The thing about a bike is, you have to keep going to stay on it. You cannot stand still. You must be moving forward, progressing, advancing. And despite what some TV ads would have us believe, you cannot go backwards. Try it and you fall off. There is only one way to go, and it is forward.
So it is with the Christian life. We must continue to advance and progress.
Sometimes on our bikes we encounter bumpy roads. Sometimes there are dangerous things on the way. Semi Trailers, Dog Trailers, B Doubles, P-platers forgetting they’re mortal. And of course, sometimes, people fall off their bike.
Mostly, we can cope with that. Most of the time a bike rider can always get up again, and start off. Sometimes you have to get patched up. Sometimes it might be months.
And it always helps to look back from where you’ve come and look ahead to your Hey look, I’ve already come up Baine’s Hill. The hardest bit is behind me. There might be a tough ride ahead. But I can’t wait to make it home.
But there’s not much you can do when someone dismounts, takes their bike to the compactor, crushes it for scrap, melts it down, and says, ‘I am never ever ever getting on a bike ever again. I don’t know why I ever sat on one. Don’t ever talk to me about bikes again.’
The sad possibility is that the rider won’t have anything to do with bikes anymore. It’s a real danger. It turns out impossible to change their minds. Indeed, they can’t even change their own minds. And every time you talk to them about bikes, they say, ‘Look, I’ve done the bike thing. I’ve moved on now. I couldn’t care less for bikes. Bikes aren’t the only way. There are many ways. My bike phase was just a "crutch". I needed it at the time. But now I’m into Cherry Red Ferraris.
The Christian life can be likened to riding a bike. You’ve got to keep progressing to stay in it. It’s good to remember where you’ve already been. It’s imperative to remember where you are going. And of course, there are dangers. Falls can and do happen. Often, people get up again. But tragically, there is a danger that sometimes some people will dismount in such a way, that they cannot and will not get back on their bike.
So far, Hebrews has taught us that ‘Jesus is superior’. He is superior to the angels as their creator. He is superior to Moses as a son is to a servant. And he is superior to Joshua as a rest giver.
And now the Author would like to talk about Melchizedek. He wants to do Old Testament bible study. He wants to show them yet again Jesus superiority to the Old Testament. But the Author has some doubts. He’s not confident that his readers will understand him. And the fault lies with them, not him. They have not been progressing. They have been standing still. And if someone is standing still, just as on a bike, they are liable to fall. Look with me at Hebrews chapter 5 verses 11 to 12:
11 We have much to say about this [about Jesus being a High Priest in the Order of Melchizedek], but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! (Hebrews 5:11-12 NIV)
Sometimes it is said that there are no bad students, only bad teachers. But not here. The Hebrews are bad students, slow learners, probably not because they are dumb or unintelligent. He hints at the possible reason in chapter 6 verse 12:
We do not want you to become lazy… (Hebrews 6:12 NIV)
Perhaps they have become lazy. So, in a sharp rebuke, he calls them slow learners. Like babies, who need to be fed milk in a bottle, and spoon fed puree.
The bible has an expectation of growth, and learning, and development. And if we do not grow, at least here, the bible puts the cause squarely at our feet.
Notice, the author actually expected that the Hebrew Christians ought to be teachers because of how long they have been Christian. That is an expectation of growth in knowledge of the Lord Jesus, so that you can teach others. In the normal course of things, those who have been Christian longer should be able to teach the Christian faith.
Someone might say, ‘That’s what we’ve got you for. You are meant to be our teacher.’
My job is to equip you for ministry. And we need more workers for the vineyard. And I am looking at the workers.
It is true, that as the bible says: ‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly’ (James 3:1 NIV). All this is true.
But Scriptures also says, ‘though by this time you ought to be teachers…’ (Hebrews 5:12). And, ‘If anyone set his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task’ (1 Timothy 3:1 NIV). And the tragic, 'Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.' (Luke 19:20-21 NIV)
The bible expectation is, if everything else is as it should be, people who have been Christians a long time should be able to teach.
