Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - Hebrews 6:4 - 6:8
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
For it is impossible to bring back to a state of grace those who, after experiencing the gracious power of Christianity, have fallen back from it.
Heb_6:4-8
[Heb_6:4.— ôïὺò ἅðáî öùôéóèÝíôáò , those who were once for all (not at one time, or formerly) illuminated.
Heb_6:5.— êáëὸí ãåõóáìÝíïõò èåïῦ ῥῆìá , tasted an excellent or precious utterance of God.
Heb_6:6.— êáὶ ðáñáðåóüíôáò , and fell aside or fell away; ðáñÜ , nearly as Heb_2:1— ðÜëéí ἀíáêáéíßæåéí , to renew back again, or over again, ðÜëéí , not pleonastic (as Grot.) but indicates a second renewing, which is not necessarily nor ordinarily implied in ἀíáêáéíßæåéí , but simply renewing. (Alf. and Moll.,)— åἰò ìåô . into repentance with Eng. Ver. Moll, etc.,— ἀíáóôáõñïῦíôáò , while they are renailing to the cross, crucifying afresh: such the force of the ἀíÜ and the present Participle.
Heb_6:7.— Ãῆ ἡ ðéïῦóá , Earth or Land which drank (Aor. Part.):— ἐð ’ áὐôῆò upon it pregnant Gen. with verb of motion coming on and remaining on.— ôßêôïõóá , and is bearing, apparently connected back by êáß so as to be coördinated with ðéïῦóá =which drank and is producing. We might expect ôßêôïõóá ìἐí — ἐêöÝñïõóá äÝ (Alf.) which would be more idiomatic and elegant. Observe the life implied in ðéïῦóá , ôßêôïõóá , ìåôáëáìâÜíåé ,— äé ’ ïὓò , for the sake of whom, not as Eng. Ver. by whom— ìåôáëáìâÜíåé , shareth in, participateth. Rec. Ver. receiveth, misses the special force of the word (as if it were äÝ÷åôáé , ëáìâÜíåé ).
Heb_6:8.— ἐêöÝñïõóá äÝ , but while bringing forth, joined to its noun ãῆ predicatively, while ôßêôïõóá with ἡ is united to it attributively.— ôñéâüëïõò rendered Mat_7:16; Gen_3:18, thistles. So Moll: Disteln.— ἀäüêéìïò again a term of life, reprobated. See Rom_1:28; Heb_12:17, ὰðåäïêéìÜóèç , was reprobated, discarded.—K].
Once enlightened.—The patristic interpreters aimed chiefly to oppose the Montanists and Novatians, who sought by this passage to justify their refusal to readmit to the Church those who had backslidden. These patristic expositors, and after them Thom. Aquinas, Este, Corn. a Lapide, Michael., Ernesti, etc., take öùôßæåéí in the sense in which it is employed by Justin Martyr (Apol. i. 62, 65), viz., of baptism. They sought, then, to show that the author is not speaking here of regeneration in the narrower sense, but of reception into the Christian community by means of baptism; and that thus only the repetition of baptism upon the readmission of those who had deeply fallen, is declared inadmissible. But the context, and the use of the word, (Heb_10:32), show that the word here denotes spiritual enlightenment effected through the preaching of the Gospel (comp. Joh_1:9; Eph_3:9; Psa_36:10). The ἅðáî stands in contrast with ðÜëéí , Heb_6:6. Men pass the turning point from darkness to light (Eph_5:14) only once; the change can never occur again (Del.).
Have tasted the heavenly gift.—By this heavenly gift many interpreters, with Primas., understand the Lord’s Supper; others, with Chrys., justifying grace, or forgiveness of sin; some, with Grotius, the peace of mind, which it engenders; many, with Calmet, the Holy Spirit, or with Seb. Schmidt, and Bengel, the person of Jesus Christ. Abresch and Bleek understand the above-mentioned illumination or the heavenly light which produces this illumination; Morus and others, the Christian religion or the Gospel. Tholuck, however, and the more recent interpreters, declare themselves, with good reason against every special interpretation, pointing to 2Co_10:15, where salvation in Christ is called “the unspeakable gift” of grace, and laying stress, partly on the close connection of this clause with the preceding, made by the particle ôå , and partly on the emphatic position of ãåõóáìÝíïõò at the beginning of the clause.
