Hebrews 6 · a question people ask
"…and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance" (6:6). Can those who have known Christ fall away?
This question is only about 6:4-8 and 10:26-31. First, what the letter says: "For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit," (6:4) "and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come," (6:5) "and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame." (6:6) Then it speaks of land: "For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it and produces a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God;" (6:7) "but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned." (6:8). Christians read these verses in two main ways, each resting on verses of Hebrews, and this question picks neither. All agree that the warning is given in earnest, and all hear the letter's call: "We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end," (6:11) and "let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful." (10:23). Favor's 1 Chronicles 28 asks a question like this one of 1 Chronicles 28:9, and Favor's 2 Chronicles 15 of 2 Chronicles 15:2; each sets out two readings under the same names as these. These notes apply neither reading to anyone today, and say of no one whether they have fallen away.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A real warning to all who hear it
Those who read it this way take 6:4-5 as describing people who have truly known Christ, "once enlightened" (6:4), who "tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit" (6:4), and hear the same warning in "Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God" (3:12) and in "the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified" (10:29). On this reading, someone who has known Christ can turn away from him, and the warning describes what can truly happen.
Hebrews 6:4-6 · Hebrews 3:12 · Hebrews 10:29
Those who are his are kept
Those who read it this way take the warning as real, and hold that those who truly belong to Christ will not finally fall away. They point to what the letter says right after the warning, "But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this" (6:9), and after the second, "But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul" (10:39). On this reading, 6:4-8 describes people who shared in much without belonging to Christ, whom 6:9 sets apart from those with "things that accompany salvation" (6:9).
Hebrews 6:9 · Hebrews 10:39
The verses
“We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,”
“let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.”
“You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.”
“He went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin! The LORD is with you while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”