What is an apostate? It depends on who you ask since Christendom varies in its belief systems and Scripture interpretations. That said, no other scripture in the New Testament details a more narrowed-down idea of an apostate than Hebrews 6:4-6.

Hebrews 6:4–6 (KJV) — 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.

Those once enlightened

This text introduces us to an impossibility associated with those who “were once enlightened.” This implies that these individuals, like Saul/Paul, on the road to Damascus, had received a divine revelation of God’s redemptive plan brought to pass through the agency of Jesus Christ. Moreover, not only had they received this divine revelation, but they had also received the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost. They had been made participators of that same Spirit that empowered them to do great things, enjoying a deep, relational experience with God’s Word and the powers of the world to come (i.e., the earnest of our inheritance being the Holy Ghost).

If they shall fall away

We have all met the backslider who knows they are backslidden. In their sinful lifestyles, they continue to acknowledge the truth of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Ghost. Some of these individuals are still great witnesses to others captured by the plights of sin in that they tell others, “You should visit my old church.” We have a wonderful woman in our church who was bound by addiction, homeless, and without hope, who was directed to our church by a backslidden individual from prison. Even in their sinful condition, they did not deny or reject what they knew to be the truth.

These “once enlightened” individuals, “if they shall fall away,” speak to a differing form of backsliding. This is not the occasional stumble of an enlightened child of God nor the wandering of an enlightened child of God into years of carnality, sinfulness, and prodigal-like backsliding. This is a far more severe sense of backsliding, called “falling away”: it is the individual who renounces the enlightenment they received and the wonderful gift of God’s Spirit that leads them to become participators in God’s power and holiness.

These are individuals who don’t necessarily have to turn away from God as one who becomes an atheist might. Instead, they are those who, like many in the early church, depart from the power and grace of the Holy Ghost and relocate themselves to a place that “denies the power thereof” while maintaining some semblance of an appearance of godliness (II Tim. 3:5). They outwardly express an identity of faith in Christ but have inwardly rejected THE FAITH.

As the days of grace draw to a close, this form of fallenness is increasing. Overnight, many who have tasted the powers of the world to come and the good Word of God are turning their back on the same. In their departure, they first state, “We are not backsliding.” Everything in their world becomes centered on proving themselves truly “enlightened,” making every effort to promote a “form of godliness” yet disowning the power of the Spirit of God that enabled them to be partakers in the power and holiness of God.

As He did in the Old Testament, God becomes a golden calf under the mountain that burns with the power and fire of almighty God—a Christ of convenience without a personal cross to bear. Christ is relegated to an idolatrous symbol that demands or expects nothing. They adorn themselves with outward forms of godliness, yet they have disowned the very purpose for which Christ died on Calvary: that we might become partakers once again in the holiness of God through the power and regenerative work of the Spirit of God.

Impossible to Renew them Again unto Repentance

What are these individuals doing as they disown every feature and benefit of their having once been enlightened? They are crucifying the Son of God and putting Him to open shame. Having disowned practically every benefit of God’s grace and the gift of that grace- the power and holiness of the Holy Ghost- they bring Christ back to the cross, denying His completed work while claiming to be partakers of His completed work. Denying their resurrection, they deny His resurrection. Denying their burial in baptism, they deny his burial. Christ now bleeds again on a cross while they openly parade the image of an empty cross.

By doing this, they have fallen away from a place where they can enjoy the benefits of Calvary, for Christ still bleeds and struggles on the cross upon which they have placed Him. They trample Christ underfoot, profaning the very means through which forgiveness came. How much punishment will be leveled upon individuals such as these? I almost weep to read the following text.

Hebrews 10:29 (ESV) — 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

The Outrage of the Spirit

The brazen arrogance of one who had once been delivered and regenerated by the power of the Holy Ghost begins to tear apart the work of the Spirit by cutting and polluting every call to holiness, obedience, self-sacrifice, and their once mutually submitted place in the Body of Christ. Turning their heart away from God, denying the power and holiness of the Spirit, they outrage the Spirit as they bless themselves upon hearing these sobering Words of God, claiming to be in peace with God.

The writer of Hebrews utilizes a language similar to that found in the Deuteronomoy.

Deuteronomy 29:16–20 (KJV) — 16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; 17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) 18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: 20 The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.

Indeed, this text shows God’s outrage. His jealousy is on full display as those delivered and set free from bondage turn away from God and serve inferior things while still claiming to be blessed and chosen. In rejecting God, they have removed themselves from the Book of Life. It is, as Hebrews 10:31 reminds us, that it is a “fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

We must be reminded of the severity of blaspheming the Spirit as we begin to “draw back” (Hebrews 10:38) from the Spirit of Truth, which we now call the Spirit of Falsehood.

Mark 3:28–30 (KJV) — 28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: 29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: 30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.

A Deeper Darkness

In rejecting the work and power of the Spirit, turning away from what we were once “enlightened,” the individual claims to be now enlightened, not realizing that the light they claim to have is darkness. How great is that darkness! (Matt. 6:23).

When that light is darkness there is disaster! Jesus is supposing that where there should be light in a person there is in fact darkness, a perversion at the very heart and center of the person’s life, a complete lack of vision. When that happens, “the darkness—how great!”

Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (p. 155). W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.

What a tragedy to live the remainder of one’s life with a form of godliness, disowning the power thereof, believing to be enjoying the grace of God while brutally condemning Him once again to a fresh crucifixion, daily putting Him to shame. This, my friends, is the reality we see marching forward every day.

Perhaps you are reading this and are in the process of “drawing back” from God’s Spirit’s enlightenment and the goodness of His word. Perhaps you are nigh to falling away or tethered to one falling away, but the dying light within you is pulsing. I beg you, don’t fall away, but fall down. Fall down at His feet and cry out to God in repentance.

God will hear your prayer, and you will feel again the Spirit of power that you are dangerously close to disowning. Those tears can flow again, and the Holy Ghost, which those around you and the enemy have tried to convince you was mere emotionalism, will once again bring you to a place of peace, love, and holiness.