Hebrews Chapter 10 Part 2
Hold Fast Our profession of Faith and Those Who Draw Back Into Perdition
Heb 10:23, 24, 25 hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; provoke and exhort one another unto love and good works; and continue meeting with other Christians.
· The our: the writer and the Christian Jews he was writing to.
· The profession of our faith: Romans 5:1, 6:16-17; 8:24
· The holding fast: Rom 5:2-3, Eph 4:14; 1Timothy 4:15-16
· The continue meeting: do not stop going to church
Our responsibility: to provoke and exhort other Christians to love and good works. This can not be met if we do not hold fast to our profession of faith and meet with other Christians.
These verses set the context for verse 26
· Note In V23 we are told to hold fast our profession of faith not to hold fast to our profession. “Holding fast to” our profession could suggest our ability to let it go. While we may live as if we are not saved and show others the salvation we have not as important as it is, we can not let it go. We must hold fast our profession, cling to it, never count it anything less than but our most valuable possession.
V26a For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,
· The we: the writer of Hebrews and the Christian Jews to whom he was writing. They are not apostates or false Christians they have received or have come to the knowledge of the truth. 1Tim 2:4
· The willfully sinning is not holding fast to our profession of faith and will often lead to stop coming to church.
· The first context of this willfully sinning is when Christian Jews, truly save Jews, draw back into Judaism under the burden of the law and lived as before they were saved.
· For Christians today it is just leaving the church to live as they did before they were saved.
V26b there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
· No more sacrifice for sin does not mean there is no hope of forgiveness for the willful sins committed by Christians. We have the hope and promise of 1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
V27a The But: While there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, the but of V27a means there is something that remains.
· V27b-31 What does remains: their state before they were saved and the state of those who have not come to the knowledge of the truth.
· V31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The warning in these verses: do not forget they had once fallen into the hands of the living God without His mercy but now they had escaped the punishment reserved for those who despise the shed blood of Christ.
V32-36 But, while they were to remember their state before they were saved, they also needed remember the persecution they had endured and sacrifices they had since their salvation. Drawing back could make their suffering and sacrifices for Christ seen as vanity.
These Christian Jews were exhorted to be confident of and to patiently wait for the great recompence of reward coming with the return of Christ. Do not draw back into willfully sinning.
V38-39 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, the willfully sinning of V26, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Paul is not saying they will lose their salvation but that he will be disappointed in them. 1Cor 3:15
V39 But who are them who draw back unto perdition? The apostate or false Christian
· 2Thes 1:7-9 defines the perdition And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; See Isa 66:24
· 1Tim 3:1-8; Heb 6:4-6; 2Pet 2:19-22 defines those who draw back to perdition
· Acts 26:28 gives an example of one who drew back into perdition: “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”
· Rom 1:19-32
· Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;