Hebrews 10:26
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 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? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
With the greatness of the grace and saving work of Jesus Christ comes a warning to those who by the conduct of their lives trample underfoot the Son of God, regard as unclean the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and insult the Spirit of grace. This solemn warning is given to those who “go on sinning willfully.”
This is not the first time we are cautioned in Hebrews:
2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 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;
3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
3:16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” … What does it mean to go on sinning willfully? Certainly we know from our own experience that we sin, often, and in the daily confession our sins we acknowledge that we committed those sins willfully. Is there a difference between the sins we commit and the “sinning willfully” in Hebrews 10:26?
Those who sin “willfully" are defined in Numbers 15:30-31 as those who sin defiantly, having despised God’s word. Proverbs 2:13ff describes those who go on sinning willfully as those who leave the paths of righteousness, delight in doing evil and are devious in their ways. To go on sinning willfully is a persistent pattern of sin, one that is so deliberate and repeated that Hebrews portrays as a “trampling underfoot the Son of God,” a “profaning the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified,” and an “outraging the Spirit of grace.” For such as these there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. In Romans 6, St Paul reminds those who are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection but persist in presenting themselves as servants or slaves of sin that the wages of sin never change …. the wages of sin is death. They have willfully cut themselves off from the one High Priest and the one sacrifice by which they are sanctified.
But we are convinced of better things concerning you. We do not forsake the assembling together and the Eucharist, where we partake of the blood of the New Covenant which was shed for the remission of our sin. We regularly attend to the Sacrament of Reconciliation which entails:
Contrition: true sorrow for our sins; by careful examination, we know what our sins are and the extent to which we have offended God’s love and goodness.
Confession: we own up to our sins, simply, honestly, and completely. We make our confession to a Priest as a minister of God and Christ’s representative to you of His Holy Church.
Absolution: God washes away the stain of our sin from our souls and gives us strength to resist sin in the future.
Amendment: we commit ourselves, by God’s grace, to fight manfully against those sins we have committed, striving to be faithful to God’s holy will and resolving not to sin again.
And we hold fast our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord … If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins. I John 2:1-2.
JSH+