If you were there when the Israelites complained saying that the Lord and Moses had brought them out to the wilderness to be destroyed, you might have believed their report. You will see reasons with them. You might be forced to justify them by proposing that God actually planned to have them doomed by providing them with only one type of food that they had yo lose appetite to eat. You would try to consider the fact that they had no roof of any great value over their head, you would tell me that creeping things became their involuntary neighbours as the only wall they had around them each night they slept was not protection enough from such creatures. You would remind me of how rain sipped into their tent and how wild animals might have made their hearts quiver. And am sure you must be right.

   

   But have you considered the Shunemite woman and her child? God brought him back to life when a famine was not too far from striking. People like me would have said, “God again!” I would be thinking that God wanted to punish the lad and her mum for whatever they had done in the past. I would be waiting for the doomsday bell to bong. In fact when he told them to leave the city for the sake of the portending danger of famine, I would have concluded that all he had done for them in the past was to have more reasons to forced them out of their inheritance, but that was not the case, they gained more than they worked for by the end of the day……
Thought: dear Christian, it’s the lord’s desire that you prosper… Never fold your hand, be hardworking like the Shunemite woman who had to work in Philistine and God would add more than the worth of your work.

Hebrews 6:4-6

Let’s use our usual interpretation of verse 6 and look at what we mean.
Heb 6:6 NLT
6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

….Now our explanation would be “if the person backslides, and don’t repent, the person has lost his salvation, but if the person repents, he is re-born again”

With this we miss one very vital word there: IMPOSSIBLE.
Look at what the author wrote again

6 and who then turn away from God. It is IMPOSSIBLE to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

It means that whatever he meant that happened to the brother, in our own interpretation: even if the person comes back, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BRING SUCH A PERSON BACK TO REPENTANCE.

So its like this in the example you gave: IF that sister comes back to her senses and removes the Hijab, we should throw her out, she cannot be brought to repentance again

NOW; notice am still speaking with the eyes of the popular interpretation we give this place.

So the one who preaches:” when you sin, and u have backsliden you lose your salvation” and uses this place as back up should also preach “you cannot be brought back to repentance”

The same verse says both.

I hope that is clear.
Now because we know a backsliden person can be restored, we know that is not what the Author meant

And since we have seen what it is not, let us  study to see what it is….

Wait lemme show scriptures that shows how we treat a brother that is lost before I go on
Galatians 6 NLT
1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.

5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
Our conduct is important for the message: to restoration not to condemnation
We r to pay attention to our own conducts and help anyone who is OVERTAKEN in a fault.
And be careful not to make d same mistake we just got smone out of

Why??? FOR THE GOSPEL’s SAKE.
This happened in the Corinthian church
I ll jst show verses that shows: the fault, paul’s initial judgment(out of anger) and then what he said when his head was calm, just follow
1Cor 5 NLT
1 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.

Then his punishment…..

5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

*deliver him to satan(throw him out)
Delivering to satan is throwing him out
I ll explain if it is necessary with anyone.

Let’s move on……
Then he said these

9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.

11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.
12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.

What he was saying was: don’t condone this sin, quickly note that this guy is not hiding it, he did not fall into it, he did not try and stop
He is living (continuous tense) with the mum
Paul said: put him out first……

Now this has made people put people who just stole money in church once out of the church or worse, put them in so much condemnation that they had to stop coming to any church…..

Let’s see if this is Paul’s final verdict on this bad fornicator
2 Corinthians 2 NLT
4 I wrote that letter in great anguish, with a troubled heart and many tears. I didn’t want to grieve you, but I wanted to let you know how much love I have for you.

He was emotional and wrote out of it, Paul is a human and also sincere about it

Then…….
5 I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me. 6 Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough. 7 Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement.

Bring Him back, opposing him was punishment enough
Go and unDeliver him from satan.
8 So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him.
9 I wrote to you as I did to test you and see if you would fully comply with my instructions. 10 When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit,

Then he said something that struck me when I read it
11 so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.

KJV renders
‘We r not ignorant of the devil or his devices’
What would be ignorance here??

