AND THEN HAVE FALLEN AWAY:
kai parapesontas (AAPMPA):
And then (2532)
(kai) indicates connection to the prior passage, mostly as a simple
continuative, marking the progress of a continued discourse. Kai does
not mark the beginning of a conditional statement as is suggested by several
translations that begin the sentence with "if". The King
James translation, NIV and RSV have chosen to translate this passage with
if but this is not an accurate rendering of the Greek text and is
potentially misleading.
Fallen away (3895)
(parapipto from pará = to side of or from + pípto=
fall) means to fall aside or fall away. Figuratively it means to apostatize
or to fall away from adherence to realities and facts of the true faith.
Contrast the writer's repetitive call for the readers to hold fast
(See notes
Hebrews 3:6,
3:14,
4:14,
10:23, Cp
Hebrews 3:12-note)
From the context of
the rest of Hebrews, those who fall away are not genuine believers.
John gives a parallel description in his first letter writing that...
They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been
of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it
might be shown that they all are not of us. (1Jn 2:19)
How is it possible for one to experience all of the spiritual truths
outlined in this section and yet not be
regenerated? As discussed earlier, Judas Iscariot experienced Jesus Himself,
God in the flesh and yet he was never born again.
Jesus even called him “devil” (Jn 6:70), “son of perdition” (Jn 17:12, and one for
whom it “would be better… if he had not been born” (Mk 14:21). Jesus knew
Judas’ condition from the beginning, though Judas fooled the disciples to
the last!
Parapipto is used in the
Septuagint (LXX)
of the following passage...
Ezekiel 20:27 "Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me by acting
treacherously against (LXX
= parapipto) Me."
Note that the "falling away behavior" of
Israel as described by Ezekiel had virtually the same impact as did the
falling away in Hebrews 6:6; i.e., it resulted in Christ being "put to
open shame" which is similar to God being blasphemed in the OT.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE: adunatos:
F B Hole (Biographical
Note) notes that...
We may well ask if it is possible for
anyone to share in this way without being truly converted; and this question
may well be specially urgent as regards the third of the five. Can it be
possible to be a partaker of the Holy Ghost" without being born again?
The answer to that question is, that it is quite possible. Only a true
believer can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but all within the circle of
Christian profession, whether truly converted or not, partake or share in
the benefits of the presence of the Spirit. A man may be enlightened without
being saved. He may taste the heavenly gift without receiving it. He may
taste the good word of God without digesting it in his inward parts. He may
share in "the powers of the world to come." (i.e. miraculous powers) without
experiencing the real power of the world to come.
The terrible case of Judas Iscariot furnishes us with an illustration of
this very thing. He walked for over three years in the company of the Son of
God. What floods of light fell upon his path! What tastes he had of the
heavenly gift and of the good Word of God! It could not be said of course
that he was a partaker of the Holy Ghost, but he was a partaker of the
benefits of the presence of Christ upon earth; and he shared, in common with
the other apostles, in those miraculous powers which are here called "the
powers of the world to come." He was one of the twelve to whom the Lord gave
power over unclean spirits, and of whom it is said, "They cast out many
devils and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." (Mark
6:13). Yet the miracle-working Judas was all the while a "son of perdition"
and not a saved man at all. He fell away and it proved impossible to renew
him unto repentance.
You will notice that the word here, is "impossible" and not "improbable."
This one word is quite sufficient to show that there is no support in this
scripture for the idea of a true believer falling away and being lost for
ever. ALL those who "fall away" in the sense spoken of in this passage are
for ever lost. It is not that they may be, but that they must be; and there
would not be a single ray of hope for any back-slider, did it refer to such.
It refers then to the sin of apostasy — a sin to which the Jew, who embraced
the Christian religion without being really converted, was peculiarly
liable. By turning back to his ancient and worn out religion, thereby
utterly condemning and disowning the Lord Jesus, he proved himself to be
utterly bad and worthless ground.
