The warnings contained in Hebrews 6:1-8, together with those of Hebrews 10:26-31, form some of the most direct and strongest admonitions found in the New Testament letters. How should we understand them?

The first and most obvious thing to say that their very presence indicates that they are needed! The writer here amplifies what he has elsewhere alluded to (e.g. Heb. 2:2; 3:12-4:2). The congregation to whom he is writing needs to continue to hear the word of the gospel, and not to be diverted from it. It is clear that they had begun to grow dull of hearing (Heb. 5:11), and that this dullness of faith was in danger of leading to irremediable spiritual deafness. The judgement for not hearing is that you cannot hear (e.g. Jer. 7:21-31; 13:4-11 cf. Is. 6:9ff. especially as quoted in Matt. 13:13ff.). These admonitions are an early warning shout to rouse his hearers to pay attention, lest they fall to such a state that they not be able to hear even such a shout as this.

The second and most important thing to notice is that these warnings are designed to ensure the assurance of the hearers. This is clear from Hebrews 6:11-12, and the subsequent exposition of the surety of the promises of God, being guaranteed by his own oath, as they are. The hope that we therefore have is sure and certain, and embodied in Jesus Christ, who as our new Melchizedek has gone before us to anchor our hope in eternity (Heb. 6:19f.). The writer does not want the Hebrew believers to be walking a tightrope of fear, or for their lives to be governed by any uncertainty of the inheritance set out for them in heaven. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the figure of Melchizedek (here used to expound the work of Christ) leads his hearers into the warning passage (Heb. 5:11), and out of it at the other side (Heb. 6:20, connecting with Hebrews 7). With our eyes fixed on him (i.e. Christ, of whom Melchizedek speaks), we are certain of all that is promised in him. Our endurance is made possible by the surety of his promises.

In Hebrews 3:14, the writer likewise brings such thoughts together. There he says, "for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end". The ‘for' connects with what has gone before in that context: we need to encourage one another every day. Why? Because something has already happened...we have become sharers in Christ (the tense is significant, being in the perfect, i.e. a past event with ongoing results). That event has brought with it assurance (here translated at ‘confidence'), meaning that when we became partakers of Christ, we had in view a sure and certain hope, secured in him, to which we had committed our cause. It is one thing to say ‘you will become sharers in Christ if only you hold on to the end', and quite another to say ‘you have become sharers in Christ...so hold on to the end'! The first throws us back on to ourselves, and will guarantee failure. The second throws our assurance onto Christ. Our assurance is ensured as we fix our eyes on him.

The third and very practical thing to say is that the admonitions puncture any presumption. In keeping with many other New Testament statements (e.g. John 8:31; Matt. 24:13; Rom. 11:22; Col. 1:21-23; Heb. 10:38-39; 1 John 2:19, 24; etc.) the writer indicates that the proof our participation in Christ is that we ‘hold on firm until the end'. Our endurance does not earn our salvation, but is the proof of it. We are not participators in Christ because we endure, but we endure because we are participators in Christ. However, the enduring is the only way that the Lord's work is vindicated. F. F. Bruce comments, ‘continuance in the Christian life is the test of reality. The doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints has its corollary in the salutary teaching that the saints are the people who persevere to the end.' We dare not operate with that presumption of Israel of old, against which the writer has warned us in Hebrews 3-4. If we presume that we will come to the resting place, irrespective of whether we hear his voice and obey it or not, we will find that we do not enter the resting place at all.