The relapse for which there is no restoration.
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened," etc. Let us honestly and earnestly endeavor to lay aside our theological prepossessions, and to apprehend and set forth the meaning of this solemn portion of sacred Scripture. We have in the text—
I. AN EXALTED CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. "Those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift," etc. Here is a cumulative experience of gospel blessings.
1. Spiritual illumination. "Those who were once enlightened." The mind and heart of the unrenewed man are in a condition of spiritual ignorance and darkness. The wicked are "darkened in their understanding." In conversion men "turn from darkness to light." In the case described in the text man has been enlightened as to his spiritual state, his need of salvation, and. the salvation provided in Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 1:17, Ephesians 1:18).
2. Experience of gospel blessings. "And tasted of the heavenly gift." Tasted is not to be taken in the sense of a mere taste, but personal experience, as in Hebrews 2:9, "Taste death for every man;" and 1 Peter 2:3, "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." In the case before us, man, through Christ, experiences the forgiveness of sins, and peace with God, and spiritual strength.
3. Participation in the presence and influences of the Holy Spirit. "And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost." They share in his instructing, comforting, sanctifying presence and power. "The Spirit of God dwelleth in" them (1 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 8:9).
4. Experience of the excellence of God's Word. "And tasted the good Word of God." Probably there is a special reference to the comforting, encouraging, strengthening power of the inspired Word. Or the good "word." is the word of promise, and the tasting of it is the experience of its gracious fulfillment. The use of the Hebrew equivalents supports this view (see Joshua 21:45; Joshua 23:1-16. 15; Jeremiah 29:10; Jeremiah 33:14; Zechariah 1:13).
5. Experience of the spiritual powers of the gospel age. "And tasted the powers of the world to come," or "the age to come." The expression "signifies a personal experience of the mighty energy and saving power of the gospel." Here, then, the religion of Jesus Christ is exhibited as a gracious light in the intellect, a blessed experience in the heart, and a practical redemptive power in the life. How complete and exalted is the personal Christian experience thus delineated!
II. AN AWFUL SPIRITUAL POSSIBILITY. "If they shall fall away … they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
1. Of falling from an exalted spiritual condition. We have noticed the advanced development of Christian character and the full enjoyment of Christian privileges sketched by the writer; and now he speaks of falling away from these great and gracious experiences. The higher the exaltation attained, the more terrible will be the injury sustained, if one should fall from such a height.
2. Of incurring the darkest guilt. "They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was the blackest crime in all the dark annals of human wrong-doing. And if any one having really and richly enjoyed the blessings of the gospel of Christ should fall back into sin, renouncing Christ and Christianity, he would repeat in spirit that terrible crime. "It is often said," wrote F. W. Robertson, "'My sins nailed him to the tree' There is a sense in which this contains a deep truth The crisis of the conflict between the kingdoms of good and evil took place in the death of Christ: the highest manifestation of good in him, the highest manifestation of evil in the persons of those who saw the divinest excellence, and called it Satanic evil. To call evil good, and good evil, to call Divine good Satanic wickedness,—there is no state lower than this. It is the rottenness of the core of the heart; it is the unpardonable because irrecoverable sin. With this evil, in its highest development, the Son of man came into collision. He died unto sin. The prince of this world came and found nothing congenial in him. He was his victim, not his subject. So far as I belong to that kingdom or fight in that warfare, it may be truly said, the Savior died by my sin ... I am a sharer in the spirit to which he fell a victim."£ But is such a fall as this really possible? To us it seems that the teaching of the Bible and the moral nature of man admit of but one reply as to this possibility.
III. AN APPALING MORAL IMPOSSIBILITY. "It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance." This "impossible" may not be enfeebled into "very difficult," or other similar expression, as may be seen by an examination of the other passages of this Epistle in which it is found (Hebrews 6:18; Hebrews 10:4; Hebrews 11:6). The reason of this impossibility is the moral character and condition of those of whom (should there ever be any of such character) it is predicated. Having once experienced the Divine renewal, they have utterly fallen away from it, and now scornfully reject the only power by which their renewal could be effected. The mightiest spiritual influence in the universe, even the love of God in the death of Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners, is derided by them. "They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." "They tear him out of the recesses of their hearts where he had fixed his abode, and exhibit him to the open scoffs and reproach of the world, as something powerless and common" (cf. Hebrews 10:29). Dr. Parker forcibly inquires, "If men have insulted God, poured contempt upon his Son, counted the blood of the covenant as an unworthy thing, grieved and quenched the Holy Spirit, what can possibly remain of a remedial kind? The inquiry is one on which reason may expend its powers. What remains after God has been exhausted?" Let the Christian earnestly heed the solemn warning of our text. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation;" "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for doing these things, ye shall never fall." The surest way of guarding against this terrible fall is to aim at and seek to realize constant spiritual progress. "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection," etc.—W.J.