(Hebrews
Commentary Notes)
Impossible
(102)
(adunatos
from a = without + dunatós = possible, able, or powerful from
dunamai = to be able or have power by virtue of inherent ability and
resources. Note the stem duna- or dyna-
conveying the basic sense of ability or capability, power, strength, might) means impossible, incapable of being or of occurring, incapable
of being done. Adunatos is used twice to convey the idea of one who
is impotent, has no strength or lacks capability in functioning adequately,
once in a literal sense (Acts 14:8 below = powerless) and once in a
spiritual sense (Romans
15:1 = of those who do not
"strongly" believe).
Note that adunatos
is not present in this verse in the Greek but is found in
Hebrews 6:4
where it is place first in the Greek sentence for emphasis. It's as if the author
wants to make it blazingly, blatantly clear...."Impossible it is..."! One
can hardly miss his point. In regard to man’s moral offense, there is no
"permanent cure" effected by the physical blood of animals.
There are 26 uses in
the
Septuagint (LXX)
(Job 5:15, 16; 20:19; 24:4,
6, 22; 29:16; 30:25; 31:16, 20, 34; 34:20; 36:15, 19; Pr 30:18; Joel
3:10) and 10 uses in the NT. Note the obvious concentration of
"impossibilities" in the book of Hebrews!
Matthew 19:26 And looking upon
them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible."
Mark 10:27 Looking upon them,
Jesus said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all
things are possible with God."
Luke 18:27 But He said, "The
things impossible with men are possible with God."
Acts 14:8 And at Lystra there was
sitting a certain man, without strength in his feet, lame from his
mother's womb, who had never walked.
Romans 8:3
For what the Law could not do (adunatos), weak as it was through the
flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as
an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh (Comment: The
truth in Romans parallels that in Hebrews 10, Romans dealing with the Law
per se and Hebrews addressing the Levitical sacrificial system. Neither
source had the inherent ability to make man right before the Holy God and
both point ultimately to the Son, the perfect Sacrifice and the fulfillment
of the Law!)
Romans 15:1
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without
strength and not just please ourselves.
Hebrews 6:4
(ESV) For it is impossible to restore again to repentance
those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and
have shared in the Holy Spirit, (Note: the NASB places "impossible" in
Hebrews 6:6)
(Note also that commentators and some translators take adunatos to
mean "difficult" but clearly from the other
NT uses and specifically the uses in Hebrews this is inappropriate and leads
to a thoroughly incorrect interpretation of this stern warning passage.)
Hebrews 6:18
in order that by two
unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may
have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the
hope set before us.
Hebrews 10:4
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sins.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it
is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Some compare this verse with the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit Jesus referred
to in Mt
12:31,32. For example, John Calvin espouses this view but still thinks they are believers!
Some translate adunatos (impossible) with the English word “difficult.”,
something that is difficult to do if one adheres to normal rules of Biblical
interpretation (hermeneutics). Specifically as noted above every other use of
adunatos
translated impossible! Thus it is clear from
these other passages that such a translation is unjustified.
Expositor's Bible Commentary remarks that the writer may be...
talking about what looks very much like the real thing but lacks something.
The case of Simon Magus springs to mind. He is said to have believed, to
have been baptized, and to have continued with Philip (Acts 8:13).
Presumably he shared in the laying on of hands and the gift given by it. Yet
after all this Peter could say to him, "Your heart is not right before
God.…you are full of bitterness and captive to sin" (Acts 8:21, 22, 23). The
writer is saying that when people have entered into the Christian experience
far enough to know what it is all about and have then turned away, then, as
far as they themselves are concerned, they are crucifying Christ. In that
state they cannot repent. (For a good discussion of the various
interpretations, see Kent, in loc.)
(Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan
Publishing)
A good illustration of the impossibility of renewing such a person to
repentance is found in Hebrews 12 where the writer reminds his Jewish audience
(and all of us) of the tragic example of Esau, warning them to....
See to it (keep on the lookout continually) that no one comes short of the
grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by
it many be defiled (contaminated, polluted, tainted); 16 that
there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own
birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that even afterwards, when he
desired to inherit the
blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he
sought for it with tears. (see notes
Hebrews 12:15;
16;
17)
The writer is saying that
Esau could no longer repent because he had become so hardened (see
notes
Hebrews 3:8,
3:15,
4:7).
