1) Hebrews

Awakening of Repentance by Rabbi Simon Sofer, who died at 95 at Auschwitz   Wikipedia

Hebrews 6: 1-3

1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this will we do, if God permit.

Let us go on…

Being stuck in the hard work of ‘not doing anything, just believing,’ ever laying again the foundation of the teaching of Mashiach (Christ), let us go on. Going on from this condition means hearing the Good News that we have not clearly heard it before.

For it is the word of God which creates all things and it is the word of God which creates all things new! Regeneration can only come by hearing and receiving the Good News of God’s promise to Abraham, of His covenant of promise with Abraham and with Israel, as articulated by Moshe or as articulated now by Mashiach. So also, maturation can only come by hearing the Good News of the word of God on a level that could not be heard at the point of the conception, or beginning, of regeneration and new birth.

In the cycle of ever re-laying the foundation of Christian faith there has always been and will always be refinements of doctrine, error and more refinements of doctrine. Going forward from this cycle, going on, if God permits, means coming to the discovery that there was something missing at the start, some level of clarity not attained, some depth of understanding lacking. Then it means seeking the revelation that was missed, which is able to rectify the error from the beginning. All who seek it will find it.

Although there is an analogy between natural conception and birth and regeneration, there is an essential difference. Regeneration involves the birth from Above of even one who is old (John 3:4). As a result it involves a process of conversion. In fact, a newborn infant can never be fully regenerated without coming of age and thereby having failures that need rectification. Conversion and the rectification it brings become incorporated into regeneration. Failure is a part of the process of growing in grace and in the knowledge of Yehoshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ). Repentance becomes the foundational form that salvation takes. Everyone, Jew and non-Jew, must come to the place where they have been too long dependent on the milk of the word of God and need to be weened from from the level of just being fed to the level of feeding one’s self solid adult food. This is the meaning of healthy failure and the meaning of coming to the place of seeking the depth of revelation in the Good News that was missed at the first.

Those who are being addressed in Hebrews 6ff. are not sheep who have wandered off but are those who have come the right way. Now they are at the place of the question of maturation and must go on, unless they are not ready to go on, or will never go on.

That in which they must go on is the knowledge of the covenant made with Abraham. This is the knowledge of the covenant of the Torah made with Israel and the knowledge of Mashiach (Christ). They must go back again to the root of learning, the beginning of hearing, to the first stone of the foundation, but this time not to lay the foundation again. They must go on to build up from the foundation a new Adam from the foundation that they have received (Eph. 2:15), according to the greater revelation that was in the foundation from the beginning, the revelation of the architecture of the whole building!

What can we say concerning this revelation of the architecture of the whole building?  It is found in the relationship of the Good News of the covenant made with Abraham and the Good News of the covenant of Torah made with All-Israel and the Good News of the covenant made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah in the death and resurrection of the Mashiach (Christ).  It is a revelation of how God articulated His eternal covenant with Israel through Yehoshua, Israel’s hidden Redeemer, in such a way as to bring the full blessing of Abraham upon all nations and families of the earth and the full blessing of all nations and families of the earth upon Abraham and upon All-Israel.  It is the revelation of how God justified all life for dwelling with Him forever by doing this.  And it is the revelation of how Israel with God’s own Personal Presence were brought out of a place of never-ending captivity to the powers of this world, so that they could enter together into the place that was prepared for them, a place of new heavens and new earth.  This is the revelation of the pathway of corporate repentance for the assembly of those among the nations who believe in the Messiah of Israel and for All-Israel.  This is the cornerstone of the doctrine of Mashiach (Christ).