S14 || If Our Salvation Is Secure, What Comes Next || Hebrews 6:1-8 || Session 14

What if the truths we treasure most—repentance, faith, and resurrection—are meant to be the starting line rather than the finish? We open Hebrews chapter 6 and discover a surprising call: move beyond the elementary teachings and press on to maturity without abandoning the foundation that saves. That shift reframes how we think about spiritual growth, assurance, and the temptations that pull us back toward performance, ritual, and spiritual shortcuts.

Together we map the passage step by step: the list of “first things,” the Jewish context, and the thorny debate around verses 4–6. We walk through six major interpretations, then weigh them against the wider witness of Scripture—John 10, 1 John 5, Romans 8—to show why eternal life is secure in Jesus Christ. With Kadesh Barnea as the backdrop, we explain how “falling away” points to turning from Christ’s sufficiency to systems that imply he must be sacrificed again. That move does not erase salvation; it robs believers of rest, fruit, and reward, and it puts the cross to open shame by suggesting it was not enough.

If you’re hungry to grow past spiritual basics without drifting from the gospel, this conversation will ground your assurance and stretch your vision. Press on with us, and if it helps you, share the episode with a friend, subscribe for more verse-by-verse studies, and leave a review to tell us what “solid food” topic you want next.

Chapters

• 0:17 From Elementary Truths To Maturity
• 0:49 Setting The Stage In Hebrews 6
• 1:18 The List Of “Beginning Things”
• 3:34 Beyond Salvation: Wider Biblical Themes
• 8:08 Introducing The Controversy In 6:4–8
• 9:36 Six Major Interpretations Surveyed
• 12:39 Kadesh Barnea As The Backdrop
• 15:20 Security Of Believers Across Scripture
• 20:58 Falling Away And Re-Crucifying Christ
• 25:55 Modern Parallels: Rituals And Add-Ons
• 29:22 Encouragement And Next Steps For Growth
• 30:45 Closing And Support Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

In the Christian life, we learn some very profound things from the Word of God. Today, on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going to learn that many of the things we spend most of our time on are only the elementary things, the first things. And we're going to be surprised at what God says are the things that we should move on to. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We have a ministry where we go verse by verse through the Word of God and we talk about all these concepts as we go. That's what makes us unique. So you have your Bible, open it to the book of Hebrews, chapter six, and we're going to be introduced to some very profound things. We're going to even learn some of the things that theologians have argued about for centuries. Questions like, is our salvation secure, or can we lose our salvation? So, Steve, can you start at verse one and read down through verse three of Hebrews 6?

SPEAKER_00: 1:18

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 towards God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

SPEAKER_01: 1:42

So in verse one, he says they're leaving the elementary things. And the elementary things are really the first things, the beginning things. He's not saying that these are of low importance. Actually, they're of very high importance. They're just the first things, there's other important things too. So, Steve, what's the list there that he gives in those couple of verses about what he calls as beginning things or elementary things?

SPEAKER_00: 2:10

He has about four or five things here. The first one is a foundation of repentance from dead works. And that word repentance means a changing of mind. Then he talks about a faith toward God, of instructions about the washings and the laying on of hands. And then he talks about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And Glenn, I don't think we need to lose the Jewishness here of what he's talking about in these items. These were all things that were taught through Judaism. Yes, now they're Christians, and some of them have been manifested by Jesus Christ. The resurrection is one repentance from dead works, meaning that the law keeping it perfectly is not capable to be doing. We're going to talk a little bit more detail of this and break it down, but don't lose the fact that he's writing to Hebrews and he's reminding them of these elementary principles of Judaism that have come to fruition through Jesus Christ, and that now that they have a fuller understanding of them through Jesus, of moving on into maturity. So I don't think us, as we go through here and look at this, should forget about who the author is writing to as we make application of all of this stuff to our life and our day.