It was a bit of a surprise to me to realize a number of years ago through sad observation, that just because someone is old, and a Christian, and had been Christian a long time, they may not be mature. We should expect a maturing in our character, that we be made more like Jesus.
So how are you going? Have you been making good progress? Are you ready to be a teacher yet? If not, why not? Because the expectation is for growth to maturity.
There is another great disadvantage of being a baby Christian. Baby Christians cannot tell left from right, or right from wrong. Verses 13 and 14:
13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:13-14 NIV)
Unless you progress, you will not be able to distinguish right from wrong. An infant is not yet morally formed. They cannot tell if something is good or evil. And that is an awful situation to be in our current society[1].
So the first word the Author has for us is ‘Stay on your bike. Make progress.’ You can only stay on your bike by continually progressing. We need to move on to become able to teach, all other things being equal. And we must move to being able to distinguish truth from evil[2].
But when you’re on your bike, there is a worse problem than not going forward and then falling off, from the point of view of being a bike rider. It is dismounting, throwing the bike away, and saying the whole thing is too hard and a load of rubbish. Some people do that, or at least seem to.
There are several people in my experience who I suspect are no longer Christians. As far as I know, they have walked away from church, and seemingly, from Christ. The older I get, the more people I can think of that I can put in this category.
Here are the facts as I observe them. Sometimes Christians fall away. What do I mean when I say ‘fall away’? I mean that these people started being Christians, living the Christian life, and coming to church. They made Christian decisions. But then at some time they have stopped being Christian, at least as far as I can tell. They stopped coming to church, and they have no observable fruit of being a Christian anymore.
Now, the Author has a serious warning about something that he also calls ‘falling away’. But what I call ‘falling away’ and what he calls ‘falling away’ might be different. Chapter 6 verses 4 to 6:
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Hebrews 6:4-6 NIV)
Let’s note what it says. The person who shares in Christian experiences and ‘falls away’, cannot be brought back to repentance.
Note what it is not saying. It is not saying that if someone ‘falls away’ and later repents, God won’t receive and forgive them. Because, in the case the Author to the Hebrews is talking about, it is the repentance itself that is impossible. If someone repents, they haven’t actually ‘fallen away’ in the sense that Hebrews means. In Spurgeon’s words, the impossibility of renewal to repentance is said not of those who fall, but those who fall away[3]. We have many examples of serious willful sin, even of a believer, where the sinner repents and is forgiven.
David, who committed adultery and murder, which looked for all the world like sin with a high hand, repented, and was forgiven and restored.
Manasseh, whose crimes were worse than all the Canaanite nations before him, who saw his Father Hezekiah’s righteousness and spurned it, who burnt his sons in the fire, who turned away from Yahweh and worshipped all the false gods he could find, even he repented in Babylon, and God was moved by his plea (2 Chronicles 33:1-20).
And what of Peter, who denied the Lord Jesus Christ? He turned back, and was forgiven and restored. Indeed, his turning back was predicted by Christ (Luke 22:32). Jesus Christ himself, who said that ‘whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven’ (Matthew 10:33), thrice re-commissioned him to ‘feed my sheep’ (John 21).
So no-one should think that they have ever gone too far to be forgiven, if they repent. I call no-one in this life beyond God’s mercy. If someone repents, they haven’t done this sin, the sin of falling away as Hebrews describes it. Because no-one repents of the sin of which the author to the Hebrews speaks. This falling away is the sin of final apostasy, of which there cannot be repentance.
In the end, I don’t think we humans can finally know if another human has committed this unforgivable sin, of which Hebrews speaks. We don’t know whether what they had was true faith to begin with. We don’t know if their falling away is final at the end.
That is why I put a ‘might be impossible’ where our author says ‘it is impossible’. When we observe someone 'falling away', we don’t know from our perspective whether they are doing what the Author to the Hebrews says is impossible to repent of. So we should still chase them. We should not use this warning as an excuse to not chase a fallen brother or sister. Our judgments are always provisional and conditional.
