Let’s turn to Hebrews 5.
The passage we are going to read is a pause in the middle of the book of Hebrews. It is a pause born out of a Holy Spirit frustration—not frustration like anger, but almost as though the writer is continuing to share something and is stopped by the Lord. He takes a break to regain ground before going forward.
At the beginning of Hebrews 5, the writer wants to carry on in sharing Christ as the great High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Then he cannot continue. What we want to read this morning is what he says when he stops.
He returns to the point at the end of Hebrews 6. Then, in Hebrews 7, the focus begins again with Christ as our Melchizedek. But this section is the break—the side comments and notes intended to bring the readers back into focus and restore their ability to hear something more, a stronger word. They are stuck.
We will begin in Hebrews 5:10. This is at the point where he begins to share something and then stops.
Addressed by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek,
concerning Whom we have much to say, and hard of interpretation,
seeing ye are become dull of hearing.For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments
of the first principles of the oracles of God;
and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.For every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness;
for he is a babe.
But solid food is for full-grown men,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern good and evil.Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ,
let us press on unto perfection;
not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works,
and of faith toward God,
of the teaching of baptisms,
and of laying on of hands,
and of resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment.And this will we do, if God permit.
For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and tasted the good word of God,
and the powers of the age to come,
and then fell away,
it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put Him to an open shame.For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it,
and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled,
receiveth blessing from God:
but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse;
whose end is to be burned.But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you,
and things that accompany salvation.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we bring this word before You, and we pray that You would break it and truly feed us with Your word today. We pray that it would be something we can chew and digest. Soften our hearts, help us, and minister Your word to us.
We pray that in this time we can join in fellowship with You. As Your heart is for us, Lord, we come seeking Your face as well. We say that we want to be with You, follow You, and know You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
This passage is an aside, a break reminding them of things they already know. He stops and says, “I want to share about Melchizedek, but it is hard for you to understand. You have become dull in hearing. You need milk again instead of meat. You need the beginning of the word of Christ instead of this word of righteousness.”
So he is stopped. He says, “Let us go on to maturity. Let us not lay again the foundation.” He refers to the foundational, elementary teachings and says, “We have got this. God willing, let us press on to full growth.” He wants to share Christ as the great High Priest.
What was originally a short interruption has become one of the greatest stumbling blocks for Christians throughout church history. These matters that were mentioned so briefly have become areas of great difficulty.
I remember when this first stood out to me. I was about a year old as a Christian, seventeen years old, sitting in a room with a pastor and elders as we considered matters in the church. We were arguing over baptism, the laying on of hands, heaven and hell, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
I said, “These are elementary teachings. These are the basics. These are the beginning of the word.” Then we began searching for the deeper teachings. We were flipping through the Bible asking, “What are the meat teachings? What are the deeper teachings? Does it say later on?” We could not find it.
The feeling was, “Oh boy, we are at a bad spot.” These were good men of God, good brothers, but everything was confusing.
One of these elementary teachings is repentance from dead works and faith in God. Thank God, through His movement in the church, much of this has been recovered. We understand that our own works are dead and that we cannot be saved by what we do.
But this was confusing for hundreds of years. During the Reformation, many paid the price with their lives, with much teaching, argument, and spiritual battle, simply to regain the beginning concept that we repent from our dead works. We do not use our dead works to come to God. We turn from them and have faith. This is the beginning of the Christian life.
Yet even now, the foundation is shaky among Christians. Most Christians understand that we come to Christ by belief and not by our own good deeds. But when it comes to the foundation, it often does not remain solid.
When someone starts to speak about works or actions, we often fall into confusion on one side or the other. Some are so concerned to preserve the word of grace that they say, “Do not talk about any actions. It is all about Christ. Do not tell me anything to do, because I know it is all about what He has done.”
Others may know they are saved by faith and not by works, but after they are saved they assume that all works are acceptable. They think, “Anything good is God.” But that is not actually in the Bible.
If we held firmly to the foundation and grew from it, we would recognize that dead works are dead works whenever they are done by the dead old man. The works we do as Christians should be works of faith—good works that God prepared beforehand for us.
