READINGS ON HEBREWS (6)
READINGS ON HEBREWS (6)
BTF Would you say that chapter 6 contemplated that some of the Hebrews might slip back again into Judaism?
JT I should think some of them had. It says, “and have fallen away”.
FL They did that with their eyes open, as we would say. They were not ignorant as to the light that had come out in the Person and death of Christ. So to speak, they had acted in that light, and then had turned from it.
JT “Once enlightened”, it says.
AFM So the chapter is to encourage the going on. It is either going on or going back.
JT He carefully distinguishes between the two classes — the “once enlightened” and the “you”. He says: “but we are persuaded concerning you, beloved, better things, and connected with salvation”.
FL There had evidently been a great movement in the light of Christianity. The power of it had affected some intellectually, but not vitally; so the Hebrews that had come into the light of Christianity were divided: those who “have fallen away” and those whom the writer was “persuaded ... better things”.
JT They had gone a good way. They were “once enlightened” and had “tasted of the heavenly gift”. Tasting was an act of their own; not merely that they had heard the gospel, they had tasted the thing. There it says, “have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the works of power of the age to come”. They had tasted all these things.
AFM It shows how far one may go with [p. 85] the thing outwardly, without the conscience being reached and the heart affected.
JT That is what is before us here. In tasting there is opportunity of proving a thing.
FL You taste the thing, you like it, and appropriate it; or, you dislike it, and reject it. They were putting Christ in the place of having been tested and then repudiated. It is most solemn.
JT They had tasted the new wine; but virtually said, “the old is better”, Luke 5:39. They made themselves judges.
ANW “Crucifying for themselves ... the Son of God” is more serious than the historical fact, is it not?
JT It is. After they had been enlightened and tasted the thing spoken of as “the heavenly gift” — not simply the truth of the gospel, but “the heavenly gift” — it is no longer a sin of ignorance, but one of wilfulness.
DMR There would be no city of refuge for such.
JT They were virtually leaving the city of refuge and coming out into the open field.
AFM They do it for themselves; “crucifying for themselves (as they do) the Son of God, and making a show of him”. It was not the national thing, as when He was actually crucified, but their individual act now.
JT Exactly.
FL Speaking of the city of refuge, they, in effect, say they have no necessity for such protection, and put themselves outside of its scope, so there is no hope. I was wondering if we do not see a terrible development of this kind of thing in the present day, that is, there has been great enlightenment, but there has developed a vast movement in Christendom repudiating the divinity of Christ, and the necessity [p. 86] of the atonement, and the like. It is done with their eyes open, and it is ensnaring great numbers.
JT I have been thinking much of late of the word in 1 John 2: “It is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time”, 1 John 2:18. What marks the movement is the “many”. “The antichrist”, he says, “denies the Father and the Son”. He was to be known by that. The numerous antichrists we have to contend with do not come out boldly and deny the Father and the Son; they work insidiously in denying the truth. So we have to discern what is against Christ, not simply worldliness, but what is against Christ. “Now are there many antichrists”, he says. Various things have arisen, are developing, and have been developed that are against Christ. It is all very striking.
WWM Would the man in Matthew 22, who was without the wedding garment, be a picture of this?
JT Quite. Only these have renounced the truth of Christianity altogether. That man had not done so. He had come in with the guests but disregarded the necessary requirements. He would refer more to those who in Christendom take their places with the true guests but disregard the divine requirements whereas the persons referred to here renounce the thing entirely. They would have said: I have been to your meetings and have heard Peter preach; I have been to your feasts of love, and have read the Scriptures. The apostles’ letters, too, I am familiar with, but there is nothing in all this for me.
CB “Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity”, Matthew 7:23.
JT These named in our chapter do not belong to that class, but to those who have renounced the thing. We have to distinguish between those who profess to know the Lord, and recognise His people outwardly, and those who [p. 87] renounce Christianity.
