Hebrews 6 - A Better Assurance
Entering the Bermuda Triangle of Hebrews
Well, good morning, church. How are we doing? It is so good to be with you. I hope you are enjoying our journey through the book of Hebrews. If I haven’t had the privilege of meeting you yet, my name is Mike, and I’m one of the teaching pastors here.
We have been working through what is genuinely a challenging book, and we are, in every way, shape, and form, in the Bermuda Triangle this morning. If you’ve got your Bible with you, I want to invite you to turn to Hebrews chapter 6. In my humble opinion, I know of no more difficult text or section in the New Testament—potentially in our entire Bible—that is harder to understand and more difficult to interpret. And it’s not just that it’s hard to understand; the consequences of getting this passage wrong are massive. We run the risk of misunderstanding the character of God, the devastating realities of our sin, and the absolute beauty of what our Christ has accomplished for us on the cross.
So it is with that in mind that we approach this text with deep humility, really wanting to work through it in a proper way to leave us with a sense of hope—which is ultimately what Jesus is after in this text. As we’ve been walking through all the different “Jesus is better than” themes, today is all about Jesus as a better assurance.
Just by way of context: all of this is one continuous letter. In chapter 5, as Brad taught last week, the author was admonishing genuine believers who had failed to mature in their faith. The author encouraged them to press forward, to move on toward maturity. But for some reason, they had stalled out.
Hebrews 5:11-14 (NASB)
Concerning him we have much to say, and [it is] hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes [only] of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
He told them, “You have become dull of hearing. You need the basics all over again. You’ve become lazy in your spiritual pursuit and your knowledge of the Word.” He said that by this time they ought to be teachers, but instead, they need milk rather than solid food. Y’all should be feasting on Well tri-tip, and yet we’re feeding you Gerber smashed peas and carrots! You’re stuck in an infant state when you should be far down the road on your journey.
Because of that stagnation, the author constantly issues severe warnings. Today we arrive at the third of six warnings in the book of Hebrews. In chapter 2, we saw the danger of drifting away from the truths of Christ. In chapters 3 and 4, we saw the danger of disbelieving the gospel. And today, in chapter 6, we see the danger of delaying growth in Christ.
Moving Past the Foundation
With that in mind, let’s look at Hebrews 6, verses 1 and 2.
Hebrews 6:1-2 (NASB)
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
He references back to those elementary teachings from chapter 5. These are great foundational truths—repentance, faith toward God, washings, laying on of hands, resurrection, eternal judgment. In their Jewish tradition, these were necessary and good realities that pointed them toward salvation. But he says, “Y’all haven’t so much as laid a single two-by-four on top of the foundation you laid years ago.” It’s like a five-year-old who is still nursing from mom—it’s awkward, it’s strange, and it’s time to grow up. His plea is: let’s move on and start exploring the depths and riches of the Word of God.
Then he adds this fascinating statement in verse 3:
Hebrews 6:3 (NASB)
And this we will do, if God permits.
“And this we will do, if God permits.” Why would he say that? Doesn’t God desire for genuine believers to mature and saturate themselves in the Word? Of course He does. But why “if God permits”? Because within their body, there is a category of person you simply cannot bring to maturity, because they are not genuine believers. The author is saying, “They are in your midst. They are right here among us.” We aren’t simply talking about immature believers; we are talking about people who possess all the head knowledge, but none of the heart.
The Troubling Passage
Let’s wade into the deep waters of the text in verses 4 through 8:
Hebrews 6:4-8 (NASB)
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and 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 powers of the age to come, and [then] have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
This is a deeply troubling passage, and there are at least four different interpretations among scholars. For our time today, we are going to cover two: one that I believe is a clear and common misinterpretation, and another that I believe is the most biblically faithful explanation.
Before we dive into those, let’s pull up to 30,000 feet for just a second. Whenever we come to texts in Scripture that are hard and troubling—where we have to admit, “Lord, this is difficult”—what should our posture and method be?
