but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end (Hebrews 3:6).

For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end (Hebrews 3:!4).

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:11-12).

The above passages have this common exhortation to hold something firmly "until the end". The first passage calls this something "our confidence". The second passage calls it "the beginning of our assurance". The last passage calls it diligence in imitating "faith and patience". 

When these verses are studied in their respective contexts, it becomes clear that the writer is encouraging his readers to stay steadfast in their faith in Christ. He is their confidence. He is the beginning of their assurance. His salvation is the object of their faith and patience. 

This stands in contrast to the Mosaic Law, which can never save. In two very strong passages, the writer of Hebrews contends that those that hope in the Law cannot be saved. Christ saves by taking upon Himself the curse of the Law. Those whose hope is in the Law would need to repeatedly crucify Christ to atone for their sins (cf. Hebrews 6:6). Since this is impossible, it would be impossible for such people to be saved.

What is more, anyone who sinned willfully would find themselves condemned because sacrifices under the Law only covered unintentional sins (cf. Hebrews 10:26-28). Such persons hope in what is futile, namely, animal sacrifices in the Law, and they also reject their only hope, namely, the sacrifice of Christ for sin, by which both intentional and unintentional sins are covered.

The message of Hebrews is clear. Hope in Christ alone. Believe in Him alone and not in the provisions and sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Those who trust in Christ will be saved forever, but those who trust in the Law will find only failure and condemnation. 

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have 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 (Hebrews 6:4-6).

Who is meant here? There is a lot of controversy here and multiplicity of views. If I might give my perspective as well. It seems to me that there are two keys to understanding this passage. The first is the very absolute language, "It is impossible to renew them again to repentance."

There is only one occasion when the Lord Jesus spoke with this kind of absolute sentence. It was when the Pharisees were attributing to the devil the very signs given by the Holy Spirit to reveal the advent of Messiah. Since they were rejecting the very evidence that was given for faith, Jesus declared that there was no more hope for them. He said it in this way:

Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come (Matthew 12:31-32).

I believe these are the very kinds of people the writer of Hebrews has in mind in saying, "It is impossible to renew them again to repentance." While some adamantly insist that the words "enlightened", "tasted of the heavenly gift" and "have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit" refer to Christians, I am unconvinced from the Scriptures that this is a necessary conclusion. The religious leaders of Jesus' day certainly heard the Gospel of Jesus and experienced kingdom teaching and power through the miracles of Jesus. They also partook of the Holy Spirit in the sense that they were eye-witnesses of the signs that the Holy Spirit performed to validate Jesus' Messianic claims.

The second key to understanding this passage in Hebrews may be found in the explanation given by the writer as to why these people are rejected: "Since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame".

Who was it that crucified Jesus and put Him to open shame? Was it not the Jewish religious leaders? I think Paul is not making some general statement about how all humanity put Jesus on the cross. The Book of Hebrews is a very Jewish book, citing more Old Testament texts than any other. I believe the Jews were clearly in view here, and specifically those religious rulers that put Him to death in the first place by demanding Pilate crucify Him.

I have mentioned often that in the first century the Judaizers were the primary enemy of the Christian faith. We learn this especially from the writings of Paul. These were the Jews who tried to insist that the Gentiles had to obey the Mosaic Law and be circumcised to be saved. Paul even pronounced a damning curse on them for perverting the Gospel message (cf. Galatians 1:6-8).

It is not hard for me to imagine Paul associating these people with the same group of religious leaders that Jesus strongly condemned during His earthly ministry. One was guilty of twisting the work of the Holy Spirit. The other was guilty of twisting the Scriptures. To tamper with either of these witnesses would be like tampering with the compass and map in an impossible labyrinth. If they are somehow skewed, the traveler would be hopelessly lost. Since these are the only witnesses given for people to believe, those that tamper with these witnesses would also be hopelessly lost. It would be impossible to renew them again to repentance.

Friends, I offer my view as one among many to consider. Things are not so clearly spelled out in this passage, and that is why there are so many different perspectives. I encourage you to come to your own conclusions. While we ought not to be dogmatic about our particular view on the meaning of this passage, I pray that whatever your view, it is, nevertheless, defensible from other clearer passages of Scripture.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

A parallel passage may be found in Hebrews 10:19-22,

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Friends, let us understand that our confidence (or "freedom" or "boldness") to approach God's throne does not arise out of anything in us or of us but in the blood of Christ. Christ has opened the way for us. He has purified us. Therefore, our confidence is not in ourselves but in Christ. As Paul writes, "Let those who boast, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31).

Now, since we have been granted such access to God, let us not neglect this wonderful privilege. Have we sinned? Let us confess our sins to Him, knowing that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Do we need wisdom in the midst of trials? We can ask God, for He gives generously to all without finding fault (James 1:5). Whether for mercy, in view of our past failure, or for grace, to guide us in view of an uncertain future, let us draw near to God and approach His throne of grace. 

I often emphasize the importance of meditating on the Word of God. Let me also emphasize the value of prayer, by which we exercise our faith, even as we seek to order our lives around the will of God.

Because Jesus has cleansed us and opened a way for us to God, we do not need any other mediators, neither priest, nor pastor, nor saint. Since His throne is in heaven, we do not need to go to any special place to find Him, but God is everywhere and right here at the same time. So, when the Bible exhorts us to approach God's throne of grace, to draw near to Him, it mentions no specific location, for every believer can draw near to God just from where they are. Hallelujah!

Friends, a good brother asked an excellent question:

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:8-10).
 
What do you think about the verses above?  Why did Jesus need to be "made perfect?"  Does that imply that he had not been perfect before the ressurection?  Or do we understand that from the perspective of Jesus' human nature?