AFM Would you distinguish for us between two forms of evil cited in 1 John? You referred to one — denying the Father and the Son; but in chapter 4 we have: “Every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that power of the antichrist, of which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world” 1 John 4:3.
JT I think the spirits that have gone out into the world in 1 John 4 are not openly opposed. Their aim is to corrupt the truth by denying Jesus Christ come in flesh. They do not deny He has come; but deny that He has come in flesh. They deny the real humanity of the Lord Jesus — that He was a real Man, as real a Man as any, although ever God in Person.
FL That which is referred to by Paul in 1 Timothy 3: “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” 1 Timothy 3. It takes either the side of denying His deity, or that of denying Him come in flesh. The varied aspects of it are very great. What Paul rebuked in Philippi would be another form of it: “these men are the servants of the most high God” (Acts 16:17), ignoring Christ.
CAM Peter alludes, in his second epistle, to this kind of men: “It were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them”, 1 Peter 2:21.
JT “The dog has turned back to his own vomit; and, The washed sow to her rolling in mud”, 2 Peter 2:22. What is to be observed in all this — “those once enlightened, and who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the works of power of the age to come” — is that it describes [p. 88] how far a man can go in the things of God and yet be unregenerate. A most solemn thing!
BTF Would you say a word regarding the details of the first two verses? “Let us go on to what belongs to full growth”.
JT The subject really arises in the end of chapter 5, where the writer says that he had much to say concerning Melchisedec, but they were dull of hearing. Then he says, they were as babes when they ought to have been teachers. They were in the infantile state for the want of exercise of their senses. They were unskilled in the word of righteousness. Then, in chapter 6, he says, “Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us go on to what belongs to full growth, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God, of the doctrine of washings, and of imposition of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment”. These were features that attached to Christ as among the Jews which did not, in themselves, take them out of the nursery, so to say. They were still in Old Testament settings — “under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father”, Galatians 4:2. The coming in of Jesus, as Messiah, did not alter that state of things, though it added greatly to the light that was there, of course; but it did not take them out of the state characterising the babe. They were still under the principles of the law, in fact, the Lord Himself came under those principles: “God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law”, Galatians 4:4. He in no way abrogated the law; but fulfilled, and in every way magnified it. “He will magnify the law, and make it honourable”, Isaiah 42:21. There was the living of it out in Him; but it could not take them out of their infantile state. These features attached to the Messiah and no doubt will be taken up again by Israel. They are carried over into Christianity, only (as connected with the [p. 89] Spirit on the ground of redemption) they have a fuller meaning. “The beginning of the Christ” connected them with Judaism; but we are to go on to perfection; in Christ risen we have the new thing. Christ in heaven is the fulness of the divine thought for man.
FL Will you say a few words as to just how we may understand being enlightened, tasting of the heavenly gift, partaking of the Holy Spirit, tasting of the good word of God, and the works of power of the age to come, without there being a real work of God in the soul? It goes so far that one can hardly imagine that there is no genuine work of God there, yet we know there is not. Doubtless we see the same things around us today, and it is necessary that we should be able to discern as to them. We may see these things even amongst those with whom we are in contact; it is very solemn.
JT We can travel a long way with the things of God, especially if there is power. The ministry of the apostles at Jerusalem was a wonderful ministry, and these people would have been present at the meetings there, indeed they would have identified themselves with them because they were made partners in the thing. I think they had an outward part in it — a sort of partnership. They would partake of the Holy Spirit, for instance, if they were in a meeting where Peter or John addressed the saints. Think of the power that was there! Simon Magus would give money for it. He valued the thing but in a natural way, for he had never repented. Peter said: “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity;” Acts 8: 22, 23. Yet he discerned the power of the Spirit of God and seeing its value would gladly have bought it. If that power could be bought and [p. 90] attached to the religion and politics of this world, what a world it would be! In fact, they would have made the Lord a king, because He could feed the multitude; John 6. It contemplates not only that the thing was felt but appreciated. The natural man can appreciate spiritual as well as temporal benefits.
