Key Thought: There is always a danger of getting discouraged in trials and losing faith, but Paul exalts Jesus as the promise of salvation in warnings and encouragement.
February 12, 2022

1. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 6:4-6.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What were believers given in Christ while they were faithful to Him?
3. Personal Application: How have you experienced tasting the heavenly gift and enlightening? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “What does it mean to crucify Christ afresh and put Him to an open shame?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read 10:26-29.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. In what three ways does the author describe the sin for which there is no forgiveness?
3. Personal Application: Are there times people don’t confess sins because they aren’t aware of them or because they don’t think it is necessary? What if we aren’t specific about our confessions? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “How do we die to self and pick up the cross? Are we supposed to be sad and look for persecution and trouble all the time?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 6:7-12.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What are the good things that the believers had done and continued to do? What do they mean?
3. Personal Application: What can we learn from Paul about warning and encouraging others? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “Why does God require total surrender of our lives to Him? What is the relationship between free will and salvation?” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 6:7-10.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How did God guarantee His promises to us?
3. Personal Application: Do you believe that God made an oath to you personally? Should you have the assurance of salvation, even when you feel unworthy? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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The titles of the thirteen Sabbaths of study this quarter give us two hymns to use as the themes:
Hymn 593 – In Times Like These and 
Hymn 177 – Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness.

Hymn 534 – Will Your Anchor Hold? is answered clearly in our lesson study title this week, as does the memory text. 
Hymn 499 – What a Friend We Have in Jesus (verse 2) answered the Sabbath afternoon question about getting discouraged.

The Word we are blessed with we can say 
Lord, I Have Made Thy Word My Choice – Hymn 273¸ as they are 
Wonderful Words of Life – Hymn 286. We can then pray 
Lord, Bless Thy Word to Every Heart – Hymn 667.

We do not wish to crucify our Lord again, says Monday, as does verse 3 of 
Hymn 588 – Lord of All Nations.

Tuesday reminds us that “there is no other means for that forgiveness besides Jesus (Hebrews 10:1-14)”: 
Hymn 299 – Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive and in 
Hymn 480 – Dear Lord and Father.

Salvation and Faith are the two key words on Wednesday:
Hymn 339 – God Is My Strong Salvation, and
Hymn 646 – To the Name That Brings Salvation, then 
Hymn 608 – Faith Is the Victory, 
Hymn 523 – My Faith Has Found a Resting Place, 
Hymn 517 – My Faith Looks Up to Thee, and 
Hymn 602 – O Brother, Be Faithful.

Hebrews 6:19 returns to us on Thursday as does 
Hymn 534 – Will Your Anchor Hold?

 We are bound for The Promised Land! Hallelujah!! – 
Hymn 620 – On Jordan’s Stormy Banks. Come, Lord Jesus, come – very soon.

To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/

Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing, but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

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Compare Hebrews 6:4-6, Matthew 16:24, Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:20, Galatians 5:24, and Galatians 6:14. What does this comparison suggest about what it means to crucify Christ?

Image © Krieg Barrie at Goodsalt.com

The original text in Greek emphasizes the word “impossible.” It is impossible for God to restore those who have “fallen away” because “they are crucifying once again the Son of God” (Hebrews 6:6, ESV). Paul wants to stress that there is no other way of salvation except through Christ (Acts 4:12). Salvation by any other means is as impossible as it is “for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18) or to please God “without faith” (Hebrews 11:6).

To crucify again the Son of God is a figurative expression that seeks to describe something that happens in the personal relationship between Jesus and the believer.

When the religious leaders crucified Jesus, they did it because Jesus posed a threat to their supremacy and autonomy. Thus, they hoped to eliminate Jesus as a person and destroy a powerful and dangerous enemy. Similarly, the gospel challenges the sovereignty and self-determination of the individual at the most fundamental level. The essence of Christian life is to take up the cross and deny oneself (Matthew 16:24). This means to crucify “the world” (Galatians 6:14), the “old man” (Romans 6:6), and “the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24, ESV). The purpose of the Christian life is that we undergo a kind of death. Unless we experience this death to self, we cannot receive the new life God wants to give us (Romans 6:1-11).

