Jesus is both milk and meat! He nourishes the infants and He nourishes the adults. He is all the nourishment believers need. But if children don’t digest the Jesus milk, they’ll never be able to handle the Jesus meat. The author of Hebrews seems to say that Jesus milk is foundational. If you don’t get that, digest that, you’ll never be able to digest the meat. In Hebrews 6:1-2 the writer says, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” The first foundational principle of Christ that must be laid deals with the issue of salvation by grace through faith instead of by dead works of the law. If that’s not the basis of your understanding of the whole Bible, you don’t understand the whole Bible.
The second foundational principle deals with Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross as payment for our sins. It was in my stead that Jesus died, and for my sins that Jesus died. As the author said earlier and will say again later, Jesus had no sin for which He needed to offer a sacrifice as the Priests of Aaron’s line did. If the washings of purification made people acceptable to God how much more acceptable will we be who are purified by the cleaning blood of Jesus? After the priest laid his hands on the sacrifice, transferring the sins of the people onto it, he then sent it out into the wilderness never to return. Salvation is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus! This is foundational. We are cleansed from our sins by his sacrifice! This is foundational. If you don’t build all your thinking around these two truths, you’ll never understand God.
But there is another foundational issue the author mentions in the last part of verse 2. It concerns “…the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” The resurrection is an essential and foundational doctrine of the faith. Whether these doctrines were part of Old Testament theology or not it must be recognized as Hughes observes, “But in the New Testament these subjects take on massive significance, with Jesus Christ at their very center.” This foundational doctrine came directly from the mouth of Jesus in John’s Gospel 11:25-26. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Further, 1 Thessalonians 1:10 puts the two, resurrection and judgment, into the hands of Jesus. It commend the believers who “are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment.” These are foundational! We are saved by grace through faith alone in Jesus. Jesus paid our debt and cleansed us from our sins. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees God’s acceptance of us in the future kingdom. It’s all about Jesus! If you don’t get these, you won’t get the Bible.