Heb10v26to39 AN UNCOMPROMISING WARNING(A) Introduction The writer has spent a long time establishing what Christ has done for the believer. He has given us a better covenant, made a better sacrifice and is a better great high priest. Then in Ch10 vs 19 to 25 he reminds the Christian of his responsibility. Five times he writes, 'Let us'. Note carefully he does not say, 'Let God', but 'Let us'. Let us: draw near to God, hold on to our hope, spur one another on towards love and good deeds and encourage one another in the Lord. He stresses our responsibility. Now the writer with his tremendous passion for the salvation of his readers issues an uncompromising, solemn, warning of the sort that we are not used to hearing today. (B) The people addressed
It is of the utmost importance to be aware of the people addressed.
(b) It is folk who had come into the light. v32 Remember those early days after you had received the light. Their eyes had been opened by the Spirit of God and they saw Jesus for whom he was. (c) They are people who had stood their ground in the face of suffering. V32 you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. These Christians had been insulted, imprisoned and had their property confiscated. Few of us have been asked to go through such ordeals for Christ's sake. We would dislike it very, very, much. (d) Finally the believers this letter addresses knew that they had better and lasting possessions. See v34. They had hope of heaven and an eternal reward and so they were able to joyfully accept the confiscation of their property. The people addressed were mature followers of Jesus who had withstood persecution, who had expressed solidarity with their suffering brethren, and who would be richly rewarded on the return of their Master. Yet they were falling away (C) The dreadful sin they had committed In v26 we read that they deliberately kept on sinning You might mutter, "Well we all do that". In my experience we do. I have always been prone to voyeurism. So a computer is a snare. Mine is filtered but it remains a snare. I think few of us would be confident of our salvation if freedom from deliberate sin was an essential qualification. In v28 we find out what the particular sin was they deliberately persisted in. We have in this verse a reference to what happened to anyone who rejected the law of Moses. In Dt15 we can read of the Israelite who would be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Death was not for any deliberate sin but for violating the covenant and worshipping other gods - bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky. In other words it was for reverting from Judaism to paganism. The deliberate sin for which there is no forgiveness is apostasy. In the Hebrew Christian's case it involved going back to Judaism after having had a personal experience of the power and preciousness of the gospel.
There are three descriptions of the dreadfulness of this sin. They:
(b) v29 treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified. The precious shed blood that had once set these believers apart and made them special to God was being dismissed as ordinary blood, nothing but the blood of a criminal, of a man who deserved to die. (c) v29 insulted the Spirit of Grace. The work of God's Spirit in transforming lives was rejected. It was dismissed as a deception and a lie. There is no gainsaying the seriousness of falling away from Christ. Those who do so spit in his face, make light of his agony on the cross and denigrate the gift of his Spirit. (C) The awful consequences
There are clearly dreadful repercussions for those who trample the Son of God underfoot:
(b) All that remains is a fearful expectation of judgement. If we wilful reject the beloved Son who in all things pleased God and has been exalted to his right hand in heaven how can we expect anything else than an adverse judgement. (c) Anyone who treats the blood of Jesus as unholy and insults the Spirit of Grace will be utterly destroyed by the raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. v27. Those that shrink back are destroyed. v39. The purpose of an incinerator is not to inflict never ending misery but to completely destroy, to annihilate. Nearly all the New Testament pictures of the ultimate punishment of the wilfully unrepentant, including Gehenna itself, point towards destruction and not enduring, but unendurable, misery being their fate. Under the law of Moses an apostate's life was destroyed and under the new dispensation anyone who derides the person of Jesus will be destroyed body and soul in hell(Gehenna). Yet I have heard Minister's of the Gospel say of former believers who made a commitment to Christ but have fallen away: "They don't lose their salvation". They seem to think that the initial commitment saves them for time and eternity - regardless of what later transpires. This is plainly not what the writer to the Hebrews believes. Anyone who shrinks back and cravenly returns to Judaism; anyone who believed on Jesus but turns away from him; anyone who devalues the shed blood of the Lamb - can only expect one thing - the raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (D) The reason for their apostasy These Hebrew Christians had withstood so much - more than most of us. They had experienced persecution, injustice and deprivation - but stood their ground. Now they were shrinking back. Why on earth, after putting up with so much and witnessing so heroically, are they falling away. We have a clue in the quotation from Habbakuk in vs 37 and 38. It seems that the Jewish Christians were getting tired of waiting for Christ's return. Nothing was happening - where was Jesus? He had promised to come again for his own. It had all gone flat - it was getting boring. There was a sense of anticlimax and a growing disillusionment. They had been tested by persecution and come through with flying colours. Now they were being tested by a humdrum, uneventful, unexciting phase in their Christian experience. Many Christians find this difficult to cope with today. I have heard Christians complain that the buzz has gone out of church life - there is no fizz about the water of life! King David came to grief - not in the heat of the battle but relaxing in the sun upon the roof top. (E) The appeal to steadfastness.
The writer pleads with his readers to persevere See v36. There are three grounds for this appeal:
In the days of their first love these Hebrew Christians had stood firm. They had been enabled to stand because they knew that they a had better and lasting possession. If they could stand then they surely can be steadfast now. Come on says the writer, do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. Don't throw it all away. We have often heard that phrase used in the context of marriage or a career. Don't throw it all away. It is possible to throw away a life-time's service to Jesus for the sake of an adulterous relationship or for homosexual love. It is also possible to throw it all away because we are fed up!
(b) The appeal to Christian hope
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The writer quotes Habbakuk in v38.'The righteous will live by faith' and then says for himself in v39: we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who believe and are saved. It is not a one off faith that saves us - making a decision to follow Jesus. It is an ongoing, persevering faith that secures the saving of the soul. We start to follow, we continue to follow, we follow when the way is rough and steep and we follow on to the end of the journey. That is the way that leads to life. Union with Christ, justification, participation in Christ's life, peace of conscience, sanctification, the certainty of final redemption - these and every other Christian experience are the effect of sustained and habitual faith. It is faith alone that brings us to the fountain and keeps us there.
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