Then we can go forward in a balanced way. But our foundation is easily disturbed and easily confused. Even when we understand these concepts, we may become tense when someone exhorts us to do something.
We may receive exhortation as though a harsh taskmaster God is asking us merely to be servants and do all this work. Or we may reject it because that does not seem like the Christ we know in His love, mercy, and drawing us to Himself.
But there must be a way to go forward. There must be a way to stand on the foundation, handle milk, and go on to meat. There must be a right way.
The writer says, “You ought to be teachers.” This does not mean that every Christian must have the gift of teaching or become a public teacher. It means that every Christian ought to be able to help another person: a new believer, a stumbling Christian, someone shaky in their foundation, or someone distracted in their growth.
If we take that mindset, we pay attention differently. When we have to help someone else, we need better words than the fuzziness in our minds. We may hear an answer once and be satisfied, until someone asks us the same question. Then we realize, “I know the answer, but I need someone else to help you.”
We cannot quite explain it. We cannot quite help someone. But if we pay attention for the sake of helping one another, it is a new approach. We need to understand the foundation and the growth process so that we can help a brother or sister whom we love to go on, go further, and grow.
We are not learning merely to satisfy our curiosity or get to the next step ourselves. We learn the foundation and the way forward for the sake of helping others, and for the sake of growing clearly without becoming disturbed and stuck again.
Sometimes we know that Christ loves us and has accepted us completely apart from anything we have done. Yet when we hear a word about overcoming or going forward, we want to rewind and return only to that assurance.
But can we remain there and also grow?
Hebrews 6:1 says:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ,
let us press on unto perfection.
This does not mean abandoning the word or becoming disconnected from the foundation. Hebrews 3:14 says:
For we are become partakers of Christ,
if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.
Both statements are true. We hold firmly to the foundation while growing from it. Leaving means going forward, not disconnecting. It does not mean, “I learned that long ago, so I no longer need anything to do with it.” The foundational things are always there.
That is why the most mature believer can break bread and simply thank the Lord for loving us and dying on the cross for us. At the same time, the Lord may show us something deeper and more forward-looking. We may know that Christ sympathizes with us because He became man and died for us, while also considering that as High Priest He is praying for us right now.
As we take the cup, we know that our sins are washed away. As we take the bread, we also know that we are strengthened to serve the Lord and go forward. This is a balanced Christian life.
The teaching of baptisms has largely been recovered among Christians: believers get baptized. Yet even now, some born-again Christians are confused about baptism, and it can still be a point of conflict.
Then there is the laying on of hands. Even mentioning it can make us wonder, “Oh no, what are we going to say?” Yet this is called an elementary teaching. What the writer refers to as something all believers understood has become confusing to us.
We ought to be able to help fellow Christians enter into a solid understanding of the foundation. Otherwise, it is difficult for Christians to grow. Whether they hear good teaching or bad teaching, a shaky or misunderstood foundation makes it difficult to go on.
The writer also mentions resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. When we read a passage like Hebrews 6 and hear, “It is impossible to renew again unto repentance,” we may become fearful and ask, “What is my foundation again?”
We understand this instability in a brand-new Christian. Ephesians 4 speaks of being tossed to and fro by every wind of teaching. That is normal for a baby Christian.
The Thessalonian believers were confused about the Lord’s return, resurrection, and eternal judgment. They were looking for His return, and then someone died. Their basic teaching was shaky, so they needed to hear that those who had died would be raised from the dead.
But the Corinthian Christians, who should have been spiritual, were also confused about resurrection. By the end of 1 Corinthians, their elementary teachings had become terribly confused. These matters had to be corrected and clarified.
This is very much like our day. There is much confusion and much need to return to these things—not merely so that we can ask, “Am I okay right now?” but so that we can help others as well.
When I first encountered Hebrews 6 and was so stumped, I tried to study it. I read Bible studies and commentary after commentary on Hebrews 6. Of course, I became more lost than before. Why were all these commentaries arguing and disagreeing with one another?
For the original readers, the writer simply says, “It is impossible,” gives a picture of ground, growth, plants, and fire, and then goes on to Melchizedek. They likely understood. But through the centuries, what was obvious became lost.
