What is meant by "there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10.26)?
Answer:
"If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10.26). What is meant by "no
more a sacrifice for sins"? Some people will say: "If I sin willfully after I
have known the truth, I will not be saved. It is true that God has caused His
Son to bear my sins and die for me that I might be saved through believing in
His Son; but if I sin willfully, then according to Hebrews 10.26 there does not
remain anymore sacrifice for sins, and consequently I will not be saved.
Furthermore, the next verse states that there remains ‘a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the
adversaries’ (v.27). So if I sin willfully, I can only wait for two
things: one is judgment, the other is the fire which shall devour the
adversaries, which is hell or perdition." In the view of these people this
passage of the Scriptures is directed at Christians; so that if a Christian sins
willfully he cannot be saved. Let us now see whether "if we sin wilfully" has
reference to Christians or to another class of people. We shall also want to see
if "sin wilfully" points to ordinary sin or rather to
some specific sin.
According to the statement of the Bible, those people who "sin wilfully
after that [they] have received the knowledge of the truth" have "a certain
fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the
adversaries". Therefore, these cannot be that class of persons, mentioned in
Hebrews 6, "who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift". The
"truth" mentioned here is that truth spoken of in the first part of Hebrews 10,
which is the redemption accomplished once and for all by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Such people know of the death of the Lord Jesus, of His shed
blood and broken body. They even know that they can enter the holy place boldly
through the blood of the Lord Jesus and be accepted by God, and that the
sacrifice for sins has been offered once and for all, so that the work of
redemption is forever completed. Now if these people should sin willfully after
they have had such knowledge of the truth as this, then there remains no more a
sacrifice for sins.
We need to see that if the above verses could be applied to a Christian, that
is, if a Christian is tempted to lie and steal, to frequent places he ought not
to go, or do things he knows he should not do, and is thereby considered as
sinning willfully and is therefore not saved, who then shall be saved?
Even Paul and Peter would probably not qualify for being saved! Has not Paul the
believer confessed: "For not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate,
that I do. . . . For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would
not, that I practise. . . . Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of
the body of this death?" (Rom. 7.15,19,24) Does not Paul practice the evil he
knows he should not do and does not do the good he knows he should do? And has
not the believing Peter denied the Lord thrice before a maid? Does he not know
that he is lying and that lying is sin? From all this we can know that the
phrase "sin wilfully" must mean something special [refusing new
birth] and not just committing a sin that one knows.
Yet this can be proven even in another way. To do so, we need to read the text
of this Scripture passage all in one breath from verse 26 through 29:
For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation
of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man
that hath set at nought Moses’ law dieth without compassion on the word of two
or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged
worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of grace?*
* "Think how much more terrible the punishment will be
for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the
covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged
the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to his people" (v.29 NLT). The New
Living Translation leaves out "sanctified" as it could create confusion, since
many seem to confuse God's sanctifying work as indicating these people are
saved. There is a sanctifying work, in which you can outwardly seem like you are
in Christ, come so close to God, but inwardly not regenerated. This is the
experience of many who call themselves ex-Christians. This was my experience
too. Ten years before being saved, a miracle happened to me. At that time
following the miracle, I recited by prompting the gospel message and thought I
believed which lasted for thirty days. However, I lost the feeling and belief in
Christ, and for 10 years never gave Christ a single thought until one day in
January, 2001, I was once-saved-always-saved, forgiven, truly born-again, and
realizing for real all things sum up in Christ. Actually, it is impossible to be
an ex-Christian, for he was never born-again to begin with, but "he was
sanctified." Wherewith he was sanctified--for
Christ died even for him. "Sanctified," in the fullest sense, belongs only to
the saved elect. But in some sense it belongs also to those who come so close,
yet steer away. And in the broadest sense, Jesus died for us all.
Calvinists tend to take the stance they came so close, but turned away. Those without comfort, who think they can
lose salvation, refer to this verse as those who were born-again, but lost their
salvation. Others, like myself, refer to this verse as us all being
sanctified by what Jesus did (but "sanctified" is not in the earliest texts),
offering a once-for-all sacrifice and salvation to us all, and those who are
saved won't lose eternal life, but will lose our joy if we "throw
away...confidence, which has a great reward (v.35). - Troy brooks
Either of the person, the apostate himself, who was sanctified or separated from
others by a visible profession of religion; having given himself up to a church,
to walk with it in the ordinances of the Gospel; and having submitted to
baptism, and partook of the Lord's supper, and drank of the cup, "the blood of
the New Testament", or "covenant": though he did not spiritually discern the
body and blood of Christ in the ordinance, but counted the bread and wine, the
symbols of them, as common things; or who professed himself, and was looked upon
by others, to be truly sanctified by the Spirit, and to be justified by the
blood of Christ, though he was not really so: or rather the Son of God himself
is meant, who was sanctified, set apart, hallowed, and consecrated, as Aaron and
his sons were sanctified by the sacrifices of slain beasts, to minister in the
priest's office: so Christ, when he had offered himself, and shed his precious
blood, by which the covenant of grace was ratified, by the same blood he was
brought again from the dead, and declared to be the Son of God with power; and
being set down at God's right hand, he ever lives to make intercession, which is
the other part of his priestly office he is sanctified by his own blood
to accomplish. This clause, "wherewith he was sanctified", is left out
in the Alexandrian copy." - John Gill's Exposition.