Yes, he cried out for
things to go better in his life but all the while inside he was refusing to submit to
God's terms! Isn't there some of Esau in all of
us?...for every time we willfully sin, we reject God's terms, God's
sovereign will & good pleasure. Impossible to repent is a terrifying
prospect behind all the warnings of Hebrews -- don't drift but take heed
and consider Jesus and exhort one another daily and fear unbelief and
carelessness. Why? Is anything really at stake? The prospect exists that you
and I who believe we are chosen and called and justified might slide into a
slow process of indifference (like allowing the "little foxes" in into our
garden - Song 2:15) and gradually hardening our hearts so that eventually
we fall away, reject Christ and put Him
to open shame! We may actually come to the point of no return, because we have
been forsaken utterly by God. That is the "impossible" of this
verse!
The Effect of Vaccination
As a physician sub-specialized in infectious diseases, I know full well the
benefit of vaccinations to prevent infection with various microbial agents.
A vaccination immunizes by giving the patient a "very mild case" of the disease
(in a manner of speaking). Instead of using live viral agents, the vaccine
uses an attenuated virus that is strong enough to stimulate the body's
immune system to produce antibodies which in turn will be called upon to protect
the body should that individual ever be exposed to the live infectious
agent. Vaccination is good in Medicine but bad in Theology! A person
who is exposed to the gospel can get just enough of it to be immunized against the real thing. The longer
one resists the real thing, the more they become
"immunized". The spiritual
system so to speak, like their physical immune system, becomes more and more
"protected" against the true gospel. Their only hope is
to reject what he is holding onto and receive Christ without delay lest he
become so hardened, often without even realizing his gradually hardening
state, that his opportunity is forever
gone.
These "vaccinated" individuals who think they are protected from eternal
destruction by a profession of faith without fruit to validate genuine
possession are like the vulture who spotted the corpse of a fox on an ice
floe lazily moving with the current down the river toward Niagara Falls. The
unwary carnivore alights on the ice and begins to eat remains of the
carcass. Then he hears the crashing of water, warning of approaching danger,
but he reasons that he has wings and need not pay attention to these obvious
warnings for he is free to fly away at any time. And then at the last minute
he finishes his feast and spreads his wings for lift off, but lo, he is
unable to fly away because his talons have become frozen and firmly fixed
into ice floe and he is dragged over the falls to destruction!
TO RENEW THEM AGAIN TO REPENTANCE: palin anakainizein (PAN) eis
metanoian:
(Heb 6:4; Ps 51:10; Isaiah 1:28; 2Ti 2:25-note)
Note that contrary to what Arminianism teaches, it
is the opportunity for receiving salvation, not salvation
itself, that can
be lost.
The writer seems to express in this section his fear that there may be some among his readers
(see
Group 2) who profess to be believers in Messiah, perhaps even having witnessed for Him, participated in church,
etc (cf Jesus' words in Matthew 7:21-note;
Mt 7:22-note;
Mt 7:23-note)
and yet have never experienced true repentance and salvation. Turning back
from the light they have been given, they prove themselves to be enemies of
Christ and not a part of the people of God at all!
Wuest comments on the translation of the words impossible and
renew noting that...
The Greek word translated impossible cannot be diluted to mean
difficult. The same word is used in Hebrews 6:18; Heb 10:4, and Heb 11:6, where it
can only mean “impossible.” Likewise, the word renew must be taken in
its full force. Expositor’s Greek Testament says that it means that
those who have once experienced a renewal cannot again have a like
experience. The person described cannot again be brought to a life-changing
repentance. Repentance is a work of the Holy Spirit on the heart of the one
who is approaching the act of faith in Christ. It is usually involved in
that act, but can also exist separate and apart from it, as is seen in the
present instance. These Hebrews had allowed the Holy Spirit to carry them
along to the place of repentance. Now should they refuse the proffered faith
by which they could lay hold of the High Priest as their Saviour, and return
to the abrogated sacrifices of the First Testament, it would be impossible
to bring them back to the act of repentance again. And as we have seen, the
impossibility would inhere in their own spiritual condition, not in the
grace of God.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
Wayne Grudem
has this note on Hebrews 6:4-6
writing that...
