Hebrews 5 (and the beginning of 6)

Verse 11-14

The challenge here is that the recipients of this letter haven’t grown in their knowledge of the scriptures to the point of understanding how Melchizedek is a type of Jesus (or he could even be a “pre-incarnate” appearance of Jesus Himself, as in Joshua and Daniel). The challenge for us is, are we growing in the scriptures, or are we still babes? Do we need others to teach us, or are we able to teach others?

Hebrews 6

Verses 1-3

This is an extension of verses 11-14 in the previous chapter. It is another call to grow in our faith and knowledge of the scriptures.

Verses 4-6

This is probably one of the most challenging texts in all of scripture. One portion of scripture that comes to mind is that of the prodigal son. There we can see the father waiting expectantly at the gate for his son with a broken heart, hoping that he will come back to him. This is from Luke 15. Of course, the parable may refer to Israel in its original context rather than an individual coming back to the Lord. I’ve personally seen people leave the Lord, leave their spouses and families, only to repent a real repentance later, and bear fruit worthy of repentance. I’ve also seen people leave their spouses and families (and ultimately the Lord) and never come back.

It should also be noted that, at least to some degree, we have all fallen into sin and “left” the Lord. But 1 John speaks to this…if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. I can only surmise that this decision to leave Christ is a deep decision of the heart, a decision that we as humans cannot readily discern, and thus we have a really hard time understanding what “impossible…to renew them again unto repentance” really means. These are the people who make their final decision to say “no” to the Lord.

Verses 7-8

These verses give us a feel for what this person’s life eventually looks like. It reminds me of Matthew 13:24-30, which is the parable of the wheat and the tares. The tares grow up with the wheat until harvest time. Then the wheat is gathered into the barn and the tares are burned. I guess it means this: are our lives representative of a meaningful Christian life, or is it “worthless”? Is there fruit or not? Are we being changed into His image?