Easter 2022 Hebrews 10.26-39
Intro:
This warning against apostasy is one of the most serious warnings in all of Scripture. Not all of the Hebrews would respond to the gentle invitation of vv. 19–25. Some were already beyond response.
Of the five warnings given in Hebrews, the one in this passage is by far the most serious and sobering. It may be the most serious warning in all of Scripture. It deals with apostasy.
Apostasy, as we will see, is the sin of rejecting the gospel for which there is no forgiveness. One helpful Scripture in defining apostasy is 1 John 2:19, which says, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.”
Apostasy is not new, nor is God’s attitude toward it. It is the most serious of all sins, because it is the most deliberate and willful form of unbelief. It is not a sin of ignorance, but of rejecting known truth.
Judas Iscariot is, of course, the classic apostate. No other rejecter of Christ ever had the exposure to God’s truth, love, and grace as did Judas. He knew the Lord intimately. He was one of the twelve of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. Had he believed, he would have become an apostle. But he rejected the truth and became an apostate. His story is the supreme contradiction to the common excuse, “I would probably believe in Christ if I just had a little more evidence, a little more light.” Judas had the perfect evidence, the perfect light, the perfect example. For some three years he lived with Truth incarnate and Life incarnate, yet turned his back on the One who is truth and life.
receiving knowledge of the truth, that is, the gospel, but willfully remaining in sin. An apostate has seen and heard the truth—he knows it well—but he willfully rejects it.
Willfully (hekousiōs) carries the idea of deliberate intention that is habitual. The reference here is not to sins of ignorance or weakness, but to those that are planned out, determined, done with forethought. The difference between sins of ignorance and sinning willfully is much like the difference between involuntary manslaughter and first-degree murder. Hekousiōs is habitual. It not only is deliberate, but is an established way of thinking and believing. It is the permanent renunciation of the gospel, the permanent forsaking of God’s grace.
Apostasy is sometimes triggered by temptation. The things of this world become more attractive and more influential than the things of God. These apostates are “rocky soil” hearers (Luke 8:13), who are attracted to the gospel for a while, but who are tempted away from full commitment. Whether the temptation is in the form of many small ones over a long period of time or of a very strong one that comes suddenly, they do not have the resources or the will to resist. Demas possibly was such a person. “Having loved this present world,” he may have deserted the Lord as well as Paul (2 Tim. 4:10).
The word placed first in the Greek text, a position marking it as important to the author, is the word translated as “deliberately” (hekousios). This adverb communicates the idea of willing participation in an action, something done with a clear mind and firm step, and is important to our interpretation of the passage. What the author has in mind is a deliberate, sinful lifestyle of high-handed rebellion against the gospel. If a person keeps on sinning in this way after receiving a knowledge of the gospel’s truth, no sacrifice for this kind of sin remains.
The distinction between those who sin in ignorance, wandering off the path (5:2), and those who radically rebel against the Word of God may be seen in Numbers 15:27–31, where the latter course is said to be blasphemy. So in Hebrews 10:26 those whom the author has in mind demonstrate a continuity between the time before hearing the gospel and after, continuing a lifestyle of rejecting God’s Word. For those persons there exists no sacrifice for their sins. In 10:1–18 the author has already made clear that the sacrifice offered by Christ has rendered all others obsolete. Where, then, can one go other than to Christ for an efficacious sacrifice? Once he and his provision have been rejected, there is nowhere else to turn.
In 10:30 the author reinforces his assertion concerning the seriousness of the situation by quoting two brief portions of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. This song, sung by Moses at the end of his life, eloquently delivered a warning to the people of Israel by depicting God’s judgment toward a faithless people who had turned their backs on his covenant. In spite of all he had done for them, they had abandoned him. God’s response to them was scathing judgment. The relevance for the audience of Hebrews could not be more striking.
The author’s quotations comprise two parts of Deuteronomy 32:35–36, which reads:
It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them.
The LORD will judge his people
and have compassion on his servants
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.
Both portions quoted by Hebrews—“It is mine to avenge, I will repay,” and “The LORD will judge his people”—emphasize that God himself takes responsibility for judging those who have spurned the gospel and deserted the community of faith.