First, we always interpret the unclear in light of the clear. When a passage raises difficult questions, we must examine what the entire body of Scripture clearly teaches on that subject. That’s why we need to be people saturated in God’s Word, understanding the whole counsel of God. We take a step back and ask: what does the rest of the New Testament clearly teach about salvation? Those clear passages give us the boundaries and insight to interpret the difficult ones.
Second, we recognize that the Bible is inspired by God. It is God-breathed. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Because God cannot contradict Himself, the same God who inspired the book of Hebrews also inspired the book of Romans. He is not going to teach one thing about salvation in Romans and something completely contradictory in Hebrews. We must hold fast to these standing pillars as we walk through challenging texts.
Can Salvation Be Lost?
Let’s examine the first interpretation, which I believe is an egregious misunderstanding of Scripture. Some commentators suggest that the individual described in verses 4 through 6 is a genuine believer who falls away and loses their salvation.
Now, if we are honest, at first glance that seems like an intuitive reading. Look at the description: enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift, partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted of the good word of God. Doesn’t that sound like a believer? It certainly sounds like one.
The massive problem with this view is that it flatly contradicts everything else the New Testament teaches about salvation. If Hebrews 6 teaches that a believer can lose their salvation, we would expect that doctrine to be reinforced throughout the Epistles. But it simply isn’t. Losing your salvation is not a biblical concept.
We need to ask: what actually happens when a person embraces the gospel? When truth moves from our heads down into our hearts, and we place our trust in Jesus Christ, what does God do in that exact moment? Remember, our faith doesn’t save us by its own power; our faith triggers a supernatural chain reaction of what God accomplishes on our behalf.
The first reality is double imputation. Imputation means crediting something to someone else’s account. Abraham is the classic biblical example of this.
Romans 4:3 (NASB)
For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’
When Abraham believed, righteousness was credited to his account.
A number of years ago, when my daughter Callie was in elementary school, she came home with a bill from the school cafeteria. My wife and I were confused. We packed her lunch every single day; why were they charging us? We asked her, “Callie, what’s going on? Are we not packing you enough food?” She said, “No, I eat my lunch, but I get milk every day because that’s free! They just set it out on the counter.” Innocently, she thought the milk was free for the taking. The cafeteria worker had been gracious, letting her take it daily, but eventually sent the bill home. So what did we do? We imputed cash to Callie’s school account, cleared the debt, and paid it in full on her behalf.
That is a picture of what God did for us. When we believe, Christ’s righteousness is credited to our account. But the imputation is double: not only is His righteousness given to us, but our sin is removed from our account, placed on Christ, and paid for in full on the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)
He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Because of that double imputation, we are justified—declared righteous before God.
Romans 5:1 (NASB)
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
We are redeemed and completely forgiven.
Colossians 2:13-14 (NASB)
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
We are reconciled to God.
Colossians 1:22 (NASB)
yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach–
Furthermore, Ephesians 1 tells us that we are chosen, predestined, adopted, and given an eternal inheritance. And God placed His Holy Spirit inside of us as an irrevocable guarantee.
Ephesians 1:13-14 (NASB)
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.
The Holy Spirit is God’s down payment, guaranteeing our future inheritance.
By my count, there are at least thirty-three distinct theological realities that happen to you the moment you are saved. And do you know how many of those thirty-three things you did to yourself? Not a single one. Every one of them was done to you and for you by God. Most of them are described in the past tense because they are finished, accomplished realities.
Listen to the words of Jesus regarding those who belong to Him:
John 6:37 (NASB)
’All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
John 10:27-29 (NASB)
’My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ’My Father, who has given [them] to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father’s hand.
Paul echoes this absolute assurance at the end of Romans 8:
Romans 8:38-39 (NASB)
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And in Romans 11:29, he writes, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” They cannot be undone! John tells us in 1 John 5:13 that he wrote these things so that “you may know that you have eternal life”—not so that you would live in perpetual anxiety.