The connection and object of the passage require that we take this latter word according to rabbinical usage, just as at Heb_2:9, in the sense of practical experience, by actual personal appropriation and enjoyment. The construction with the Gen. (instead of the Accus. as at Heb_6:5) does not warrant the interpretation made in the interests of Calvinism, of a mere tasting with the tip of the tongue. The former construction is Greek—the latter Hellenistic. Perhaps it may also be said that the choice of the former construction was dictated by the idea of an enjoyment out of the fulness of those heavenly riches of grace which were designed for, and proffered to, the collective body, while the second construction points to the idea “that the good word of God has been, as it were, the daily bread of the persons whom the language describes” (Del.).
Heb_6:5. The precious word of God, and the powers of the world to come.—Many interpreters regard, with Chrys. and Primas., the first expression merely as a description of the Gospel generally; Calvin and Braun regard it at least as placed in contrast with the judicial rigor of the Mosaic law. The majority, however, referring to Jos_21:43; Zec_1:13, and similar passages find in it a special reference to the divine promises of a blessed future, and to peaceful rest in the Land of Promise. The world to come ( áἰὼí ìÝëëùí ) stands in the same sense as Heb_2:5, ìÝëëïõóá ïἰêïõìÝíç and the “powers” ( äõíÜìåéò ) of that world are those mentioned Heb_2:4. And thus too narrow is the reference, on the one hand, to the foretaste of future glory (Primas., Böhme, etc.), and, on the other, to the miraculous acts of the Apostles that have been witnessed by believers, or experienced in their own persons (Wittich, Braun, etc.).
Heb_6:6. And have fallen away.—The author has not in mind particular gross or conscious sins, as Luther erroneously supposed, and hence took offence at the passage. He has rather in view apostasy from the recognized and experienced truth of salvation, as a sin closely allied to the sin against the Holy Ghost. The Aor. particip. points to the fact that this breaking off from all fellowship with Christ is a single and once for all accomplished act; while the following Present Participles express the condition which follows upon this falling away, characterizing its state alike of utter hopelessness and self-condemnation. [As to the question of the moral condition of the persons here described, I shall add but little. The question had probably hardly presented itself at this time as a distinct point of Christian doctrine, whether a regenerated person could fall away. One thing was certain, viz., that the Christian profession and the actual Christian character of the members of the church did not take them out of the category of free moral agents, who stood personally responsible for their perseverance and steadfastness in their Christian profession, and who were, therefore, to be appealed to by every consideration, which could address itself to persons who, under God, held their destiny in their own keeping. It was also equally certain that their salvation depended on their perseverance; that he, and he only, who held out to the end, would be saved, and this was equally true whether we adopt the supposition that they actually could apostatize from a state of grace, or whether their apostasy only proved that they had never been in a regenerated state. In either case the mode of spiritual treatment was the same. None could look behind the curtain into the volume of the divine decrees; and the only practical test of the reality of one’s Christianity, and the only assurance of his salvation, was his holding on to the end. As a doctrinal question, therefore, it was totally unnecessary that it should be raised and decided. Meantime another thing was equally certain, because lying in the very nature of the case. If a person who had partaken of the grace of Christ, and been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, and sanctified by the blood of Jesus, did fall away, and turn his back completely on all these gracious agencies, and these highest and final means of salvation, his case was hopeless. There was no more sacrifice for sin. He had exhausted all the provisions of Divine love and compassion, and henceforth nothing remained to him but a fearful looking for of inevitable judgment. If, then, this and like passages in Hebrews do teach the possibility of falling from grace, they teach, in like manner, the impossibility of restoration to it. The saint who has once apostatized, has apostatized forever. Meantime, the case is only put hypothetically. There is not, so far as I am aware, a distinct declaration that such a falling away does actually occur; but only a declaration, if it should occur, what in the nature of the case must be the inevitable consequence. And I cannot forbear adding, that in my judgment, the tenor of many passages of the New Testament is decidedly against the actual possibility of such apostasy, and that the admission of the doctrine would revolutionize the whole orthodox conception of the New Testament system of salvation.—K.].