The author tersely concludes with, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (v. 31). The word translated “dreadful” (phoberon) communicates the idea of terror and, for emphasis, is placed first in the Greek sentence. To “fall into the hands” of God speaks both of God’s awesome power and of the helplessness of the recipients of judgment. There exists no means of escape for those who have rejected the grace of the Living One (4:12–13).
ground in a great contest in the face of suffering” speaks of a time of great, perhaps unusual, trial. The word athlesis (“contest”) connotes not just a challenge but a difficult struggle. Both Lane and Bruce have suggested the expulsion from Rome under Claudius in A.D. 49 as a possible identification of this experience, and the evidence provided in these verses matches the circumstances we know from that time.
Sacrifices atoned for sins of ignorance, but Judaism taught that no sacrifice availed for the person who knowingly rejected the authority of God’s law. (For such persons, many Jewish teachers insisted that repentance, the Day of Atonement and death were all necessary. Jewish teachers also observed that those who sinned presuming that they would be automatically forgiven were not genuinely repentant and hence were not forgiven.) In the Dead Sea Scrolls, slight transgressions required temporary penance, but deliberate rebellion against God’s law demanded expulsion from the community. The sin in this context is unrepentant, thorough apostasy (10:29).
10:28. The law of witnesses is Deuteronomy 17:6–7 and 19:15; apostasy from obedience to the true God is addressed in Deuteronomy 13:6–11 and 17:2–7. Jewish teachers recognized that everyone sinned in some ways; but a sin by which a person declared “I reject parts of God’s Word” was considered tantamount to rejecting the whole law and was reckoned as apostasy.
10:29 how much worse punishment. There will be degrees of punishment in hell. This is also clearly indicated in Matt. 11:22–24 (see notes there).
10:34 in my chains. This is one of the supposed indicators used for identifying the author of this epistle as the Apostle Paul (cf. Eph. 3:1; 2 Tim. 1:8). However, many other Christians were also imprisoned. joyfully accepted. Cf. Acts 5:41; 16:24, 25; Rom. 5:3; James 1:2. a better and an enduring possession. See note on 9:15 (cf. Matt. 6:19, 20; 1 Pet. 1:4).
judgment and fiery indignation. The description is similar to that in Is. 26:11 and Zeph. 1:18 (cf. 2 Thess. 1:7–9). Ultimately, such judgment is that of eternity in the lake of fire (cf. Matt. 13:38–42, 49, 50).
The evidence of this “despising” is willful sin. The tense of the verb indicates that Hebrews 10:26 should read, “For if we willfully go on sinning.” This exhortation is not dealing with one particular act of sin, but with an attitude that leads to repeated disobedience. Under the Old Covenant, there were no sacrifices for deliberate and willful sins (Ex. 21:12–14; Num. 15:27–31). Presumptuous sinners who despised Moses’ Law and broke it were executed (Deut. 17:1–7). This explains why David prayed as he did in Psalm 51. Because he deliberately sinned “with a high hand,” he should have been slain; but he cried out for God’s mercy. David knew that even a multitude of sacrifices could not save him. All he could offer was the sacrifice of a broken heart (Ps. 51:16–17).
Take Voltaire, for example. Of Christ, Voltaire said, “Curse the wretch!” He once boasted, “In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear.” Ironically, shortly after his death the very house in which he printed his literature became the depot of the Geneva Bible Society. The nurse who attended Voltaire said, “For all the wealth in Europe I would not see another infidel die.” The physician Trochim, waiting with Voltaire at his death, said he cried out most desperately, “I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life. Then I shall go to hell and you will go with me.”
Or consider Thomas Paine, the renowned American author and enemy of Christianity who exerted considerable influence against belief in God and the Scriptures. He came to his last hour in 1809, a disillusioned and unhappy man. During his final moments on earth he said:
I would give worlds, if I had them, that Age of Reason had not been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! O God what have I done to suffer so much? But there is no God! But if there should be, what will become of me hereafter? Stay with me, for God’s sake! Send even a child to stay with me, for it is hell to be alone. If ever the devil had an agent, I have been that one.
