Hebrews 6:4 - 6 Part 3

It was several years ago when thinking about this concept of a spiritual gestation period that this diagram came to mind. Doing this lesson will force me to think carefully about the diagram and provide others the opportunity to point out possible problems or needed changes.

A person’s physical life begins at conception, but without spiritual live. Because of Adam’s sin, everyone is conceived spiritually dead and is shown by the black area on the diagram. Generally, after nine months of gestation, there is physical birth, accompanied by a marked increase in awareness. If the person was chosen by the Father to be adopted as his child, then at some point there will be spiritual conception.

Spiritual conception begins the spiritual gestation period and is shown as the gray triangle because of the sin nature we still have. After a length of time known to the Father, spiritual growth and awareness will have progressed through hearing the gospel and various other means to the point where he causes spiritual birth. At this point there is a marked increase in spiritual awareness. This point is commonly referred to as being born again. It is the point where faith produces belief and like with physical birth, the person knows it is time and yields to the work of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, there are many in the west that think you can convince a person to be born spiritually. In this way many are deceived into thinking they are Christian when they are not.

After spiritual birth there will be change as we are conformed into the image of Christ. His is a joint effort involving God and the individual and continues in our body of sinful flesh until physical death, which is a separation point for believers and unbelievers. Believers enter heaven through the narrow gate and unbelievers remain under the wrath of God in hell. Justice demands that everyone continue under the wrath of God, but Jesus Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath on the cross for those chosen by the Father, allowing him to show them mercy, removing the penalty of spiritual death.

When we first enter heaven our salvation is still incomplete as we do not yet have a new resurrected body. That will occur when all those chosen by the Father have been born spiritually. When the body of Christ, his bride, is complete at the end of the age when Christ returns, we will be given our new bodies. After the new earth is created we will come to live there with a God.

The plan of salvation is so wonderful as it is solely a gift from God and will not exclude anyone who sincerely believes. I believe the Scriptures are clear that salvation is based on the will of God, not on the will of man.

Prayer

Father, as I think about all that our salvation entails, I am concerned that we might think it is simply free admissions into heaven. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:12, to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” I wonder how many see spiritual growth as something this serious. Father, you chose us and had Jesus die on the cross so you could pardon our sentence of death. I am not sure our gratitude and sacrifice reflects how much it cost you to provide this pardon and for us to enjoy the kindness of your grace for an eternity. 

Hebrews 6:4-6 Part 2

“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 6:4-6 ESV). in Part 1, we considered the possibility of spiritual life before birth like in the case of physical birth. The same is true when planting a seed in the ground. There are a few days in which the seed germinates and when a plant breaks through the ground. We considered the words enlightened, tasted and shared as describing spiritual life before birth.

In this lesson, we will consider the impossibility of falling away once conception has taken place. Jesus said: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37 ESV). Before the creation of the world God the Father chose those he would give to Jesus as a gift; to those the Father would begin the period of gestation and not one of these would not go full term and be born. The promise is that all chosen would be given the faith to believe and would be born according to the Father’s plan. It is, therefore, impossible for anyone to fall away and if they somehow could overcome the power of God and fall away, then it would be impossible to restore them again to repentance.

In the next lesson we will consider a diagram to express this concept.

Prayer

Father, if free will is embraced and salvation is determined by a decision on the part of the person and not on your choice, then there could not be a gestation period in which spiritual life develops, making belief impossible.  One who is not first given spiritual life will not choose God (Romans 3:10-11). Father, I clearly experienced several years of gestation before my faith was sufficient for me to believe. 

Hebrews 6:4 - 6 Part 1

“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 6:4-6 ESV). I have given much thought to these verses over the years and read the comments of others on them and have decided to express a possibility concerning them. What I am going to write is something that will probably be rejected by many and they may tell me that I am wrong, but I want to at least express my thought as a possibility.

Physical life begins at conception and continues through a gestation period to birth. The fetus is a live human with limited awareness, which expands greatly at birth. Is it not possible that spiritual life is similar? The human family uses seed as the means of propagation, but that seed is “perishable” and is capable of decay. There is, however, another seed that is “imperishable” that produces a new creation that in eternal. In 1 Peter 1:23 we read: “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;” (ESV). I am suggesting the possibility of a variable length of time from when that seed is placed and when the birth occurs. Today some say that human life does not start until birth. That is the general belief concerning spiritual life because it accommodates the idea of free will.

If one allows a spiritual gestation period then that period could be described with the terms found in Hebrews 6:4 – 6, such as, “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.” Do not the terms “enlightened”, “tasted”, an “shared” suggest a condition before birth? As this spiritual fetus grows, a point is finally reached when the Father causes the new creature in Christ to be born (1 Peter 1:3).

In Hebrews 6:4 – 6, there are the words “impossible” and “fall away” that we need to consider. That will be the topic of the next lesson. (Use next lesson as a link)

Prayer

Father, I pray that I am not misleading anyone with this idea, but to me it has some merit. I believe that I experienced this gestation period in my life because I was experiencing the beginnings of spiritual life. Then one day I knew I was ready because I felt compelled to surrender and pray and experienced a definite explosion of spiritual life. There is absolutely no question when I was born spiritually and that it followed a period of being enlightened when I tasted the heavenly gift and the goodness of the word of God.