I. Introduction
A. In order to understand today’s passage, we need to remember what the book of Hebrews is all about. It was written to a community of Jews who had become Christians were facing persecution and intense pressure from their fellow Jews to return to Judaism.
II. Heb.6:4-6 next week
A. Reminder that one of the most challenging passages in the whole Bible is next in line for us, a passage which is very difficult to understand. And understanding it begins now, not next week.
B. Heb.6:4-6 also helps us to interpret Heb.6:1-3, because the two passages are clearly connected. For v.4 begins with a “for”: “For it is impossible...”
C. Here is v.1-6 abbreviated: Leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance.
D. You see here that going back to the elementary doctrine of Christ is closely connected to falling away.
E. It may seem strange to see falling away from Christ linked with dwelling on the elementary doctrine of Christ, but they definitely are in this passage.
F. This can only mean that going back to these foundational things involves rejecting the newer things, the mature things, the things built on the foundation.
G. Whatever the things on this list are, remaining there and failing to move on to more mature things amounts to apostasy.
III. “Leave the elementary doctrine of Christ” or “leave the elementary message about Christ” or literally “leave the first word about Christ.”
A. Throughout the NT epistles, the authors are frequently calling us back to the basics about Christ. And yet here it seems to be saying the opposite.
B. This command is followed by a list of six examples.
1. repentance from dead works
2. faith toward God
3. instruction about washings
4. the laying on of hands
5. the resurrection of the dead
6. eternal judgment
C. This is a very strange list.
1. “Repentance from dead works, faith toward God” — What’s so infantile about these? Why do you need to leave repentance from evil deeds? and faith in God?
2. “The resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment” — Aren’t these important parts of our faith? Why then does the author insist we move on and leave these behind?
3. And then there’s “instruction about washings, and the laying on of hands.” What is he even talking about?
a. “Washings” doesn’t seem to be talking about baptism, that’s why it’s not translated baptisms. The word is similar to the word for baptism, but there must be a reason a different word is used here. Also, the word is plural, whereas Eph.4:5 says that there is one faith and one baptism.
b. And the only laying-on-of-hands in the early Christian church was for receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17, 19:6) or for ordination (Acts 6:6, 13:2-3, 1Tim.5:22; 2Tim.1:6).
c. And why would “instruction about washings, and the laying on of hands” be considered things that needed to be left behind and moved past?
D. How can this be explained?
1. I do think there’s a good explanation for all of this.
a. It didn’t come from me. There are a number of commentators who advocate it.
2. The thesis is that these six things are all part of the messianic doctrine of first century Judaism.
a. In other words, these six things were part of the OT understanding of the Messiah before Jesus showed up on the scene.
b. These things were true, but inadequate once Jesus Himself appeared.
3. Why were they tempted to go back to these things?
a. Well, remember that the original readers of the epistle Hebrews were Jews who had converted to Christ but were now wavering in their faith under the pressure of their fellow Jews to return to Judaism.
b. And they would perhaps have tried to rationalize their reduced theology of Christ by saying, “We still believe in repentance and faith. We still believe in resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.”
c. “It was possible for the recipients of this letter, yielding gradually to pressures from various quarters, to give up more and more those features of faith and practice which were distinctive of Christianity, and yet to feel that they had not abandoned the basic principles...” – FF Bruc
E. But this doesn’t explain the presence of instruction about washings and the laying on of hands on the list. So let’s think about those.
1. “instruction about washings”
a. The same word for washings is used in Hebrews 9:9–10. There, speaking of Judaism, he refers to the fact that “gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various WASHINGS, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.”
b. There were washings/cleansings proscribed in the OT. They are mentioned twice in Hebrews:
(1) Hebrews 9:13 “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh.”
(2) Hebrews 9:19 “For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people.” Cf. Numbers 19, Lev.14:51
c. Why would the author say that “instruction about washings” is a part of the elementary doctrine of Christ? I can think of two possibilities:
(1) It’s possible that some Jews had gone along with what Jesus said about their tradition of washing before meals (Mark 7:6-9).
(a) Mark 7:4 The Jews, “when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the WASHINGS of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.”
(b) Luke 11:38 “The Pharisee was astonished to see that He did not first wash before dinner.”
(c) If this was the case, they would have been able to say, “We still believe what Jesus taught that the Jewish ceremonial washings are tradition and not the word of God.”
(2) The other possibility is that the author had OT prophesies about the coming Christ in mind:
(a) Isaiah 52:15 "Thus He [the Messiah] will sprinkle many nations..."
(b) Ezekiel 36:25 "Then [when I establish a new covenant with you] I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols."
(c) If this was the case, the people would have been able to say, “We still believe what the Bible teaches about the messiah cleansing the peoples of their sins.”
2. “the laying on of hands”
a. My theory on this is that it refers to the transfer of sin in the OT sacrificial system.
