I. Introduction
A. Unlike most NT epistles, Hebrews has only one theme. The whole book is written to try to persuade a community of Jewish Christians to not leave the Christian faith and return back to Judaism.
1. To this end, the author has used many different arguments, most of them having to do with how much they will be losing if they depart from Christ.
2. In today’s passage he talks about the dire consequences of falling away from Christ: not what they’ll be missing, but the punishment they’ll be receiving.
II. The first thing I’d like to do is try to explain what verse 26 means.
A. 26-27 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”
B. Firstly, when the Bible says that “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries” it’s obviously referring to the wrath of God poured out in a final, ultimate way.
C. So, does this mean that if we periodically sin deliberately that we will go to hell?
D. Here’s another place where knowing the first 10 ½ chapters of Hebrews makes all the difference in interpreting verses in the latter chapters.
E. “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth”
1. So what is this deliberate sinning that provokes such a terrible reaction from the living God that He would cast the person into hell?
a. Don’t miss the “for” at the beginning of the sentence. This connects what he’s saying with what he’s said before this.
(1) So then, what deliberate sinning has he been talking about? The whole book he’s been warning the Hebrew Christians about falling away from Christ:
(a) Heb.2:1 We must pay more careful attention to what we’ve heard, lest we drift away.
(b) Heb.3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
(c) Heb.3:14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
(d) Heb.4:1 Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
(e) Heb.4:11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
(f) Heb.4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
(g) Heb.6:4–6 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, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 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.
(h) Heb.10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.
(2) Even though there are a few other sins mentioned in Hebrews 1-10, they are all closely related to this one sin which dominates the whole letter. This would suggest that the deliberate sinning he’s got in mind in Heb.10:26 is the sin of leaving Jesus, falling away from the faith, abandoning the knowledge of the truth.
(3) And note that in saying, “sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth,” he makes it clear that he’s talking about people who have not only heard about Jesus but who know that Jesus is the truth.
(4) This “falling away” interpretation is confirmed by the fact that the author goes on in v.29 to restate in different words the sin which he’s warning them about: “trampling underfoot the Son of God.” (Notice the similar language to “recrucifying the Son of God” in Heb.6:4-6.)
b. Don’t miss the “go on” in “go on sinning deliberately.” This is part of the English translation becuase of the tense of the Greek verb which means “to sin.” The tense implies contining action: not just sinning but sinning continuously.
(1) So, the verse seems to be talking about persisting in defiance toward the Lord.
(2) Sometimes God’s children commit deliberate sins. The example of David (re: Bathsheba) makes that clear.
(3) Sometimes God’s children even deny the Lord. The example of Peter makes that clear.
(4) But, unlike David and Peter, the man who falls away is the one who persists in his defiance, without repentance.
F. If this is what is meant, why doesn’t he say it differently? Why doesn’t he say, “For if we reject Jesus after receiving the knowledge of the truth”?
1. I think he’s stating the broader principle which applies not only to them but to everyone.
2. It’s not only directly and publically rejecting Jesus which puts one in such a perilous position. It’s persisting in any kind of deliberate sin after receiving the knowledge of Christ.
G. “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins”
1. The author has spent the last chapter (9:11–10:22) talking about Christ’s sacrifice and urging believers to boldly “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.”
a. Now he says that, in spite of the marvelous sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, there’s something which can nullify it.
b. If you don’t hold on to Christ, if you let go of Him and give up on Him, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”
2. The benefits of the cross are a Christian’s greatest treasure. It is our forgiveness! Our liberation!
a. But all of that is removed if a person knowingly gives himself over to sin, not just once or twice, not just for awhile, but permanently. “If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”
H. What does this say about justification by faith alone? Isn’t it true that a person is saved by faith apart from works? Can a believer go to hell — even if he later turns away from Jesus?
1. This verse doesn’t mean that if you have done something really, really bad, there is no hope for you. The point is that if you persist in blatant, deliberate rejection of Jesus, it shows that you do not have true faith, and therefore are doomed. (“Depart from Me. I never knew you!” -Matt.7:23.)
2. No sin trumps true faith. But, this verse (and others, like 1Cor.6:9-10; Gal.5:19-21; Eph.5:5-6) tells us that perseverance in high-handed, self-conscious sinning indicates a lack of true faith.
I. Several times now in this series we have gone over the theology of apostasy (falling away). But let’s review it again:
1. The Bible makes it very clear that people can fall away from Christ. (See Matt. 24:10; John 15:6; Rom 11:19-22; 1Cor.9:27; 1Cor.15:1-2; 2Cor.11:3; Gal.5:4; 1Tim.1:19-20; 1Tim.4:1; 1Tim.6:10, 20-21; 2Tim.1:15; 2Tim.2:12, 16-18; 2Pet.2:15, 20-22.)
a. The book of Hebrews is one of the places where this is made very clear. (See Heb.3:12, 14; 4:1, 11; and especially 6:4-8.)
2. The Bible also tells us that God is the One who works in the human heart to draw a person to Himself, and that He is the One who sustains that person in faith (Heb.12:2 calls Jesus the founder and finisher of our faith).
3. Three times in the gospel of John Jesus says that if a person believes in Him, that person has eternal life (John 3:36; 5:24; 6:47).
a. Eternal life is actually eternal. If you have eternal life, it doesn’t go away a few years later. If you can loose it, it wasn’t eternal, was it?
