Hebrews 10:26
Hebrews 10:26-29 (see also Hebrews 10:14)
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Consider this passage in terms of Ananias and Sapphira, in which Acts 5:1-11 states: “But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.’ And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?’ And she said, ‘Yes, that was the price.’ Then Peter said to her, ‘Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.’ And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.”
Adrian Rogers comments: “Do you think that if you get saved, that you can sin and get away with it? No. If you get saved, that means if you sin, you won’t get away with it. An unsaved sinner, God does not deal with him in this life, like He does with one of His own children. The Bible says who the Lord loves, He chastens. God loved Ananias and Sapphira.” (Living Supernaturally or Superficially: Acts 5:1-11, emphasis mine)
Hebrews 12:4-11: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.’ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
1st Corinthians 11:27-32: “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”
Adrian Rogers explains: “Some had died like Ananias and Sapphira in the Corinthian Church. Because of the judgment of God upon them, they were children of God, and they died prematurely.” (Living Supernaturally or Superficially: Acts 5:1-11)
1st John 5:16: “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.”
Adrian Rogers explains: “There comes a time when you as a child of God, can so challenge God, that you sign your own death warrant. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to heaven. It means you’re going to heaven sooner than you should. Now it was a severe judgment. I believe I’ve seen this in my years in the ministry. I believe I’ve seen people who’ve challenged God, living hypocritical, superficially, yet with their name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, who check out and go to heaven too soon, like Ananias and Sapphira did, which, incidentally, like Moses did when Moses died. His eye was not dim nor his strength abated. Moses died prematurely because he challenged God.” (Living Supernaturally or Superficially: Acts 5:1-11, emphasis mine)
1st Corinthians 5:5: “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Adrian Rogers explains: “You see, God is far more interested in your spirit, than He is in your body. … Now, could it be that God, in mercy, brought Ananias and Sapphira home, to keep them from further sin. Now not only was it saving to Ananias and Sapphira, it was to save the early church from pollution. God doesn’t want hypocrites in the church. So God took them out because there was such a holiness there, such a fire, such a revival. God would not let them spoil it. The Bible says, in this same chapter in verse 11, ‘And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.’ Therefore, this was a blessing to the church.” (Living Supernaturally or Superficially: Acts 5:1-11)
Question: Does being “sanctified” mean that they were Born Again?
Answer: You might argue otherwise, if you cited 1st Corinthians 7:14: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband.” However, in this same chapter, this is what we learn about sanctification: “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:10-14) Keep that definition in mind.
Question: What does it mean that there “no longer remains a sacrifice for sins”?
Answer: There was a sacrifice, but having sinned willfully, the sins of the one who was “sanctified,” cannot be atoned by the blood of Christ. However, 1st John 1:9 states: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It seems, that if the one who was sanctified, could become unsanctified, that it would be irreparable.
Question: What does it mean to “go on sinning willfully”?
Answer: Every sin is willful, and therefore this seems to suggest that if you perpetually sin, that you would be permanently expelled from grace, which of course would result in the most extreme form of a works-based salvation, that would result in no one ever being saved, not even Paul himself, who admits: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:18-25) Paul confesses perpetual sin, and it is also believed by many that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews.
Question: What is meant by “regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant” and “insulted the Spirit of grace”?
Answer: The unpardonable sin. Jesus states: “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.” (Luke 12:10) That appears to be the context of these words.
Question: As Born Again Christians, we are not under the Law. In fact, we are dead to the Law. The power of the Law has already been executed upon Christ, whose provision at Calvary, paid the penalty of the Law in our place. The Law has already run its course. So how could a Born Again Christian, to whom the Law no longer applies, once again come under the power of the Law?
Answer: Paul states: “But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:17-20)
