Again and again in the Gospels and numerous other epistles there are warnings intermingled with the presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We find that often in Paul’s epistles. As we will see in the next chapter, before Paul presents the Good News in his epistle to the Romans, he clearly presents the Bad News warning about God’s condemnation on unbelief, Moralism, and Ritualism. Warnings are almost always included in the presentation of the gospel message.

     In Matthew 13:10, Christ is asked by His disciples why He spoke to the multitudes in “parables.” His answer to that question, and our understanding of that answer, is critical to understanding a number of major Scriptures texts that are completely misunderstood and distorted due to this misunderstanding. God is longsuffering with nations and individuals. However, long is a measurement that has limitations. Eventually long comes to the end of itself. In God’s working with individuals, there comes a time when individuals refuse to believe and reject the pre-salvation work of the Spirit of God and God’s longsuffering comes to its end. At that time, God gives that sinner over to reprobation (Rom. 1:28). This is what happened to many individuals within apostate Israel who rejected the gospel in the Law.

     The Moral Law was not intended so a sinner could achieve God-kind righteousness. The Moral Law was intended to show sinners the sinfulness of sin and that we are all guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). Therefore, the Moral Law pointed the sinner to the Sacrifices of the Law. However, by the very nature of the continual repetition of the sacrifices, the showed the sinner that “the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin” or propitiate God (Heb. 10:4). The failure of the sacrifices of the Law then pointed the sinner to the Promised One of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 crying out to God for mercy and complete propitiation provided in the “once for all” vicarious death of Messiah (Heb. 10:10, 12, 14, and 18).

     However, the apostate priesthood of Israel had so perverted the gospel in the Law that they actually made keeping the moral commandments and participation in the sacrifices the way to acceptance with God and salvation. Those individuals who were deceived by this perversion of the gospel in the Law came to rest in that false hope and closed their spirits hardening their hearts to the teaching of the Holy Spirit until God finally gave them over to reprobation.

     The Mosaic Covenant was both “a blessing and a curse” covenant. In other words, the Mosaic Covenant was a covenant of works (for believers, not to be saved). It was a covenant (agreement) between God and the nation of Israel. It was an accountability agreement much like a Church Covenant made between local church members and with God.

“4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:4-7).

     The Priesthood and Pharisees of Israel had completely perverted the gospel in the Mosaic Covenant. The Commandments were not given with the intent that keeping them would provide eternal life. They were given to reveal the sinfulness of sin and define what sin is. In doing so, everyone would come to know they could not keep the Mosaic Covenant revealing their need of a Savior (Rom. 3:19-20). This would lead the descendents of Abraham to the promised Messiah portrayed in the sacrifices of the Law and to yearly cry out to God for the complete satisfaction of His wrath (propitiation) through the substitutionary death of the Promised One.

      As Paul said in Romans 7:10, the apostates of Israel had falsely made keeping the Mosaic Covenant and their genetic descendancy from Abraham their door into eternity. Those who had blatantly rejected the obvious truth of the gospel in the Law were given over to reprobation. God ceased to draw them to faith in Messiah and quit trying to illuminate their hardened hearts to the truth of the gospel in the Law. There were many of these reprobates within the multitudes that Jesus spoke to in parables. They would not be given a second chance. This is true of the Apostates of the Church Age who reject the clear message of the Gospel of the Cross in the transitional period between the Church Age and the Kingdom Age.

“1 Now we beseech you, brethren {Church Age believers}, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him {resurrection/translation prior to the beginning of God’s judgment of the nations}, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ {the beginning of the Tribulation and God’s outpouring of wrath upon the Christ rejecting nations of the world} is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away {apostasy, iniquity is full} first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth {restrains; i.e., the Holy Spirit in the Church Age believers} will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause {because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved} God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thessalonians 2:1-12).

     Just as in the transition time between the Dispensation of the Law and the Church Age there were apostates (those who knew the truth, but rejected it) to whom the truth would not be revealed, so this is true between the Church Age and the Kingdom age.