Some today reject this idea by employing a one-sided view of Christ. They say that Jesus’ emblem was a lamb, that Jesus took little children in his arms and blessed them, that he sighed over the deaf and dumb and wept over Jerusalem. But they forget that the Lamb of God will come with wrath—in judgment (Revelation 6:16), that he told all who cause any of his little ones to sin that it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around their neck, and that the same Jesus who wept over Jerusalem judged it.
Listen to Jesus’ words on a number of different occasions: “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:49, 50). “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell” (Matthew 18:8, 9). “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ ” (Matthew 22:13). “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ ” (Matthew 25:41). “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:43). “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched’ ”
King David, after he had sinned against God by counting the number of fighting men in Israel and Judah, evidently viewed falling into God’s hands as divine judgment, because when God commanded him to choose between three alternatives, his wise reply was, “Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great” (2 Samuel 24:14). Very possibly this exact passage was on our author’s mind and governed the form of the words he chose. However that may be, for the true believer there is nothing better than to fall repentantly into the hands of God. His hands are our hope!
This will be dreadful because it involves separation from God. Union with God’s nature is bliss, but separation from him is horror.
It will be dreadful because it is eternal. If one could travel at the speed of light for one hundred years until he escaped this galaxy, and then travel for 3,000 years at the speed of light to reach the next galaxy, repeating the process one hundred thousand million times until he reached every galaxy—eternity would have just begun!
The writer invites the readers to work out for themselves how much more serious is the punishment of the man who apostatizes from Christ. It must be more severe than under the old way because Jesus is greater than Moses (3:1ff.); the new covenant is better than the old, founded on better promises (8:6) and established by a better sacrifice (9:23).
NOT A TAME God. One of C. S. Lewis’s favorite comments on Aslan, that great beast, the figure of Christ in the Narnia Chronicles, is, “He is not a tame lion.” The deep growl, the severe mercy; the uncompromising, firm-but-smiling gaze. When Aslan speaks no one in the story can question who is in charge. When the lion speaks, one not only gets the sense, but one knows that nothing more need be said. This is really the way things are and not only will they not be changed, indeed they cannot—we have bumped up against a greater reality than ourselves and our particular perspective. He is Lord and he does what he wills. He calls children from another world when and to where he desires. He vanquishes foes in his own good time. No one can ever think of sitting in judgment on him. To think of controlling him would be preposterous. The lightning is too powerful to be bottled, the mountain too furious to be captured in a video tape. There is a wildness in his nature and he will not be muzzled.
Just before Jesus cast the demons out of the two Gadarene men, the demons cried out to Him, “What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29). They were well aware that their final judgment of torment was coming, that it was certain, and were afraid that Jesus was going to bring it early. The demons know, better than many professed Christians seem to know, that God’s judgment on His enemies is inescapable, and the fury of a fire from Him is consuming.
Just as certain as the judgment of demons is the judgment of all who turn their backs on Jesus Christ. In explaining the parable of the tares, Jesus said to His disciples:
The tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. Therefore just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 13:38–42)
A few moments later, Jesus told another parable with the same point: the end of the age will see the separation of believers and unbelievers, the believers to heaven and the unbelievers to hell. “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth, and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:49–50).
Paul gives similar warnings of judgment, including this one in his second letter to the Thessalonians:
The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (2 Thess. 1:7–9)
Jesus told Pilate, “He who delivered Me up to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11). Judas’s sin was greater than Pilate’s. Both were unbelievers, but Judas was an apostate. He had light and evidence far beyond what Pilate had, and was therefore far more guilty in betraying Christ.
Jesus also made it clear that judgment, like guilt, is in proportion to sin. “That slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few” (Luke 12:47–48).
And until then, they could not receive what was promised. They knew the promises, rejoiced in the promises, and even had suffered for the promises. But they had not received the promises. The church is still filled with people like this. It is the negative side of Matthew 7:22–23: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ ”
10:32–33. The athletic language of “contest” (v. 32—NIV) or “conflict” (NASB; see comment on 12:1–3) conjoined with “being made a public spectacle” (v. 33—NASB) or “publicly exposed” (NIV) could mean that the readers were subjected to the gladiatorial games. Although the writer probably does not mean this reference literally (since they were still alive—12:4), the image suggests the intensity of their struggle. It is not possible to identify the specific persecution involved without identifying the location of the letters’ recipients (a difficult task; see introduction).
