The Sin that remains Unpardonable even under the Gospel of Grace

Sunday, 29th April 2007

Just a couple of days ago, I was just blogging about us being careful not to label other churches that exalt Jesus as "cults" because we may unwittingly be advancing the cause of the evil one rather than our Lord.

In that blog entry, I also mentioned the passage in Matt 3:22-29 in which Jesus Himself was being accused of casting out demons by the prince of demons, and how He said that whoever "blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is guilty of an eternal sin".

When Jesus died on the cross 2,000 years ago, He died for all our sins -- past, present and future.

Hebrews 10 expounds on this and starts off with the title "Christ's Sacrifice Once for All".

Verses 11 and 12 paints the stark contrast between the old and new covenants. In the old covenant, the priests had to stand daily to administer his duties. In the new covenant, Jesus our Great High Priest has already offered for all time one sacrifice, so He does not need to stand, but is seated at the right hand of the Father, viz:

11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

In this same chapter, we read the often-quoted passage about the need for fellowship and paroxysm in verses 24 and 25:

24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching

And then, immediately after this passage, we find a warning in verses 26 and 27:

26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

These verses have been quoted out of context to justify the view that even under the new covenant, one's perpetual sinning will deplete God's grace upon him and that person can lose his salvation.

We must remember that these verses must be read in the context of the theme of this chapter, which is "Christ's sacrifice once for all".

So why then did the author of Hebrews include this warning?

This brings us back again to the warning that Jesus Himself gave in Matt 3:29, because one sin remains unpardonable -- the sin of apostasy.

Allow me to quote the following from a sermon by Rev Dieleman entitled "Trampling Jesus Under Foot".

What is apostasy? Apostasy is a life that once professed obedience to Christ but now openly denies Him and lives contrary to His will. The apostate turns his back on the Lord and the things of the Lord. The apostate renounces God's grace and mercy. The apostate rejects the light of the Gospel in favor of the darkness of sin. An apostate is a former believer who has completely fallen away from the Gospel. To all outward appearances the apostate seems to be a true member of the believing church but one day he shows his true colors and forsakes the Lord. About them the Apostle John can say,
(1Jn 2:19) They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

He goes on to give 3 examples of apostates in the Bible: Judas, Demas and Simon the Sorcerer.

Paul had the sad experience of being deserted by his fellow worker Demas, who was lured away "because he loved the world" (2 Tim 4:10).

Simon the Sorcerer, who professed belief and was baptized, was rebuked by Peter as being "full of bitterness and captive to sin" (Acts 8:9ff).

No apostasy is more startling than that of Judas Iscariot: he was one of the Twelve who was blessed with the special privilege of being constantly in the Lord's presence, he enjoyed the warmth of Christ's friendship, he spent many hours listening to Jesus' teachings, he witnessed miracles and all sorts of wonderful works; yet, he sold his heart to Satan and betrayed the Master. Furthermore, the apostate condition of his heart, though known to Jesus, was not even suspected by the rest of the Twelve, to whom it was unthinkable that any of their number could be a traitor (Mk 14:18f).

The sin of apostasy, then, is always a grim possibility within the covenant community. The apostate may be baptized, as was Simon the Sorcerer. He may be occupied in Christian labors, as was Demas. He may be one of the Twelve, as was Judas. He may be a leader in the community. He may be a member of a most upstanding family. He may be a preacher. He may be endowed with charismatic gifts. He may be a healer of the sick. He may have the power to cast out demons. He may have grown up in a Christian home and had the benefit of a Christian education. Yet, his heart is far from the One he professes to serve.

So is there an "unpardonable" sin? Yes, it is apostasy, and that is what the author of Hebrews is referring to in Heb 10:26-27. This interpretation makes it consistent with the theme of that chapter.