Leaving the Elementary Doctrine

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Hebrews 6:1-2

These Hebrew believers had been born Jews and raised in the ritual religion of the Mosaic Law. They were now Church. Jesus had ascended to heaven over 30 years prior to this writing. The temple had not yet been destroyed. These Jews had heard and believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. They had had ample time to become well versed in basic Bible doctrine, and in fact should now be evangelizing others, and discipling them in the Christian Way of Life. Apparently, though, they were stagnating at the point of salvation. The more advanced doctrines had been presented to them, but they really weren’t motivated to learn those truths and techniques of Christianity. They just wanted to keep hearing the gospel and basking in its sweetness and comfort.

They’d been taught repeatedly that human works are dead in God’s plan of grace, and that faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation. They knew by now that the ritual washings and laying on of hands in their former religion was not the same as Holy Spirit leadership. They knew that Holy Spirit baptism at the point of faith in Christ identified them forever with the plan of God, and that water baptism demonstrated that identification. They fully understood that those who have eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ will be resurrected unto life and those who die in their sins will be recipients of the second death, subject to eternal judgment because of their unbelief.

These all are foundational truths; basic doctrines of Christianity. A builder doesn’t keep building a foundation. Once the foundation is laid, he begins to build the edifice, or raised structure. It’s called going on to maturity. Doctrine is built upon doctrine. Precept upon precept. We learn the alphabet before we learn words; but once the abc’s are learned, and words are learned, we begin to read and write sentences and paragraphs.

I cannot move on from this foundational statement without pointing out that the thing the new believer repents is DEAD WORKS! I have never seen in the Bible the phrase “repent of your sins.” Repentance is a change of mental attitude. It is an about-face. One changes one’s mind about one’s works, realizing they cannot save. One begins to see human works from God’s perspective: something actually worthless to Him. Only HIS work is acceptable for eternal life. What we do about our sins is we realize we are sinners who do commit sins and that Jesus paid for each and every one of them on the cross, so we are no longer under the burden of the debt of our sins. What we repent (change our attitude about) is our self-righteous arrogance that thought we could do something to gain favor from God. We repent (change our attitude) toward Jesus Christ by finally acknowledging His Finished Work, and its complete atonement for our lifetime of sins. 

  

And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of 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, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.  Hebrews 6:3-6

The writer prays that he’ll be allowed enough time to straighten out these stunted believers and get them on the path to spiritual maturity. He knows they are saved and eternally secure IN CHRIST.  They don’t need to go back to the salvation experience of repentance. Actually, they cannot go back again to a lost condition. They are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and if it were possible to return to the former unsaved state, there would be no way to restore them. Jesus’ atonement is a once-for-all-time provision. In some Christian denominations, this is something the congregations falsely practice. If they know they’ve sinned, or if they no longer “feel” saved, they try to be saved over and over again. They have no concept of eternal security IN CHRIST (positional truth), and one cannot grow up beyond that infantile stage of uncertainty. The beginning of Christian growth is complete assurance that one belongs forever to the family of God, because one is forever indwelt by the Holy Spirit as a member of the Body of Christ. Repeat: if you reject the doctrine of eternal security of the believer, you will not grow up. God disciplines His own, He does not disown His own. What we believers do about our sins is we confess (admit) them, privately, to God the Father through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ (I John 1: 7-9). God forgives, God cleanses. We are now clean, alert and prepared to learn.

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:7-8

Only a believer in Jesus Christ is capable of producing a crop from the watered land (cultivated soul). Such a productive believer is greatly blessed by God. Bible Doctrine in itself is an unspeakable blessing! Nonproductive souls bear thorns and thistles (unhappy, confused, whiney, immature, argumentative, pain-in-the-neck believers who constantly seek assurance, but refuse to relax and believe the Word of God). Their works are worthless, because they are produced by human good, to gain points with God. Those works will be burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ, though the believer is forever in union with Christ. Human works are anything an unbeliever can do. If an unbeliever can do it, it is not the Christian way of life, and it is not rewardable. Look around you. Think about it. 

I Corinthians 3:11-13

Human works produced by spiritually stunted believers = wood, hay and stubble.