⁴ For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

Utter nonsense is the ludicrous suggestion that Christ could be crucified over again. Even hinting at this would be startling to the max. That is why we find here the strongest possible denial, “It is impossible.” Remember the negation in the original Greek actually occurs at the beginning of the sentence in vs. 4, thus the entire supposition is negated, not just the possibility of renewal to repentance. The whole scenario is wrong-headed.

Let’s bolster this with one more point, taking a closer look at two phrases: “have fallen away” and “renew again to repentance.” Fallen away from what? The entire flow of the letter has been to show Christ’s superiority over all else, including the Levitical Priesthood. He is the supreme sacrifice of God for our sins—the only avenue to the “rest” of God. His sacrifice alone is sufficient. The temptation was to fall away from that sufficiency, that Christ’s death was not enough. But that puts a person back into the dilemma of the OT priesthood, continual sacrifices that can never bring God’s rest. And if that weren’t good enough to bring salvation, then what could another sacrifice of Christ possibly bring? The nature of falling away and trying again with another sacrifice is what brings “shame” to the whole idea of Christ’s sacrifice in the first place!

Secondly, to “renew again to repentance,” suggests that the only way a fallen-away Christian (one who rejects Christ’s sacrifice as sufficient) could be restored is that if there is a new sacrifice of Christ (since in his thinking the “first” one was not adequate). But repetition would negate the significance of Christ’s sacrifice. The message of the letter to the Hebrews is that Christ IS sufficient because He is infinitely superior. As F.F. Bruce writes, “Those who repudiate the salvation procured by Christ will find none anywhere else.”

So, can a genuine Christian fall away? The answer is a resounding “No!” The reason is that because if it were possible, the only hope he would have would be another sacrifice of Christ—an impossibility. So the scenario is specious and therefore negated from the beginning, “It is impossible.” He is either not a genuine Christian (as vs. 4 describes) or backslidden, but not fallen away. This passage has nothing to do with a believer losing his salvation.