Hebrews 10:26 - 10:31
it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living god.

(prayer)
 
ideas to cover first:
what we want and what is true
this passage expresses things i'm mostly unhappy to read and mostly unhappy to believe.
i'm going to guess that this will be similar for most of you as well.
before we start, i'd like to remind you that your preference on truth has little value.
wanting UT to have won the championship doesn't change the fact that they didn't.
theology has the same issue; it's very tempting for us to believe what we want, and to discard as untrue what we don't like or don't desire.
that's folly.

judgement and our attitude
we have a hard time with judgement.
- something we want, something that seems right...at times.
we don't always admit it, but we do want judgement when confronted with evil.
i want it when someone cuts me off.
confronted with sin directly, with the related suffering, etc...we want judgement.
who can hear of slavery, rape, child abuse, genocide, and not want god to show his anger?
- something god says is right...in the right context
this is ultimately not bad.
god tell us that it is not our role to take judgement... it is his.
that is part of the problem.

another half - does god really judge sin?
since we don't see it, we assume it doesn't happen.
"where is god? is ___ really wrong?"
 
the christians role; we are to warn of that which is to come.
god has communicated to humans; he has also allowed us to be a part of his revelation.

 
heb 10:26-31: passage interpretation
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.
1. willful sin condemns us to hell (v26,27)
a. we're speaking of those who sin "willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth"
remind you of the warning in 6:4-6?
note that again there is a link between the extreme judgement we're looking at and the knowledge preceeding it.
biblical theme: more knowledge means more judgement. see jesus' words in matt 11:20-24 for more on this if you're curious.

b. nothing but pain for those who have willfully rebelled against truth
- no more sacrifice for sins
again, exactly the same as heb 6:4-6
if this path is chosen, no redemption is available; it is a one way street.
- it leads to judgement and punishment.
nasty nasty judgement; "fire which will consume the adversaries"
what's with the fire?
the link between fire and god's final judgement is constant.
isaiah 26:11 speaks of god's fire consuming his enemies (referenced here)
christ describes god's ultimate judgement against his enemies in matt 25:31 as "eternal fire"
rev 20:14,15 speaks of all those whose names are not in the book of life being tossed into the lake of fire
 
god's ultimate judgement seems to be linked to fire.

basic principles here:
a. god judges his enemeies
b. willful rebellion against god pretty clearly qualifies you as god's enemy


c. concerns and questions
what is 'willfully'?
well...it has some extreme element.
we're not talking about things that have volition...
there are sacrifices for robbery in leviticus
david's adultery and murder...not what we're talking about.
we seem to be talking about willful rejection and rebellion.
 
can't quite be more specific...i'm not 100% what the passage means.

might this happen to me?
well...i don't know.
some people believe that this is theory; it could never happen to the christian.
some people believe that christians do this every now and again.
 
the good thinkers on both sides here believe that the warning should be heeded by the believer regardless.
the warning is meant by the author. it should be heeded.

2. old testament basis, current escalation (v28,29)
a. "anyone who has set aside the law of moses dies without mercy"
pulled from a few verses in the OT;
numbers 15:28-31
28. `The priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, making atonement for him that he may be forgiven.
29. `You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them.
30. `But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.
31. `Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.' "
deut 17:2-7
2. "If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the LORD your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, by transgressing His covenant,
3. and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded,
4. and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,
5. then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death.
6. "On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
7. "The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
deut 13:8 tosses in the 'without pity' phrase.

b. judgement in the OT: death and fire; judgement in the NT: fire.
let's acknowledge that this is rough; you get killed for turning away from god?
yup.
to be honest though, that's the least of your problems in that case; we've introduce the idea of spiritual judgement at this point.
 
in the old testament, the idea of keeping god's people on god's side was critical. the judgement here was important to that end, but was less than god's ultimate judgement.
in the new testament, we are not a nation per se; but the real judgement is still in place, and that's what the author wants to remind us of.
 
it's worse in the NT because it goes against greater revelation however.

3. god's vengeance is a thing to fear (v30,31)
a. if we didn't have this yet, the author re-impresses us with the need to fear the judgement of god.
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.

b. fear of the lord?
the phrase "fear of the lord" is often read as 'reverence'.
i have a strong view that the "fear of the lord" includes reverence as well as fear.
 
that means that when proverbs 1:7 says that, "the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom"... we're not just saying respect. we are also speaking of fear of rebelling, fear of angering, etc...
we'll talk about what that looks like in a bit.

what do we do with this?
1. will this happen to any of us? does this happen to christians?
i don't know.
the author of hebrews doesn't seem to think that will happen to his audience.
in 6, after the similar warning, he says he's convinced of better things for his listeners.
here in 10, he reminds them of their confidence before god previously (v19-25) and immediately post (v35-39).

so why give the warning at all?

2. the warning is intended to 'remove the middle'.
a warning given to those who aren't going to do it anyway?
the author is attempting to polarize the crowd.
in seeing the extreme danger of one decision, the reader should realize they need to avoid it completely.
this goal of forcing us to take one side or the other completely is consistent with the prior warnings in hebrews. go back to heb 2:1:
"for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it."

3. response to the warning:
for those in rebellion to god:
humans, sinful and in rebellion to god, are under the wrath of god.
fear of god's vengeance should help you to realize the need be avoid his judgement.
to repent (turn from your sins)
believe in christ, his death in our place and resurrection.
live in submission to god.
in essence, this is a warning; become a christian or else.
for those of us who have already done so:
1. let's recall god's love/forgiveness and our access
right before this passage we were talking about the completeness of god's advocacy, our access to him, etc...

2. recognize that fear
folks...most of us live with fear.
again, this isn't "scary movie oh my gosh" type fear.
what we fear...this is the stuff we're afraid of losing.
wondering how you're doing with the fear of the lord idea? find out what you are afraid of...
- what do you worry most about losing? your happiness? job? marriage? kids?
obviously...that's a big clue on what you're afraid of.
biblically...we should worry most about not losing god's favor.

3. building some good and active fear
how do we hold onto this perspective?
(decide to care) well...you have to decide you want to fear god more than whatever other things you're afraid of.
(pray) ask god to help you see things as they are, to fear him and no other.
(meditation) you should think about these ideas in pattern; remind yourself, find ways to remind yourself, keep it on your mind.

 
motivation: this is self interest
if there is a god who judges his enemies, then it is nothing more than self-interest to be as closely aligned with his pleasure as is possible.

prayer