Hebrews 6 Footnotes

6:4-6 This passage, with its warning, is controversial and difficult. Some believe this text teaches that it is possible to fall out of salvation. Though a cursory look might lead one to think that Christians can lose their salvation, that idea is not the issue addressed in this passage. These verses instead speak of the need for believers to persevere in the Christian faith. The verbs “enlightened” (v. 4), “tasted” (vv. 4-5), and “shared in the Holy Spirit” (v. 4) describe persons who have professed Christ and claim to be believers. To “have fallen away” (v. 6) means to commit apostasy. The writer of Hebrews admonished his readers not to go back to the OT sacrificial system because Jesus is superior to it in every way. If they were to turn away from Christ, repentance would be impossible because it cannot be found anywhere else once Jesus is rejected (10:26-27). By their actions, such persons disgrace Christ openly and try to re-crucify him. If they can forsake faith in Christ after having professed it, they never were saved to begin with (see Mt 10:22; the Parable of the Sower in Mt 13:1-9,18-23; Mk 13:13).

6:18 Some skeptics see a contradiction in this verse which says that it is impossible for God to lie, because Jr 32:27 and Mt 19:26 say that nothing is impossible for God. This objection is similar to the well-worn question. Is God so powerful that he can make a rock so big he cannot move it? Such objections, however, confuse God’s character with his power to do things. God cannot lie because it is against his nature to do so; he is infinitely holy and all good.