APOSTASY AND JUDGMENT

HEBREWS 10:26–31

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left

(Heb. 10:26).

Once again the author of Hebrews warns us not to fall away. The awful threats of Hebrews 10:26–31 follow immediately after an exhortation to keep assembling with the body of the church by coming to worship. Those who drift away from the church and from worship, even if they insist that they are still Christians, are in danger of hell.

Hebrews 10:26–27 reads as if there is no hope for us if we fall into sin after becoming Christians. That is not what these verses mean. These verses come in a context of warning about apostasy. The author is saying to these Hebrew believers that if they reject the sacrifice of Christ, there is no other sacrifice for them. The animal sacrifices have been abolished, and they never atoned for sin anyway. And there isn’t going to be any second Christ. You either cling to the only Savior there is, or you will be damned.

In Deuteronomy 17:2–7 we find the death penalty for anyone who apostatized from the Mosaic Covenant. How much worse will be the punishment for those who reject Christ after professing faith in Him? Members of Israel who rejected Yahweh and pursued other gods were put to death and went to hell. Members of the church who fall away and go back into Judaism, into brands of so-called Christianity which deny historic essentials of the faith, into other religions, or just into secular humanism—such people will be punished in hell even more severely. It is much worse to reject Christ, the substance of the biblical message, than to reject Old Testament shadows pointing to Him.

If someone never comes into the church, he will be judged. But the judgment will be far more severe on those who are baptized and then “trample the Son of God under foot” (v. 29). Those who forsake the church, the ark-footstool under Jesus’ holy feet (10:13–18), and who trample Him under their own feet, have rejected the testimony of the Holy Spirit, “insulting the Spirit of grace.” They have despised the blood of the covenant, rejecting not only the Lord’s Supper but also the death of Christ that lies behind that covenant meal. God will judge such people, and it will be a dreadful judgment.

CORAM DEO

Ezekiel 43–45

Don’t give up on people who fall away from the church. As long as they are alive, it is possible that they will repent. Such people need to hear the warnings of Hebrews 2:1–3; 3:12–19; 6:4–8; 10:26–31; and 12:25–29. Consider how you might communicate these warnings to people in this perilous condition.

For further study: 1 Cor. 3:1–14 • James 5:19–20 • 1 John 2:15–27

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