(1) Leviticus 1:4 “He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.”
(2) Leviticus 16:21 “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.” Cf. Leviticus 3:2, 4:4, 8:14
b. If this was the case, the people would have been able to say, “We still believe that forgiveness comes in the transfer of sin to another.”
3. Remember that the theme which is on the author’s mind is how Judaism is not the ultimate reality but a preparation for Jesus, who is the ultimate reality.
a. The cleansing ceremonies pointed ahead to Jesus.
b. The laying on of hands before a sacrifice pointed ahead to Jesus.
c. To stay at cleansing ceremonies and the laying on of hands, refusing to move on to Jesus the reality is missing the whole point.
F. Some how or another, whether my interpretations of each one are correct or not, all six items on the list were parts of the OT doctrine of Christ, part of the messianic doctrine of conservative Jews in the first century.
1. (Remember that Christ is an OT principle — Ps.2:2; 45:7; Is.61:1. The Greek word for Christ is simply the translation of the Hebrew word MESSIAH.)
G. At one point those foundational things were all they had of Christ. But now the reality had appeared!
H. The problem with these six things is that they didn’t go far enough. The foundation of a house is important, and at one point it represents progress, but if a tornado comes along and removes the house, the foundation is not much to live on.
I. They were tempted to hang out at the elementary, foundational doctrine of Christ because these things are the parts that their Jewish friends could agree with — these are the doctrines of Christ even they would go along with.
J. So, it seems to me that what the author is saying is this: Don’t think that it’s enough to believe the things about Christ which your fellow Jews believe. We must move on from that. If we abandon the things revealed to us in Christ, we will be falling away from Christ.
IV. What this means to us
A. Few of us are tempted to go back to a mere OT understanding of the messiah. But I think most of us are tempted at times to tone Jesus down to make him more acceptable to the people around us.
B. I think this passage calls us to be alert to the effect that pressure from others can have on our faith and our view of God.
C. It’s not enough to love the parts of Jesus that everybody loves. We’ve got to love the whole Jesus — even though it will inevitably cause offense.
D. The devil will do whatever he can to get us away from Jesus.
1. If you’ve signed up to follow Jesus, then you have an enemy who is going to do everything in his power to pull you away from Jesus for the rest of your life.
2. He will tempt you to sin, because sin pulls us away from Jesus.
3. He will stir up doubts about the Bible, because the Bible brings us to Jesus.
4. For some, it’s Jesus plus. For some it’s Jesus minus. Let me explain.
a. Jesus plus
(1) In The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis talked about this. He said that some poeple believe in Jesus plus: Jesus plus some things we think are important enough to put on a par with the things Jesus taught.
(2) E.g.
(a) Jesus plus vegetarianism
(b) Jesus plus homeopathic medicine
(c) Jesus plus conservative political thinking
(d) Jesus plus liberal political thinking
(3) I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with having strong opinions about matters outside the Bible. Just don’t elevate your opinion to the level of divine revelation! Just don’t put Jesus’ name on YOUR opinion!
b. Jesus minus
(1) Some people believe in Jesus minus, Jesus minus teaching on a few things which they’re really uncomfortable with: e.g.
(a) Jesus minus hell
(b) Jesus minus His claim of absolute authority over us
(c) Jesus minus predestination
(d) Jesus minus His endorsement of OT sexual ethics
(2) But if you believe in Jesus minus, then you don’t believe in the real Jesus, you believe in an adjusted Jesus. You certainly can’t call him Lord – because you’re rejecting who He is, you’re saying no to what He has said about Himself.
(3) Everybody struggles with some of the things Jesus said. And that’s ok. Just don’t fall into the temptation of elevating your own judgment – or the judgment of your generation – above the judgment of Jesus. “Let God be true and every man a liar.” (Rom.3:4)
5. The fact is that you can’t improve the real Jesus. Jesus can only be diminished by our adjustments.
a. He is the perfect savior, and receiving Him as Lord means receiving Him as the perfect savior.
b. He doesn’t call us to perfect Him but to be perfected by Him.
c. And this quest to adjust Jesus, this quest to make him acceptable to the society around us is so dangerous that it threatens the faith and salvation of those who get into that business.
E. This passage calls us to go on to maturity, to go on to a mature view of Christ. A mature view of Jesus is not a moderated view of Jesus but a full-orbed view of Jesus, an all-encompassing view of Jesus.
1. “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” Col.2:9
2. “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.” Heb.1:3
3. In Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col.2:3
4. He is the meaning of life.
a. He is the meaning of church.
b. He is the meaning of the world.
c. He is the meaning of history.
d. He is the meaning of the universe.
e. He is the meaning of everything.
f. He is meaning itself.
g. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Rm11:36
5. How can we adjust Someone like this? Instead, we must fall on our knees and say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”