God Is Not Unjust

Hebrews 5:11–6:12 – Jesus Is Better
Third Sunday in Epiphany – January 18th, 2026 (am)     

We come this morning to a passage of Scripture that’s been a stumbling block to many for a long time. You hear the warning as it was just read to you (6:4-6). But I trust you also heard the reassurance (6:9-10). And we need to hear both at GCD this morning. Why? As we saw in the last warning passage (3:12-14), the author is addressing a body of believers that includes both those who need to be warned and those who need to be reassured. The same is true here. That’s evident right here on the page if you’re looking for it. And it’s put in categories that are particularly helpful for us still, here and now, today. Let’s look at this passage in three parts.

Transition Into a Serious Warning – 5:11-14

The topic of Melchizedek (5:6, 10), is one of those that is hard to explain, especially to those who have become dull of hearing (5:11). Surely there are some of those in this audience, those who ought to be teachers by this time, but still need someone to teach [them] again the basic oracles of God. [They] need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. They haven’t understood basic gospel teaching concerning righteousness (cf. Hugues 191), God’s great salvation (2:3). They want someone to break it into little pieces and put it in their mouths, or liquify it so they can drink it through a straw. Today it would be the deep things of Scripture that exceed people’s understanding. And then, as now, Melchizedek is the prime example.

Melchizedek is part of the solid food (5:14) of salvation history, 14 [His role] is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. When they hear God’s Word, they know what to do with it. They’ve developed the ability to process it and understand it and obey it. When they hear an obscure reference from the Word, they might not immediately know all the answers, but they understand the importance of the questions and are primed and ready to move into it and receive more. But that’s not where these people are.

Here, the author needs to pause and deliver this warning because there are all too many in his audience who won’t be able to process the meat of the Melchizedek-cut of God’s story. And some won’t have an appetite for this meat, perhaps even a heart for it, that enables them to appreciate, chew, and digest a description of why it’s important. They’re dull of hearing (5:11). This same word that returns in 6:12 as sluggish—one of those little details in God’s Word that helps us hear it!

Delivery of a Serious Warning – 6:1-8

What’s interesting, though, is what the author of Hebrews does with those in his audience who don’t have ears to hear. They’re professing believers, mind you, but they just don’t have an appetite for the deep things of the Word. But he doesn’t baby them. Paul kept giving the Corinthians milk because of their worldliness, their flesh-induced sluggishness (1Co.3:1-3). The author of Hebrews goes the opposite direction (cf. Bruce 138). 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ, the ABCs of the faith, and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment—these are the basics. 3 And this we will do if God permits or, as God enables.

Let’s move on to the bigger things, to Melchizedek and the like! Why? Among many other things because it’s a losing battle not to do so. Paul was fighting a different battle in Corinth (divisions in the body behind different leaders). The author of Hebrews is addressing apostasy, turning away from Christ, denying the gospel. This scenario is far more serious in terms of its implications. 4 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, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come—I’m going to stop there for a moment. Much ink has been spilled seeking to decide whether the folk being described here are believers or unbelievers. And that’s surely understandable. I mean, it seems like a pretty impressive and specific list of qualities to be describing unbelievers. But if they’re believers, then how do they fall away? Aren’t those who are called and beloved in God the Father kept for Jesus Christ? (Jud.1) Isn’t it true that no one is able to snatch them out of [Jesus’] hand (Joh.10:28), or out of [His] Father’s hand? (Joh.10:29) Aren’t we explicitly told that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? (Rom.8:39) So, what are we talking about here?

I believe the simple—and, really, the clear—answer is that this author, again, as in c.3, is addressing an audience that includes both believers and unbelievers. He’s talking to a typical church, like ours, that has both present in their gatherings. And it’s a good church, like ours, in which God is active, doing good things—saving people, raising up Elders and Deacons and Deaconesses, training people for ministry, sending Global Outreach Partners; caring for the sick, ministering to the needy, many are being baptized and joining the church, etc.; all that good stuff is happening—but there are still unconverted people present. They’re experiencing all that gospel life right alongside everyone else. They’re present right in the middle of it all, participating, even being received by the community, but it’s not doing a work in their lives. We need no example beyond Judas Iscariot to identify what we’re talking about. But there are others in the NT: Simon Magus (Act.8:9-24), Demas (2Ti.4:10; cf. Col.4:14; Phm.24), the group in John’s church who went out from us, but… were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us (1Jo.2:19).

4 … [I]t is impossible, in the case of [people who’ve experienced the life and work of the gospel in an among a thriving church]… 6 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. Most simply put, this means that if you reject the salvation Jesus provided, there is no other place where you’ll find salvation, where you’ll be able to be reconciled to God.