SPEAKER_01: 3:34

We also need to note the flow of the book because at the end of the last chapter, he had just chastised his audience for staying with milk and not learning and training themselves to move on to solid food. So now, the very next passage, the beginning of chapter six, he lists off what he calls elementary things or the first things, the beginning things. And what does he list? Some of them are things like repentance and faith towards God and resurrection. My goodness, those are very profound. That is salvation, no more nor less than salvation and resurrection. And what I find very profound is that the writer to the Hebrews calls those the foundation things. I think of today in our Christian world, there's many churches that don't even teach the milk things. If there's theology at all, it centers around the salvation things. And he's saying those are the beginning that we need to move on from. So, Steve, is there a concept in scripture that is in addition to salvation? The reason I ask that is because here he lists the salvation things and says we need to move on from them and learn other things. And when I suggest in the Christian world to other Bible teachers, if there's other things in the Bible in addition to about how people are saved, there's some people that think, well, my goodness, you're you're trying to minimize salvation or you're trying to add something to the word of God. Well, it's not me, it's not us. It's right here in Hebrews chapter six, he's saying salvation is the foundation, but we should move on to other things. So is there other important concepts taught in the Bible that we should learn in addition to salvation?

SPEAKER_00: 5:34

I call those biblical principles. And the reason why I use that term is because that might often be couched as theology and doctrine, which that is true, that is good, but along with theology and doctrine, sometimes come different viewpoints or different systems. And if we're not careful, we end up taking those theological systems or doctrines and taking them and reading them back into the scripture. So I like to say biblical principles, to always know that as we move forward into maturity of learning about the scripture itself and maybe the theology and the doctrines that are taught, that we should remember to keep the biblical principles intact as we go through and study the word of God. Use the inductive study method, let scripture interpret scripture. But that is all the case, I think, Glenn, of moving on to maturity. Salvation and the gospel message is good, but there's other things. One of the things that we have looked at as we've gone through several books is that yes, there's the redemption of mankind. That's the main theme of scripture of Old and New Testament, but there's also the redemption of creation. There's also the redemption of nations. Those are types of things that we should move into and understand God is doing more than just redeeming man to himself. There's other things that are going on. And the only way that we're going to really understand those is to move on into maturity, move on into solid food to pick up on the last part of chapter five and get into the meaty parts that we need to chew on and digest of the word of God.

SPEAKER_01: 7:23

That's what I find just very profound. This section just floors me simply because much of the theological discussions over many centuries, entire libraries full of theological discussions, are centered around repentance and faith and resurrection. And here in Hebrews 6, those are the beginning things, and we need to move on past those and talk about other biblical concepts too. And so I think a lot of teachers today just miss that entirely, that there are so many very valuable, rich things in the scriptures, not minimizing salvation. That's the foundation, the beginning things. But my friend, there's other good things too. Now, the next passage gets into a controversy or at least a difference of opinion sometimes amongst good, solid Christian teachers about whether or not our salvation is secure for all eternity, or whether it can be lost at all. So I'm going to go ahead and read, starting at verse four, and we'll go back and discuss this in detail. Hebrews 6:4 says this 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. So what are the basic controversies here? Controversy, I guess, not the right word. It's really a difference of opinion on how to interpret this. And I found at least six different interpretations that have been held by sincere Christians. And I've had friends of mine that are, again, very sincere, that have looked at this and come to differences of opinion. So one option is that this is speaking of truly saved people who can then walk away from the faith and become apostate, forever lost, unable to become saved again. And the reason they hold that is again, if we look at verse four, it says those who have once been enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift, partakers of the Holy Spirit, but then in verse six, fallen away, therefore impossible to renew to repentance. So some people would look at that and say that this is talking about truly saved people that walk away and become truly apostate, and a truly apostate person then is forever lost, unable to come back to Christ and unable to become saved again. That's one option that I've known people that have taught that, that truly saved people can lose their salvation. Second option is that it's speaking of people who expressed a faith, but it was not a genuine faith. That it's talking about people that if there was somebody like this that wasn't really genuine, they may have tasted it, but they didn't really become a Christian. Another option is that this was a hypothetical case, kind of an intellectual argument, a thought experiment that could never happen in reality. The people that hold this would say, if they shall fall away, he's describing a hypothetical situation, trying to emphasize that Jesus is the only way. Still another option is that some say having walked away from the faith, it's impossible for men to repent, but it's not impossible for God to draw them in. These people would hold since men can't really repent in the first place, then God would have to draw them in and cause the repentance. So this position would say that impossible for men, but nothing is impossible for God. Another viewpoint is that this is speaking of rewards, not salvation. And they would point to verse nine, which would say, convinced of better things and things that accompany salvation, it says in verse nine. So this option would say that this is really speaking of rewards, that if you fall away from the true path into sin, you're going to lose your rewards. And those are forever lost. So, Steve, with those, I still have yet another option that I think is the case. But what do you first think of when you hear this passage? Having fallen away, it's impossible to renew them to repentance.

