Hebrews: The Peril Of Falling Away, Better Things For You (Chapter 6)

For all of the reasons explained through chapters 1-5, the author of Hebrews is convinced of better things for the readers than the discipline that came upon those who rebelled against the Lord in the past.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, where we unpack the meaning of books, passages and themes from Scripture. Join us each week as Dr David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. Each episode has a study guide available in the show notes. This is Teach Me the Bible podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:32

Hello everybody, welcome back to Teach Me the Bible podcast. I'm Alex Wolfen, with Dr David Klingler, and we are in chapter six of the book of Hebrews today, which starts with Therefore and so we've been saying this over and over again, not just in this book, but in all these books that we're going through it's difficult to chop them up, but for the sake of time, we do, and so if you haven't already listened to chapters one through five, we'll encourage you to go back and kind of start there, because you can't understand it, therefore, unless you see what's come before it. But today we're going to jump into chapter six, assuming that you've listened. So, dr, take it away.

Speaker 3: 1:13

Well, so when we talk about passages that are debated in the Bible, this probably comes maybe the top of the list. Yeah, it's up there for sure. The main passage that's debated in the discussion is can you lose your salvation? Can you not lose your salvation, or were these people saved? Were they not saved, or whatever? A complicating factor is that so many that are involved in this discussion are reading out of their English Bibles, and boy, there's a lot going on here in the Greek that has tied to his whole argument. So we're going to kind of talk about that as we go through here. But chapter six, he's continuing.

Speaker 3: 1:58

Therefore leaving the. They translate this over. We'll be working from the New American standard, just kind of as a base translation, and most are English translations are similar. They translated. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about Christ or about the Christ. That word there, elementary, is the RK.

Speaker 3: 2:20

It's the beginning of the, the, that this word is being translated all kinds of different ways in this in this book, and it starts really right at the beginning of the letter in 110. After that it was first spoken in chapter one. Chapter two he's starting to lay out this. It was fitting for him. This is in chapter two, verse 10. It was fitting for him. For whom are, are the all and through whom are the all in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation. Okay, perfect is, tell us, to finish, to complete, mature, perfect. And the author is RK, this is our word, right. So the beginning and the end. So so it was fitting for him, this Christ, for whom are all and through whom are all in bringing many sons to glory, and he's going to bring them to glory, carry them to glory, that type of thing to complete what was begun their salvation through suffering, and so.

Speaker 3: 3:45

So, therefore, leaving the beginning, word of about Christ, let us press on to maturity. That's how they translate Now. Maturity, that's our end. Let us press on Now. One of the things that's interesting to me is how they translate this let us press on and and we'll get into a little bit of the of the weeds here, but this is a best I can tell in looking at it a passive, subjunctive, first person, plural. What does that mean? Passive means it's happening to you, subjunctive, so, so, and it's plural. So maybe something more like let us be carried to maturity. The press on, that's really not the word. It is to carry or to bear. That word has been used all the way through this book and it's used a bunch and it's translated a bunch of different ways.

Speaker 2: 4:46

Yeah, it's all over the place. You can't really track it in the English text. No, you can.

Speaker 3: 4:50

And so it begins all the way back in chapter one, verse three. He is the radiance of his glory. Talking about Christ as the radiance of the Father's glory, the exact representation of his nature, his character and he upholds is how they translate it. He carries the all by the word of his power, so you're carried by the word of his power. They translate it upheld. He's the beginning, he's going to carry you till the end. So let us be carried on to the end, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God, of instruction about washings and laying on the hands. I'm in chapter six, verse two, and resurrection of the dead and eternal life. We will do so if God permits, for in the case of those who are, once it been, enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and have been partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them to repentance. Fallen away this word is particularly difficult to translate. They're translating it fall away or apostasy. Apostasy that tends to be the way that it's used in Septuagint Old Testament, but the way that Pipto. So the root word here is parapipto, it's falling beside, or something like that. The Pipto goes back to Nafal in the Old Testament, and both of those words, pipto and Nafal, it's the fallen ones. They have fallen, and the word has been used that way already several times In three and four, yeah, in this book.

Speaker 3: 6:41

So those who you know in chapter referring back to Psalm 95 and what happened at Maribah and Masa and what followed after in the Old Testament, these saints, they were delivered, these Jews were delivered, but they didn't continue to walk by faith, they turned back, or they tried to turn back, and they fell in the wilderness. And so it seems to me that if you have been saved and then you're judged, you know, once these folks turned away from the Lord, then the Lord laid them low in the wilderness. He disciplined them and it was no longer. They were no longer able to be, you know, repentance didn't matter Right, they had made their bed, right, they had rejected the word of the Lord, they had not walked faithfully, and so they were judged, they were laid low in the wilderness, and so that threat is very real.

Speaker 3: 7:54

Now, whatever you're doing, the whole book has to make sense, the letter has to make sense the author has to be going somewhere. And so he's going to explain that here, at the end of chapter six and into chapter seven, that these saints, these faithful saints, some of them reject and turn away and were judged, others continued, and the ones who continued he commends. And so he's heading towards the ones who endure and he said you need to endure as well, you need to endure as these faithful saints in chapter 11 have endured. The ones who didn't endure were disciplined. And so he says in 12, seven it was for discipline that you endure, for God deals with you as sons. What son is there that the father doesn't discipline? If you're a son and you're not disciplined, you're unloved. And so he makes this point about discipline.

