{"id":29040,"date":"2023-12-04T22:00:30","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T05:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hebrews-10_19-25-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-11-29T11:12:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T18:12:21","slug":"hebrews-10_26-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hebrews-10_26-31\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Grace Is Not a Licence to Keep On Sinning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hebrews 10:26-31 <\/strong>\u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Hebrews\u00a010:26-31.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Hebrews 10:26-31 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a026-31:\u00a0\u00a0There are two schools of interpretation that are worth considering when trying to understand this short passage.\u00a0\u00a0The first and perhaps more mainstream way to interpret this passage is that it is basically repeating what\u00a0Hebrews\u00a06:4-6 has already said: that if we receive Jesus as Saviour (\u201creceive the knowledge of the truth\u201d (v26)) but later commit apostasy by rejecting Jesus as our Saviour (\u201cdeliberately keep on sinning\u201d (v26)), we will not be saved and will end up in a Christ-less hell for eternity.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s because we have ultimately rejected the only provision God has made for our sin: Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Another interpretation of this passage is by Bible scholar David L. Allen (David L. Allen,\u00a0The New American Commentary \u2013 Volume 35:\u00a0Hebrews<\/em>. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2010. WORDsearch<\/em>\u00a0CROSS e-book).\u00a0\u00a0Allen\u00a0believes that the sin being referred to here is not rejecting the Christian faith and committing apostasy, but rather deliberately continuing to sin in other ways and thus taking for granted the mercy of God expressed through Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0In other words, whether it\u2019s lying, losing your temper, looking lustfully at others, laziness or other sins, you know it\u2019s wrong but you keep on doing it without repenting.\u00a0\u00a0According to Allen\u2019s interpretation, the fiery punishment described here is not hell, but a more temporary kind of judgment that translates into less rewards in heaven.\u00a0\u00a0Allen likens this situation to the one that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3:15 where every Christian is saved by the blood of Jesus alone but the work that the Christian did on earth, how faithful that Christian was to their God-given calling and purpose, will be judged by God, or as 1 Corinthians 3:15 says, \u201cit will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man\u2019s work.\u00a0\u00a0If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whichever way one interprets this passage, the following lessons are clear:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s grace was never meant to be a licence for licentiousness.\u00a0\u00a0In other words,\u00a0don\u2019t use God\u2019s grace expressed through Jesus Christ as a licence to sin as much as you want.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you do, you may find yourself hardening your heart toward Jesus until you reach a point of no return and reject Christ completely.\u00a0\u00a0God does not want us to take the sacrifice of His Son Jesus for granted.\u00a0\u00a0If we reject Jesus, there is no other sacrifice left to pay for our sins and judgment can be expected (v26-27).<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If a person deserved to die for rejecting the law of Moses (the old covenant), how much more does a person deserve to be punished for rejecting the grace of Jesus (the new covenant), which is so much greater and extends much more grace than the old covenant (v28-29)?<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God is holy and just (v30-31).\u00a0\u00a0Quoting Deuteronomy 32:35-36, the writer of\u00a0Hebrews\u00a0emphasizes that God, being a just God, promises to judge (Deuteronomy 32:35) and repay (Deuteronomy 32:36) every person who does wrong if they do not repent of their sin and look to His Son Jesus for mercy.\u00a0\u00a0When verse 31 says, \u201cIt is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God\u201d, it should remind us that were it not for the amazing grace God showed us in Jesus Christ, we would be frighteningly subject to the terrifying wrath of God against sin.<\/p>\n

God, You are holy and just.\u00a0 May I never take for granted the amazing grace You expressed in Your Son Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Hebrews\u00a010:26-31.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Hebrews 10:26-31 (NIV)
\n26\u00a0\u00a0If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
\n27\u00a0\u00a0but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
\n28\u00a0\u00a0Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a026-31:\u00a0\u00a0There are two schools of interpretation that are worth considering when trying to understand this short passage.\u00a0\u00a0The first and perhaps more mainstream way to interpret this passage is that it is basically repeating what\u00a0Hebrews\u00a06:4-6 has already said: that if we receive Jesus as Saviour (\u201creceive the knowledge of the truth\u201d (v26)) but later commit apostasy by rejecting Jesus as our Saviour (\u201cdeliberately keep on sinning\u201d (v26)), we will not be saved and will end up in a Christ-less hell for eternity.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s because we have ultimately rejected the only provision God has made for our sin: Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29043,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29040\/revisions\/29043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}