Slices
Prepare
‘On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.’* When have you needed to be really aware of the rock under your feet?
*Edward Mote(1797-1874)
Bible passage
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For,
‘In just a little while,
he who is coming will come
and will not delay.’
38 And,
‘But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.’
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Explore
The two sections in this passage each have a key word. In the first section, that word is ‘deliberately’ (v 26). The writer to the Hebrews is not talking about occasions when we might unwittingly or accidentally do something sinful. Neither is it about giving in to temptation or drifting away (however that may happen) from faith. Those things can be repented of and forgiven; people can be restored. The writer is talking about public, wilful, intentional denial of everything to do with Christ and his sacrifice, which was once believed. And that will, rightly, come under God’s judgement (vs 29–31).
In the second section, the key word is ‘persevere’ (v 36). Readers are reminded of difficult things they’ve suffered, or times when they’ve been a support to others going through similar things. Perseverance is hard work; perseverance is gritted teeth, fists clenched, keeping on keeping on – but with the confidence that we’re doing God’s will, persevering by his Spirit and in his strength, and that his rich reward to the faithful will be ours (v 39; see also Romans 5:3–5).
Respond
It is a great sadness to be aware of anyone who was once a person of clear faith repudiating it. It is a great joy to see someone persevering in faith through challenging times. Pray for anyone you know in either circumstance.
Deeper Bible study
Loving God, give me the grace and persistence to persevere until the end.
Today’s reading is another strong warning, this time against intentional, ongoing sin by someone who has ‘received the knowledge of the truth’ (v 26). That is, someone who has acknowledged the truth and validity of all that the writer has expounded in chapters 7–10 about the priesthood of Jesus and his sacrifice for sins. To deliberately continue to sin in the light of that acknowledgement is, according to verse 29, to trample the Son of God underfoot, to treat as unholy the sanctifying blood of the covenant and to insult the Spirit of grace. Such people will fall into the hands of the living God, a dreadful thing.
Let us look again at the pronouns as we did in chapter 6. ‘If we deliberately keep on sinning’, he begins (v 26) and he ends with ‘But we [are not like that but] … have faith and are saved’ (v 39). There is no suggestion that his readers are sinning in this way. Between these two ‘we’ statements are a series of ‘anyone’ statements, describing deliberate and persistent sin, and a series of ‘you’ statements describing the believers themselves. You were insulted and persecuted in the past and had your property confiscated, and yet you accepted all that joyfully because you knew you had ‘better and lasting possessions’ (v 34). The writer concludes with a word of encouragement, ‘your confidence … will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that … you will receive what he [God] has promised’ (vs 35,36).
We need to clarify that this passage does not refer to someone ‘caught in a sin’ who can be restored gently.1 This is deliberate, persistent, wilful rebellion against God, ‘outright apostasy’.2 It is equivalent to sinning ‘defiantly’, for which the penalty was to be ‘cut off’ from God’s people.3
It is true to say that anyone worried that they may have committed such a sin, has almost certainly not – defiant sinners do not worry! Be encouraged with these words.
1 Gal 6:1 2 FF Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Eerdmans, 1990, p261 3 Num 15:30,31
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Proverbs 15,16; 1 Thessalonians 1
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray for the Digital Solutions team as they look at the key back office systems we use to run finance and other functions. The team are looking at ways to improve efficiencies and create links between other systems including the new database.
