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Old 05-21-2009, 07:00 AM
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johnlf johnlf is offline
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Columbus, OH
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Originally Posted by biblereader View Post
26: For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
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I think this verse is the most troubling for most believers, new believers especially who ask something like "does this mean if I sin after being saved that I am lost forever?"

No, that is not what this verse is saying. Remember, context, context, context.

First of all, this is the letter to the Hebrews which begins:

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son

Paul, who I believe for a number of reasons penned this letter, begins by telling these Jewish believers that God in the past spoke to us through prophets but now has spoken to us by his Son. Jesus Christ being the incarnate fulfillment of both the law and the prophets. Any Jew who did not accept this was hopelessly lost

In chapter 10 he is specifically addressing the issue of Jews trying to continue in the Old Testament legal sacrifice for sins while ignoring the sacrifice Christ made. First off, those sacrifices never took away sin in the first place or they wouldn't have to have been repeated:


1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

So since they could not take away sins it was necessary to prepare a body:

5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me

That body was the body of the Lord Jesus Christ:

10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And the sacrifice of his body was the perfect sacrifice which forever perfects them who are sanctified by it:

14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Now these sanctified ones have a glorious new way to approach the Father in boldness knowing they are PERFECT in Christ:

19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Knowing this to be true, Paul was admonishing these believers to not "draw back" by denying the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice by going back to the old sacrificial system thinking that it is what saves them:

29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought 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?

38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Hebrews 10
King James Bible

So here is the sin which "if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins". It is the denial of the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ to save. So this verse is not relevant to Gentiles in our day because first of all we are not Jews. Second, We do not practice the sacrificial system being described here. And third, the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. So it is not even possible anymore. That's what all those Jews at the wailing wall are wailing about.

But although this verse does not apply to us today, it is highly instructional because we gentiles have managed to set set up a bunch of priests of our own, and traditions of our own. All of these have one result: the denial of the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice to save us forever and completely!

Won't you rejoice with me today over the wonderful gift we have been given of PERFECTION and COMPLETENESS in CHRIST JESUS?