SPEAKER_00: 12:24

Well, I think that we should keep in mind some of the things of what it talks about there in six, that it is the words fallen away, impossible, but we also have the word sense they that's mentioned there. And remember the backdrop illustrative story behind everything that the writer is discussing in these chapters of four, five, and six is the story of Kadesh Barnea, where the people, the Israelites coming out of Egypt, got to the point where they were going to go into the promised land and they rebelled against Moses. And because of that, God said everybody from the age of 20 and above is not going to go into the promised land with exception of Joshua and Caleb. That's the backdrop that he's been discussing here related to everything that he's giving here. So when we talk about that, in the previous verses, it's clear in four that everything that he names off there tasted of the heavenly gift, have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and they've tasted the good word of God and the power of the ages to come, meaning the messianic kingdom that is to come, that those are characteristics of a believer. And that is who he is including them in. He's saying is you are partakers of, you are believers. Then he says, and then have fallen away, is impossible to renew them again to repentance, to a change of mind since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God. So I think that taking all of that background of the story of Kadesh Barnia, where they made an irrevocable decision that God said, because of this decision, you're not going to go into the promised land. And he's been encouraging these Hebrew people to not go back under Judaism, to stay true with Jesus Christ and to stay on that way. Don't make that irrevocable decision to go back under Judaism and miss out on the rest, meaning the resting place of life and then living the Christian life here on earth, entering into that rest of the promised land, like the people of that generation, that they can't go back. It's impossible for them to go back to that again and become re-believers. They can't become believers again because that means that they would have to crucify Jesus again. That means that they would have to put their faith once again in something that they've already put their faith in. And we are told in scripture that once we place faith in God, in Jesus Christ, that that faith is then reckoned to us as righteousness. Paul in other epistles uses the story of Abraham to pound that home in the book of Galatians and over in the book of Colossians, he also talks about that. So there's very good sound scriptural evidence for a true believer having salvation that they didn't earn, that is granted to them by the grace of God. And if they didn't earn that salvation, they can't do anything to unearn it. That's important to understand as we look at verse six when he talks about impossible for them to renew them again to repentance. So, Glenn, I think what he's talking about is just what I said before. They're already believers, they're already secure and have the salvation of eternal life. But what do they have here on earth of the rest and peacefulness of a Christian life, of such as the people going into the promised land? That's the story that he's giving to them. And if they go back under Judaism, then they're at risk of missing that. And if they think that they can come back at a later time and say, Oh, now I want to reestablish myself and believe in Jesus Christ. What he's telling them is it's impossible for you to believe again. You already have salvation. So you can't come back later and say, Oh, I'm a believer now. No, you were a believer to begin with. When you made the decision to go back under Judaism, then you made a decision that possibly is going to have some consequences to their life here on earth. So I think that is what he's talking about there. There's so much more to talk and discuss, but what is it that you've come up with?

