The Maturity 

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. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6: 1 to 8) 

The writer of Hebrews listed repentance, faith toward God, cleansing, baptism, resurrection, and eternal judgement as the elementary doctrine of Christ. They are important and familiar to us Christian, as well as Judaism because they are the elementary doctrine of the Law or the Prophets. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ preached how to live according to the Law or the Prophets. He specifically pointed out his attitude toward them as described below. 

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 17 to 20) 

Jesus had no intention for his disciples to ignore the Law or Prophets. However, if their righteousness could not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees who fulfilled their righteousness by following the Law or the Prophets then they were not worthy of the kingdom of heaven. 

So, the Law or the Prophets are just the beginning. The writer urged the readers to exceed that to go on to maturity. Apostle Paul also urged the believers to grow. Since Jesus Christ is the Word, and the Law or the Prophets are part of the Word, Paul described how to grow on to maturity through Jesus Christ as below. 

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (First Corinthians 3: 10 to 15) 

Indeed, we may or may not grow on to maturity. Nonetheless, we are still building upon Christ. Paul also emphasizes it by describing it as below. 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2: 19 to 22) 

No matter how we built the structure, Jesus Christ is always the sole cornerstone. The Law or the Prophets are part of the foundation, but they are not the full foundation. The full foundation needs Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. If we only built upon repentance, faith toward God, cleansing, baptism, resurrection, and eternal judgement then that's heresy. It's like God is both loving and just. If we only believed a loving God or a Justice God but not both, then it's heresy because that's a God created by us.  

Also, Jesus Christ was falsely accused by those who were using the Judaism Law or Prophets doctrines. If that's all we had then we are using the same Judaism to replace the true salvation. In other words, we crucified Christ's salvation just like those in Judaism. When it happened, it would be difficult for us to repent because those doctrines could satisfy our flesh easily to possess our mind as warned by the writer. Emmanuel. 

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