If you believe that a Christian can lose their salvation, you must believe that all thirty-three of those divine works can be undone. You must believe that you can be un-adopted, un-redeemed, un-forgiven, un-reconciled, and un-sealed by the Holy Spirit. You must believe God reaches into Christ’s account, takes your sin back out, places it back on you, and strips Christ’s righteousness away from you. Friends, that is a bridge too far. That is an errant theology.
Many of you know my adoption story. My dad raised me from the time I was two and a half years old, but when I turned eighteen, he officially and legally adopted me in a courtroom in McKinney, Texas. On that day, I legally became a Sladen. Now, could I have walked away years later and said, “Dad, I want nothing to do with you; I’m walking away from the family”? Sure, I could have rebelled. But would that have un-made me a Sladen? No. Would I stop being his son? Absolutely not. Because he legally decreed it.
Furthermore, if you hold that Hebrews 6 teaches a loss of salvation, notice what verse 6 says: “It is impossible to renew them again to repentance.” If this refers to losing salvation, then once you lose it, you can never get it back!
If you sense some frustration in my voice, it’s because people carrying this baggage sit in my office all the time. They have been in churches that weaponize this doctrine to manipulate people, to guilt them into serving, to reach into their wallets, and to heap shame upon their souls. They come into my office asking, “Mike, have I done enough? What if I sin? What if I have a moment of doubt?” They carry the crushing weight of believing that their eternal security rests entirely on their own performance. That is an overinflated view of self and an underinflated view of God. God is big, and our salvation rests completely in His hands.
The True Warning: Apostasy
So what is the author actually describing in Hebrews 6:4-8?
The view that I believe is most faithful to Scripture is that the author is describing apostates—individuals who came close to the faith, experienced the blessings of the Christian community, possessed all the head knowledge, but never genuinely believed. All head, no heart.
Notice the shift in language. In chapters 5 and the beginning of chapter 6, the author addresses the congregation directly: “you” and “us.” But in verse 4, he switches pronouns: “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened…” He shifts gears to hold up an example of people in their midst who look the part but lack genuine life.
Look at the characteristics he lists:
- Enlightened: Their minds have been exposed to the truth. A few weeks ago, an outdoor electrical outlet at my house failed. I know nothing about electrical work, but I watched a five-minute YouTube video and became “enlightened.” I learned how to flip the breaker, replace the plug, wire it up, and get it working. Now, am I an electrician? God help you if you call me to wire your house! But I was enlightened. Non-believers can sit in church, learn Christian doctrine, and understand the concepts without ever yielding their hearts to Jesus.
- Tasted of the heavenly gift and the Word of God: To “taste” means to sample. It’s like grazing on free samples at Costco—you get a taste, but you haven’t actually sat down to feast on the meal.
- Partakers of the Holy Spirit and the powers of the age to come: The word “partaker” means to share in an environment or experience. Scripture shows that someone can be in the presence of the Holy Spirit’s power—and even be used by God—without being truly converted. Think of Judas. Judas traveled with Jesus for three years, heard every sermon, and was sent out to heal and cast out demons. Yet Judas was never a true believer; he was the son of perdition.
Is that possible today? Absolutely. I have two close pastor friends who were both led to Christ in high school by their youth pastor. That youth pastor taught them the cross with tears in his eyes. Today, those two men are faithfully preaching the gospel decades later. But do you know what happened to that youth pastor? Twenty years ago, he completely abandoned the faith and walked away into a lifestyle of unrepentant sin with a hardened heart. It is entirely possible to articulate the gospel, lead others toward truth, and yet never truly possess a regenerated heart yourself.
Notice what is conspicuously missing from verses 4 and 5: there is no mention of justification, regeneration, the new birth, adoption, or being made righteous. None of the normative New Testament terms for salvation are used here. These are people who enjoyed the periphery of Christian community and then walked away, showing their true colors.