To renew them again unto repentance.—The position of ðÜëéí forbids our connecting it with ðáñáðåóüíôáò (Heinr. etc.); nor need we with Grot, regard it as pleonastic in its connection With ἀíáêáéíßæåéí . For ᾶíÜ in composition does not necessarily denote a return into a previous state, but may regard the action as commencing (with the kindred meaning of springing up). Thus ἄíáêáéíßæåéí , ἀíáêáéíïῖí , particularly may denote the inauguration of a new state of things, and, referring to man’s transfer from his old state, imply his being brought up back into a higher life, Rom_12:2; 2Co_4:16;. Col_3:10. Repentance ( ìåôÜíïéá ) appears here not as the means (Chrys., Corn, a Lapide, etc.), but as the result and state of renewal. Ἀíáêáéíßæåéí is properly to be renewing, to endeavor to renew. Some, therefore, (as Ambrose, Beng., Heubner, etc.), would find in the active voice ground for restricting the statement to the efforts of men, for the conversion of others, leaving their renewal still among the things which are possible with God (Mat_19:26). But the fact that alike here Heb_6:7-8, and subsequently Heb_10:26 ff. special emphasis is laid on the judicial and retributive judgment of God, forbids such a limitation. Thus, undoubtedly, the active form is neither to be confounded with the Pass. (Vulg., Calv., etc.), nor to be taken reflexively=to renew oneself (Orig., Erasm., Lapide, etc). But the active is explained from a reference to the employment in the church of the ordinary means of grace.
While crucifying for themselves the Son of God afresh.—With the Greeks ἀíáóôáõñïῦí means only to nail to the cross; but even the Greek expositors find here expressed in ἀíÜ , the natural and appropriate idea of repetition. The ἑáõôïῖò is by many expositors erroneously rendered (with (Œc. and Calv.), so far as in them lies; and by Heinrichs each for himself. Schultz takes it as Dat. of the instrument=by themselves. More natural would be the Dat. loc. (Beng., Abresch, Thol.), according to which the apostates place themselves on the same platform and level with the unbelieving Jews; but better than either, it may be taken as the Dat. commodi; not, however, in the sense of Klee, and Stengel, viz., for their own satisfaction and for the gratification of their hardened heart, but rather as the Dat. incommodi, viz., for their own destruction, (Vatabl., Bl., Lün., Del). [With Alf. I regard this last meaning of “in perniciem” as too strong, and as carrying that which lies in the nature and necessities of the case, into the grammatical relation of the word. It is I think simply the Dat. commodi—expressing that which is done for, with reference to themselves, and the question of the consequences, whether destruction or otherwise, is not to be found in the relation itself. Wordsworth explains artificially crucifying “not to him, for he is impassable; but to themselves and to their own perdition.”—K].
Heb_6:7.—For the sake of whom.— Äé ’ ïὔò is erroneously referred by the Vulg., Erasm., Luth., Calv., etc., to those who cultivate the land [so our Eng. Ver.]. It in fact refers to the possessors, to whose benefit the cultivating is to inure. We have rendered ôὸí ἐð ’ ἐñ÷üìåíïí by the perfect, has come upon it; because, ἐðß with the Gen. used with verbs of motion, includes also the subsequent remaining in that state.—(Win. Gr. 6 Ed. p. 336).
Heb_6:8.—Whose end is for burning.—The relation of the words ἧò ôὸ ôÝëïò åἰò êáῦóéí to the immediately preceding êáôÜñáò , curse, [viz., the end of which curse] is that which most immediately forces itself upon the reader, Camerar., Abr., Heinr., Bl.), yet the majority of expositors, since Chrys. have referred the phrase back to the main subject of the clause, making it declare not the end of the curse, but the end of the land ( ãῆò )—a construction which is certainly possible. At all events the allusion is undoubtedly to a consuming with brimstone and salt (Deu_29:22; Isa_34:9) by which the land is condemned to utter sterility and uselessness. Some, in advocacy of the ἀðïêáôÜóôáóéò , have endeavored to draw from it the opposite doctrine, and find in the passage such a burning up of weeds and noxious vegetation as should cleanse the ground and restore its fertility (so Schlicht. etc.); but no explanation could be more totally alien from the context.
