Free Bible Commentary
“Hebrews 10:26-31”
Categories: Hebrews“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted 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 terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
---End of Scripture verses---
The Hebrew writer has belabored the point that everything involved in God’s previous covenant with Israel was just a copy, a pattern, a shadow, a flimsy precursor to the excellency and supremacy of His new covenant offered through His Beloved Son and inaugurated through His shed blood. If this is true with all the wonderful blessings that are available through the genuine, spiritual realities in Christ, the author emphasizes to us in today’s verses that it is equally true with punishment for rejecting the Son of His love.
The writer uses one of his typical “lesser to the greater” arguments to show us that, if punishment for violating the Law of Moses was severe (verse 28), then punishment for disobeying “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2) will be harsher still (verse 29). To be clear, faithful Christians who commit sins of ignorance or who sin in moments of weakness are not under consideration in this passage. The violators targeted here are those who “go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth” (verse 26). Those who blatantly and deliberately turn their backs on their Savior and His gracious sacrifice face the certainty of a “terrifying” eternity administered by the “vengeance” of “the hands of the living God” (verses 30-31).
The writer uses three vivid illustrations in verse 29 to describe what God’s covenant people do when they abandon their faith in Jesus and spurn God’s perfect and final sacrifice for the sins that defile them. (1) They “trample under foot the Son of God." To come to know and love Jesus and then cast Him aside is to treat Him as a piece of garbage that they would just throw on the ground and then walk over. (2) They “regard as unclean the blood of the covenant by which” they were “sanctified”. They treat the most precious blood that Jesus shed with contempt, dishonor and shame. (3) They “insult the Spirit of grace.” To reject God’s best and final offer of salvation is to offend and infuriate the Father who loved, the Son who saved, and the Spirit who revealed God’s loving plan of salvation. (Could this be the "unpardonable" sin of "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit"?)
Friend, there is no middle ground with God. You either stand with Him or against Him. You accept His offer of salvation and faithfully obey, or you refuse and suffer the eternal consequences. And the consequences are “terrifying”—a word the Holy Spirit uses twice (verses 27 and 30) to emphasize the horrific nature of the punishment. “The fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (verse 27). God is love. But God is also a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 2:29). All praise be to Him, however, because He gives us the choice to obey and live!!! God wants to be close to us, that’s why He sent His Son to die for us (verse 22). “Draw near!”
Please read Hebrews 10:32-39 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
