Hebrews 6:1-2

‘Wherefore having left the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the teaching of washings (baptisms), and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.’

So he intends not to deal with simpler ideas, ‘the first principles of Christ’, the foundation ideas of Christ, but to move on to more mature teaching. He will not deal with the question of repentance from dead works or of faith towards God. He has indeed already dealt with them in principle in Hebrews 3:7 to Hebrews 4:13. Nor will he deal with questions about baptisms (washings), laying on of hands, resurrection from the dead or eternal judgment. All these teachings were basic and could equally be taught by the Pharisees were they so minded. They were simply basic Old Testament teaching.

It may be asked, why are they then described as (literally) ‘the word of the beginning of Christ’? And the answer is simply that they were part of Christ’s teaching before His death and resurrection, before the events that had changed the world. ‘Repent and believe in the Good News’ (Mark 1:15) was His opening cry, and He went on to point men and women to the need for true faith in God. Repentance and faith in God were the Old Testament foundation laid down in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, which Jesus re-emphasised and expanded on, and on which the new teaching would be built. That is not to diminish their importance, but to stress the fact that they did not include the more advanced teachings which resulted from His death and resurrection. Repentance and faith in God are essential. External ordinances may be useful. The resurrection of the dead and the eternal sentence on man’s state are important teaching. But in their basic significance they come short of expressing the full Gospel. They are merely a beginning.

Thus his readers are to recognise that there is a need to go on from the basic teachings of Judaism.

‘Dead works.’ These are either works which are lifeless because done for the wrong reasons (not revealing ‘life’) or because done in a desultory manner (lifeless), or works which are dead because proceeding from one dead in spirit (Ephesians 2:1). Or they may indicate works seeking merit which only result in death. All reflect works done either for the purpose of meriting favour with God, or from a rebellious heart, and not from a loving and faithful heart in response to the covenant.

It was the sin of the majority of Israel and of certain types of Pharisee that they observed the letter of the law but ignored its spirit. They were not so much concerned with pleasing the God Who loved them and had had mercy on them, as with bribing the God Who might otherwise get in the way, or might make life difficult for them, or even judge them and reject them (although they would not have put it like that). Their thoughts were not on the true doing of good and a wholehearted and joyous response to the covenant, recognising that they were in the mercy of God, but either on doing as little as possible to get by, assuming they could fob God off, or doing enough to earn sufficient merit to ‘deserve’ God’s favour. They treated God as though He was impersonal. They drew near with their mouths but their hearts were far from Him.

They saw the Law not as a means by which those who were truly God’s could live a full and rich spiritual life because they were His covenant people secure in His forgiveness (the Law was intended to enable men to live truly - Leviticus 18:5), but as a standard to be grudgingly attained with the hope of a pass mark. They hoped ‘to live by them’. The laws thus brought death on men because they failed to fulfil them all. Such attitudes and sins rightly needed to be repented of, but he has earlier made that clear. To repent of such means in order to turn from them into God’s rest provided through partaking in Christ was part of his message (Hebrews 4:1-11).

‘Faith towards (epi) God.’ This probably has in mind a general belief in God as the One God, a turning from idols to the true God. It was essential that men knew the One God. But of this James 2:19 says, ‘well done, the devils also believe and tremble’. Coming to the One God was initially important, but it missed out on the deeper truths about Christ. That was why Jesus began to point men to Himself, and why the message after the resurrection centred on Christ. Men had to move on to Christ, the outshining of the One God.

‘Of the teaching of washings (baptisms) and the laying on of hands.’ Having referred to basic response he now turns to outward rites. These were Old Testament rites which had possibly been reinterpreted and Christianised and put into practise by this group to whom he is writing. (He clearly knows them well). Like repentance and faith in the one God both ordinances were well known from the Old Testament. They represented outward forms to which the teachings about Christ could provide the inner meaning.

The word baptismos refers to washings of various kinds. We can compare its use in Hebrews 9:10. Josephus used it of John’s baptism because he misunderstood that to be a ritual washing. It is used elsewhere of ‘dipping’ and in Mark 7:4; Mark 7:8 of the ‘washing’ of dishes. The plural form and the word used both confirm that it means other than just Christian baptism. It was such washings that Jesus had in mind when He turned water into wine (John 2:0) to signify that something better had come, and when He spoke to His disciples of those who, having bathed, needed only to wash their feet (John 13:10).

In view of the fact that he is writing to people in danger of being caught up in Judaism again the idea of purifying by washing, and suchlike, may well be in mind, as having been taken up into Jewish-Christian practise. Such washings continued in certain parts of the church in which Jewish Christians predominated.

Or there may have been a controversy about whether baptism could be repeated, or how it compared with other washings and other baptisms, or whether John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism were similar, and what they signified. Whichever it was referring to ‘baptisms’ probably signifies such baptisms seen as external ordinances, and therefore but shadows of the truth. It is distinctly not just referring to baptism. Indeed ‘teaching of washings’ better suggests ‘what washings teach us’ when compared with other genitives used with didache.

‘Laying on of hands’ has in mind the laying on of hands in blessing and identification, regular Old Testament practises. It was taken up by Jesus and the early church, with the laying of hands being used for healing, and being seen as an indication of identification, which eventually came through into a means of setting aside men for ministry of various kinds. The early church clearly laid emphasis on such laying on of hands (see Matthew 19:13; Acts 6:6; Acts 8:17; Acts 9:12; Acts 9:17; Acts 19:6).

‘And of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.’ As we have pointed out all these basic ideas mentioned could have equally been taught to Jews, and indeed were, including these two. They were basic Jewish teaching and did not involve any specific reference to Christ. Resurrection from the dead and eternal judgment (the sentence of judgment, not the action), while important doctrines, were both in their basic form teachings of the Pharisees as taught in the synagogues. What the writer is seeking to do is point out that it is necessary to leave behind these basics, important though they may be, and move on to specific Christian teaching, which would amplify them and give them solidity, bringing out the lesson that the teaching of Judaism was but basic and lacked the essential added ingredients provided in Christ.

‘Let us be carried on to the perfection.’ Note the contrast between ‘the beginning of Christ’ and ‘the perfection’. It is the difference between basic Old Testament teaching and the full revelation of Christ. His desire is that they move on to the mature truth of Christianity, that they ‘be carried on’ by God as a ship is carried on by the wind. We can compare, ‘you believe in God, believe also in Me’ (John 14:1), This does not of course suggest that we have no part in the matter. Indeed we must give all due diligence. But in the end it is God who bears us on, revealing to us spiritual truth.