The Holy Spirit is behind the Scriptures. He did not write merely one passage. God wrote all the passages of the Bible. As 2 Timothy 3 teaches:
Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction,
for instruction which is in righteousness.
We need all of Scripture. Hebrews 1 reminds us that God spoke in many portions and in many ways through the prophets, and then spoke in His Son. We have the four Gospels showing us Christ, Acts showing us the church, the letters of Paul and John, Revelation, and such a variety of Scripture.
The Lord has given us this variety to help us, especially when something has become confusing. We should never hold one verse by itself.
This is the point of 2 Peter 1:20–21:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation.
For no prophecy ever came by the will of man:
but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
Even though one man wrote Hebrews, Scripture must be understood in harmony with the rest of Scripture. Men of God were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that same Holy Spirit inspired the other Scriptures.
To understand Hebrews 5–6, we will use a parallel passage: 1 Corinthians 3. The Holy Spirit placed a passage in Scripture that is almost an exact parallel.
In 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul says:
For we are God’s fellow-workers:
ye are God’s husbandry,
God’s building.
The word translated “husbandry” can refer to a field, garden, or cultivated land. Paul then shares the picture of God’s building. Hebrews 6 gives us the picture of God’s field. Together, these pictures help us understand what is happening.
Both passages also speak of milk and solid food. Peter speaks of newborn babes longing for the pure spiritual milk of the word, but 1 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 5–6 have a particularly close comparison.
In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul speaks of the natural man, the carnal man, and the spiritual man. Then, in 1 Corinthians 3:1–2, he says:
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.
I fed you with milk, not with meat;
for ye were not yet able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able.
Does this sound familiar? In Hebrews 5, the writer wants to speak about Christ after the order of Melchizedek, but says it is hard because they have become dull of hearing. They ought to be teachers, but need milk rather than solid food.
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says he cannot speak to them as spiritual people. In Hebrews 5, the writer says it is difficult to share about Melchizedek. In 1 Corinthians, they are babes in Christ. In Hebrews, everyone who partakes of milk is a babe.
The emphasis in 1 Corinthians is spiritual life: they ought to be spiritual and mature. The emphasis in Hebrews is teaching, revelation, and understanding: they ought to be teachers and able to help others. But the passages are very parallel.
In Hebrews 6:7–8, we read:
For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it,
and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled,
receiveth blessing from God:
but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse;
whose end is to be burned.
This is not a random field. It is a cultivated field, a garden, God’s garden. It is a picture of the church. At the end of the Bible, the church is shown as God’s garden and God’s building in the New Jerusalem.
In the New Jerusalem, we see the tree of life and the river of life, recalling the Garden of Eden. We also see God’s building. We are God’s garden and God’s building; that is the goal.
The reason we are considering 1 Corinthians 3 is that it helps us understand Hebrews 6. For years, I would read about ground drinking rain and crops being burned up and wonder, “How does that connect with the earlier verses?” But in 1 Corinthians 3, the matter is more clearly spelled out.
In 1 Corinthians 3:10–11, Paul says:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me,
as a wise master builder I laid a foundation;
and another buildeth thereon.
But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ.
We are God’s building. In a building there is a foundation stone, a foundational rock. No other foundation can be laid. Paul says that he laid the foundation by preaching the gospel, through which the Corinthians were saved and that assembly was begun.
This picture refers to the church, but it also has an individual aspect, because Paul says, “Let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.” The foundation is laid, and nobody can undo it. It is solid.
Then 1 Corinthians 3:12 says:
But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble.
There are two kinds of materials. Gold, silver, and precious stones endure fire. Fire purifies them, and they remain. Wood, hay, and stubble are consumed when fire comes.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:13:
Each man’s work shall be made manifest:
for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire;
and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is.
Gold, silver, and precious stones correspond to the useful herbs in Hebrews 6. These are works that remain when tested by fire.
Gold often speaks in Scripture of the nature of God. As we build on Christ, we receive the work God the Father is doing in us. We build by His grace.
