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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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140 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
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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146 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
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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148 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
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
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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
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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
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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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