the persons who “commit apostasy” have had all sorts of knowledge and
conviction of the truth: they have “been enlightened” and have “tasted the
heavenly gift”; they have participated in some ways in the work of the Holy
Spirit and “have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of
the age to come,” yet they then willfully turn away from Christ and “hold
him up to contempt” (Heb. 6:6). They too have put themselves beyond the
reach of God’s ordinary means of bringing people to repentance and faith.
Knowing and being convinced of the truth, they willfully reject it. (Grudem,
W: Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. IVP;
Zondervan, 1994
or
Logos
= Highly Recommended resource!)
Renew
(340)
(anakainizo from aná = again + kainízo = renew <>
kainos=
qualitatively new) means to have a new, qualitatively different repentance.
Again
(3825)
(palin) refers to a subsequent point of time involving repetition.
Repentance (3341)(metanoia
from meta = after + noéo = to understand) literally means
"afterthought" or "to think after" and implies a change of mind. From the NT
uses, it is clear that metanoia means however much more than merely a
change of one's mind but also includes a complete change of heart attitude,
of interest, and of the general direction of one's life. True repentance
represents a "conversion" in every sense of the word.
Jesus' teaching
supports the inseparable association of repentance and salvation, our Lord
declaring...
"I tell you that in the same way, there
will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (metanoeo),
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (metanoia)."
(Luke
15:7)
It should be stated at
the outset that there are some in evangelical circles who teach that all
repentance involves is a change of mind. The problem with this
definition is that it has nothing to do with one’s attitude toward sin and
does not necessarily result in any change in lifestyle. Keeping this
"definition" of repentance in mind now read the first NT use of metanoia
by John the Baptist as he addresses the most religious people in Israel, who
themselves were seeking to flee from the wrath to come (referring to God's
ultimate judgment on sin and sinners who refuse to repent)...
Therefore
bring forth
(aorist
imperative = do it and
do it now! It can convey a sense of urgency) fruit (karpos
- fruit is what people produce that other people see and which indicates
their true spiritual condition - see Matthew 7:16, 17, 18, 19, 20ff-notes
notes)
in keeping (axios
= the idea is that of having equal weight or worth, and therefore of
being appropriate) with repentance." (Matthew
3:8) (Note Jesus began His
ministry with exactly the same call in Mt 4:16)
Was John the Baptist
calling for simply a change in thinking or is he calling for a change
in thinking that was evidenced by a change in behavior? What does the
passage teach? John was issuing a call to repentance that was evidenced by
an inner change and an outward act commensurate with and proof of the
genuineness of the change (possession and not just profession).
As a corollary, note
that the New Testament knows nothing of a gospel that lacks a call to
repentance. John and Jesus were both calling Israel to have a
radical change in thinking about genuine righteousness and how it was worked
out in one's everyday life. The Scribes and Pharisees taught the Jews a
distorted, perverted, external type of righteousness, a self-righteousness
based on an adherence to manmade rules and regulations (613 of them in
fact!), the keeping of which would emphatically not guarantee one's
entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus presented the Sermon on the Mount
to correct this deadly distortion of the Law and the Prophets (the entire
Old Testament) by the religious leaders. (See
Overview of Matthew 1-7)
and commentary on Matthew 5-7 beginning in
Matthew 5:1-2).
In summary, the Jews
needed to have a change (repentance) in regard to righteousness for as Jesus
emphatically declared...
unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
(see notes
Mt 5:20)
J. R. Miller
wrote that genuine repentance
amounts to nothing whatever if it
produces only a few tears, a spasm of regret, a little fright. We must leave
the sins we repent of and walk in the new, clean ways of holiness.
Marvin Vincent
in his note on the verb form (metanoeo) writes that this is...