     Only those who had not apostatized themselves would be drawn to Jesus, given understanding of the gospel by the illumination of the Spirit of God, and be given the opportunity to respond to the gospel in faith in order to be “born again.” These circumstances and conditions of Matthew 13 are very similar to what Christ said to the multitudes in John chapter 6. Within the multitudes to which Christ spoke in John 6, there too were those who has apostatized and rejected the gospel in the Law becoming reprobate.

“28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. 30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? 31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the Father giveth me {those having believed the Gospel in the Law} shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out {cast away; reject; i.e., reprobate}. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 41 The Jews then murmured at him {in rejecting, ridiculing unbelief}, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42 And they said {in rejecting, ridiculing unbelief}, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? 43 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. 46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. 47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 48 I am that bread of life. 49 Your fathers did eat manna {typifying Messiah} in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This {Jesus, probably pointing to His body} is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51 I am the living {quickening or life giving} bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh {in His death on the Cross}, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:28-51).

     The truths regarding those who rejected the pre-salvation work of the Holy Spirit is discussed in greater detail in Hebrews 6:1-6. Here we find a detailed warning to professing Christian who were about to return to Temple sacrifices after they professed faith in Christ. The warning is that doing so is in fact a rejection of the gospel of a “finished” redemption and, therefore, a rejection of Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection. To do so reflected a misunderstanding of the gospel. In fact, this text parallels the warnings of Jesus regarding the parable of the Sower and the Soils in Mathew 13:19-22 where the Seed did not produce fruit unto life.

“4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:4-6).

     Often people use this text to support the idea of being able to lose one’s salvation. In actuality, it is a warning about reprobation. Reprobation is the end result of God’s action upon the mind and soul where He progressively gives a person “up” resulting from digressive degrees of unbelief (non-faith; Romans 1:24, 26 and 28). Reprobation is the final stage in God’s pre-salvation work of the Holy Spirit upon those who reject the truth of His existence and the Holy Spirit’s pre-salvation work.

     The word “reprobate” used in Romans 1:28 is from the Greek word adokimos (ad-ok’-ee-mos). It is a word used to describe the testing of valuable metals or coins, such as silver or gold, for authenticity. It simply means disapproved or rejected. However, the consequence of the meaning is the focus of the statement in Romans 1:28. Something disapproved was “cast away.”

     The warning of Hebrews chapter 6 is a warning to avoid becoming one of the “those,” “they” or “them” who abandoned a professed faith in the Christ of the New Covenant by returning to the Old Covenant by mixing Old Covenant practices with those of the New Covenant. There are two phrases used in the epistle to the Hebrews to describe this abandonment of professed faith in Christ. They are “fall away” (6:6) and “draw back” (10:38 & 39). These two phrases are synonymous with reprobation.

“35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 10:35-11:1).

     The words “fall away” of Hebrews 6:6 are translated from the Greek word parapipto (par-ap-ip’-to), which means to deviate from the right path, to turn aside or away. The idea is the abandonment of one path for another. The subject of the verse is faith in the “finished” redemptive work of Christ. Therefore, God is warning about choosing a pathway of faith that is disallowed or rejected by Him. To do so is to put oneself in the position of potential reprobation.

     The words “draw back” in Hebrews 10:38 are translated from the Greek word hupostello (hoop-os-tel’-lo), which means withdraw or to shun. It is a warning to those considering returning to Old Covenant Sacerdotalism with its sacrifices and rituals. The warning is severe in that returning to abrogated sacrifices and rituals as a basis of faith is in fact withdrawing from the “way” in Christ in the gospel. Once this pathway is chosen, it should not be considered as just another alternant pathway of equal opportunity. It is, in fact, a pathway of “perdition.” This word “perdition” in Hebrews 10:39 is from the Greek word apoleia (ap-o’-li-a). It refers to utter destruction. It refers to the destruction that consists of eternal misery in hell.

     The context of Hebrews 6:4 and 5 is about the pre-salvation work of the Holy Spirit, Who leads a person to Christ, convicts of sin (John16:8), leading to repentance (Romans 2:4), giving understanding of the gospel (Matthew 13:19 and 23) and bringing a person to the threshold of choosing the “way” (John 14:6) of Christ as the one and only way to be saved. The warning is that Sacerdotalism, religious rituals, and the “works” of the Law are not part of that “way.”