2. This condition does not precede regeneration, but necessarily presupposes it; yet not in the broader sense in which regeneration denotes the forgiveness of sins and a transfer into the condition of the children of God, but in the narrower sense which at the same time includes subsequentem renovationem (Form. Concord. III. 19; John Gerhard, Loc. Theol., tom. VIII).
3. The possibility of such an inexcusable and consciously guilty falling off from Christ, and which involves a complete falling away from the gracious state, is presupposed by the Lord Jesus Himself, not indeed Luk_22:31 ff., yet certainly Joh_15:1 ff. and the sin of denial mentioned Mat_10:38; Luk_12:9, threatened with the most fearful consequences, presumes a like condition in one who had previously professed discipleship. Moreover, John recognizes a sin unto death ( ἁìáñôßá ðñὸò èÜíáôïí ) 1Jn_5:16, which even admits no further intercession. There is thus no contradiction in our epistle to the elsewhere recognized doctrine of the Gospel, and the Calvinistic theory of the identity of the renatus and the electus appears in this respect also as unscriptural. Compare besides on this point Rom_11:21; 1Co_10:1-13; Gal_5:4; 1Ti_1:19; 1Ti_4:1; 1Ti_6:10; 1Ti_6:21; 2Pe_2:20; Rev_3:16.
4. The entire identification of the apostasy here named with the sin against the Holy Ghost (in regard to which compare the treatises of magn Fr. Roos, 1771, and of Phil. Schaff, 1841; Müller’s Doctrine of Sin, 4 ed., 1860; and Alex. Von Œttinger, de pecato in Spir. S. qua cum eschatologia Christiana contineatur ratione, 1856), becomes questionable from the fact that the latter may be committed even by those who from the very commencement have hardened themselves against the influences of the Holy Spirit, and have thus passed on to obduracy and blasphemy, Mat_12:31 ff.; Mar_3:28 ff.; Luk_12:10. The majority of interpreters, therefore, since Bleek regard the sin against the Holy Ghost as the broader and more comprehensive Comp. Riehm, II., 764 ff., 819 ff.
5. Neither does this statement of our author stand in contradiction with the doctrine of the power of Divine grace, or of the full authority of the Church to forgive all sins. For the grace of God operates neither magically nor violently, and the forgiveness of sins has for its condition repentance and faith. But the very characteristic of this sin of apostasy consists in the fact of rejecting the means of grace, which had been previously employed and experienced as fraught with saving power, and this in a radical hostility to their truth and saving efficacy; and thus rendering all their influence objectively impossible. There is a continued re-crucifying of the Son of God, by which He becomes exposed anew to the derision of the world.
6. The designation of this sin as apostasy is as far from excluding the fact of its gradual development in a soul, as the description of it as sinning wilfully, ( ἑêïõóßùò ἀìáñôÜíùí , Heb_10:26) is from denying the fact of the deceptive working of sin, Heb_3:13. “It is the fruit of an entire series of individual, wilful, and unrepented sins; the final result of a whole series of misdeeds, and of violent repressions of the impulses of the Holy Spirit,” (Riehm). All the more necessary then are the warnings and exhortations of our epistle for those who have not yet destroyed within themselves a susceptibility to the influences of the Spirit of God, and who have not as yet made themselves incapable of faith or of repentance.
7. But in the destruction in man of the susceptibility of moral and religious renovation, there is accomplished not merely a law of psychological development, but at the same time a Divine, punitive judgment which has its ground in a condemning sentence of God. This sentence proves itself ultimately valid and decisive, not indeed in accordance with any eternal decree, but judicially, after God has proved the apostates to be utterly reprobate. But the entire carrying through of this judgment is still in the future. By this let none be deceived. “Yet we must guard ourselves alike against making the apostolic warning a source of torture and despair, and a billow of fleshly security” (Del.). Comp. Spener, Theol. Reflections, I 6:634; Latest Theol. Reflections, II. 398; Palmer, Pastoral Theology (1860); 2d ed., 1863; Valenti, Pastoral Healing, 2 parts, 1832, “On Spiritual Conflicts.”
