No More Sacrifice

At first glance, this is one scary verse of Scripture, Hebrews 10:26 ... “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins ...”

What? If I get a wild hair and go off and willfully commit a sin knowing I shouldn't, and I just let my flesh have it's own way … does that mean … “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” … for me? Does God erase my name from the Book of Life?

This is one of those verses that must never be taken out of context, or lifted off the page to stand on it's own. It must remain in it's setting to properly understand it's meaning.

The writer of Hebrews has been addressing Christian Jews who were being tempted to revert to Judaism or to Judaize the Gospel by filling it with works of the Law.

For the Hebrew Christians, the meaning of this verse is to show that … if … they went back under the Law, under Judaism, and abandon Christianity; when they willfully sin (and most sins are willful) … “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” Why is that?

They would not have any sacrifices accepted by God through the works of the Law. The key is in the word … remaineth. The word remaineth means … “to leave behind.”

I find that, interesting. If they go back to Judaism, they leave Jesus … behind.

No more sacrifice? … of course not. The Levitical sacrifices were abolished with Christ's one sacrifice.

It is Christ's sacrifice or none ... the sacrifice of Christ, will never be repeated ... Christ will die no more. His blood will not be shed again, nor His sacrifice reiterated ... nor will any other sacrifice be offered. There will be no other Savior. There is no salvation in any other, nor any other name whereby we must be saved.

Jesus, being now the only sacrifice which God will accept, cause those who reject Him to have no other sacrifice; therefore their case must be utterly without remedy for their sins.

This verse has been wrongly used to try and prove that those who sin willfully after being born again (or if you prefer, saved by grace) cannot be restored again to fellowship with God upon repentance. This teaching has caused great distress of conscience to those burdened with the guilt of sin, committed after a profession of Christ as Savior.

Why do I say that this verse is wrongly used? There are two reasons …

First … This verse (in context) is speaking of Judaizers who want to believe the old Levitical sacrifices will still cover their sins. It has … nothing … to do with Christians who sin. The sin question has been taken care of. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:1 … “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” … period.

Second … But if this verse was speaking to believers, the phrase … “For if we sin wilfully” ... is not to be understood as a single act of sin, or sins through temptation … but rather, a course of sinning, which are done on purpose, resolutely and obstinately.

If you are truly born again and the Spirit of Christ dwells in you, the Apostle John writes in ...

1st John 3:9 ... “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin (habitually); for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

I like John Gill's short discourse to the meaning of, “doth not commit sin” …

“The born again man does not make sin his trade and business; it is not the constant course of his life; he does not live and walk in sin, or give up himself to it; although he is not without the being of it in him, or free from acts of sin in his life and conversation ... but he does not so commit it as to be the servant of it, a slave unto it, or to continue in it.”

He goes on with further explanation about the second half of this verse, “he cannot sin” …

“Not that it is impossible for such a man to do acts of sin, or that it is possible for him to live without sin; for the words are not to be understood in the sense of perfection in this life; for though the saints have perfection in Christ, yet not in themselves ... they are not free from sin, neither from the being nor actings of it ... sin is in them, lives in them, and dwells in them.”

I am not trying to say that the sins of believers are not sins; for even though they are pardoned by Christ, and we are justified from them ... yet they do not cease to be sins. We should be saved from our sins, not saved in our sins. A Christian cannot sin comfortably; if he tries to continue to live in sin he will be most miserable.

Christians sin. We shouldn't, but we do. This is why in 1st John 1:9 it says ... “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Even if we sin willfully after ... we have received the knowledge of the truth?

Yes, even then.


Comments welcome.