Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift… When anything is said to be impossible, the natural question is, Impossible to whom? for it is plain that what may be possible to one being, may be impossible to another being. If I were called to attempt to lift a stone of a ton weight, I would naturally say, "No, I will not attempt it, for it is impossible" — meaning, not that it is impossible that the stone should be lifted, but that it is impossible that I should lift it. The impossibility in the case before us may either be considered as existing in reference to God, or in reference to man. If the restoration of these apostates to the state in which they once were be an impossibility in reference to God, it must be so either because it is inconsistent with His nature and perfections, or with His decree and purpose. In the first sense, "it is impossible for God to lie," or "clear the guilty" without satisfaction. In the second sense, it was impossible that Saul and his posterity should continue on the throne of Israel. That the restoration of an apostate to his former state is an impossibility in either of these points of view, is more than we are warranted to assert. If we carefully examine the passage, I apprehend we will come to the conclusion that the impossibility is considered as existing not in reference to God, but in reference to man — that the apostle's assertion is, that it is impossible, by any renewed course of elementary instruction, to bring back such apostates to the acknowledgment of the truth. He had stated that many of the Hebrews had unlearned all that they had learned, and "had need of some one to teach them again the first principles of the oracles of God." Yet he declares his determination not to enter anew on a course of elementary instruction, but to go on to some of the higher branches of Christian knowledge; for this cause, that there was no reason to expect that such restatements would be of any use in reclaiming those who, after being instructed in the doctrines and evidences of Christianity, had apostatised; while, on the other band, there was every reason to hope that illustrations of the higher branches of Christian truth would be of the greatest use to those who "held fast" the "first principles," in establishing them in the faith and profession, in the comforts and obedience of the gospel; just as a farmer after making a fair trial of a piece of ground, and finding that, though everything has been done for it in the most favourable circumstances, it still continues barren, desists, saying, "It is impossible to make anything of that field," and turns his attention to rendering still more fertile those fields which have already given evidence of their capability of improvement. "It is not possible, by a renewed statement of Christian principles and their evidence, to bring back these apostates. Nothing can be stated but what has been already stated, which they seemed to understand, which they professed to believe, but which they now openly and contemptuously reject. No evidence, stronger than that which has been brought before their minds, and which they once seemed to feel the force of, can be presented to them. The meaning and evidence of Christian truth have been before their minds in as favourable circumstances as can be conceived." The apostle's assertion, then, appears to me to be just this — "Statement and argument would be entirely lost on such persons, and therefore we do not enter on them." (John Brown, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, |
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