SPEAKER_01: 17:06

Well, I would agree with what you said. And I think one of the important things that you mentioned there at the first of when you were just speaking, context is king. Context is king. And that's with any passage of scripture. What we can't do is have a theological question in our head, flip over to, in this case, chapter six, and then just start here trying to answer a theological question. We have to understand the book, the writer, who he's writing to, and what the context is. And the context is, as you rightfully said, he's writing to Jewish Christians that have been in danger of falling back into Judaism. That's the theme of the book. And the theme is that Jesus is a better way. So to take that context and then try to answer that list of different options, the different interpretations that I mentioned a few minutes ago, I think it's helpful to us to ask and walk through some basic questions that I think will help us one by one untangle this passage. The first question is this passage describing a genuinely saved person? And I think the answer to that is yes. This passage is indeed talking about a genuinely saved person. It uses phrases here in verse four, been enlightened or tasted of the heavenly gifts and a partaker of the Holy Spirit. My friend, that has everything to do with a saved person. On top of that, what did he just mention in the verses just prior to this? Repentance from dead works and faith towards God and resurrection. That's salvation language. So, yes, he is talking about a genuinely saved person. Next question that'll help us untangle this is the statement here, the question speaking about a salvation topic. And it seems to be, again, verse four, once been enlightened, partakers of the Holy Spirit. So the passage, the section, seems to be indeed talking about a salvation question. And we'll get to the other contrary to that in just a moment. Next question that'll help us untangle this: what does the rest of the Bible say about the security of the believer? What does it say about how secure a believer is? Well, our Lord told us in John 10, 28, I give them eternal life and they will never perish, unquote. So, my friends, that feel that you can lose your salvation, what part of they will never perish is unclear. He said right there in red and white, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. So once they have it, they will never perish. They will never lose it. 1 John 5.13 says that you can, quote, know that you have eternal life, unquote. You're not thinking you might get it. No, no. It says very specifically, you can know that you have it and it's eternal right now. If you could lose it tomorrow, then it's not eternal, it's temporary. And then in Romans 8:1, quote, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, unquote. And we could go on like this for a while. There's many passages that make it quite clear that our salvation is secure. We have eternal life, not temporary life, and we will never perish. So then that begs the question in this passage here in Hebrews 6: what does the phrase renew mean or restore? Some translations say, and repentance in verse 6. Impossible to renew or restore them again to repentance. What does he mean there? Well, repentance in verse 1 seems to be speaking of salvation, for it's linked with faith. So therefore, we have here renewing again. It is impossible to renew to repentance. He does not use the word salvation, but he he does use repentance. So I think with that context, we then have to take into account, again, Jewish Christians. And lastly, our question, what is meant by fall away? Well, back in Hebrews 2.1, he used the phrase drift away to mean drift away from the proper doctrine about Christ. Repenting from falling away in 6-6 is connected to, quote, again crucify to them the Son of God, and then crucifying Christ all over again. The writer does not merely say fall, fall away from what? Fall away from the doctrine. What is the book about? It's about theology, about doctrine. If we fall away from the teaching about Jesus Christ, then we can't go back and crucify him again. So whatever it's talking about, it's not talking about a sin that somebody commits that would cause us to lose our salvation. It's about a doctrinal teaching that we've fallen away from that would recrucify Christ. That's what it's talking about. Therefore, it would seem that verse six is saying that falling away would require recrucifying Christ. Note in verse six, crucified to themselves and put him to open shame. Therefore, taking all that into account, the best explanation of this seems to be saying that when the Hebrews were to return to the Mosaic sacrificial system, thinking that that would be effective for taking away sins, they would be, in effect, trying to re-sacrifice Jesus. They would put him to open shame, saying that his death on the cross was not sufficient. We needed to go back and sacrifice a lamb to take away my sin, or I need to go through some ritual to take away my sin. That's what's apostasy. That's what you can't repent from. And I would agree with you, Steve, once you've accepted the idea that I need something else to pay for my sin, like a blood sacrifice, a lamb or a bull or a goat. I need to go back into that system. That's not something that you can stay in and then repent from. You're not going to be able to re-sacrifice to yourself. That's to me the key phrase. You can't go back to the mosaic system and re-sacrifice an animal and think that you're still going to be able to be Christian. That's impossible to renew from that because the Old Testament sacrificial systems were insufficient. The other possible interpretation might be that it's speaking of rewards. Verses seven and eight speak of ground that is fruitful versus ground that is unfruitful. Well, fruit is generally a reward. First Corinthians three speaks of our dead works being burned up, just like verses eight does. And then in verse nine here in this chapter, six, nine speaks of, quote, things that accompany salvation. And the next verse after that speaks of, quote, your work and the love you have shown. So I think it's most probably speaking about going back into the Mosaic system, but there's some room there for speaking of rewards. What I think is entirely, thoroughly, completely out of the picture is that a genuinely saved Christian could sin so much and do some action that would cause them to lose their salvation. That is thoroughly debunked by scripture.

