Question:
Dear Greg,
Hebrews
10:26-27: could you explain what these verses mean when it says, “sin
willfully”?
Thanks,
Joe
Answer: Dear Joe,
The
first step is to understand the theme and context of the book in which this
passage is written. Hebrews is a
book that is written to Jewish Christians to help them understand the
superiority of Christ over the old covenant and to help them understand that
when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed that Christianity would not be
finished (in fact it really accelerated at that time!).
In that light, passages within the book that seem to speak of sin that
causes us to forfeit what God’s grace has already given us as an eternal gift
need to be understood within the complete context of the book.
The
Bible does say, of course, that we do keep on sinning after we are saved.
Romans 7 gives Paul’s personal testimony to this fact.
The Bible says that we are sinners, we have sinful human nature and our
bodies of flesh are carnal and prone to temptation and sin. The Bible teaches
that the spiritual reality of having been saved is that we are one in and with
Christ, that it is him not us who lives within us (Galatians 2) and that we are
NOW seated with him in heavenly realms (Ephesians 2).
The Bible makes it clear that in one respect we are not now a part of the
fullness of the Kingdom of God, but it also makes it clear that there is a sense
in which we are now, by and through Christ, in that kingdom.
So the kingdom of God is already—but not yet.
The fullness will be brought by Jesus at his Second Coming.
So,
as Christians we will sin. We will
sin until our body dies, for we are sinners.
Our sin will not change our salvation, our eternity, our relationship
with God that we enjoy because of his grace, because of what we do or fail to
do.
The
Bible also says that it is possible to reject God.
God will never reject us. If
we want to repent, God will always forgive us.
There is no such thing as a sin that God will not pardon, no such thing
as a sinner who is “too bad” to be saved, a sinner who cannot be redeemed.
Nothing is impossible with God.
There
is, however, such a thing as a person who will not seek forgiveness from God.
The Prodigal Son needed to “come to himself” and decide to go home,
to seek forgiveness—and he was and is met by our Heavenly Father long before
he had to make the entire journey.
In
Christ,