{"id":5983,"date":"2019-10-27T20:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T03:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=5983"},"modified":"2019-10-27T17:40:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T00:40:17","slug":"hebrew10_26-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hebrew10_26-31\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Grace Is Not a Licence to Keep On Sinning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hebrews 10:26-31 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Hebrews 10:26-31.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Hebrews 10:26-27 (NIV)\u00a0<\/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.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 26-31:\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 to say that it is basically repeating what Hebrews 6:4-6 has already said: that 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 by doing this we have 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: Hebrews<\/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\u00a03:15\u00a0where 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\u00a03:15\u00a0says, \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

    \n
  1. God\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<\/strong>\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).<\/li>\n
  2. If a person deserved to die for rejecting the law of Moses (the old covenant), how much more does a person deserve death for rejecting the grace of Jesus (the new covenant).\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s because Christ\u2019s new covenant is so much greater and so much more gracious to us than the old covenant established by Moses (v28-29).<\/li>\n
  3. God loves justice and is committed to upholding justice.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Quoting Deuteronomy 32:35-36, the writer of Hebrews emphasizes 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.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Just and holy Father, 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<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

    Today\u2019s passage is Hebrews 10:26-31.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

    Hebrews 10:26-27 (NIV)\u00a0
    \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.<\/p>\n

    On verses 26-31:\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 to say that it is basically repeating what Hebrews 6:4-6 has already said: that 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 by doing this we have 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: Hebrews. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2010. WORDsearch\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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5983","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\/5983","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=5983"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6014,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5983\/revisions\/6014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}