     Hebrews 6:4 immediately takes us back to the warnings about “unbelief” in Hebrews 4:5-9. Here we are given God’s perspective of what took place at Kadeshbarnea.

“19 And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea. 20 And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us. 21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. 22 And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. 23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: 24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. 25 And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us. 26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God: 27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. 29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; 31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. 32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God . . .” (Deuteronomy 1:19-32).

     They were told to “fear not, neither be discouraged” (verse 21). What happened (verse 28)? The people wanted to see what their opposition was like (verse 22). They ALREADY had a critical failure in their faith (unbelief). They were walking by “sight,” not by “faith.” God wanted them to know that there was no viable opposition or danger to them when He was with them (verse 21). “They took the fruit of the land in their hands;” they had actual experience of the truth of what God said (verse 25). “Not withstanding ye would not go up” (verse 26). Like Hebrews 4:1-2 says, the reality of the facts were not “mixed with faith” (actions or living according to that professed belief)

     Our “works” (what we do) can be a contradiction to what we say our beliefs are. The word “enlightened” in Hebrews 6:4 means to be given spiritual understanding; i.e., illumination of Truth by the Spirit of God. These professing Christians understood the difference between the Old Covenant practices and the New, but, for whatever reason, they were being tempted to reject the New Covenant for the Old. Because the Holy Spirit had accomplished his work of illumination of New Covenant truth (enlightenment), these individuals had a “taste of the heavenly gift.” They understood the concept of complete propitiation in the New Covenant. They understood the approachability of God in the New Covenant as opposed to the inapproachability of God in the Old Covenant.

      They understood the availability of complete forgiveness of sin for believers upon confession as opposed to the complex and complicated sacrificial system for forgiveness in the Old Covenant. They understood the great difference between empowering grace of God in the New Covenant as opposed to the deadness of the letter of the Old. They had “tasted of the heavenly gift” to the degree that it did not need to be repeated in that they had sufficient understanding necessary to act upon the Truths given them.

     However, apparently, there were still the “those” (verse 4) and the “they” and the “them” (verse 6) who abandoned the New Covenant, and all that it offered, to continue in the old ways of the Old Covenant. Thus, legalism entered in to the church of Christ reducing the ordinances of the church into sacraments in imitation of the sacrificial and sacerdotal system of the Old Covenant. Continued trust in this Old Covenant system that looked forward in anticipation of the Coming Messiah Who would once for all provide a complete and finished work of redemption now (in the New Covenant) was actually a serious manifestation of unbelief.

     The word “once” in Hebrews 6:4 is from the Greek word hapax (hap’-ax). This word means “once for all.” It refers to something done so thoroughly that it never needs repetition.

     “Partakers of the Holy Ghost;” (6:4) the “those,” the “they” and the “them” had at one time cooperated/participated with the Holy Spirit (their hearts and spirits were open) in His pre-salvation ministry in bringing them to an understanding of the facts of New Covenant faith, but some (those, they & them) chose another way. Although there were some who had “tasted of the good word of God,” they did not remain in the New Covenant faith (Hebrews 6:5). The word “tasted” is equal to someone having a sense of the flavor of the New Covenant, but who rejected that taste or spit it out. Returning to Sacerdotalism and sacrificial rituals was equated with spitting out the New Covenant truths and rejecting Christ.

     There are “those” who will do the same thing today. They will profess faith in Christ; they will have a “taste” of faith, but continue to reveal the perverseness of that faith by continuing in “dead works,” trusting in sacramental rituals and self-righteous efforts to please God.

     I can imagine there were some who came back with the grapes of Eschol” in a bunch so large, they had to be carried on a staff on the shoulders of two men. I can imagine there were those who tasted those grapes and got the flavor of the land that God had given to them, but yet refused to enter in because of unbelief (3:19).

     According to Hebrews 6:5, they not only had a “taste,” or full grasp of the truth of the word of God and it’s proclamation of the New Covenant faith and practice, they also “tasted” of the “powers of the world to come” (Kingdom Age). They were part of the historical period that witnessed the great miracles of the Saviour. They witnessed the “power” that was displayed at Pentecost. They had historical reference in their lifetime to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the transitional miracles of healing, tongues and prophecies. They were living in the historical period of history that was eyewitness to “the powers of the world to come.”