Christ’s call to discipleship has always been one that involves a great cost, for association with Jesus inevitably leads down the path of persecution (John 15:20; 2 Tim. 3:12). People outside the faith do not appreciate our devotion to Christ, and conflict arises as they realize we are not committed ultimately to them or to their views of life. This relational conflict, moreover, may be played out in the living room or the town square,
Our past can also affect our present and future as we speak to ourselves from the past, as we “remember those earlier days” of our commitment to Christ. Perhaps there was a time when we as individuals stood in the face of severe trial. We should own and build memorials for the remembrance of those past times, using them for our own encouragement to endurance. If we as individuals have had no such experience, we can benefit from the example of our broader community of faith, looking to a time in the past at which they sacrificed greatly
The word rendered “contest” (athlēsis) is used of athletic competition and is, of course, the term from which we get our word “athletics.” It became widely used of the Christian as a spiritual athlete and so points to the strenuous nature of Christian service. On this occasion, the athletic performance had been elicited by a period of suffering they had steadfastly endured.
In the first century prisoners had no means of survival apart from the visits of friends who brought food and water and clothing. But such visiting placed one in grave danger. Yet, they did it willingly—and in doing so some visited Christ who said, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink… I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:35, 36).
The writer continues, “… and [you] joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions” (v. 34b). The human tendency is to hold on as hard as we can to what we have.
They believed Jesus’ words, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew 6:19, 20). They were “looking for the city that is to come” (13:14)—“the heavenly Jerusalem” (12:22).
Diaspora Judaism often described God as “architect” and “builder” (cf. 3:4) of the world. Like philosophers who could compare the cosmos with a city, Philo saw heaven (or virtue or the Logos, the divine Word) as the “mother city,” designed and constructed by God; one could not look for the heavenly Jerusalem on earth. Other Jewish people saw the new Jerusalem as the city of God for the future age (Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.; see comment on Gal 4:26); on its foundations, see comment on Revelation 21:14. Compare also Hebrews 13:14. Old Testament texts like Psalm 137:5–6 and New Testament texts like this one suggest that Christians’ future hope is inseparably connected with Israel’s history, and Christians do biblical tradition a great disservice to cut it loose from its historical moorings in ancient Israel.
receive the promise. See notes on 4:1; 6:12; 9:15. If they would but remain with the New Covenant and put their trust exclusively in Christ, they would obtain the promise of salvation for themselves.
10:38 the just shall live by faith. See note on Rom. 1:17. The opposite of apostasy is faith. This is a preview of the subsequent chapter. It is faith which pleases God. The individual who draws back from the knowledge of the gospel and faith will prove his apostasy
We are not just saved from our sin by faith; we also must live by faith. This is the theme of Hebrews 11–13.
The believer who lives by faith will “go on to perfection” (Heb. 6:1). But the believer who lives by sight will “draw back unto perdition” (Heb. 10:39). What is “perdition” in this context? The Greek word translated “perdition” is used about twenty times in the New Testament and is translated by different words: “perish” (Acts 8:20), “die” (Acts 25:16), “destruction” (Rom. 9:22), and “waste” (Matt. 26:8). The word can mean eternal judgment, but it need not in every instance. I personally believe that “waste” is the best translation for this word in Hebrews 10:39. A believer who does not walk by faith goes back into the old ways and wastes his life.
Here in Hebrews, though the quotation from Habakkuk is taken from the Septuagint’s rearranged Messianic rendering of the Hebrew text, the application is still the same—the righteous will live by faith. The meaning here in Hebrews is this: 1) Jesus is returning soon—“He who is coming will come and will not delay” (v. 37); 2) the saved will persevere by faith—“But my righteous one will live by faith” (v. 38a); 3) the lost will shrink back—“And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him” (vv. 38b).