Speaker 3: 8:55

And so these Hebrews are. They're fearing the wrong people, right, they're wanting to go back to the law, and the law never carried them. It was never able to carry their sin. The priest carried their sin. The priest offered is the word yeah they translate offered, yeah, offered. He was able to carry. He carried not only their sin, but he carried his own sin to you know, and made sacrifices, offered sacrifice. But Christ not only carried their sin, didn't have his own sin, but then he sat down and that's the point that he's making right, and so this Christ is able to actually do it, not only to carry their sin, but to take it away. He didn't just cover it, but take it away, and so all of this argumentation has to weigh in here.

Speaker 3: 9:46

One other word that I think that is important as we go through here, we're gonna hit it in verse 11, which they translate full assurance. It's actually a compound word that's using this carrying word. Again, it's full carrying, and so this word has been used a couple of times in the book already, and so when we get there, we'll mention that. So, anyway, and so it seems to me that what's going on here is that, just like those Old Testament saints that came out of Massa Maraba, rebelled against the Lord, fell in the wilderness, there's a point at which the Lord's going to discipline you.

Speaker 3: 10:32

Now the discussion is always can you lose your salvation or not? That's not the Old Testament illustration. In what way does the Lord discipline his sons? Well, in the Old Testament passages, he disobeyed them, even to the point of death, and you see this in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, this is why some of you are sick and some of you sleep. So it surprises me that we don't talk about that as a legitimate option more, because that is not only the illustration in the book, it's the illustration through the book and it's heading towards discipline when you made the point in the past weeks that Moses fell in the wilderness right and we wouldn't go back and say Moses wasn't yeah, moses or Aaron right, these folks who find their way, moses in particular, into chapter 11, we wouldn't say, well, they weren't saved, but he did fall in the wilderness because of disobedience and he tried to repent as well.

Speaker 3: 11:23

Oh, I'm sorry, lord, let me go into the land. I'm sorry he wasn't able to be restored, you're done. So it seems to me that there's a point at which the Lord is fed up and the discipline's coming right, and you'll see this all the way through the Old Testament. Right that Israel's rebels against the Lord. The judgment comes, they repent, the Lord relents, but at some point the Lord says sorry, babylonians are coming, and there's no getting out of it. Now, all right, the judgment has been set, and here they come.

Speaker 3: 11:59

And so I don't know that we have handled this well by bringing in this subject of they weren't really saved or they lost their salvation, or something like that. He makes the point. He continues, right. He says, once they fall, in a way, it's impossible to renew them again to repentance, because they crucify again to themselves the Son of God and put them to open shame. If we think about what they're doing. They're saying well, let's go back to the law. This is just easier. Let's go back to the law.

Speaker 3: 12:28

So, first of all, the law never took away sin, and the law couldn't carry your sin. You needed a priest to do it, and that priest wasn't sufficient because he had to carry his own sin. He had to, you know, but this one was able to carry your sin and sit down right, cause he had no sin. And so this is the argument up to this point is gonna continue in chapter seven. So everything about the Old Testament led you to Christ. The angels weren't as great as Christ. Moses wasn't as great as Christ. The covenant, the priesthood, none of it. It was all leading you to Christ.

Speaker 3: 13:02

If you reject Christ and go back to the Old Testament, then the Old Testament is just leading you to Christ again. What are you gonna do? Crucify him again and bring him to open shame? It seems to me that's the logic here. No, that's not an option, the only option. You only have two options Endure, be carried along by the word of Christ to completion, or fall, be disciplined. Yeah, that's it. There's your choices. Fall into the hands of a God who will discipline you. You're fearing the wrong people. You're fearing the wrong one. You need to fear the Lord.

Speaker 3: 13:37

And so he makes this point, for the ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth the vegetation useful to those for whose sake it also is tilled Now, receives a blessing from God. These Jews were to be useful. They would be useful to their fellow brothers. And so when we get to this chapter 12, he's gonna talk about the discipline. Therefore, after it, don't fall into the hands of the discipline. That would not be good.

Speaker 3: 14:14

All disciplines good for the moment, or you're not good for the moment, but joyful, or I mean sorrowful, but you realize that once you've been trained in it, it yields here's that yielding language again that we're back in chapter six yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands of the weak, the knees of the feeble, in other words, these were all the judgments that are on Israel. So the remnant was to proclaim the Christ to the others. But if they reject Christ and go back to lawkeeping, they're gonna be judged. They're not useful anymore. Yep, they're not useful, right, they're not useful. So, but if it yields thorns and thistles, it's worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burnt.