     They saw Gentiles saved and their lives completely and totally transformed. They saw selfish, greedy people “born again,” selling all they had and sharing it with needy brethren in the church. They had fully tasted of the powers of the age of grace of the New Covenant, but yet some hung on to the Old. The magnitude of the guilt and sinfulness of such an act is only exemplified by the warning of Hebrews 6:6.

     Since God would not repeat what is listed in Hebrews 6:4-5, it was an impossibility to “renew them again unto repentance “from dead works” (6:1). This verse lays out a hypothetical case. “If” someone were to abandon the New Covenant of grace for an Old Covenant system of Sacerdotalism, sacraments, rituals and externalism, it would be impossible to “renew them again unto repentance.” Why, because the only acceptable sacrifice for sin is the sacrifice already offered in Jesus’ death and blood sacrifice at Calvary.

     To mix Old Covenant practices involving daily, continual sacrifices would mean the necessity of daily crucifying Jesus Christ for sin. This would equate to a complete denial of the finished work of redemption. This is amazing in that this horrendous idea is exactly what this legalistic perversion of New Covenant practices became. It resulted in keeping Jesus on the Cross, crucified, constantly dying and shedding his blood for sin. That is what Hebrews 6:6 says, “crucify to themselves the son of God afresh, and put him to open shame.”

     The word “afresh” is not in the Greek text. The Greek word anastauroo (an-as-tow-ro’-o) simply means to raise up on a cross for crucifixion. The idea is about rejecting the “once for all” sacrifice of Christ because they expected more sacrifices to be necessary. In essence, this would necessitate re-crucifying Christ every time they needed forgiveness of sin. Interestingly, this is the exact picture portrayed by Roman Catholicism in their Crucifix. Christ is fixed on the Cross constantly dying and bleeding for sins.

     According to Hebrews 6:6, in essence, this continual sacrifice idea (in any form) was equal to falling away (turning aside or away from the right way) from New Covenant faith. It was an act of an extreme act of unbelief, showing that the faith they claimed to have was not saving faith at all. Doing what they were thinking of doing was equal to an inward rejection of Christ’s Cross-work and outwardly put Jesus to “open shame.” The idea is continually holding Jesus up for public disgrace by necessitating His continually dying for sins. The Cross was a place of shame and disgrace. Returning to Temple sacrifices and the incompleteness of those animal sacrifices to take away the penalty of sins disgraced the Name of Jesus, the purpose of His incarnation, the gospel and God’s grace in it all. God is saying in Hebrews 6:1-6 that doing this, in essence, was equal to renouncing faith in Christ and rejecting the “once for all” sacrifice of Christ (Heb. 10:10, 12, 14, and 18) and “treading under foot” His precious Blood sacrifice (Heb. 10:29).

      Participation in any sacramental service is a testimony of unbelief. That is why it is “impossible . . . to renew them again unto repentance” (verse 8) because, oh awful thought, they have, in fact, been rejected by God. To reject Christ is to deny his “finished” work by false practices. The ordinances we practice must correspond in their portrayal of the New Covenant faith or the practitioners declare themselves “anathema” before God. Doing so forever curses and condemns them for this wicked act of unbelief.

     If a person understands the finishedness of the work of Christ in the gospel, we can be sure that person will never be misled into religious practices that would deny that finishedness, disgrace the Lord Jesus, or pervert the Gospel. The theological bare bones of the Gospel is the life, death, burial, and resurrection/glorification of Jesus Christ. However, understanding the Gospel involves what is accomplished by Jesus Christ through each of those four aspects of His finished work of redemption.

     The work of the Evangelist is done in partnership (synergism) with the Spirit of God and the Word of God that defines each aspect of the objective Truths defining what the life, death, burial, and resurrection/glorification of Jesus accomplishes for the sinner. Uniquely, in Paul’s presentation of the Gospel in his epistle to the Romans, he does not start with the aspects of the gospel itself. Paul starts with a thorough explanation of the doctrine of condemnation. This is a truth Evangelists should take careful note of and follow his pattern.