And we have great encouragements to pursue the erring and the wayward. Several passages tell us to seek after the fallen:
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven (Matthew 12:32 NIV; compare Luke 12:10)
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. (Galatians 6:1 NIV)
Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear -- hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. (Jude 22-23 NIV)
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20 NIV)
And Timothy is told that:
‘Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.’ (2 Timothy 2:25-26 NIV)
But after all these caveats and reservations, our author means something when he says renewal to repentance is impossible[4].The author fears that someone might fall away into apostasy, and they harden their own heart so that they will not repent. That is the danger. And so we are warned. Don’t apostasize, because those who apostasize don’t come back. They can’t repent anymore. Repentance is impossible.
Some people think that repentance is an easy matter. ‘I can repent when I want’. You hear it articulated occasionally. ‘Look, being a Christian and part of the church was good for a while. But I don’t want to be a Christian anymore. It cramps my style. There is life out there to live, and I’m going without in here. Maybe I will come back to it later. Like you always say, "God accepts everyone who repents". So I can always come back.’
The author will later point to Esau to show that Apostates can’t come back. They can’t repent.
Make sure that there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for one meal. For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected because he didn’t find any opportunity for repentance, though he sought it with tears (Hebrews 12:16-17 HCSB)
Esau couldn’t come back. He couldn’t repent anymore, no matter how much he wanted to[5].
So don’t fall away. Because falling away in this way can’t be repented of.
And the job of this warning passage is to stop us going along that path. He doesn’t want us to do it, so he gives the warning. The warning is there for a reason. The warning is there to keep us safe. Just like a big ‘Wrong Way Go Back’ sign on the M4 exit. It is there to avoid an accident, not to say that a tragedy has happened. A ‘Wrong Way Go Back’ sign doesn’t tell us whether a tragedy has happened. That’s the job of those little crosses and flower bunches on the roadside. But the ‘Wrong Way Go Back’ sign is there to stop the little crosses.
To use my original metaphor, don’t throw away the bike and give up.
Now in spite of giving such a stern warning, our author doesn’t believe this tragedy of 'falling away' as apostasy will befall the Hebrews. The Author is confident they won’t throw away the bike. The warning ‘Wrong Way Go Back’ is given before the event to avoid a tragedy and the little crosses. The Author is confident that the Hebrews will have a better outcome. Chapter 6 verse 9:
Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case--things that accompany salvation. (Hebrews 6:9 NIV)
The Author expects that the Hebrew Christians will be saved. He speaks harshly to warn. But he expects salvation, that is, that they won’t falling away. And the Author does so because he looks back and sees that they are not land producing thorns and thistles (Hebrews 6:7-8). They are not reprobate land. They have born fruit. Verse 10:
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. (Hebrews 6:10 NIV)
Our Author looks back in time, and looks at their present, and says. ‘You guys are different from that. You won’t fall away. There is too much evidence of good fruit’.
And friends, we too need to look back. In our race, we must remember how far we have come. Look at what the Lord has brought you through. Look at everything you’ve worked toward. And look at where you have come to. You have made progress, even if it is slower than expected. Don’t throw it all away now. Keep going. Show the same progress here on you did in earlier days. Verses 11 and 12:
11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:11-12 NIV)
We do not need just warnings not to fall away and exhortations to continue to make progress. We also need promises placed before us. We need the goal and destination firmly placed in our sights. Seeing the end gives us encouragement to pedal hard on the way.
After a gruelling long distance run, when the athletes see the finish line, they sprint. The hope of finishing strong spurs them on to even greater efforts.
And we need to imitate the ones who through faith and perseverence are inheriting the promise (Hebrews 6:12). So the author reminds us of God’s promise to Abraham in verses 13 to 15:
13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants." 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. (Hebrews 6:13-15 NIV)
God did two things. First, God made the promise to Abraham. Second, God confirmed the promise with an oath. It wasn’t just a promise, it was a sworn promise, doubly sure. And Abraham received what was promised.
