Two cases of people

Hebrews 6:4-6 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Today I want to look at what the author is saying in these verses and then in the following three days unpack three sections. The author explained why he was leaving the elementary principles of the Christ and pressing his readers on to maturity. As he assessed the spiritual condition of his readers, he thought they fit into two categories. These verses today explain one of the two cases (he calls them).  There are those who, having heard, seen, and tasted, but yet are not believing. There’s nothing more that can be said to convince them that Jesus is the Son of God. The case with them is not that they were saved, but then fell away and lost their salvation. No, they were never born again by the Spirit. They were living as if God were not alive and working in everything in their lives. Do you remember the warning back in 3:12? The term “brethren” was used in this case to refer to all of his Hebrew brethren. He knew some were regenerated and some were not. “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” Even with this warning, there were some who had heard the good word, but God had not done the work of faith in their hearts for them to receive it. Their hearts had become hardened, and like those who crucified Him, they believed Jesus to be an imposter and blasphemer. They were doing again what was done to Jesus and put Him to open shame in unbelief. For them, there would be no benefit to continuing to go over the same elementary principles because they could not be made to rethink their perspective of Jesus. The seed had been sown, rain had fallen, but nothing of the life of Jesus had grown in them. In verses 7 and 9, he stated the case of the second category of readers. These, when they heard the good word, believed it and brought forth fruit. To continue to go over the elementary things would be unnecessary. They needed to go deeper and press on to maturity. The author was confident, as we will see, that those in this category were ready to hear more and grow in their love for God and one another.  If you are living to love with Jesus today, then you believe Jesus wasn’t an imposter. He really is the Son of God. He is your fullness. There’s nothing more that needs to be done for you to be satisfied in Him. You can identify with those who are in the second case, as the author saw it. You are pressing on to maturity as you practice what you believe with Jesus. You love Him. You know He loves you, and because of this, you live today to love with Him. I hope this encourages you to press on with Jesus, practicing abiding in Him for the glory of God.