For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” (Hebrews 10:26-30, NKJV)
We've all felt it - that gut wrenching dread; that chest-thumping, breath-catching anxiety of something bad just about to happen. We may not know exactly what it is, or exactly when it will strike, but we know enough about it to be unable to ignore, deny, or avoid - that fearful expectation.
In reality, that is the state of sinful man all his waking moments. We are born, and live each second, under a devastating and unthinkable sentence of impending judgment.
The people of the world make three mistakes about this reality: they either eat, drink, and live life under the delusion that this judgment is a myth (modern irreligion); or they make foolish attempts to propitiate the Judge through rituals, bargains, bribes, and superficial goodness (classic, prideful self righteousness); or they resign themselves to the inevitability of Hell and act on earth like resident demons.
Each of these groups, if they stay the course, will receive the fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. It is what they deserve, and what will come, and their personal feelings or beliefs about that outcome mean as much as a grain of sand swept up in a tidal wave.
But there is yet another group, worthy of much worse punishment. It is comprised of those who sin willfully after [they] have received the knowledge of the truth, who [have] trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace.
For a professing Christian, the passage above serves as a dire warning. The Book of Hebrews contains more of these than any other single book, and this is fitting, since more than any other single book, Hebrews presents the magnificence, superiority, and extravagant goodness of Christ, our Savior.
The warning is this: once you know the truth, know it both in your head and in your heart, not just intellectually, but experientially as well, and then willfully disregard that truth in the face of all guidance and direction to the contrary, you are without remedy. By your manifest actions, you have already rejected the only cure. For, The LORD will judge His people.”
I strongly suspect, that if, in your deepest heart, you are horribly worried about falling into this state of affairs, you are as far from it as a fallen human being is possible to be.
If whatever secret sin that is plaguing your conscience and robbing your peace has the upper hand for now, by your very misery and tortured ambivalence, you are under the Lord's corrective hand. You may be kicking and screaming at the chastisement and struggle, but a dead man does not kick and scream.
It is those who are convinced of their own good standing, and yet clearly in flagrant disobedience of the truth, who stand on the brink of destruction. It is they who are [trampling] the Son of God underfoot, and are [counting] the blood of the covenant by which [they were] sanctified a common thing.
It strikes me, horribly, that the judgment rendered on the rest of sinful humanity will be a corporate affair in some sense - massive and wholesale, but the judgment, the worse punishment, against those who fall into the category of tramplers will be excruciatingly personal. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
This scares me on behalf of those who are legalistically convinced of their own righteousness. Those who name the name of Christ, and yet deny Him through their actions, will look into His eyes of fire, face to face, it seems to me. And their cavalier and self-centered hypocrisy will be what is warned of in Psalm 2: Pay homage to the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little.
They will fall into the hands of the Living God, who is a consuming fire.
You may argue whether or not the tramplers were once saved, and subsequently lost their salvation, or whether they were ever truly saved. But I think that is a diversion that misses the point of this warning entirely.
And the point is this:
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified. (2 Corinthians 13:5, NKJV).
