A severe warning aimed to stimulate love and good deeds

The encouragement today is somewhat negative and severe, but it has the same aim as the previous verses, namely to stimulate love and good works for the glory of God. Hebrews 10:26-27 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire that will consume the adversaries. Before we can understand verses 26-31, we need to consider what the author has already said. The sin he warned his readers about was unbelief. “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God” (3:13). And again in 3:19, “So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” He told them of a promised rest from God that has been provided in Jesus Christ as their high priest. That rest is the throne of grace, where Jesus had entered in with His blood to redeem them and bring them to God. Since they had a great high priest who could sympathize with their weaknesses and who had been tempted as they had been, he encouraged them to continually draw near to the throne of grace where Jesus sits as their intercessor and source of mercy and grace. In chapter 5, he showed them how Jesus received suffering well, drew near to His Father for grace, and did good rather than evil. He told them the mature have been trained by practice in suffering to discern good and evil.  In light of what God has done through Jesus for His people, to not draw near to God for help is a willful sin. He has loved us by perfecting us in Christ, once and for all, and He has provided His grace to us. The only reason for not drawing near to receive grace to trust God and love with Jesus can only be because we don’t believe what God has said and done. If we have received the truth that Jesus’ sacrifice for sins has satisfied God’s justice and have the testimony of the Holy Spirit before us, then our sin is willful rather than ignorant. The one who willfully refuses to draw near to God for grace to trust and love has rejected Jesus Himself. God has provided no other sacrifices since Jesus’ sacrifice finished the work. All that remains for such an adversary of Jesus and righteousness is a terrifying expectation of judgment. God’s judgment will rage against His adversaries like the fury of a fire that consumes everything in its path.  Notice the “for” at the beginning of verse 26. That connects these thoughts to the previous admonition to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. This very serious warning was given in love as a powerful stimulant for those who were drifting away, abandoning the call to live to love with Jesus. It was a call to repent of willfully rejecting Jesus and His call to love while they still had time to be fruitful. I close today’s encouragement with this thought. We are going to be consumed—one way or another. Either we will be consumed by the love of God or by the fury of God’s fiery judgment. If you know God has provided His Son to live for you and you reject His grace because you want to live for yourself, you sin willfully. There’s no hope in rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice and provision of grace. Please repent today. But if you hold fast to the confession of your hope in Christ, you will not be disappointed when you finish your race and stand in the judgment. His blood will cover all your sin, and His righteousness will have been the fountain of your love and good works. God will be glorified either way, but your experience of His glory is determined by your intentional obedience to the truth.