<p>6:6- see on Mk. 15:15; 1 Jn. 2:28.</p><p><i>But then fell away- it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame</i>- It is not impossible for anyone to repent. But a person cannot be spiritually renewed to repentance whilst they are crucifying the Lord afresh. Paul is addressing the Hebrews who have fallen away and is urging their repentance. So he clearly means that they cannot be renewed again whilst they are re-crucifying the Lord. He uses a related word in saying that how the Hebrews 'fell' in the wilderness is a warning to the Hebrews of his day (3:17; 4:11). It could be that by &quot;then fell away&quot; Paul is speaking from the perspective of judgment day; those who fall condemned in that day cannot be renewed again to repentance. We noted on Acts 3:26 that the gift of the Spirit involved not only forgiveness but repentance itself; they were led to repentance, renewed to it. But whilst the giving of the Spirit is not just at baptism and can continue throughout mortal life, it cannot operate on those who were once enlightened but refuse to stop crucifying the Son of God and shaming Him. They had been once renewed- the new life of the Spirit had been given them, they had become a new creation, the gift of the Spirit after baptism had been for them &quot;the washing of regeneration&quot; by the Spirit; but that regeneration / renewing could not again happen whilst they were shaming the crucified Christ.</p><p>In the Lord's death we see the heart that bleeds, bared before our eyes in the cross. It is written of Him in His time of dying that He &quot;poured out his soul unto death&quot; (Is. 53:12). The Hebrew translated &quot;poured out&quot; means to make naked- it is rendered as &quot;make thyself naked&quot; in Lam. 4:21 (see too Lev. 20:18,19; Is. 3:17). The Lord' sensitivity was what led Him to His death- He made His soul naked, bare and sensitive, until the stress almost killed Him quite apart from the physical torture. To be sensitive to others makes us open&nbsp; and at risk ourselves. A heart that bleeds really bleeds and hurts within itself. And this was the essence of the cross. It seems to me that the Lord was crucified naked- hence those who turn away put Him to &ldquo;an open Gk. &lsquo;naked&rsquo; shame&rdquo;. In being sensitive to others, we make ourselves naked. The heart that bleeds is itself in great risk of hurt and pain. The Lord Jesus is not passive in Heaven; He has sensitivity and pain, He can be shamed and crucified afresh by those who turn away to legalism and Judaism. This of itself opens a window onto what it may mean to have Divine nature.</p><p>It was this same category who in 10:29 trod underfoot the Lord's blood and treated it as <i>un</i>holy. These one time Christians had become so influenced by Judaism that they considered Him <i>un</i>holy and despised His sacrifice, supporting the same Jewish authorities and mentalities which had crucified Him. They re-crucified Him by coming to agree that what the Sanhedrin had done was correct. It was as if by such an attitude, they too were guilty of His crucifixion. This falling away was all a matter of the heart; for no man or human organization can pluck us from the Lord's hand; we shall &quot;never perish&quot; because of that, but only from our own internal lack of faith (Jn. 10:28)</p>