AFM Yet the ground was barren. The rain had fallen upon it, but instead of fruit it brought forth thorns and briars.
Rem Would such an one be like the person who would fall down and say, “God is in you of a truth”, 1 Corinthians 14:25?
JT That man falls down. It contemplates a man genuinely affected. One who would fall down and say, “God is indeed amongst you”, (1 Corinthians 14:25) is affected in his soul. There is a great difference between him and those referred to in John 6. This man is born again, his eyes are open: “Except a man be born again”, the Lord says, “he can not see the kingdom of God”, John 3:3. When a man says, “God is indeed amongst you”, (1 Corinthians 14:25) he sees the kingdom, for the moral element is there. To see and feel power does not go as far as that. The Lord said: “When ye see a cloud rising out of the west, straightway ye say, A shower is coming; and so it happens. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it happens”, Luke 12: 54, 55. It is remarkable how clever men are. He says, “and so it happens”, it is just as they say; but he adds “Hypocrites, ye know how to judge of the appearance of the earth and of the heaven; how is it then that ye do not discern this time”? There was no moral discernment in them; but with the man who fell down, the element of discernment was in him.
BTF It is more the intellect.
JT There is that in man which is beyond one at times. The power of discernment and of appreciation [p. 91] of what is present, whether in the physical, or even the spiritual system; so we are often carried away by it. Some are deceived because men can go so far in the things of God. Take the antichrist, it says, “he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth”, Revelation 13:13. I cannot understand that. It looks like the supernatural, and it is, in a way; but it shows what man is capable of, and makes the danger or deception all the more serious. So you have phenomena about us today that almost deceive even the elect. It requires great nearness to God to discern what is at work.
FL In reference to the barren ground, it is something worse than that. “He sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust”, Matthew 5:45. It is the prosperity and blessing of heaven coming upon the earth; but the greater it is the more the thorns and briars. The ground is not barren in the sense that it produces nothing; but the greater the blessing from heaven the more the evidence of man’s independence and forgetfulness of God. The answer on man’s part to all God’s goodness is the fruit of the curse — thorns and briars.
JT It does strike one that this passage indicates what man is capable of — what wonderful powers the natural man has — how far he can go and yet be short of new birth. It is new birth that underlies discerning the kingdom. The Lord says, “If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not”, Matthew 24:23. The kingdom of God was in their midst and they could not discern it; but they could discern the face of the sky. They would say, “A shower is coming; and so it happens”. Such is man’s accuracy. It is the outcome of man’s enormous natural ability to penetrate into what is of God. Yet, he does not see that God has come in in Christ, and that it is not a question of utilising man in [p. 92] the flesh again.
AFM Would not such an one ultimately give up?
JT That is what is happening. There is a great amount of apostasy in evidence and hatred of Christ. Satan is at work and they do not know it; he moves them to attack Christ. So out of this is developed the “many antichrists”.
AJD Would Judas be an example?
JT He had the most wonderful privileges of any man, yet sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver. The One through whom all the wealth of God had come in Judas sold for that base amount.
FL “Yea, mine own familiar friend!” Psalm 41:9.
WB-w When Christianity was established, I can understand these people existed, and that they deliberately refused the testimony of the Spirit; but, do you think you would find this class today?
JT Certainly. The heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good word of God, and the works of power of the age to come are here today. They may not be so apparent now in all their reality and power as in apostolic days; yet, nevertheless, these things are enjoyed. There is a testimony here, and there are those who have tasted these things, and no longer walk with the saints. Where are they? They may not be openly apostate; but they virtually say, I see nothing in all that.
WB-w I thought a case of this kind was hopeless.
JT Just so. “It is impossible to renew again to repentance those once enlightened”, verse 4 says.
WB-w Would you not say there is hope for every man today?
JT I do not think so.
FL We are not entitled to say there is any hope for those who are openly apostate.
JT There are those who prove themselves to be [p. 93] lost.
