PERFECTION

PERDITION

OR

belong to their race and creed. This the writer would alter. He says, in effect, leave this with God; see to the

`eternal kingdom', the `eternal life', the `eternal glory' which you may be missing by your over-zeal concerning

`eternal judgment'.

`If God permit'. It is most essential that every believer who contemplates running the race, pressing for the

prize, gaining the crown, and being numbered among those who are called `the perfect' or `mature', should realize

the meaning hidden behind the apostle's words, `If God permit'. The verses that follow are an explanation, speaking

as they do of the impossibility of renewing again unto repentance those who, having tasted the heavenly gift, fall

away. The type given later, of Esau, is very explicit.

`Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited

the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of REPENTANCE, though he sought it carefully with tears'

The only occurrences of the word `repentance' in Hebrews are in 6:1,6 and 12:17. It is evident that the case of

Esau is an amplification or an illustration of the case of those spoken of in Hebrews 6.

The words `If God permit' glance back to that period of Israel's history that has already provided the great basis

of exhortation in chapters 3 and 4, `the day of temptation in the wilderness'. It will be remembered that, upon

hearing the evil report of the ten spies, Israel murmured and said, `Let us make a captain, and let us return into

Egypt'. The Lord then bade Moses say:'As truly as I live ... your carcases shall fall in this wilderness ... and the

people mourned greatly'. It would appear also that their mourning was in some measure a repentance, for `they rose

up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto

the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the

commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you: that ye be not smitten

before your enemies ... BUT THEY PRESUMED TO GO UP UNTO THE HILL TOP ... then the ... Canaanites ... smote

them ...' (Num. 14:28-45).

In the words `but they presumed', we have a parallel with the expression in Hebrews 11:29, `the Egyptians

assaying to do'. This passage together with those of Hebrews 6 and 12 causes one to pause and think of the

seriousness of the lesson here being taught. Of a similar import is the saying of the Lord:

`No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking unto the things that are behind, is well placed with a view to

the kingdom of God' (Luke 9:62 not AV JP).

The exact repetition of the words `The things that are behind' in Philippians 3:13 is too pointed to be a

coincidence, the context being so closely connected with those we have been considering. Having turned to

Philippians 3 it may be as well to observe another parallel before proceeding. In Hebrews 6:6 there occurs that

strong expression `having crucified again the Son of God and are exposing Him to shame', and again in 10:29,

`having trampled on the Son of God, and having esteemed the blood of the covenant a common thing'. So in

Philippians 3 we have many walking as the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Returning for a moment to Numbers 14, we must remember that although that great multitude perished in the

wilderness, they were a pardoned people. Moses had prayed:

`Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people ... and the LORD said, I have pardoned' (Num. 14:19,20).

Yet it was not possible to renew again unto repentance that people, pardoned though they were. If this had been

remembered when dealing with Hebrews 6 many would have been spared the awful error that some have taught

from this chapter, namely, the possibility of a child of God losing his salvation. This epistle, as we have said again

and again, and this chapter particularly, deals with things that accompany salvation, things that belong to the perfect

or full-grown and the overcomer. These things may be lost or forfeited, but salvation is by grace, and works or

reward have no place in it.

`If God permit' therefore reveals that sometimes God may not permit. To attempt to ascend the mountain and

enter the land of Canaan without the assurance of His presence was madness and destined to fail. Our first and