Silver speaks of redemption—the price paid to purchase someone out of slavery. The redemption of Christ works upon us and becomes something with which we build.
Precious stones are formed under pressure and through crushing beneath the ground. This pictures the work of the Holy Spirit, using our circumstances and all that happens to us, working all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
When we build with materials connected with the Lord, the work remains under testing and becomes a blessing. In the field picture, when we receive the rain of God’s grace and grow from the seed of life within us, we produce useful herbs—something with which the Master is satisfied.
But if we are stubborn, as if there is no grace of God, as if we are living in a dry desert, thorns and briars appear. These represent works of ourselves, works without the grace of God. They are worthless and are burned up.
After sin entered the world, the ground brought forth thorns. In Eden there were no thorns. But after sin came, the ground needed to be tilled, cultivated, watered, and planted. It needed attention.
We are not innocent. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. To produce fruit, we must continue to receive the Lord’s help, His tilling, and His grace. We must abide in Christ, as the branch abides in the vine, for fruit to be produced.
If we merely produce thorns and briars, these are works of ourselves. They are works without the grace of God, and they are worthless and burned up.
In 1 Corinthians 3:14–15, Paul says:
If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon,
he shall receive a reward.If any man’s work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss:
but he himself shall be saved;
yet so as through fire.
The gold, silver, and precious stones remain after fire, and the builder receives a reward. This corresponds to Hebrews 6, where the field producing useful herbs receives blessing from God.
But if the work is consumed, the person suffers loss. In Hebrews 6, the field producing thorns and briars is found worthless, near to a curse, and its end is to be burned.
If we stop there, Hebrews 6 can leave us unstable. Even though the next verse says, “We are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation,” we may still be troubled by the words, “Nigh unto a curse” and “whose end is to be burned.”
But 1 Corinthians 3 gives the explanation. The Holy Spirit has not left us in confusion. He says that even if the work is consumed, “he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.”
How can that be? Everything built on top is burned up, the person suffers loss, and yet he is saved. The answer is the foundation.
No one can lay another foundation besides Christ. Fire can come upon what has been built on top of the foundation, but the rock itself is not burned up. Christ is not consumed by fire.
Our works will be tested and tried, but our salvation is never under consideration. No one can remove that rock. No one can lay another foundation. No matter how confused we become, no other foundation can be laid except the foundation of Christ.
That is why someone may build with wood, hay, and stubble, suffer loss, and miss reward, yet still be saved through fire. There is loss, but there is also this wonderful assurance: “He himself shall be saved.”
What is equivalent to the rock foundation in the picture of Hebrews 6? It is the ground.
The ground receives the seed of the gospel. Eternal life has been placed within it. The ground receives rain and has the opportunity to produce useful herbs. Though fire comes and useless crops are burned, the ground itself is not consumed.
The ground may be near to a curse in the experience, but we who have been saved have passed out of the curse and out of judgment. The ground cannot be removed, just as the foundation stone cannot be replaced.
We are God’s garden and God’s building. The field from which we grow is Christ. It is immovable and cannot be completely cast aside. The seed within the ground remains forever.
Why would a farmer burn a field? We recently drove past some farm fields, and I learned that it can be useful to burn part of a field, especially if it has produced many thorns, briars, weeds, and other unwanted growth.
At first, it seems destructive. You think, “Now you just have a scorched field.” But the fire has removed the weed seeds and all that surface-level, worthless greenery.
In my own failed gardening, I used to pull weeds out with their roots and seeds and try to put them in compost. Catherine wisely asked, “Do you really want the seeds of the weeds in the compost that you are going to put back in the garden?” So I learned not to do that.
It is useful to burn the field. In the same way, when we meet the Lord, our works are revealed by fire. There is the judgment seat of Christ. We have passed out of the judgment relating to hell, but there is a day of family judgment in which the Lord tests what we have done.
Was it of God or not? Was it fruitful and useful to God? If so, we receive blessing: “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
But if it was merely of ourselves—if we were saved but then lived as though we no longer needed the Lord—then the fire comes. We suffer loss and miss reward. Yet the Lord comforts us: “He himself shall be saved.”