Here was my response: 

Hebrews 2:1-4 speaks of how God spoke and confirmed the message of salvation:

... how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (Hebrews 2:3-4)

If you carefully read this verse, you notice that Paul mentions the message "spoken by the Lord" (one level, the original source) and "by those who heard Him" (second level, eye-witnesses). Notice that no other level of witness is given.

Now, to these two levels of witness Paul writes, "God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders..." In other words, the performance of signs and wonders, of miracles, even of the manifestational gifts of the Holy Spirit were given to confirm the witness of the apostles and Jesus. Why? It is because they were foundational (Ephesians 2:20) to the church. This is why Paul defends his apostleship with the working of certain signs and wonders (2 Corinthians 12:12). 

A strong case can be made that the signs and wonders manifested through Jesus and during the time of the apostles were only meant for their time to confirm their initial witness to the Gospel message. Although some argue that confirmation needs to be made in every generation, history does not bear this out, and this is not consistent with how God has worked through biblical history. There were eras of signficant outpourings of miracles (e.g. in the time of Moses and in the time of Elijah and Elisha), but future generations did not experience the same things but were expected to revere God through the accounts passed down from the first eye-witnesses. This is what Jesus taught in the account of Lazarus and the rich man:

But he said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead" (Luke 16:31).

And such is the case with the signs and wonders and manifestational gifts of the Spirit during the time of Jesus and the apostles. They were given once to confirm the message; however, people came to faith thereafter on the basis of the the eye-witness testimonies and teachings recorded in the Bible. 

When I survey the landscape of "miracle-workers" and so-called "prophets" today, I realize more than ever that they are very different from those presented in the New Testament. While the New Testament, as the Old, was all about proving the veracity and the validity of miracles and prophets, there is no such concern with documentation or accuracy today.

Preachers who claim miracles today do so cavalierly often to "spice up" their often dry and biblically unsound messages. Since people cannot argue with a "personal testimony" and will rarely, if ever, search out a "second-hand testimony," ministers and missionaries can speak with impunity about every outrageous experience as real, causing gullible parishioners to shout "Amen! Praise the Lord!" like any conditioned dog taught to bark on command. 

But in Scripture, everyone knew that the man given sight was born blind. Even the Pharisees, who sought every reason to discredit Jesus, could not refute the genuineness of His miracles. And when the disciples spoke in tongues at Pentecost, while there were some who thought they were drunk, there were plenty who recognized the foreign languages they spoke as being real, unlearned languages.

What passes for the charismatic phenomena today is nothing like the New Testament. Perhaps Satan is wrecking havoc in the church through these counterfeit miracles, healings and tongues. I am almost convinced that the whole lot of them today are charlatans or else self-deceived. While few would deny the Gospel outright, as Screwtape in C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters says, the next best thing for the enemy to do is to distract and confuse. 

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One final and perhaps general observation from Hebrews 3-4, which speaks of the Jewish rebellion in the wilderness of Sinai and a kind of Sabbath rest for Christians. Paul argues that the adult Jews coming out of Egypt all died in the wilderness with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. They died because of their unbelief. Paul uses the expression, "They did not enter God's rest" (Hebrews 4:6). Paul links this rest to the seventh-day rest of creation after God worked six days of creation. Even though that rest was in place and available for Israel during the time of the Exodus, they did not enter it. Why? Because they did not believe. 

Isn't it remarkable that the entire generation of Jews except Joshua and Caleb failed to enter God's rest. This rest is not any ordinary rest, but God's rest, even an eternal rest, even the one we enjoy through faith in Christ. What is even more remarkable is that apart from Joshua and Caleb, not only did the Jews die in the wilderness, we are told that the whole world at that time perished without entering God's rest. 

Why do I point this out? We've got to understand that only a small minority in the Old Testament were saved, and with but few exceptions, they were all among the Jews. Everyone else in the world suffered the condemnation associated with their ignorance of God and the guilt of their sin. And today, it is not much different. Even though the Gospel has penetrated much of the world, until it did, all those living and dying were condemned without Christ in their sin. Even today, there are millions that will die that never get the opportunity for faith in Jesus Christ. They too will be condemned in their sin apart from Christ. 

This is what Paul preached to the the people of Athens in Acts 17:29-30, 

Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

The expression, "God overlooked such ignorance" does not mean that God excused their sin because they were ignorant. No, dear friends, it means that God allowed such ignorant masses to go their own way in sin and self-condemnation. So the word translated "overlooked" means "passed over" or "paid no concern for." In contrast, in Jesus' day, Paul writes, "but now he commands all people everywhere to repent." God has extended the hope of salvation from the Jews to the Gentiles as well. That is why even more of us have hope today than ever before. 

But let us not think that God has been generous to everyone of all time with respect to eternal salvation. The Scriptures do not bear this out. It is not without reason that there is only one Book of Life but many books for those condemned. It is not without reason that only a few find life. The Bible says "many are called but few are chosen." Bible history attests that most are condemned and only a select few are saved.

This is the hard Gospel reality that often plagues Christians, who desperately try to make excuses for God with respect to those that have never heard, the mentally handicapped, and children. Since the Bible does not specifically address these "problems" with the Gospel, it is best for Christians not to comment too directly on these somewhat sensitive matters. There are clues that suggest that God may apply His grace, for example, to children. But such passages are vague, so that we cannot develop any hard and fast rule from them. Perhaps God intended this, so that we might not encroach on His freedom by our desperate attempts to set parameters to His sovereignty. Today, it is sufficient for us to know and preach that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God (John 14:6).