Hebrews6:1-20

There are many different types of people who surround the teaching of God’s Word.  For that reason there are many different responses to God’s Word.  Like Christ’s parable of the soils and the seed, this chapter presents to us a variety of people and their responses to the Gospel.  We must be very discerning of our own lives to make sure that we are being diligent to respond correctly to the Word of God.
SOME FAIL TO GROW IN FAITH: The author of Hebrews wants to move into the meat of the Word, but he knows that some people are addicted to milk.  They are forever stuck in the elementary aspects of their faith.  Because they do not mature in their faith they must constantly go back to the foundation of repentance from sin and faith in Christ.  The Gospel is a precious foundation for all of our Christian life and we will do well to reflect on the glory of the Gospel every day that we live.  However, we must also move forward to a deeper understanding of God and His Word that we might worship and obey Him as we grow in conformity to Christ.  Our faith should be growing and vibrant, every pressing forward for the glory of God.
SOME FALL AWAY FROM FAITH: This is one of the more controversial sections of Scripture because of its seeming implications that a believer can fall away from the faith.  Once again, I want to make it clear that I do not hold to that position and that this is not a theological blog.  That being said, I believe this section is best understood as referring to those who have been surrounded with the teaching of the Gospel and may have even made professions of faith, but they have not truly embraced the Gospel of Christ.  They are convinced but not converted.  The danger is that in time they will tire of the way of “this pseudo faith” and they will fall away with now hardened hearts that will never be able to be brought back to the Lord.  It may refer to true believers who due to their “falling away” have forever lost the prospect of kingdom positions and eternal rewards or can never be fully restored to fellowship and is then subject to discipline or even physical death to protect the reputation of the body of Christ.  However, one thing must be made clear that if one takes the position that it refers to a believe who actually loses his salvation, the text makes it clear that he can never get “saved again.”  At any rate, we must all test our faith and make sure that we have truly responded to the Gospel with our minds, emotions and will that we might never fall away.
SOME ARE FULL OF WORKS OF FAITH: True faith is always accompanied by the works of faith.  We are not saved by these works, but we are certainly saved for these works.  The absence of the works of faith is a very clear indication that we must examine whether our faith in genuine or not.  As we persist and grow in our faith, our hope in Christ will only increase which will spur us on to deeper levels of love and commitment to Christ and increasing works of faith.  The idea is that our faith produces works which increases hope which grows faith which produces more works which inspires more hope…… I think you get the picture.  This is the victorious cycle that a true growing and vibrant faith should produce in the lives of all who truly believe.
SOME ARE FIRM AS THEY WAIT IN FAITH: The deal with faith is that many of the promises associated with our faith are only culminated in the future.  Our faith is forever wrapped up in the promises of God.  Thankfully, our God is faithful and is worthy of our complete faith and trust.  We can be assured that God will do all that He has promised to do.  He always has and He always will, that is just who God is.  We may need to wait through our lives and even die without seeing all of God’s promises fulfilled, but we will live again and experience the complete culmination of all that God has promised.  Trust God completely for it will very definitely be worth the wait.  We will be resurrected to a glorious eternity because God has promised it to be so and He is faithful.  May we be faithful as we wait in Him.

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