4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
“There are only three ways you can take a passage such as this:
▫ It speaks of true Christians who fall away and lose their salvation. If that is true, then also notice that it is impossible for them to come back.
▫ It speaks of professing believers who are in fact, prodigal pigs. They are apostates. Those that have heard, seen, and tasted all that they need to be truly saved, but haven’t become born again Christians and still having the nature of a pig within them, wilfully turn their backs on it all and return to wallow in the mud!
▫ It is a hypothetical argument that because it is impossible to fall away, the exhortation is given to urge the Christians on to more growth and sin. My bible gives the following comparison for this type of view. It is similar to saying to a class of students ‘It is impossible for a student, once enrolled in this course, to turn the clock back (which cannot be done), to start the course over. Therefore let all students go on towards deeper knowledge.
Now you probably think that they must have been true Christians for it says they were enlightened, tasted the word of God, and had partook of the Holy Spirit. But all these words can still be true the unsaved individual who has come to a knowledge of the truth, seen the power of the Holy Spirit, and felt the convicting and drawing of the Holy Spirit in their life. Judas was an extreme example of this. He knew all there was to know having followed Jesus for three years. He had experienced the Holy Spirit’s power having been among the twelve sent out, two by two, to cast out demons and heal the sick. Yet he was never truly saved!
None of the key words for truly saved individuals such as ‘saving faith’, ‘eternal life’, ‘born again’, ‘redeemed by his blood’, ’saved’, ’salvation’ are used in this passage.” (I. Gordan)
The ‘those’ here were the Hebrews of that time period who were exposed to Jesus Christ and His teachings, and the giving of the Holy Ghost. They were enlightened by the true gospel; but, they were not born again; it made sense to them, but their heart wasn’t willing. They ‘tasted’ but did not actually ‘swallow’ it. They were around Jesus Christ but they did not submit and follow Him. They partook of that experience and power of the Holy Ghost being given and acting through those early disciples…but that does not necessarily imply that they received Him.
Fall away – away from the doctrine of Christ; they knew it but didn’t receive, and actually left it and went on to something else. They received it with joy but it had no root. This seems to say that you have might have just one big opportunity in life for salvation; you may tug and struggle with it for a long time, but if you fall away from it, basically rejecting it and believing a lie, the opportunity is gone. If one is enlightened by the gospel and experiences the power of God going on around them, and chooses not to repent of their dead works and the errors of their belief system, then it (may be) is impossible to have them get saved…for they have not accepted the only payment that is available for their sin debt of Hell. It is like crucifying Jesus Christ all over again…meaning, His crucifixion 2000 years ago was not enough.
This might just be true for those who were alive around the time of Jesus Christ and the giving of the Holy Ghost. Another problem here is that if one takes this to be referring to Christians, then if they fall away and lose their salvation, then it would be impossible for them to repent again and be saved!
“Jews are warned: Hb 10:26, “If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins.” The old Jewish sacrifices had passed and there was no longer that cure for sins. It was either to take Christ, who had died the sacrificial death for all, or to come into terrible judgment.
Much is said here as having been divinely accomplished in certain individuals, but it is not a sufficient description of the true child of God; who is light; who is already a citizen of heaven; who has been sealed by the Holy Spirit; who bas been regenerated by the washing of the Word; and who has been recreated by the power of God. The passage is addressed to Hebrews and the first part of the chapter concerns their duty of passing from the elements of Jewish faith to Christ, and the warning is of their particular danger of substituting half truths for the full truth in Christ. (Lewis Chafer)
“It applies, for instance, to a young man who makes a profession of faith in Christ, but then something happens in his life. Perhaps he falls into gross immorality. Or perhaps he goes off to college and is shaken by the anti-Christian arguments of atheistic teachers. With full knowledge of the truth, he deliberately turns away from it, completely renouncing Christ, and viciously tramples on every sacred fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. The Bible says it is impossible to restore such a one to repentance.” (William MacDonald)