The struggle between Jesus and self is a struggle to death (Romans 8:7-8, Galatians 5:17). It is a difficult battle that is not won at once. This passage does not refer to the person who sometimes fails in the battle against the “old man” and the “flesh.” This sin refers to the person who, after having experienced genuine salvation and what it implies (Hebrews 6:4-5, ), decides that Jesus is a threat to the kind of life he or she wants to have and moves to kill their relationship with Him. That is, as long as the person does not fully choose to turn away from Christ, there is still the hope of salvation.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Read Hebrews 6:4-5. What were believers given in Christ while they were faithful to Him?

To have been “enlightened” means to have experienced conversion (Hebrews 10:32). It refers to those who have turned from the “darkness” of the power of Satan to the “light” of God (Acts 26:17-18, ). It implies deliverance from sin (Ephesians 5:11) and ignorance (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5, ).

Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com

The verbal form here suggests that this enlightening is an act of God achieved through Jesus, “the brightness of His glory” (Hebrews 1:3, NKJV).

To “have tasted the heavenly gift” and “have become partakers of the Holy Spirit” (NKJV) are synonymous expressions. The “gift” of God may refer to His grace (Romans 5:15) or to the Holy Spirit, through which God imparts that grace (Acts 2:38). Those who have “tasted” the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39, 1 Corinthians 12:13) have experienced the “grace” of God, which includes the power to fulfill His will (Galatians 5:22-23, ).

To taste “the goodness of the word of God” (Hebrews 6:5, ESV) is to experience personally the truth of the gospel (1 Peter 2:2-3). “The powers of the age to come” refers to the miracles God will perform for believers in the future: resurrection (John 5:28-29, ), transformation of our bodies, and eternal life. Believers, however, are beginning to “taste” them in the present. They have experienced a spiritual resurrection (Colossians 2:12-13), a renewed mind (Romans 12:2), and eternal life in Christ (John 5:24).

Paul probably has in mind the wilderness generation, who experienced the grace of God and His salvation. The wilderness generation was “enlightened” by the pillar of fire (Nehemiah 9:12, Nehemiah 9:19; Psalm 105:39), enjoyed the heavenly gift of manna (Exodus 16:15), experienced the Holy Spirit (Nehemiah 9:20), tasted the “good word of God” (Joshua 21:45), and “the powers of the age to come” in the “wonders and signs” performed in their deliverance from Egypt (Acts 7:36). Paul suggests, however, that just as the wilderness generation apostatized from God, despite those evidences (Numbers 14:1-35), the audience of Hebrews was in danger of doing the same, despite all the evidences of God’s favor that they had enjoyed.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Hebrews 6:4–6, Matthew 16:24, Romans 6:6, Hebrews 10:26–29, Hebrews 6:9–13, Hebrews 6:17–20.

Memory Text: “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both secure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:19-20, NKJV).

Hebrews 5:11-6:20 interrupts the theological exposition about Jesus’ priesthood in our behalf. Paul inserts there a severe warning about the danger of falling away from Christ.

Apparently, the people were in real danger of going down the slippery slope of self-pity and faithlessness. The apostle Paul is concerned that his readers and hearers may have had their spiritual senses dulled because of the difficult situations they were facing, and thus they had stopped growing in their understanding and experience of the gospel.

Is not this a potential danger for us all, getting discouraged because of trials, and thus falling away?

The severe warning culminates, however, in an affectionate encouragement. Paul expresses faith in his readers and exalts Jesus as the embodiment of God’s unbreakable promise of salvation to them (Hebrews 6:9-20). This cycle of warning and encouragement is repeated in Hebrews 10:26-39.

We will study this cycle and focus on the strong words of encouragement that Jesus provides for us.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 12.

Sunday–>

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