SPEAKER_00: 25:13

I think also that a key part to bolster what we both said is that the latter part of six, where it says, Since they again crucify themselves, the Son of God, and put him to open shame. I think that's the clincher, meaning that if you go and once again try to profess Jesus Christ in a salvific way of your faith, that you're re-crucifying him and you're putting him to open shame. In other words, he's he's now being crucified again, so to speak. So I think that that bolsters the argument that we're making that the writer is saying is that's the impossible part. You can't go back and re-profess your faith that you've already professed. It's impossible to do that because you have been granted righteousness. And to do that, you can't go and recrucify Christ again. It's kind of a funny way that he worded it, but to me, that's the clincher there. That's the part that he's talking about that is impossible. It's impossible to go back and recrucify Jesus Christ again through your profession of faith. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01: 26:34

Makes sense to me. And it brings up to me the next question. We can sit here and say this chapter would be written to ancient Hebrews, which it was, and they still had the temple ceremonies going on. In our day, the people listening to us are not in a position to go re-sacrifice an animal. So the question is, is there anything today that Christians could fall away from or fall towards, rather, I guess the way to phrase it, that would fall into the same category? In other words, can we get sucked into thinking that there's something I could go do that would make me right again before God that's separate and apart from Christ? Christ said it is finished, and the scriptures teach that we are saved by faith. Is there a temptation in the world today where Christians could fall away from that and think that there's a ceremony that I could go through? You know, Christ's death's not quite sufficient. He didn't quite get me there, so I have to go and finish the job here. Is there anything like that that is in the world today?

SPEAKER_00: 27:49

One of the ways that you put pose that question when we went through Colossians, Glenn, is you said where a person thinks that Jesus Christ got us part of the way there. Where in Colossians it's very clear that we had salvation, that we have been transferred from darkness to light, we have been qualified, all the other things that Colossians talks about, that we were presented complete, those were all actions of something that had been done. And you the way you put it again was you said, okay, well, then Jesus just got me part of the way there. I have to get myself the rest of the way there. So, no, I think it's clear that no, you either believe that Jesus has gotten you completely there as far as eternal salvation through belief and the promises that he has, and that there's nothing else left to do, or else you are falling short of what the whole gospel message is.

SPEAKER_01: 28:54

There is no ceremony that you can do, no ritual that you can go through that's going to add to the work of the cross. We're told here in this book, we we saw it in previous sessions. We are given the right as a heir to the king that we can go directly into the throne of grace. Whenever we need uh cleansing, whenever we need Christ, we can go directly to the throne of grace. Whenever we wake up and find that we have sinned, then we can go openly, directly, boldly, with confidence to the throne, and we will get grace. Think of it this way: we can't work our way into salvation. What makes you think you can work your way out of it? If if if we didn't earn it to get it in the first place, why would we think we could earn it to lose it? There's nothing that we can do that would get us any further than what Christ got us. He's the one that got us into salvation, and all we need to Do is then confess. Again, go back and listen to our sessions on Colossians where it lists off this long list of things that the Christian has and is inherited because of our salvation. So there's no ritual, no ceremony that's going to be able to add to your righteousness. Christ has given us his righteousness, which is infinite. Now, Steve, we probably should stop there because of time. But I want to encourage our listeners to be back with us next time because the next section kind of turns a corner and it gets into encouragement. And he's going to say some things that's going to encourage our believers to be steadfast in the faith. So I can't wait till we get to that one.

SPEAKER_00: 30:44

I can't wait either. Thank you so much for watching and listening to us. We hope that you enjoy what we have here at Reasoning Through the Bible. We ask that you go to our resource page and look there at our lesson plans as well as our study guides where we have things there. And if you'd like to support our ministry, we've put something up there on the screen that you can scan to support our ministry so that we can continue to put out material that you might be able to study the Word of God more deeply so that you can press onward to becoming more of a mature Christian. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, may God bless you.