Speaker 3: 14:58

Right Now, that verse eight, it says, and ends up being burned. That actually is not exactly how it reads In the Greek. There's no chi there, there's and end of the. Whose end is burning, right, so it's worthless and close to being cursed. Whose end is burning, so the one that's useless and close to being cursed, because if you're cursed, then your end is being burned, and so he continues then. But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things which accompany salvation, though we speak in this way, for God is not so unjust as to forget the work and the love which you have shown towards his name, having ministered and still ministering to the saints. So, even if you're unfaithful, god's faithful. He will faithfully bring blessing and, if necessary, he will faithfully discipline you right, he's not gonna allow you to do this. So we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance, the full carrying of hope till the end.

Speaker 3: 16:17

That full assurance language and we mentioned that earlier, the full assurance language has already been used in the book, and it's back in chapter five, and so let me pull this up here for us. I had it pulled up and I don't remember it, and now my computer's not participating. Yeah, the full assurance, full assurance, full assurance. Well, anyway, I think it seems like it was back in chapter five, versus somewhere back there 11, so something like that. Now it's really not participating, but anyway. So this full assurance, this full carrying, this is the goal, this is what takes you from the beginning, the beginning of the word of Christ, until the end, the full assurance. And so you want to be carried along with this full assurance that you may not be sluggish.

Speaker 3: 17:25

Now that sluggish word, there's another one, that back in chapter five, that's the five, that's the five 11, when I was thinking that you have become sluggish of hearing. Right, this is the problem. They become sluggish of hearing. They were supposed to be on mature food, they need milk, they need to press on to maturity, and so they've become sluggish again, they've become dole of hearing, and it's time you gotta go back and reteach the beginning parts. And they shouldn't need their beginning teachings concerning Christ repeated. They ought to be carried on to full maturity, right?

Speaker 3: 18:09

So that's the point that he's making, for when God made the promise to Abraham since he gets wore by no name greater, no one greater he swore by himself, saying I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you, and thus, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise, for men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way, god desiring even more to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, he guaranteed that these things with an oath, in order that the two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, he may have strong encouragement. For we have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. In other words, the Lord said to Abraham I will bless you and I will multiply you, and that ship has sailed. It's going that way. You can fight it all you want. This is where it's headed right. So the Lord swore you're going to the land, I'll take this generation, I'll take the next generation.

Speaker 3: 19:21

This thing is heading towards the telus, heading towards the end, verse 19,. This hope we have as an anchor of our soul, both sure and steadfast, and the one who enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a runner before us. Now, hold on to that language, because in chapter 12, the run, the race set before us, he's already run before. Now you follow in his steps, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, and so he's going back to this Melchizedek thing. So all of this, this high priest for every high priest that he's been talking about, back in chapter five he's explained that this high priest is able to carry you along. The Old Testament priests couldn't. This one can. So continue in that high priest ministry, and now he's returned back to that discussion. So next time when we pick this up, this will be in chapter seven. Chapter seven is heading towards chapter eight, so chapter seven begins with, for this Melchizedek. Chapter eight is now.

Speaker 3: 20:38

The main point of what I've been saying is this we have a high priest, so this whole high priest discussion, if you're not tying chapter five, chapter six, chapter seven to the high priest of chapter eight and you're just turning this into a can you lose your salvation or not, then I don't think that you're seeing it right, leaving the elementary beginning teachings concerning Christ and pressing on to the maturity, the completed teachings of Christ. For God is able to carry us along Christ. Let us be carried along to completion, and that's his point. Right, that's good. If you're not carried along, if you don't go back to the Old Testament story, if you want to rebel against the Lord and go back. You're going to the land. We'll drag you or we'll kill you and resurrect you there, but you're going.

Speaker 3: 21:39

And so where this is all headed, then, is to this discipline of the Lord, which you don't want, right, and so endure, patiently, endure, and that's the whole point of all of these warning passages in the book, using the Old Testament illustration. So, to sum it up, when we talk about did they lose their salvation? Did they not lose their salvation? Were they not really saved? I don't find that to be the discussion at all. This is clearly written to believers who have begun and they need to press on to completion. They're in need of endurance, right, and so that's the point of the book, and if you don't endure, if you try to turn back, then you're going to fall into the discipline of the Lord.

Speaker 3: 22:22

You've got two paths.

Speaker 2: 22:23

you've got two choices. It's real simple, yep it's real simple.

Speaker 3: 22:26

It's so good and you don't want to fall into the hands of a Lord who will discipline you even to the point of death. That's not a good deal, right.

Speaker 2: 22:36

We could use a healthy dose of that theology.

Speaker 3: 22:39

Absolutely the church today. Yeah, the fear of the Lord, yeah, the fear of Christ. For the fear of Christ. We have no fear of Christ, we have no fear of the Lord, we have no fear of His discipline, and we just think that he sanctions everything that we do. And that's not the case for sure.

Speaker 2: 22:54

So anyway, Okay, well, that's exciting. I hope that you're starting to see, even with all this complicated language and the way it's translated, we're hoping that you're starting to see the simplicity of the argument that he's making and that's coming through the illustrations that he's using that are really making his point, and so we're going to keep tracing those through as we pick up with the High Priest in chapter seven. So we'll see you next week for that.

Speaker 1: 23:20

Thanks for listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our desire is to use the power of God's word to change lives. For more information, download our app. Join us next week for another episode of Teach Me the Bible.