Hebrews 10:26-31 ESV
“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
With a True Heart
These words are addressed to Christians and to professing
Christians. And right before these words were spoken there was an exhortation
given to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with
our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with
pure water (of the Spirit). And this is talking of our salvation, of being
crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness
of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
And then it goes on to exhort us as those who profess faith
in Jesus Christ to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for
he who promised is faithful. And the confession of our hope is not just
forgiveness of sins so we can go to heaven when we die. It is deliverance from
our slavery (addiction) to sin so we can now walk in obedience to our Lord and
live holy lives pleasing to God in the power and working of God in our lives.
And this is what we are to walk in without wavering (vacillating, wandering).
And then we are encouraged to consider how to stir up one
another to love and good works. Yes, good works are required of us, but they
are not the works of our own doing, but they are the works of God which he
prepared in advance for us to walk (in conduct, in practice) in them, as his
workmanship. For Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all
lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are
zealous for good works (see Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 2:11-14).
And then there is the exhortation to us to not neglect meeting
together, as is the habit of some, but that we should meet together in order to
encourage (exhort, counsel, urge, instruct) one another, and all the more as we
see the Day (of judgment) drawing near. So the whole purpose of us gathering
together is for mutual encouragement with each part of the body doing its work
so that, speaking the truth in love, one to the other, we might all grow together
to maturity in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and not fall back into sin.
[Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24; Rom 8:1-14; Eph 2:10; Tit 2:11-14;
Eph 4:1-16; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 5:17-27; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13]
If We Go On Sinning
Okay, so now that we understand the context here and who
this is being addressed to it should help us to better understand the message.
And this message is consistent with what Jesus taught and Paul taught and John
and the other apostles taught, too. If we profess faith in Jesus Christ, or we
are genuinely converted to faith in Jesus Christ, but then we deliberately go
on sinning, in practice, and we do not walk in obedience to our Lord, then we
do not have the hope of salvation from sin nor of eternal life with God.
The sacrifice for our sins is null and void, meaning we are
not saved from our sins and heaven is not our eternal destiny, but hell is now
our destiny because we rejected God’s plan of salvation for our lives and we
chose the path of sin, instead. Now, I don’t believe this is teaching that this
person can never be saved or that he can’t return to faith in Jesus Christ, but
that as long as he continues in deliberate and habitual sin against God and not
in faithful obedience to the Lord’s commands, he doesn’t have salvation.
For, not only has this person forfeited his salvation by
continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, but by doing so he
has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and he has profaned the blood of the covenant
by which he was sanctified, and he has outraged the Spirit of grace. For he has
shown enormous disrespect to God and to his work of salvation, and he is
insultingly contemptuous in speech and/or in conduct toward God and toward
other humans, too, by sinning against God and other people.
And sadly enough, many people today professing faith in
Jesus Christ have never died with Christ to sin and they have thus not been
raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, but they have continued
in their sinful practices which is an insult to God and to what he did for us in
providing for us the way of salvation from our slavery to sin. Yet, although
they are deliberately and habitually sinning against God, many of them will act
as though they are in fellowship with the Lord and that they are doing right.
But many of them are living in direct disobedience to the
Lord, many of them in sexual immorality and in adultery, full of selfishness
and pride and greedy for what will give them sensual pleasure. So they end up
living for self without regard for God or for his plan of salvation, and
without regard for who they hurt in the process. For they are all about
pleasing themselves, and many of them are liars, deceivers, corrupt, and
crooked. But again they will then promote themselves as good Christians who
love God.
But God will judge them for their evil deeds and for their
rejection of his salvation, for vengeance belongs to God, and he will repay
with judgment those who practice evil while professing to be in fellowship with
God. For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So we
should take this to heart. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord,
Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the
Father who is in heaven. And one day many will hear him say, “I never knew you!”
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32;
Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal
6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn
3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Come Into His Presence
By Don Moen
Come into His presence with thanksgiving in your heart
And give Him praise, and give Him praise
Come into His presence with thanksgiving in your heart
Your voices raise, your voices raise
Give glory and honor and power unto Him
Jesus, the name above all names
Jesus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ogPS5z92Y
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