Letting someone in this mess wallow in so much guilt and be lost
Lost from fellowship, and become useless eventually to the church

So you see: restoring the person is God’s device in the situation
Putting out and using the brother as topic on sunday is the devil’s device

How much we act ignorantly at times trying to protect God.
So you see the antidote is same in both places

RESTORE.
His first attitude would show you that Paul who preached Grace so much is not condoning sin
But thank God he is not condemning a believer either in other to prove his point.

Nowadays Christianity would ask: what if he comes back and does it again??
We worry a lot for God

Walk in Love first,
Let God take charge of handling His church.
Hope that was clear!?

Now let’s go and look at what Hebrews 6:6 meant….. This is why we read in context
We would get the understanding of what’s impossible by taking the chapter in context from verse 1.
Let’s go
Hebrews 6 NLT
1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

Paul starts of with what he called ‘the basics teachings about Christ’
These teachings should really be basic

Basic means any believer should be able to answer and teach these things, they are the basis of their faith.

What are those things??
*repenting from evil deeds: what are evil deeds?? this would be understood in the next statement…….something that doesn’t make us place FAITH on God.
Placing Faith on God is believing in Jesus, evil deeds is the opposite of it.
Again….. Let’s not divert from the course if need be, we look at that statement in isolation and study it

Next
*baptism
*laying of hands
*resurrection
*eternal judgment

All these are termed BASIC TEACHINGS.

So if a believer is taught about putting Faith in Christ(Salvation)
Baptism of the Spirit by laying on of hands
Hope in resurrection of the dead and
How we have been saved from wrath in eternal judgment

(All I just said can be found in scriptures individually)
They can now move on to better things.

It means this person fully understands HOW they are saved and THE HOPE and ASSURANCE of their salvation.

So Paul said, stop preaching it to believers again and again and getting them resaved again and again via altar calls again and again: so in the end one person is saved like 30times in one year
Its not Jesus that saved that person…he is saving Himself

Jesus said: John 10 NLT
26 But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

30 The Father and I are one.”

Then if a believer grasps these basic teachings and then the next thing happens……..
Let’s go on.
Let’s start from beginning again
Hebrews 6 NLT

1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

……Move on
4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—

This place summarizes how a believer is meant to be
The author just said it is IMPOSSIBLE TO BRING A BELIEVER BACK TO REPENTANCE……..
The whole things he used as adjectives and experiences sums up the believer

Let’s pick it from verse 4 again
Hebrews 6: NLT

4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—

6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
It is impossible to bring them back to repentance
So let’s stop pushing it

These men already understand what repentance entails, let’s stop teaching it to them and move on

Bcos it doesn’t profit anyone
They have already REPENTED so you cannot restore them to REPENTANCE again once they fall away.

Now if our definition of repentance is forsake your sins, be remorseful and proise never to do them again with a serious face.
Then we need to redefine it

I would use Acts 2 to define it
Acts 2 NLT

37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You see repent and turn away from your sins,
What did Peter tell them that pricked their heart??

He told them that the one they didn’t believe in and killed was the Messiah(read from verse 1), and then they were pricked, then he said they should turn away and repent from their sins…….
And when they do they would get what the disciples just got
And there and then they repented

They just believed on what Peter spoke about (JESUS)
So repentance is changing a way you used to think, it affects your belief, your mind.

See direct greek definition

Original Word: μετανοέω
Part of Speech: Verb
Word Origin
from meta and noeó
Definition
to change one’s mind or
purpose

……..
So you see that their repenting is to change how they knew Christ and now believe and it was easy to do.
Check what Peter preached, NOT ONCE did he mention the people(ie their behaviours and how some of them are drunks etc)…he just spoke about a Messiah, a promise
THE MESSAGE IS CHRIST.

Let’s return to Hebrews 6 with this definition of repentance and let me end
Hebrews 6 NLT
1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.
4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—

6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

So the author was saying: the only reason we keep preaching these basics is because someone has fallen away and then we r trying to make them rerepent
But let’s move on to better things because we cannot make them rerepent, they already know and believed the messiah
And were born again
And have the Spirit

You cannot reborn again them.
If they have fallen away, they can return

They can be restored if they need help
But we cannot bring them back to repentance

Their behavior is synonymous to renailing Christ on the cross. I.e disgracing the Faith…..

Let’s move on to better teachings.

Knowing that their minds have been changed and they have believed and seen that Christ saves…let’s move on to better things

Well, we r still teaching basics in the church today aren’t we?