A word compounded of the preposition
meta, after, with; and the verb noeo, to perceive, and to think,
as the result of perceiving or observing. In this compound the preposition
combines the two meanings of time and change, which may be denoted by after
and different; so that the whole compound means to think differently after.
Metanoia (repentance) is therefore,
primarily, an after-thought, different from the former thought; then, a
change of mind which issues in regret and in change of conduct. These latter
ideas, however, have been imported into the word by scriptural usage, and do
not lie in it etymologically nor by primary usage.
Repentance, then, has been rightly
defined as
“Such a virtuous alteration of the mind
and purpose as begets a like virtuous change in the life and practice.”
Sorrow is not, as is popularly
conceived, the primary nor the prominent notion of the word. Paul
distinguishes between sorrow and repentance (metanoia), and
puts the one as the outcome of the other. “Godly sorrow worketh repentance”
(2Cor 7:10). (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the New Testament. Vol. 1, Page
3-23) (Bolding added)
Kenneth Wuest
(in his discussion of the related verb) adds that...
Repent is the translation of
metanoeo which in classical Greek meant “to change one’s mind or
purpose, to change one’s opinion.” The noun metanoia meant “a change
of mind on reflection.” These two words used in classical Greek signified a
change of mind regarding anything, but when brought over into the New
Testament, their usage is limited to a change of mind in the religious
sphere. They refer there to a change of moral thought and reflection which
follows moral delinquency. This includes not only the act of changing
one’s attitude towards and opinion of sin but also that of forsaking it.
Sorrow and contrition with respect to sin, are included in the Bible idea of
repentance, but these follow and are consequent upon the sinner’s change of
mind with respect to it." (Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Studies in the
Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: Grand Rapids: Eerdmans)
(Bolding added)
Thayer writes
that metanoia refers
especially (to) the change of mind of
those who have begun to abhor their errors and misdeeds, and have determined
to enter upon a better course of life, so that it embraces both a
recognition of sin and sorrow for it and hearty amendment, the tokens and
effects of which are good deeds.
Friberg, et al,
define metanoia as...
"(1) religiously and morally, a change of
mind leading to change of behavior repentance, conversion, turning about ;
(2) as a change of opinion in respect to one’s acts regret, remorse (a
popular Greek usage not found in the NT)" (Friberg,
T., Friberg, B., & Miller, N. F. Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New
Testament. Baker's Greek New Testament library. Baker Academic)
(Bolding added)
Louw and
Nida define metanoia as a...
"to change one’s way of life as the
result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and
righteousness...Though in English a focal component of repent is the sorrow
or contrition that a person experiences because of sin, the emphasis in
metanoeo (verb form) and metanoia seems to be more specifically
the total change, both in thought and behavior, with respect to how
one should both think and act. Whether the focus is upon attitude or
behavior varies somewhat in different contexts." (Louw,
J. P., & Nida, E. A. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on
Semantic Domains. United Bible societies
) (Bolding added)
Repentance as
used by is a change of mind that results in a change of will. It means “a
turn about" or deliberate change of mind resulting in a change of direction
in thought and behavior. There is a new attitude to God, to men, to life, to
self.
One might thus say
that repentance is a change of attitude toward sin which leads to a
desire to change our behavior accordingly. If the sinner honestly changes
his mind about sin, he will turn from it. If he sincerely changes his mind
about Jesus Christ, he will turn to Him, trust Him, and be saved. In
Paul's parting words to the Ephesian elders he declared...
“how I did not shrink from declaring to
you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house
to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance
(metanoia) toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts
20:21)
True
repentance
is a godly sorrow for sin, an internal repugnance to the ugliness of sin
followed by the actual forsaking of it as Paul explained to the
Corinthians...
"I now rejoice, not that you were made
sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance
(i.e., their sorrow led them to a change of mind resulting in a change
of life); for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order
that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that
is according to the will of God (godly sorrow is a grief which comes into a
one's life after he or she has committed a sin and which leads to
repentance) produces a repentance without regret, leading to
salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death." (2Corinthians
7:9-10)
In his
