The Renewal of Those Who Fall Away.
The words of the Apostle in the text are very strong and very startling, and I can easily believe that they have often caused pain and misgiving to Christian minds.
I. I conceive that in the text the Apostle is speaking of no less a sin than that of utter apostasy from the Christian faith. The whole tenor of the epistle indicated an anxiety in the writer's mind lest those to whom he was writing should be deceived as to the greatness of their privileges as Christians, and should be led to despise them. And if he had this fear, is it any wonder that he should speak very plainly and boldly concerning the spiritual danger which those persons incurred who had been baptised, and who fell away?
II. Allowing this, however, we are perhaps still inclined to think a passage harsh which declares it impossible for a person who has fallen, no matter into what sin it may be, to be renewed unto repentance. There is no such thing in the world, which Christ redeemed with His own most precious blood, as a human soul who may not be saved from the wrath of God if only he be willing to be saved; and if in any case there is an impossibility, it is an impossibility of man's own making, and not one arising from the decree of Him who wills not the death of a sinner. The Apostle did not mean to imply that God would mark with unavoidable damnation those who had apostatised from the faith of Christ once professed; but he did mean to warn his disciples that apostasy involved such an awful fall, resulting as it did, and casting shame upon the sacred sufferings of Christ, holding up with ridicule to the scoffing enemies of our Lord that cross whereby they professed to have been saved, that any one who did so turn his back upon Christ would find, to his cost, that to return to the place from which he had fallen would require little short of a miracle. Impossible it would not and could not be to God, but practically so improbable was it that any one who so fell would ever rise again, that it was only charitable to speak in the strongest terms imaginable of the danger incurred, and the consequent necessity of steadfastness in the faith.
Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,vol. iii., p. 368.
Falling Away from Christ.
There is no passage in the whole Bible of which the cruel enemy of souls has taken so much advantage as this. Tertullian tells us, that because of these verses the Church at one time rejected the whole Epistle to the Hebrews, and denied its inspiration so fearful and so contrary to the general spirit of God's words did they consider them. And at this moment it would be affecting to count up all the real children of God who are being made absolutely miserable, and who are in danger of letting go all their confidence and all their hope, simply because of these terrifying words.
I. Let us endeavour to distinguish between what it is to "fall" and what it is "to fall away." To fall is to pass into a state of sin after we have once known the grace of God. And it is of two kinds. Sometimes it is a gradual declension, an almost imperceptible shading off into a cold, prayerless frame of mind. When Christ is not in the heart, and the heart is not in Christ that is a fall, a deep, dangerous fall. That was the fall of Laodicea. Sometimes a fall is a rapid rush down a precipice into an act, or even into a habit, of positive sin. That was David's fall. Now God forbid that we should hide or extenuate the amazing peril of either of these two states; for both lie in the road which leads on ultimately to reprobation. But still in neither of these states has the soul yet fallen away.
II. To fall away is to go on in sin till you let Christ go altogether. It is to cease to acknowledge Him to be a Saviour at all. It is to be in the state of deadly hatred to Jesus Christ that we would rather He did not exist; and if we had the opportunity, we could do exactly what the Jews did, so hateful is He to us. To fall is to offend God; to fall away is to abandon God. To fall is to sin, and be unhappy; to fall away is to sin and be happy. To fall is to leave Christ; to fall away is to forsake Him for ever. To fall is accompanied with a secret hope and wish and intention to come back again; to fall away is to be resolute that you will never return. To fall is the act of a deceived heart; to fall away is the perversion of the whole man. To fall is guilt; to fall away is apostasy.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,5th series, p. 125.
References: Hebrews 6:4-6. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ii., No. 75; T. B. Dover, A Lent Manual,p. 149.