Hebrews 6:2 Commentary and Bible Study

At the beginning of the verse is an initially curious phrase. We are surprised because ‘baptisms’ is in the plural and we may think this simply means the baptism of a number of people. But no, it is ‘baptisms’, and this has produced much speculation. There were many washings in the Old Testament as part of the ceremonial of those days, the doctrine of baptisms possibly included, in the early days, the teaching that those washings of old were not efficacious; they were only symbolic. This was in order to pave the way for stressing that what is important is the washing of the soul, the forgiveness of sins. There is a spiritual baptism and physical baptism, which is a symbol of the spiritual. What is the baptism of or with the Holy Spirit? It is another way of expressing conversion. If any man, says the apostle Paul in Romans 8, has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his. What happens when the Spirit comes upon a life? He convicts us of our sin, he illuminates us so that we understand that God is the creator, that he is holy, and that we are sinful and alienated from him. The Spirit enlightens us and plants within us a deep sense of need of Christ, and draws us to him. We come in repentance and faith and we yield our lives to him, and then the Spirit completes the work and brings us to the conscious awareness of our salvation and affects the great change within us. In addition however, Christ has commanded that we witness to the fact that he has worked in our hearts, by physical baptism, immersion in water, representing death to the old life and rising again to the new life. That reality, the experience of a person buried and raised spiritually, is to be expressed by baptism in water. But that is foundational – the doctrine of baptisms. ‘And of laying on of hands’. How is that a fundamental? Well you know it is not such a fundamental to us today, but it certainly was in the early days of the church, among the converted Jews. This is the letter to the Hebrews and Jewish people had it firmly in their minds that God had given a priesthood, and only the sons of Aaron were the rightful priests, and the sons of Levi were the assistant priests. They were the clergy of the Old Testament, of the Jewish church. They performed all the ceremonies and everything was rooted through them with the exception of course of the great ministry of the prophets. So the Jewish outlook was this: only the priests can officiate in the temple and in the synagogue. Now that was all changed with the New Testament, with the coming of the Christ, with the running down of the Jewish flag and of running up of the flag of the international Jewish-Gentile church of Jesus Christ. In the days of the Jewish church there was a mixed multitude – saints and sinners all mixed together, God working towards mankind through a selected nation – but with the coming of Christ and his church all that changed and believers were organised into local independent churches, all under the direct government of Christ. This was particularly signified and illustrated by the apostolic laying on of hands. In Acts 6, you read about the first deacons, and the apostles laid their hands upon them as they were appointed, which was a token, a symbol, of their being given office. Then subsequently the apostles would lay hands on the Samaritans, the converts in Samaria, and they experienced a mini-Pentecost to show that God was dealing directly with them. The symbol that God was giving the Holy Spirit to these Samaritan converts was that the apostles laid their hands upon them. The point is that now in the New Testament church we have the symbol, the token of God giving office and responsibility directly to ordinary Christian people and their pastors and their deacons. That was a great fundamental in the early church, but after 2000 years we are used to it now. God has given local churches their authority to function, to preach, to win souls, to serve him and please him. We have no priesthood; we are a priesthood of all believers.Then we come to terms we are much more used to seeing among the fundamentals: the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Every believer who loves Christ, who trusts in him and is saved and, will upon death pass into eternity. If we die before the coming of Christ, we will pass straight into the paradise of Christ as souls without bodies to be with Christ, which is far better. But when Christ returns and he comes to judge the world, he comes with all those who are in paradise with him, coming with him in resurrection bodies and those who are still alive will gain our resurrection bodies and will meet them in the air. The end of all things will come and then the world will be amazingly reconstituted, made like heaven. Heaven will come down to earth, earth will rise up to heaven as it were, and we shall be forever with Christ on a glorified, renewed earth. That will be the salvation of the human race as a whole, through converted people, a new order, a new humanity under the eternal rule of Christ. Alongside it will be the eternal judgement. The judgement will distinguish between the lost and the saved. The saved will go into everlasting glory, and the lost into everlasting punishment. Will there be an end to that punishment? No, it is eternal judgement, the state of the saved is fixed and safe eternally, the tragic state of the lost is also fixed for eternity.