4. So how can we explain this paradox?
5. We find help from 1Jn.2:19: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”
a. They were a part of us and a part of Christ officially, but they were not really a part spiritually.
b. They looked like they were saved, but they showed that they weren’t, because truly saved people don’t fall away.
J. The problem with ‘once saved always saved’ as many understand it is that salvation is thought of as purely a matter of decision.
1. Just because a person raises his hand or comes forward or gets baptized or gives his testimony doesn’t mean he has true faith.
2. True faith is faith which God has produced. There are plenty of human – and demonic – imitations.
3. But the faith which God produces He also sustains.
4. Why then these scary threats of eternal judgment if you fall away? Because one of the ways God lovingly sustains true faith in His people is through warnings about the consequences of falling away.
III. Behold the wrath of God!
A. There is a lot of divine anger expressed here. Listen to these phrases:
1. 27 “a fearful expectation of judgment”
2. 27 “a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries”
3. 28-29 “he who sets aside the law of Moses dies without mercy... How much worse punishment”
4. 29 “the Spirit of grace outraged”
5. 30 “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”
6. 31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
a. Some prefer to imagine hell as separation from God. And there’s some validity to that image. But it’s also a little bit of a cop-out.
b. But look at this verse! Hell is falling into God’s hands! The fact is that hell is often portrayed in the Bible as a place that is so terrible simply because it is where God is present in His anger.
7. This raises questions about preaching about the wrath of God.
a. On the one hand, you have what are called ‘hell-fire and damnation’ preachers.
b. On the other hand, you have preachers who avoid the subject of the wrath of God at all costs – some even brazenly, like Joel Osteen.
c. So, how often should preachers talk about the wrath of God? I would suggest that preachers should preach about the wrath of God about as often as the Bible talks about it.
d. How many of you use the website allrecipes.com? You look up a recipe and then they list people’s comments about it, including ways they changed it, using other ingredients or other proportions, etc. It’s certainly fine to change recipes. But it’s not fine to change God’s recipe. If you adjust what God says in His word, you’re not improving His recipe but polluting it.
e. If a preacher comes to a passage like this and either skips it or doesn’t preach about the wrath of God, I think there’s probably a problem.
f. I know how unpopular – even scandalous – it is to say these things today. But this is God’s word, not ours.
B. Not only this, but one big reason it’s so wrong to ignore what the Bible says about God’s wrath is because it’s so unloving.
1. Why do you think God says these things? He’s trying to motivate us to avoid these consequences.
2. Warnings are not necessarily mean. And we need to be careful about taking them as much.
C. Sometimes it’s hard to think of God as both a God of grace and a God of wrath. But this passage – along with many others – makes it clear:
1. “outraged the Spirit of grace” – Outrage and grace being used to describe the same Spirit?
a. We often take grace as meaning that God is incapable of anger/outrage, but it’s not true.
2. 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”
a. What a paradox! The God who calls us to personally know Him is also the God of vengeance!
3. “Behold, the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who fall away, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” –Rom.11:22
4. This explains how we’re commanded to “rejoice with trembling” before the Lord – Psalm 2:11.
D. What is it that provokes God to wrath? How does the Spirit of grace become outraged?
1. Well, the reason given in this passage for why God gets angry and vengeful is seen in two verses:
a. 26 those who go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth
b. 29 the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God
2. The worst judgment is reserved for God’s people:“The Lord will judge his people.” –Heb.10:30b
a. This isn’t referring to those who follow the Lord, it means those who say yes to the Lord, who sign up to be His, who receive the knowledge of Christ, and enjoy the benefits of being His, and then turn away, and then betray Him as Judas did.
b. Don’t we see this in Jesus’ life? Did He condemn the outsiders? No, primarily He condemned the insiders, that is, those insiders who were false and hypocritical.
E. So how are we going to respond to what the Bible says about the wrath of God?
1. We’re given few details about the penalty God deals out to those who reject Him. But we’re given plenty of very vivid generalities.
a. We don’t need to know the details. Does the One who invented pain not know how to cause it?
2. What does God have to do to scare you? If you think this is silly, if this doesn’t scare you, then you are a fool. If you can listen to the One who says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay!” tell you that if you turn away from Christ you should have “a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries” and that “much worse punishment will come to the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and outraged the Spirit of grace,” and just shrug it off, then you are asking for it. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
3. Woe to those who have been taught, who have seen, who know, and yet have rebuffed Him.
4. Woe to those to whom Jesus says, “How often I’ve longed to gather you like a hen gathers her chicks but you would not have it.” (Mt.23:37; Lk.13:34) How often I’ve called out to you but you wouldn’t listen! How often I’ve reached out to you, but you’ve stubbornly refused Me! (Rom.10:21)
5. Right now all we have is words, God’s promises in the Bible. But by the time the reality of God’s wrath comes, it will be too late. Those who wouldn’t take His words seriously will be done for.
IV. Mothers of young children
A. You are the special focus of attention because all of us admire you for what you’re doing and appreciate how challenging this stage of life is.
B. However, in spite of all your special circumstances, you are not immune from the danger which is expressed in our passage. God does not show favoritism.
C. You can see this in Colossians 3:23–25, where Paul is addressing slaves: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.”
1. If a slave will be paid back for the wrong he has done, so will the mother of young children.
2. You’re special, but you’re not so special that you are immune from the judgment of God.
D. So, like the rest of us, you must keep the faith. You must fight the good fight. You must keep your eyes on Jesus. You must not give up. You must not let go.