Of course, patient endurance is required. Perseverence is necessary. We have to keep going and persevere. But God will be good for that which he has promised. And the promise of the inheritance in the end is what provides us with the final ‘kick’ as we head to the finish line. And God has given us a great encouragement to our faith. Verses 18 and 19:
18… We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Hebrews 6:18-19 NIV)
The picture is of a small group of refugees fleeing from the coming wrath. Friends, we are like Lot and his family in Genesis 19. Behind us is the divine fire raining down on Sodom and Gommorah. Before us is the safety of the promised salvation. And of course the Sodomites laugh at us as we flee to Christ. But we are heading for safety. And we also experience the safety for as long as we are on the way.
So stay on the bike. Just keep pedalling, just keep pedalling.
And this race is not like the Olympics, where there’s only one gold medal. Everyone else is a loser, even if it’s only by 1 hundredth of a second.
No, everyone who finishes this race in faith gets gold. For the streets where we are headed are paved with gold.
And if you fall off the bike, there is recovery. Dust yourself off. Get back on the bike. We’re all in a big pack – I think they call it the peleton – heading to the finish line together. And if you fall, some of us will stop and help you get back on.
But don’t fall away. Don’t dismount and toss the bike away, and give away bikes completely. Because when Esau did this, he couldn’t find repentance, though he looked for it with tears.
Let’s pray.
[1] A current example is homosexuality. The conservative Christian position is commonly looked on by our society at as evil. We are the hypocrites, not treating people as they would want to be treated. We make gays and lesbians commit suicide. And we should realise that living the homosexual lifestyle is good, despite the clear Apostolic teaching that the unrepentant active and passive partners in homosexual activity will not enter the kingdom of heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) and that gay and lesbian activity is sin (Romans 1:26-27). Our response is: 'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.' (Isaiah 5:20 NIV)
[2] In Hebrews 6:1-3, the author lists as foundational and elementary to the faith (1) repentance from either evil works or meaningless and obsolete Jewish ritual, (2) faith, (3) instruction about baptisms (note the plural), perhaps Christian baptism distinguished from John’s, perhaps in distinction from the ceremonial washings of the Jews (4) the laying on of hands, possibly being ordination (5) the resurrection of the dead, both Christ’s and the general resurrection and (6) eternal judgment.
[3] Note that Spurgeon’s distinction between ‘falling’ and ‘falling away’ is not sound as an explanation of the force of the prefixed preposition in parapi,ptw. However, it is helpful as a pedagogical device to distinguish between what might be called ‘backsliding’ or ‘regressions in faith’ that falls short of apostasy.
[4] I don’t think granting repentance is impossible for God in an absolute sense to anyone. God can change the hearts of any of his creatures that he finally and ultimately desires to regenerate. I think the Author here is speaking, under the inspiration of the Spirit, phenomenologically (what we observe) and experientially (what we experience as humans), not about what God is absolutely able or not able to do in his omnipotence. The fact is, the Author doesn’t say it was impossible for God, just that there is an inability for the one experiencing Christian blessing and falling away to renew to repentance. The best construction seems to me is that it is impossible for those to renew themselves to repentance. But clearly there comes a time when God no longer grants repentance.
[5] The phrase ‘for he found no possibility/opportunity for repentance’ in Hebrews 12:17 doesn’t mean that Esau could find no way of reversing Isaac’s and God’s decision, but is a phrase that signifies that there is an objective impossibility for repentance by Esau. The earlier warning that there is no second repentance for apostasy is reinforced by Esau’s negative example: see P T O’Brien, Hebrews: Pillar, 476-7. ‘The more likely meaning is that Esau has placed himself in a position in which there was no possibility of repentance’: Ellingworth, Hebrews: NIGTC, 668-9. Esau’s end shows the difficulty of repentance: Ellingworth, 666. Esau mourned his loss, not his profanity. ‘All of the ancient writers and the majority of modern commentators take [for he could not find a place of repentance] to mean that Esau found no place or opportunity of repentance for himself’: P E Hughes, Hebrews, 541 fn 147. ‘Esau continues as a cautionary example of the impossibility of restoring again to repentance those who have rebelliously sinned against the light (cf Hebrews 6:4ff)’: Hughes, 541.