling the Son of God underfoot; 2. reckoning the blood of Christ in the New covenant common and therefore worthless; and 3. insulting the Holy Spirit who graciously applies the merits of Jesus’ work to the needy sinner.  And this censure does not appear to be aimed at an unbeliever, but at someone who was “sanctified” by the blood of the New covenant.  Now unless one is persuaded by the arguments for the inclusion of unregenerate infants in the theological “covenant of grace” there appears to be no escape from the conclusion that this person was saved but is in plain danger of suffering God’s vengeance by falling “into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:30-31).  He has drawn back into perdition (Heb. 10:39).

          I admit that it is uncomfortable to state this, but it is what the passage says!  In the Church age a person who is within the New covenant is secure in Christ according to the apostle Paul.  So, again, what is one to do with these passages in Hebrews?     

If this alternative reading of Hebrews has anything to it, then the warning passages are concerned with entering the kingdom that is coming, not with the gospel one finds in Romans and Galatians.

          Please do not misunderstand me.  I am no ultra-dispensationalist (the last thing we need is more dispensations!).  I am trying to read the book of Hebrews “line upon line” without importing the apostle Paul into the argument.  Standing apart from Paul, these carefully crafted words point to the problem: Jesus is put to an open shame.  How is this done?  The commentaries offer little help.  But if the subject  is “the world to come” then things might look different.  Verses 11 and 12 encourage this perspective:

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, hat you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. – Hebrews 6:11-12 (cf. 3:6; 3:14; 9:26).

          What is this talk about “the end” (telos)?  Does it refer to the end of one’s life; the end of their “race”? (Acts 20:24; Heb. 12:1).  Does it refer to the Parousia “when hope will be realized”?[4]  I think in view of the way it is used it must be the latter.  Notice here that the writer goes on to speak of a time when they will “inherit the promises.” (Heb. 6:12).  This conclusion is not as assured in Hebrews 3:6 (because of the textual variant) or Hebrews 3:14 (although the context includes entering into rest – Heb. 3:11).  But when we leap forward to the other occasion of its use in Hebrews 9, I don’t think there is much doubt:

but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. – Hebrews 9:26b.

          Here it is plain to see that “the end” does not mean the end of an individual’s faith sojourn in “this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4).  The writer appears to be saying that the first coming of Christ and its atonement victory ushered in “the end of the ages.”[5]  This is linked to the second coming in Hebrews 9:28, thus showing that in continuity with the OT predictions and the Lord’s Supper, the first and second advents are actually one work in two phases.  But back to the main point: it appears that in at least some cases the author has in mind the end of the ages, or, what we call the end times, in mind as he wrote, and this falls in line with what I have already brought out regarding the theme of “the world to come” (Heb. 2:5) and entering into “rest.”  On this reading of Hebrews, we are seeing a deliberately prophetic work come into view; a work addressed to Hebrews/Jews who are being exhorted to keep faith in Jesus as the Christ or Messiah, in anticipation of His return and His kingdom.  It’s teaching about holding out “until the end” in light of the inheritance to come (Heb. 6:11-12) begins to remind me of Jesus’ words in the Olivet Discourse: “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Matt. 24:12-13).[6]  

          I realize how outlandish this might sound, but I have been led to explore this position by paying close attention to God’s covenants and adhering to the belief that God means what He says.  And the fact of the matter is that Christians have constantly read this great book as if it were the fourteenth epistle of the apostle Paul, whereas it surely deserves to be interpreted on its own merits without the voice of Paul coming through on the loudspeaker. 

          It is not that Paul’s letters are refused admission to the reading of Hebrews, but that Hebrews demands to be read with the same respect as Paul.  And how do we read Paul?  We generally let him say what he wants to say and then try to expound upon it.  This is how we must begin to read Hebrews; and when we do, we come away with the kind of reading that I am relating here. 

[1] Which matches those who fell in the wilderness at the time of the Exodus (Heb. 3:13-19). 

[2] Thomas R. Schreiner and Ardel B. Caneday, The Race Set Before Us: A Theology of Perseverance & Assurance, Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2001. 

[3] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1 – 8, 145.

[4] Lane, 144. 

[5] What he calls “this final age” in Hebrews 1:2. 

[6] The interpretation of “the end” in Matthew 24:13 is ascertained by reading the next verse: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14).