What does it mean to be enlightened

Hebrews 6:1-6

My friend Ken Ryan called me the other day and said, (note: this was written in February 2011)“it will be interesting to see how you handle chapter 6 and especially verse four.”  My first thought was no problem, I’ll just leave that for someone else to explore, but the question is what do I believe, and I believe the Holy Spirit will teach me what I need to know about these verses.  Verses 1-6 “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washing, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.  And this we will do if God permits.  For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”

It is so important to remember that when “Therefore” is used we must go back and read what came before the therefore.  In this case, he is warning against apostasy.  What is the apostasy?  In this case it was a falling away from Christ, not the renunciation of Christ.  Is this the only time in Scripture that we find this addressed?  The answer is no.  The church of Corinth had become infected with the evils that surrounded that city and was a very immoral place.  This is how Paul addresses that church in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.”  Two very important facts, Paul is calling them brothers, and he is using the same example of milk that he used in Hebrews 5:12, when he was warning against apostasy. 

Did Jesus address the subject of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and the falling away and rejecting the message and becoming an unbeliever?  The answer is found in the gospel of Mark 4:16-19, and in the verses that follow Jesus is referring to a sower of seeds, and the seed is the word of God.  Beginning in verse 16, “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground; the ones who when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.  And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.  And others are the ones sown among thorns.  They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for others things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” Note: Jesus is making reference to himself, as the word. (John 1:1-5)

In both of these examples we have people who were converted, as one is a convert to a church, but as Jesus states there were not any roots, they were not part of the vine, they never bowed their knee, they never did what is required in Romans 10:9&10 for salvation.  After writing this paper, I looked to see what John Mac Arthur Jr. had to say on the subject.  He asks this question: O.K. Basic question, how long does salvation last?  And the person he asks answers, forever, and John replied, O.K. So now that we got that settled.  I did feel that Mac Arthur added clarity and I’ve added some of his comments.

“Now look back in verse four for a minute. What does it mean to be enlightened…basically? What is enlightenment? Intellectual understanding, right? What does it mean to taste the heavenly gift? Who’s the heavenly gift? Really the Holy Spirit? How could these people have tasted the Holy Spirit? If you ever sat in a church and heard the Word of God preached with power, you’ve tasted the Holy Spirit. If you have ever seen a life changed, you’ve tasted the Holy Spirit. If you ever saw a miracle done by Jesus you’ve tasted the Spirit because He did everything by the power of the Spirit, right? And you are a partaker of the Holy Spirit if you stood on a hillside when Jesus fed 5000 and ate a fish and a little piece of bread, you partook of the power of the Holy Spirit.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice