For if We Sin WillfullyBy Barry Dupont

July 5, 2010   |   Category: Digging Deeper

For this little study, we will be looking at this whole text here:

Hbr 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Hbr 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hbr 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Hbr 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Here is my paraphrase:
Keep up the firstfruits work of participating in fulfillment, not forgetting to love and encourage each other.
Not abandoning then our gathering together behind the veil the flesh of Christ as some are doing by refocusing on the old covenant, as if it were not about to vanish away. Encourage each other because you can see the day of fulfillment approaching.
In this willful abandonment of our gathering together, a willful return to sin, after having once having known the truth, such then become repositioned where there is no remaining sacrifice just as there is no remaining city.
Instead of an expectation of victory, there will then be a fearful looking for judgment and all that brings with it in the wrath that is about to be.

1) The gathering:
Hbr 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Hbr 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Hbr 10:21 And [having] an high priest over the house of God;
Hbr 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

The gathering in question was a gathering together unto Christ as in 2Th 2:1.

2Th 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto him, {Same word as used in Hebrews 10:25}

It was a new a living way out of the old covenant. It was a gathering that Christ had desired to do in the past but they were unwilling.

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

2) "as ye see the day approaching":
The old was ready to vanish away.
Hbr 8:13 In that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old [is] ready to vanish away.
Their house was about to be left to them desolate.
Their candle would shine no more.

Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Rev 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

The old Jerusalem and the temple was about to be destroyed permanently and would have no more covenantal authority.

Hbr 2:2 For if the word spoken by angels {old covenant} was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
Hbr 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard [him];
Hbr 2:4 God also bearing [them] witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
Hbr 2:5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

The temple still stood and sacrifices were still being made.
(ASV)
Hbr 9:8 the Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holy place hath not yet been made manifest, while the first tabernacle is yet standing;
Hbr 9:9 which [is] a figure for the time present; according to which are offered both gifts and sacrifices that cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect,

The gathering behind the veil, was not yet complete while the first tabernacle still stood, in that present time when Hebrews was written. But confidence that such would "stay" was the teaching of the old confidence and a teaching of the Judaizers who taught "another" gospel. They however were about to be taught not to blaspheme.

3) "For if we sin wilfully"
Hbr 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water,

In returning to a confidence of the old, they were wilfully re-entering into sin consience. The thing that animal sacrifices could not really take away. Such is the context of "sin wilfully".

Hbr 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Hbr 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Gal 2:18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Gal 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

Gal 6:12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

This was "striving against sin". When Hebrews was written not many had yet died "striving against sin". But it was about to get worse and they knew it was coming.

4) "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins"

Hbr 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
Hbr 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

No continuing city, no remaining sacrifice.
The verse does not say that Christ's sacrifice would not cover them. It does not say that they would not have a sacrifice at all. It does not say that once the old sacrifice had expired that they would have nothing at all. All of these are read into the text but are not there.

No continuing city meant no continuing old city. No remaining sacrifice meant no remaining old sacrifice. No "remaining" is contrasted over-against that which would endure.

The verse does not mean that they would be without a sacrifice period. It means that they were returning to an ending city and and ending sacrifice.

Hbr 7:3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth {endures, remains} a priest continually.

Hbr 7:23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
Hbr 7:24 But this [man], because he continueth {endures, remains} ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

Hbr 10:34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

Hbr 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

So then:
If you re-enter into a confidence in the old you re-enter into a none remaining sacrifice. If you re-enter into a confidence in the old you re-enter into a none remaining city. There remainth no city there. There remainth no sacrifice there. It is none enduring.

This does not mean that they were never forgiven period but that they were shamed in this confidence.

Eze 16:62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I [am] the LORD:
Eze 16:63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

5) "fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries"

There was a time when repentance was possible. Once the Roman armies came, that was it. Not the best time to go trying to buy oil for your lamp.
Also there is a "consciousness" meaning to this.
Since they would then have re-entered into the fullness of a sin conscience, this is what the sin conscience expects (Heb. 2:15 for example).

Many saw and feared it coming as things progressively got worse. And things did get much worse in the three prong civil war that the Jews were involved in just before the Romans came.