The burning of the field is for the sake of future growth. God’s future dealings are for our eternal good. Who wants to appear in the New Jerusalem carrying thorns and briars? Who wants to be in the garden with all that spikiness?
Instead, what is not of the Lord is burned away, and what is truly of Him continues to grow. The scorched field is useful for the future. This is God’s merciful dealing with His saved ones.
The point of this comparison is to help us understand why the field is brought up in Hebrews 6. How does that help confused Hebrews go on to hear about Melchizedek—Christ, who is presently praying for them to mature, to do works of faith, and to serve the Lord?
Does the fire merely make them afraid and cause them to run away? No. The writer is showing them that the worst-case scenario is that they lose what they have done by themselves, but the field remains. He himself shall be saved.
The Corinthians needed an exhortation to mature because they were satisfied to remain babies. They enjoyed milk, the predigested food, and did not want to go on. Paul tells them that their works will be tried by fire.
The Hebrews had a different problem. Whenever they heard a word about action or growth, they returned to the question of their foundation. Their mindset was still influenced by the old covenant: “He who does these things shall live.”
But the new covenant says, “You live because I have done it. Now let us do these things.” That is the new covenant way.
Because of this misunderstanding, the Hebrews might think, “I messed up. I fell from grace. I fell into sin knowingly. I am guilty. I need to get saved again.” Some Christians today even want to be baptized again for that reason.
But the elementary teaching says that we go forward from baptism. We do not keep getting baptized again.
This is why Hebrews 6 says, “It is impossible.” Why would the writer mention something impossible? Because the Hebrews cannot hear the word of righteousness. They cannot hear that Christ is calling them onward, because as soon as they hear it, they ask, “Have I lost my salvation?”
But what is impossible? Is it impossible for a Christian to repent? Definitely not.
Repentance is part of Christian life. In Revelation 2, the church at Ephesus is told that it has left its first love and must remember, repent, and do the first works. The Laodiceans are also called to repent.
When we sin as Christians, we confess our sins, as 1 John 1 teaches. The blood cleanses us and brings us back into fellowship. We fall out of fellowship and are restored to fellowship; we do not fall out of salvation and become saved again.
What would it mean to be saved again? Salvation was received freely, as a gift, through repentance from dead works and faith in Christ. To be saved again would require Christ to be crucified again.
Hebrews 6 says that those who fall away would be:
Crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and putting Him to an open shame.
Can Christ be crucified again? It is impossible. He was crucified once. The impossibility is not Christian repentance; it is first-time repentance unto salvation happening again.
Once in your life, you repent from dead works and turn to Christ in faith. At that moment, you are born again. You cannot be born again again. That is impossible.
To make clear that Hebrews 6 is speaking of believers, consider the description:
Those who were once enlightened
and tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and tasted the good word of God,
and the powers of the age to come.
Anyone reading that honestly recognizes that this is describing a Christian.
If such a person falls away, it is impossible for their first repentance unto salvation to happen again, because that would be the same as crucifying Christ again. His assurance to the Hebrews is that you cannot be saved again because the ground will never be burned up and the foundation stone remains.
Stop trying to be saved again. Stand on your salvation, and let us go on to maturity. Yes, judgment is coming, and we will speak about this with Melchizedek, but rest in the assurance of salvation. All that confusion is impossible.
When we first discover this assurance through Scripture, we want to say, “Praise the Lord.” I remember hearing the assurance of salvation and thinking, “No way. This is amazing. It is impossible. No one can take this from me. No one can snatch me out of the Lord’s hand.”
For the Hebrews, this was comfort. They understood that Christ could not be crucified again. They knew judgment was coming, but the ground remained. A farmer’s field continues on for future use and will eventually produce useful herbs.
So we can stand on the solid foundation and build on top of it. We can say, “Let us go on. Let us go further. Let us stay connected with our salvation and grow from it.”
If you are walking or running and fall down, you do not go back to your house and start again. In a race, runners may fall down, but they do not return to the beginning. I tripped once in a cross-country race, but you get up and continue.
Video games may have affected our mindset. You hit reset and receive another life, all your strength and equipment restored. But life has no reset button. You have no redo. When you fall down, you stand up and go on.