8. “He who through moral unfaithfulness has fallen into the illusion that he has been deceived by objective truth, can no longer prove indifferent toward this, since he is unable entirely to deny it. It has, as truth, maintained itself in his inner being; there remains, therefore, within him, a sting of conscience, which urges him to self-justification, and with this to inward and outward struggles, whether in argument or in wanton railing against that truth which will no longer leave the sinner, whom it once claimed as its possession. If now we take into consideration that ever growing, ever deepening power of evil, which is expressed in the saying: “In the first step ye are free; at the second, ye are slaves,” then assuredly we can, recognize as possible, within the sphere of such a conscious though unconfessed self-deception, a degree of obduracy in which conversion is impossible” (Tholuck).
Starke:—The impossibility of the conversion of a fallen sinner, consists not in a deficiency of the grace of God, or of the merit of Christ, or of the influence of the Holy Spirit; but in the conduct and character of the sinner who wilfully rejects Christ, and the economy of salvation.—The happy, gracious state of believers, is a glorious token of the Divine origin, truth, and excellency of the Christian religion.—All backslidings are not equally dangerous, but none is without danger.—The grace of God visits all men, but with a great difference in spiritual productiveness, according to the quality and moral condition of the heart.—We need even after conversion, perpetual accessions of the grace of God, and repeated anointings of the Divine Spirit; after these must we yearn, and eagerly receive them, like a well prepared field.—For us also it may doubtless be said: “The plough or the curse.”
Rieger:—He who labors in accordance with the Divine appointment, receives what he must ascribe not to his labor, but manifestly to the blessing of God.—Hidden and secret as may be the workings of grace, we could always track them out, if we would give to them the same heed that we apply to our domestic and worldly affairs.
Heubner:—The condition of men is all the more dangerous, their reformation all the more difficult, by how much the farther they have previously been, by how much the higher they have arisen.—The gifts of grace already obtained, impose a solemn obligation; and he who has already received the Spirit, has a heavy responsibility.—The falling away of advanced Christians is an insult offered to Christianity and to Christ Himself; is a declaration that Christ was justly crucified.—The heart that receives in vain the labor employed upon it, and bears no fruit, is rejected of God.—Moral desolation and reprobation are the heaviest punishments and judgments of God.
Stein:—Sinners are frequently visited by Divine grace. If they produce the righteous fruits of repentance, then they may expect anew proofs of the Divine favor; while in the opposite case, they may expect no long forbearance, and least of all, when they apostatize, may they look for any new exercise of compassion.
Fricke:—A fearful sin, and a frightful judgment.
Hedinger:—The devil in his heart, death in his bosom, hell beneath his feet, and a curse on his posterity.
Footnotes:
Heb_6:3.—Instead of ðïéÞóïìåí , we are to read ðïéÞóùìåí after A. C. D. E., 23, 31, 39. The Ind., however, is found in Sin. [in Cod. Vat., and is retained by Tisch. The meaning is good with either reading; in my opinion, equally good or better with ðïéÞóïìåí .—K.].
[Some, however, as Owen and Delitzsch, conceive it possible to unite both meanings. To these also Alford partially attaches himself, considering “that on the one hand, èåìÝëéïí êáôáâáëëüìåíïé can hardly be properly said of any but a teacher; and on the other, Heb_6:4 ff., ἀäýíáôïí ãÜñ , etc., must necessarily have a general reference of warning to the readers.—The whole, then, is a óõãêáôÜâáóéò of the writer to his readers. He, with his work of teaching, comes down to their level of learning, and regards that teaching and learning as all one work going on together; himself and them as bound up in one progress. Thus best may we explain the expressions which oscillate between writer and readers.” So Alford. While holding clearly that the main tenor of the passage has reference to the spiritual progress of the hearers, and that the general urbanity of the writer would be sufficient to account for the first person plur., and while also conceiving that êáôáâáëëüìåíïé èåìÝëéïõ , may refer not inaptly to the readers, I yet concur with Alf. in finding a little coloring in this phrase drawn from his position as teacher.—K.].