If anyone should tread under foot the Son of God, despise His
redeeming blood, and resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit, he will surely go
to hell. What is meant by "hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath
counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace"? It means that when the Holy
Spirit moves in a person’s heart with grace by showing his sins and the
salvation which the Son of God has accomplished, by causing him to know how
efficacious is this precious Blood to forgive sins, and by persuading him to
immediately accept this Blood for the cleansing of all his sins, that person in
response resists the request and conviction of the Holy Spirit, loves his sins
and uncleanness, and considers the precious blood of the Lord Jesus as
insignificant. He may muse within himself as follows: "To listen is one thing,
but to believe is too much. I have sinned, but I will continue to commit these
my former sins. What do I care if the Son of God loved me and gave himself for
me?" By so doing, he is condemning himself to hell because he has trodden under
foot the precious Blood. - Full of Grace and Truth I: Volume 1, Watchman Nee
What is really meant by "sin wilfully" in verse 26? It points to the three
things in verse 29; namely, (1) trodden underfoot the Son of God, (2) counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified as an unholy thing, and
(3) done despite to the Spirit of grace. In sum, it means to reject the
gospel of salvation. He has heard the word of God which states that
Jesus is the Son of God, yet he answers by saying that Jesus is a bastard. He
has heard God’s word which says that Jesus has shed His blood for the remission
of sins and that His blood is most precious—even as the blood of a pure spotless
lamb [to sanctify-to make holy], but he replies by saying that the death of
Jesus is a martyr’s death and that the blood Jesus shed is common just like
anybody else’s. He has heard the word of God which says that the Holy Spirit
brings repentance and gives eternal life, nevertheless he retorts by declaring
that he does not believe God will impart to him what Jesus has
accomplished nor does he believe in new birth. Because of this kind of reaction,
the Bible’s word is that there remains to him no more sacrifice for sins.
What is meant by "there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins"? "No more"
indicates that there once was. We must pay particular attention to this word
"more". In this connection please note the following passages of the Scriptures:
"Who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first
for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people: for this he did once
for all, when he offered up himself" (Heb. 7.27).
"Nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood,
entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption" (Heb. 9.12).
"Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth
into the holy place year by year with blood not his own; else must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end
of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
. . . So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many .
. ." (Heb. 9.25-28).
"Else would they not have ceased to be offered? because the worshippers, having
been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins" (Heb.
10.2).
"By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christonce for all. And every priest indeed standeth
day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the
which can never take away sins: but he, when he had offered one sacrifice
for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10.10-12).
Why do all the above passages indicate that the Lord Jesus has not offered
himself many times but only once? It is because, beginning from Chapter 7, the
book of Hebrews dwells on the comparison between the sacrifice which the Lord
Jesus has offered and the sacrifices offered in the Old Testament period. The
Lord Jesus Christ has offered himself only once and has forever accomplished
eternal redemption; whereas the sacrifices mentioned in the Old Testament were
in the form of bulls and goats which were offered year by year. Individually
speaking, anyone living in the dispensation of the Old Testament had to bring
and offer a bullock or a goat or a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons as a
sin-offering each time he sinned. Corporately speaking, the whole congregation
of Israel had to offer yearly, on the day of atonement, the sin-offering.
Why must they offer bulls and goats as sacrifices year after year? Because the
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. People had to offer
sacrifice for the sins of this year as well as the sins of last year. Only Jesus
Christ through the eternal Spirit has offered himself to God, and by so
doing has obtained eternal redemption so that He has perfected forever
us who are sanctified (Heb. 9.14,12; 10.14).
Consequently, Hebrews 10 follows this up by saying that anyone who has heard the
truth and yet has sinned willfully has rejected the Holy Spirit as well as the
blood of the Son of God. For such a person who has despised the Son of God there
remains no more sacrifice for sins. For people in the Old Testament time, if
they missed the opportunity for atonement one year they still might have it the
following year. But today, if any man should reject Jesus Christ, there does not
remain anymore sacrifice for sins, since even the sin-offering of the Old
Testament dispensation has passed and is therefore no longer effective. Whoever
has the knowledge of the truth but rejects it has no more sacrifice for sins
available to him. For "in none other is there salvation" (Acts 4.12). God had
done His uttermost when He sent the Lord Jesus Christ to this world to
accomplish the work of redemption so that we might be saved. There is therefore
nothing more He can add. Accordingly, the Bible tells us that if any man should
sin willfully, that is, reject the gospel which he has heard and known, it is
finished and done with for him. His end is nothing but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the
adversaries.
Hebrews 6.1-8 says that the end of the class of people therein mentioned is
"nigh to a curse"; but Hebrews 10.26-29 says that the result for its group of
people is to be burned with the "fire which shall devour the adversaries"; how
then can this latter group ever point to Christians? This passage can mean none
but those who have knowingly rejected the gospel, therefore there is no other
salvation. Otherwise, why should the word "more" be used in saying "there
remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins"? Why should the word "once" be used
repeatedly in the preceding verses? By joining these words within their context,
we can easily discern the meaning of the words "there remaineth no more a
sacrifice for sins".