CAM This comes very close to us. One could do a great deal and still be without Christ.
JT Quite. The terrible thing here is that it is impossible to renew them again to repentance. While a man has never repented, there is hope for him; but, if he has been once enlightened, it is impossible to renew him again.
WB-w It makes it very solemn if there are those for whom there is no hope.
JT Indeed! Yet, here it is, “for it is impossible to renew again to repentance those once enlightened”.
ANW It does say: “nigh to a curse”. The curse is not revealed.
Rem Would it be like the sin against the Holy Spirit?
JT That section of Scripture makes the Holy Spirit prominent; but here it is, “Crucifying for themselves (as they do) the Son of God”. The Lord is in view here, as the One who has brought in Christianity.
FL I do not think we can minimise the danger of the position of those who, in the full light of Christianity (the revelation of God in Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit), deliberately reject the deity and atonement of Christ, and all that hinges upon it. They have deliberately, with their eyes wide open, rejected all that God has presented in Christ.
JT It is very noticeable that the enemy is shrewd enough to see how far he can go whilst the Holy Spirit is still here. He discerns that he cannot hold the whole field, and you do not find men succeeding very much who openly throw off all profession of Christianity, so they attack certain features of the truth. We may classify all such as “many antichrists”. There are many of them.
FL The great object of the chapter is, not only [p. 94] to point out those who turn back, but to lead us on to that which is established in Christ.
JT He digressed, although it is not a digression, to call attention to the infantile state of things, and further, certain were apostatising. There he goes on to say, “but we are persuaded concerning you, beloved, better things, and connected with salvation, even if we speak this”. That would lead a believer to inquire whether he is marked by these “better things” which accompany salvation.
ANW I would like to go back to the first verse: Is there anything a Christian has to leave that he has properly learned?
JT He refers to the things spoken of as connected with the Messiah; that is, with Christ as among the Jews. The Jewish believers were linking Christianity with that, whereas he wanted to get them on to Christian ground proper and then have them go on to what belongs to full growth, which is Christ as He is.
CAM “And this will we do if God permit”.
JT He has in view the going on. That did not mean the leaving of anything that was properly Christian; but these doctrines which belong to “the beginning of the Christ”, we might say, were connected with the Messiah and the Jews, and his desire was that they should learn which it was to get out of that setting and to apprehend Christ as He is, redemption being accomplished.
AFM A great difference between “leaving” and “have fallen away”. To leave was right; but to have fallen away was hopeless.
ANW The apostle said to Timothy, “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned”, 2 Timothy 3:14.
JT The things which he here exhorts them to leave were connected with the Messiah, which were right as far as the truth stood in relation to Israel; but it stood there no longer. The Lord came in by [p. 95] the door; but He had gone out. The things named were perfectly right when Christ was here in the flesh; but the Jewish Christians were being held by them. They were right in their day, but whatever of them are carried into Christianity should be seen in that connection and setting. They now have a fuller bearing. You do not leave the initial form of Christianity. The things to be left are those connected with the Jewish system.
AFM Those four words, “Let us go on” are forceful.
JT “Let us go on to what belongs to full growth”, which is simply Christianity — what Christ is now. Go on to the things which belong to you. It is, really, as if the writer said, Get out of Jewish settings into Christian ones. So now we want to go on in the same way. What belongs to full growth is sonship. They were kept “under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ”, Galatians 4:2 - 7. One of the great things which belong to full growth is sonship. In writing to these Hebrew Christians the writer does not disregard what is there: “Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation”. There were these things and he had taken account of them. So one would inquire, as a true Christian, whether the things which accompany salvation mark one.
AFM Is not one of the things accompanying salvation seen in verse 10? “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed towards his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister”. Is not that a strong element of preservation? You know love and reciprocate it.
JT “Still ministering”. It is what they were then doing, not only what they had done. That is one of the greatest features of Christianity, you are going on with the thing. What you did is taken into account, but it is what you are now doing that God values and recognises.
