Don't Waste the Rain
Introduction: The Danger of Drifting
The book of Hebrews is written to a church in peril. These are not new converts, but second generation believers who had grown up in the faith. They had seen the miracles, they had heard the apostolic preaching, but the initial fire was cooling. The pressure from their surrounding Jewish culture was immense, and the temptation was to drift back. To drift back to the shadows and symbols of the Old Covenant, to trade the glorious substance of Christ for the comfortable, familiar rituals of their fathers. The author has just finished rebuking them for being spiritually dull, for needing milk when they ought to be on a diet of solid meat (Heb. 5:12). And now, he issues one of the most severe, bone chilling warnings in all of Scripture.
This passage is not here to make genuine believers doubt their salvation. It is here to function like a spiritual smelling salt for those who are dozing off in the pews. It is a bucket of ice water for the slumbering. The modern church has a bad habit of domesticating the Bible. We like to round off the sharp edges and explain away the hard sayings. We want a gospel that is all comfort and no confrontation. But the Word of God is a two edged sword, and this passage is the sharp point of it, aimed directly at the heart of anyone who would trifle with the grace of God.
This is a warning against apostasy. Not a stumble, not a season of doubt, not a backsliding that ends in repentance. This is a description of a final, irreversible turning away from Christ. It is the point of no return. And the people described here are not pagans who have never heard the gospel. They are people who have been saturated with the blessings of the covenant community. They are insiders. And that is what makes their fall so terrifying, and their judgment so certain.
The Text
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of teaching about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. For in the case of those once having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is unfit and close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
(Hebrews 6:1-8 LSB)
Leave the Sandbox (vv. 1-3)
The warning begins with an exhortation to move on, to grow up.
"Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of teaching about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits." (Hebrews 6:1-3)
The author is not telling them to forget the basics. He is telling them to stop endlessly reliving the basics. A builder does not spend the entire construction process pouring and re-pouring the foundation. He lays it once, solid and true, and then he builds upon it. The church is full of people who want to live their entire Christian lives in the kindergarten classroom, endlessly reviewing the ABCs. The "elementary teaching" here is the foundational grammar of the faith: repentance, faith, baptism, church order, resurrection, and judgment. These are essential. They are the non-negotiables. But they are the starting line, not the finish line.
Notice the first part of the foundation: "repentance from dead works." What are dead works? These are not just the obvious sins of the flesh. In the context of Hebrews, dead works are the rituals and sacrifices of the Old Covenant, which are now obsolete. They are religious activities performed in an attempt to earn God's favor. Any work, no matter how pious it looks, that is not grounded in faith toward God through Christ, is a dead work. It is a corpse. It has no life in it. The first step of the Christian life is to turn away from the self-salvation project and to trust God completely.
The author lists these foundational truths and then says, "let us press on." The Christian life is one of motion. It is a pilgrimage, a race, a fight. To stand still is to go backward. To coast is to drift. And this drifting is what sets the stage for the apostasy he is about to describe. But he adds a crucial, humbling caveat: "And this we will do, if God permits." All our growth, all our perseverance, is a gift of God. We are not the masters of our spiritual progress. We strive, we press on, but we do so in complete dependence upon the God who holds us fast.
The Anatomy of an Apostate (vv. 4-6)
Here we come to the heart of the warning. This is a description of someone who has had every possible advantage, every spiritual blessing short of genuine regeneration, and has thrown it all away.
"For in the case of those once having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance..." (Hebrews 6:4-6a)
Let us be clear about who this is. This is not a description of a true believer who loses their salvation. Scripture is clear that those whom the Father has given to the Son will never be lost (John 10:28-29). The saints persevere because God preserves them. This passage describes a person who is a member of the covenant community, the visible church, but who is not truly born again. Think of Judas. He walked with Jesus, performed miracles, and heard the best preaching in human history. He was an insider. But he was never one of them.
Look at the privileges they enjoyed. They were "enlightened." The lights went on in their head. They understood the gospel intellectually. They could probably win a Bible trivia game. They "tasted of the heavenly gift." They had a real, genuine experience of God's grace. Like someone who tastes a fine wine but does not drink the whole bottle, they sampled the goodness of salvation. They were "partakers of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit of God works in and through the church in many ways that are not saving. King Saul prophesied. The wicked Balaam prophesied. People can be the instruments of the Spirit without being the temples of the Spirit. They "tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come." They felt the conviction of the Word. They saw the miracles. They experienced the blessings of Christian fellowship. They were brought right up to the very gate of the Kingdom of Heaven.
And then, "having fallen away," they turned their back on it all. This is not a stumble. This is a deliberate, high-handed repudiation of Jesus Christ. And the result is terrifying: "it is impossible to renew them again to repentance." Why? Because they have seen it all. There is no other gospel. There is no Plan B. If the blood of Jesus Christ, presented to them in all its glory, is not enough, then nothing is enough. They have exhausted the means of grace.
"...since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame." (Hebrews 6:6b)
This is the reason for the impossibility. Their apostasy is not a neutral act. By turning away from Christ, they are publicly siding with His enemies. They are standing with the crowd at Golgotha, shouting "Crucify Him!" They are saying that Jesus deserved to be on that cross, that He was a fraud, and that His sacrifice was a shameful failure. In their hearts, they nail Him to the cross all over again and hold Him up for public ridicule. There is no repentance from that place, because it is the ultimate, final rejection of the only one who can grant repentance.
Two Kinds of Ground (vv. 7-8)
The author, knowing how hard this teaching is, provides a simple agricultural illustration to drive the point home.
"For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is unfit and close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned." (Hebrews 6:7-8)
Imagine a field. In this field, you have two kinds of soil, side by side. The rain falls on the entire field. This rain represents all the covenant blessings we just read about: the enlightenment, the tasting, the partaking. It is the preaching of the Word, the fellowship of the saints, the work of the Holy Spirit. The rain falls indiscriminately on the whole church.
The first plot of ground represents the true believer. It drinks in that same rain, and because of its good nature, given to it by God, it produces useful fruit. The blessings of God produce repentance, faith, and good works. This ground receives a blessing from God.
But the second plot of ground represents the apostate. It receives the very same rain. It is saturated with the same blessings. But because of what it is, thorny ground, it produces only thorns and thistles. In fact, the rain only makes the thorns grow faster and stronger. The spiritual privileges, when rejected, do not leave a person neutral. They harden the heart. They make the rebellion more pronounced. The very grace that softens the believing heart is the same grace that hardens the unbelieving heart that sits under it week after week. This ground is revealed to be worthless, "close to being cursed," and its final destiny is the fire of judgment.
Conclusion: Fruit is the Proof
So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must take the warning seriously. Do not play games with God. Do not sit in church, soaking in the rain of God's grace, while your heart remains hard and unproductive. Examine the fruit in your life. The rain is falling. What is growing? Is it the fruit of the Spirit, or is it the thorns of rebellion and indifference?
But second, this passage should not cause the true believer to despair. The proof of true conversion is perseverance. The author himself says just a few verses later, "But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation" (Heb. 6:9). The person who is terrified by this passage, who is driven by it to cling more tightly to Christ, is showing the very signs that they are the good ground. The apostate is the one who hears this warning and yawns.
The call is simple: "press on to maturity." The way to be assured that you are not the thorny ground is to bear fruit. The way to bear fruit is to drink in the rain of God's Word. Do not be content with the elementary principles. Grow up. Dig deep into the knowledge of our great High Priest, Jesus Christ. For it is only in Him, in knowing Him more, loving Him more, and serving Him more, that we find our true and lasting security. Do not waste the rain.