You repent from whatever tripped you up, but you go on.
It is like drawing a line from point A to point B. If you only stay at point A, you have a dot. If you disconnect and jump to point B, you have another dot. That is not the Christian life.
With the Lord, it is a solid line. We pause sometimes. We may become stuck. But wherever we stop, we do not go backward; we go forward from there.
When you repent by confessing sin and turning back to the Lord, you return to the line He has drawn. You return to the path He has made. You return to the materials with which He is building.
Sometimes we may think, “I was building with gold, silver, and precious stones, but then I put some wood in there.” When we repent of our own works, the wood is removed and we continue building with the right materials.
In that sense, repentance is the proper kind of restart. It is not beginning salvation again; it is returning to where Christ had brought you and continuing from there.
How should we be teachers of these things? First, we need to experience this balance day by day. Then we can recognize when someone else is not experiencing it.
The balanced Christian has a joyful foundation that cannot be disturbed. They are satisfied in Christ and able to worship Him at any moment. They rejoice that all things depend on Christ.
At the same time, they can hear someone say, “Let us grow. Let us do this.” They can hear the Lord calling them to maturity without responding, “Oh, but that sounds like something I have to do.”
Instead, they can say, “Yes, I want to do that, and I want to know Christ more through it.”
This is the mindset of a mature believer. Philippians 3 shows us that maturity is not merely possessing greater understanding, having everything outwardly in order, or performing every action correctly. The mature believer wants more of Christ.
Our foundation sends us forward into more of Christ. Because we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we want to know more of Him. As He calls us to maturity, He calls us to act on the basis of what Christ has done and His grace within us.
We should not merely be satisfied to say, “Okay, I get this now.” When the call comes to go forward, we may want to shrink back to the happy times of hearing only about what Christ has done, because taking a step forward may look painful.
But every step forward is more of Christ.
If we try to renew again or remain only at the foundation, it does not work. We do not maintain our joy by refusing to grow. If the field is as it should be, growth happens naturally from the life within it.
If we remain on the solid rock of Christ, then as God works on us we naturally find ourselves building with the right materials. If we stay satisfied with the foundation, we find ourselves going forward.
Why? Because at the foundation is Christ, immovable; and before us is the face of Christ, discoverable. All we are after is more of Christ. All of our calling is to discover more of Him.
As we help others, the central question is simple: Have you fallen off the path of Christ, or are you standing on Christ and going after Christ?
We ought to be able to help people when they have forgotten that their foundation is Christ. We should also be able to help when they are trying to move forward through human works and human ways. We can say, “No, no, no. The way forward is more of Christ, just as your foundation is Christ.”
At the foundation, we have Christ the sent One—the Apostle who came, died for us, paid the price, and made the way for our salvation. Going forward, we see Christ standing, interceding, praying for us, and calling us onward.
When we fall down, He prays for us to rise again. We look to Him, behold Him, and see more and more of Christ.
This is our regular experience, and then we can help one another. In fellowship with new believers, sick believers, and hurting believers, the measure we use is Christ: Are they standing on Christ? Do they know Christ?
As we help one another remain on the foundation and go on to maturity, all of us are equipped to be teachers in this sense. We can ask:
This is the measure. Let us go on to maturity. Let us go forward from the foundation. Let us help one another along this way, building on the foundation and taking our stance in Christ.
Lord, we worship You. We take this moment to say how great this salvation is. So great a salvation has come upon us. We have received so much, and You are our wonderful Savior.
Lord, it is even more wonderful that You have called us onward—not to neglect our salvation, but to behold You, pursue You, and discover more of You.
So, Lord, we fix our eyes on You. We take our strong stance on the solid rock, knowing that it can never be removed. We know that we will be saved no matter what, and we are free to go forward, make mistakes, and fall down without needing to be saved again.
We can get right back up because we know that You are praying for us. You are at the finish line, cheering us on. You are for us and not against us.
You are not a harsh taskmaster. You are the One who loved us and died for us. You are the One who loves us right now and calls us on for more.
Lord, we worship You, and we thank You for this calling. In Jesus’ name, amen.