FL “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren”, 1 John 3: 14.
ARS One of the great troubles with professing Christians is that they mix Judaism and Christianity together.
JT There are a great many of the Lord’s people who are in human settings religiously; they are occupied with ceremonialism, etc., and do not go on to full growth. They read the same scripture on a given Sunday that was read three hundred years ago on the same Sunday. There is no thought of movement, hence a state of stagnation. This epistle is invaluable for such, for, until they get out of those settings, they will not go on to full growth.
AFM They are not practically saved otherwise. “Better things, and connected with salvation”, are a present reality, and involve spiritual environments.
JT Some people can do all sorts of things with a good conscience because of bad teaching; things that are wicked in the way of associations, etc. Then the promise and the oath coming in are most touching. Not that God even needed, from His own side, to either promise or swear. If we know God, we neither look for a promise nor an oath; but He graciously takes account of our smallness of stature, and promises something to encourage our hearts.
[p. 97] He knows you do not know Him well enough to be without a promise, so He gives you one as a stay for your heart. But you may not be satisfied with the promise alone, even though His word is His bond, you may not be sure; so He says, I will go farther than that, I will swear. Paul called God to witness upon his soul in speaking to the Corinthians. Had they known Paul, they would have known that if he said he was coming to them, he meant it. He did not use lightness in the matter. He says, “I call God to witness upon my soul that to spare you I have not yet come to Corinth”, 2 Corinthians 1:23. It was because they did not have confidence in him he did this. So God says, you may not have confidence in what I promise, so to make it doubly certain, I take an oath. “That by two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us”.
CAM It seems a wonderful thing that God should take account of our weakness in that way.
JT It is a leverage whereby God lifts the saints out of the state of childhood into that of manhood. He has thus given us a strong consolation.
Ques What are the promise and oath made to Abraham?
JT You have them in verse 14. God confirmed the promise to Abraham after he offered up Isaac, but Abraham had to be assured, hence the oath. Then Abraham went to Beersheba and dwelt there. Abraham virtually said to God, You have sworn, and now I am going to live on the oath. Beersheba means “well of the oath”, see Genesis 22. God says, you can live on the oath; but I would rather live in His love than on His oath.
CAM Some are anxious lest they should be numbered amongst those who come short. I suppose there is no better way, in dealing with that state of [p. 98] soul, than to present to them what is found at the end of this chapter.
JT To give Christians assurance these two things are given: the promise and the oath; but when you enter into that within the veil where Jesus is you would not think of asking for a promise, or an oath.
FL Paul had the sense that there was something better than living on an oath, for he said: “the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his”, 2 Timothy 2:19.
JEH Speaking of the promise and the oath, where would they come in in Christianity?
JT They do not exactly belong to Christianity; but they have their application to us in the way of confirmation and establishment. It does not belong to full growth. A grown-up son knows his father — he does not ask for a promise or an oath — he knows he is to be trusted. It is the little child that demands a promise, or a guarantee, because a child does not fully know its parent. The promise and the oath refer to smallness of stature; but God considers it, and meets it in this chapter.
CAM A babe is not really beyond circumstances; is not inside the veil.
JT A babe is outside in the sphere of providences where uncertainty is found; but there is no uncertainty inside: “where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us”. It is what He is, as Man, on one side. Think of the One who represents us, having gone in! “Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God”, 1 Peter 1: 21. If He has raised your Representative up, you have both faith and hope in God.
FL Peter beautifully presents that thought. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3: 18. As much as to say, I can leave you there.
JT “Entering into that within the veil, where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us”, and then it adds: “Become for ever a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec”. That is, He is there in the dignity of His own Person as Priest. The next chapter gives the greatness of this Person. “Jesus is entered as forerunner for us”, He is on our side. The most feeble believer may be conducted there. The knowledge of Jesus in the brightest spot in the glory detains the heart. If you see Him there in that supreme place your heart is detained, and you know that you have a place there with him.