Verse 6 says that when such people fall away, it is impossible to renew them to repentance because they are crucifying again the Son of God. This isn’t saying God denies a repentant sinner a second chance. Rather, it means that when someone fully understands the gospel, rejects Jesus Christ, and turns back to their self-righteousness, there is no “Plan B.” There is no other sacrifice for sin. If you reject the cross, there is no other path to salvation.
He illustrates this with an agricultural metaphor in verses 7 and 8: two pieces of ground receive the exact same rain. One produces useful vegetation and receives a blessing; the other produces thorns and thistles and is fit for burning. It’s the same picture Jesus gave in the Parable of the Soils.
Convinced of Better Things
Look at how the tone shifts dramatically in verse 9:
Hebrews 6:9-12 (NASB)
But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Look at how verse 9 begins: “But beloved…” That word “beloved” is only ever used in the New Testament to describe genuine believers. The author says, “I may speak harshly to warn you against drifting, but when I look at you, I am convinced of better things—things that actually accompany salvation! You are not like those apostates. You may be immature, you may be an inch deep in your theology, but you are a mile wide in your love for the saints!”
He sees genuine fruit in their lives. He urges them: take that same diligence, apply it to your spiritual growth, press on to maturity, and imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
The Unshakeable Anchor
Who should we imitate? The author brings up Abraham once again.
Hebrews 6:13-15 (NASB)
For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.’ And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.
God made covenant promises to Abraham in Genesis 12, 15, 17, and 22. Abraham waited decades, and though he died before seeing the ultimate fulfillment in Christ, he believed God all the way to the grave. Two thousand years later, God fulfilled those promises through Jesus.
Why could Abraham be so confident? Because of the Character of the Promise Maker.
Hebrews 6:16-18 (NASB)
For men swear by one greater [than themselves], and with them an oath [given] as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
When humans make a solemn promise, we swear by something greater than ourselves—we “swear on our mama’s grave” or give a pinky swear. But when God wanted to guarantee His promise, there was no one greater to swear by, so He swore by Himself!
We have two unchangeable things that secure our salvation: God’s promise and God’s oath. And it is impossible for God to lie. The Promise Maker is a Promise Keeper, and you can take His Word to the bank.
Hebrews 6:19-20 (NASB)
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a [hope] both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
We have an anchor for our soul. An anchor doesn’t sit inside the boat; it goes down into the depths, holding the vessel firm against the storm. Our spiritual anchor is cast upward and inward—behind the veil, into the heavenly Holy of Holies, where Jesus our High Priest sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father.
Can a believer lose their salvation? Can Jesus lose His throne? No! As long as Jesus is on His throne, the rope will never snap, and the anchor will never move. We have a better assurance in Jesus Christ.
Examining Our Hope
Here is the pastoral tension we must leave with: in any local church, the unbeliever who cannot mature and the believer who will not mature can look remarkably similar on the surface. Neither one is currently making spiritual progress.
If you have sat in church for decades and nothing in your heart, your desires, or your lifestyle has ever changed, it is worth examining what your hope is built upon. Is your assurance based merely on a hand you raised at a summer camp, an aisle you walked, or a song that made you cry? Scripture offers no assurance for a conversion that produces zero transformation.
True salvation changes our affections over time. We begin to hate the sin we once loved and love the righteousness we once ignored. We grieve our shortcomings, we desire fellowship with God’s people, and we begin to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Do some soul work this morning. If you belong to Christ, you do not need to live in fear of losing your salvation. Rest in the finished work of Jesus. And if you have been coasting on empty religion, lay down your self-righteousness today. Cast the anchor of your soul into the finished, secure, unchanging work of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
Father, thank You for Your goodness to us. Thank You for hard texts that strip away our self-reliance and drive us back to the cross. I pray for anyone here walking in fear and anxiety, wondering if they have done enough. May they rest completely in the finished work of Christ. And Lord, for those resting in false security—in mere rituals or experiences apart from true faith—stir their hearts to examine themselves and truly surrender to Jesus. Thank You that our hope is an anchor, firm and secure within the veil. We love You, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.