I have heard this used to justify how one can lose his salvation. I believe the author of Hebrews is addressing Jewish persons who were flirting with the possibility of returning to Judaism after having the full knowledge of truth. Below is the verses in discussion:
“26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How 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? 30For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (10:26-31)
I am probably going to go against mainstream interpretations but I believe the author of Hebrews is not speaking of occasional or even persistent sins due to the weakness of the flesh such as lust, drunkenness, theft, anger, and the like. These kinds of sins, while serious before God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), are what the Apostle Paul refers to as being “caught in a sin” or “overtaken in a fault.” Yet, they are forgivable. The sinning I believe that the author is speaking of is the sin of apostasy.
I believe the author is referring to a sustained defiance towards God — apostasy — as he was in 6:4-8, that is, in this case I believe that some Jewish people were turning deliberately away from faith in Christ and returning to Judaism, as if Jesus were not the Messiah at all. This is flagrant, deliberate apostasy, not simply sinning due to our weakness of the flesh.
The writer compares this deliberate, defiant sin to “rejecting the law of Moses” (10:28). In this case it is rejecting the Savior himself, so that there “no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (10:26). If a person rejects the sacrifice of the Messiah himself for his sins, what sacrifice is there left that can save him? Can the blood of bulls and goats remove human sin (10:4)? No!
The writer of Hebrews isn’t talking about sins of weakness. Jesus died to forgive them. The writer of Hebrews is talking about those who reject Jesus and his forgiveness to such degree that they reject Him as the Messiah. For them, and for them only, there is no longer any forgiveness.
Filed under: Misused Scriptures