But it’s more than this. The author is saying that rejection of Christ in these circumstances mirrors the rejection that placed Him on the cross; such people are crucifying once again the Son of God… and holding him up to contempt (6:6) before the watching world. It’s called apostasy. People who commit this sin… cannot be brought back to repentance; by renouncing Christ they put themselves in the position of those who, deliberately refusing his claim to be the Son of God, had him crucified and exposed to public shame. Those who repudiate the salvation procured by Christ will find none anywhere else (Bruce 149).

And now comes a helpful image, one that recalls the parable of the soils in some ways. 6:7 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. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Do you see? The blessing of God (His salvation) falls like rain from heaven on the land of human hearts. And what that land produces reveals its nature. It reveals what’s in the heart. The heart cultivated to receive blessing from God produces a useful crop. But there are plots of land in and around the good, cultivated land that receive the very same rain, but produce only thorns and thistles. There’s the picture this author is painting.

Reassurance Following a Serious Warning – 6:9-12

He comes back around at the end to reassure those who receive God’s rain and are bearing a useful crop. They’re loving God and showing it by loving neighbor: the author points that out 10 … [their] work and the love that [they] have shown for his name in serving the saints…. They’re showing clearly that they’re not dull of hearing, but rather are entitled to all the full assurance of the promised blessing of salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook such clear evidence of His saving grace displayed in the faith and patience (6:12) of His true children.

Conclusion

So, where does this leave us? Three takeaways.

1. We need to hear this warning and understand its seriousness. We need to recognize that it’s possible to get in among the body of Christ close enough to see and appreciate and even participate in the blessings of salvation, of gospel life, then turn away from it, and even reject it, despise it. And when that happens, we need to know with confidence that it is impossible… to restore [such people] to repentance (4, 6). This is a serious word of judgment. It doesn’t mean we give up on anyone in any scenario where we perceive this may have happened. We all know some who’ve made a profession of faith, then strayed badly, but then have returned to the Lord. So, we never know the true nature of someone’s sin, even our own. We just need to be aware of this warning, both for ourselves and for others. And if we’re delivering it to someone who’s presently rejecting the gospel when they’ve embraced it prior, we’re offering them a faithful word of serious warning.

2. We should examine our heart to see what it is producing. Is it thorns and thistles or a useful crop (6:8) of gospel fruit? Is your heart more aligned with the mind of Christ or with the ways of this world? When you have leisure, where does your mind go? After spending time with you, where are people left? Have they been walked into the presence of Christ or do they have lesser things on their minds? Paul wrote to the Corinthians 2Co.13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. … And also 1Co.11:28 Let a person examine himself [before remembering the body and blood of the Lord in communion]. We should test [ourselves], knowing that it matters what’s in our hearts. If we don’t embrace the gospel in repentance and faith, we haven’t truly embraced it at all, no matter how familiar  we are with it, and how it works.

3. We should fold in this warning with the warning in 3:12-14. We should take good care of one another, not as watchdogs but as loving, faithful brothers [and sisters]. We should 3:13 … exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of [us] may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The longer we walk with Christ, the easier it should be to discern between thorns and thistles and useful crops, and the more it should matter to us, in genuine love, which of these are being produced in the hearts and lives of our brothers and sisters.

Hear the warning. Hear the reassurance. And show the skilled (3:13) discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (3:14).

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Resources

Anders, Max, gen. ed. 1999. Holman New Testament Commentary. Hebrews & James, by Thomas D. Lea. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Arnold, Clinton E., gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 4, Hebrews to Revelation. Hebrews, by George H. Guthrie, 2-82. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Barclay, William. 1976. The Daily Study Bible Series. The Letter to the Hebrews, Revised Edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox.

Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Hebrews, by George H. Guthrie, 919-995. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Bruce, F. F. 1990. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Calvin, John. 1553. Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, trans. by, John Owen. Logos.

Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Hebrews, by David Peterson, 1321-1353. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Clendenen, Ray E., gen. ed., David S. Dockery, NT ed. 2010. The New American Commentary. Vol. 35, Hebrews, by David L. Allen. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Dever, Mark. 2005. The Message of the New Testament. Ch. 19, The Message of Hebrews: Sticking with the Best, 413-425. Wheaton: Crossway.

Fee, Gordon D., gen. ed. 1990. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. The Epistle to the Hebrews, Revised Edition, by F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study notes on Hebrews, by David W. Chapman. Wheaton: Crossway.

Guthrie, George. 1998. The NIV Application Commentary. Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Hubbard, David A., & Glenn W. Barker, gen. eds. Ralph P. Martin, NT ed. 1991. Word Biblical Commentary. Vols. 47a, Hebrews 1-8; Vol.47b, Hebrews 9-13, by William L. Lane. Dallas: Word.

Hughes, Philip Edgcumbe. 1979. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2006. Revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 13, Hebrews-Revelation. Hebrews, by R. T. France, 17-195. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Morris, Leon, gen. ed. 1983. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 15, Hebrews, by Donald Guthrie. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.

NEXT SUNDAY: Surely I Will Bless You, Hebrews 6:13–20