For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame. [NLT]
Hebrews 6:4-6
For it is impossible for those once having been enlightened, and having tasted of the heavenly gift, and becoming sharers of the Holy Spirit, and tasting the good Word of God, and the works of power of a coming age, and having fallen away, it is impossible for them again to renew to repentance, crucifying again for themselves the Son of God, and putting Him to open shame. [LITV]
Hebrews 6:4-6
Let’s put Hebrews 6:6 under the microscope.
καὶ παραπεσόντας, πάλιν ἀνακαινίζειν εἰς μετάνοιαν, ἀνασταυροῦντας ἑαυτοῖς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ παραδειγματίζοντας.
and {falling away} again {to renew} to repentance {crucifying again} themselves the Son of God and {putting Him to open shame}
the phrase “to renew again to repentance” connects with “the impossible” of the verse before it.
[ἀνασταυροῦντας ἑαυτοῖς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ] [ἀνασταυροῦντας] is a compound verb made up of the prefix [ana-] and the verb [stauroō] where [ana] has the sense ‘to do again’ or ‘to do afresh’, ‘refresh the action’ of the verb [stauroō] which means ‘to crucify’, ‘to raise up on the cross’. Now you have the sense of what the writer is saying. Now apply that to ‘the Son of God‘. [παραδειγματίζοντας] comes from παρα-δειγματίζω where [deigmatidzo] means ‘to expose to public shame’, ‘to make a public example of someone’, ‘expose to ridicule’, [para-] is a complicated prefix with many meanings but the most likely use here is ‘against‘ or ‘contrary‘ to the truth about Him / the Son of God.Now you have to admit that is a shocking statement – They themselves have crucified this Son of God again! Just let the words sink in for a while. Put yourself in the place of ‘they themselves‘. Those who have been enlightened and tasted the goodness of God for themselves. Those who have known just who Jesus is in an intimate way. Those people, you and I, have now become the perpetrators, crucifying again, afresh and anew, the Son of God, the One the author of Hebrews has been making clear to us. Allow the magnitude of that statement to take hold of your thoughts for just a moment. Think back over all I left you with in the last Gem. The author of Hebrews has taken the last six chapters to spell out to us the true nature of the One he has spoken of. He has left us with no uncertainty as to the fact that we are talking about The Son of God! If you need refreshing on just who this Son of God is then read again Gem 1947 and Gem 1938.
Look back at what I drew out from the author’s opening comments about this Son in Gem 2029 – Who Is This Son? The Son who is greater than the prophets of old, angels, Moses, The High Priest, Melchizedek and there are others still to come. (Gem 2027). I took the time to read again what I had written in Gem 2029 and I considered that for a period of time the horror of me doing such a thing to Jesus after all He has done in me and for me and to me over the years. The horror of rejecting Jesus, the Son of God, in the way described above hit me like a tonne of bricks. It contains the same shock factor as you killed the Author of Life (Acts 3:15) or the Gem series Four Significant Words – “They Crucified Him There”.
The strength of this shocking statement piggy-backs on the statements related to the degree to which we have been enlightened. If we indeed have come to know Who Jesus is and we have come to accept Him as our LORD and Saviour, then we are without excuse. I can’t ever imagine anything in this world which would make me forsake Christ. I know too much to ever turn my back on Him. I have told classes many times, if I were faced with the threat of death if I did not forsake Christ then I would say “You will have to kill me because I will never forsake Christ. But allow me to talk to you first and explain to you that the worst you can do to me is the best you can do for me. You will usher me into the Presence of My God and Saviour. I have been longing for that moment. So go ahead and take my life, but let me tell you about Him first. . .”
How well do you KNOW Jesus? If you do truly know Him, then this section has to be so utterly abhorrent to you that to do so would be the unthinkable act.
It is the height of ignorance to reject something you know nothing about! That was me before 1973.
Ian
The One who flung stars into space surrendered to cruel nails for you.
Graham Kendrick
For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses and the prophets, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!
The Author of Hebrews
The historic Christian doctrine of the divinity of Christ does not simply mean that Jesus is like God. It is far more radical than that. It means that God is like Jesus.
Elton Trueblood
The Infinite squeezed Himself down to the size of an infant.
Deron Spoo