THE HEBREWS 10 CONFUSION

For the past month, the focus of each week’s post has been the assurance of a believer’s salvation. Before I proceed to explain another misunderstood scripture that “threatens” the salvation of believers, let me tell you why I have devoted myself to doing what some people may misunderstand to be an encouragement of a reckless lifestyle in the guise of grace.

When Paul wrote to Titus, he explained the salvation of our Lord in Chapter 3; that we are justified by grace. He insisted that these teachings were beneficial and profitable for everyone [3:9]. Paul was not the only person who knew the power of a proper understanding of Christ’s completed work in a believer. John the beloved of the Lord wrote to the church in his first letter reminding them over and over again that they who had the Son had eternal life [5:11]. As if he hadn’t made himself clear enough, he says in verse 13, ‘I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.’ There is a warmth that these teachings come with. There is a peace that these teachings come with. There is a confidence that this understanding comes with, which John speaks of in the very next verse when He talks about approaching God. Knowing that Jesus keeps me eternally and will present me to Himself spotless and with great joy [my goodness!😪 – Jude 1:24] does a work in me to remove every guilt that keeps my lips shut from preaching the gospel or striving to live for Him. This is what John meant in 5:3 of 1 John – to love God is to obey His commandments; His commandments are not burdensome! Because when you’re authentically in love, there are very few things that look too hard to do for the ‘object of your love’ 😆. So as you follow this series to the end, my hope is that these truths ‘free’ you from the fear of condemnation you may be living in so that you can walk in the strength and victory over this world that the Lord has already provided for this life. So let’s jump back to breaking down misunderstood scriptures.

I’m a Thor fan😎, so we drop our hammer today on Hebrews 10:26-27!💪🏽 Paul writes:

Dear friends, if we deliberately continue to sin after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume His enemies.

As plain as this scripture looks, let me make a public service announcement:

Paul was talking about apostates!

Apostacy is a total falling away or desertation of faith in the Lord Jesus [Dake’s Annotated Bible]. The book of Hebrews was written to the Jewish community of believers. Paul was writing because some people’s faith was dwindling because of strong Judaism/Jewish influences. Paul’s aim in the entire book was to present Jesus as better than all other men/angels/deities, and to prove that the law and Judaism had to cease as Christ had fulfilled its requirements and established a new covenant for all men. So, he revealed Jesus to them through the law they knew – angels, the sabbath, the office of the High Priest, Melchizedek, worship in the earthly tabernacle, sacrifice, etc. In the midst of these teachings, Paul had already warned about ‘those who were once enlightened, who had tasted the heavenly gift, who had shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted of the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age’ [6:5]. He had talked about how by their falling away, they were ‘crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace’ [6:6, NIV]. So when Paul talked about the ‘knowledge of the truth’ in 10:26, he was talking about the truth that the law was only a shadow of good things to come [10:1], that Jesus had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins [10:12], and that these Jewish Christians he was writing to now had access into the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus! [10:19]

Going back to verse 26, Paul refers to these people who keep sinning as the enemies of God. Paul had already defined these enemies in Romans 5:10. He said ‘while we were enemies of God, He reconciled us to Him through the death of His Son.’ It goes without saying, that the enemies of God are they who are not reconciled with God because they are not/no longer are beneficiaries in the death of His Son!

Secondly, the succeeding verses make it more explicit the category of persons Paul was referring to. Verse 28 and 29 read:

Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

He compares the punishment for rebellion against God under the two dispensations. His argument to these Jews is that if the law of Moses which he had just explained to be a shadow of the things to come could merit such punishment, how much worse would it be for a person who had been taught the truth of Christ’s perfect work and thus was not ignorant of the truth, but had willingly chosen to live a life of an unbeliever, which is sin and rebellion! [Catch up on sin as a nature of rebellion here. Thank me later! 😉] And it does make sense, that to do this is to ‘spit on His work’, to trample it under one’s feet, and to treat it as an unholy thing when even the blood of goats and bulls were held sacred under Jewish law. It was to put the Son of God to shame among unbelieving folk who themselves did not pass an opportunity to ridicule the work of the Messiah!

Any other explanation of this scripture will in fact lead to an absurd understanding. Chapter 10 of Hebrews in itself carries the theme of eternal salvation. Here’s how the chapter opens:

“The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.”

The author explains this into detail, and then in verses 12, 14 and 17 he points out what Jesus did for us:  

¹² But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ¹⁴ For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. ¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says, ¹⁷ “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”

Then he addresses those who had turned away from the faith:

³² Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering.  ³⁴ You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. ³⁵ So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. ³⁷ “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. ³⁹ But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved. 

The scripture was talking about nothing else than faith in God, beloved. Not sin as in lying or stealing, but the sin of unbelief in the Son of God who came to die, especially after one has come into the knowledge of Him. There is nothing else that awaits a person who places the unsaving law of Moses above the redeeming work of Christ other than fearful wrath. 

Does this explanation mean a believer can continue deliberately sinning? You must be a saskatwan to think so! 😂 [Word is Saskatchewan, but my mum used to call me a saskatwan when I goofed growing up 😂]

After Paul had explained the marvellous work of Christ in the first 5 chapters in his love letter to the Romans, he asked them in 6:1 [NLT] – Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

We will delve deeper in the fruit that God’s mercy bears in a person very soon. But in the mean time, remember: You’re Redeemed, You’re Not a Sinner, Your Salvation is Complete, and Depart From Me, or Not? [I run out of creativity at this point😂 But each of these is an episode in the series ‘Assurance of Salvation’]

CLICK ON THE LINKSSS! Thanks for coming! Like, share, and drop a comment! 😉😘

Love,

⭐ RAD! ⭐