Eternal Security: Heb 10:26-32 The willful sin in verse 26 refers not to sin in general, but to one particular sin which is described in the rest of the passage. The Bible plainly teaches us that Christians do sin after they are saved (1 John 1:8-10; 2:1-2). There is no sinless perfection in the Christian life. Our perfection and righteousness is in Jesus Christ positionally (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). The sin for which there is no forgiveness is the sin of “counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing.” This means to deny that salvation is by Christ’s blood and grace alone. In the immediate context to which the book of Hebrews was addressed, it refers to the Jews who professed confidence in Christ; but, because of pressure and persecution, returned to their dead religion and thus gave up confidence in Christ. False religion, both then and now, attempts either to replace Christ’s salvation with a manmade system, or to add to Christ’s salvation a manmade system. Catholicism is an example of the latter. It preaches Christ, but it intermingles its own sacraments and priesthood and sainthood with the grace of Christ. This is a false gospel which robs Christ of His glory as the sole Saviour and Mediator. If Christ is not Saviour wholly and exclusively, He is not Saviour at all. If grace is intermingled in any sense with works, the Gospel is perverted, and there is no salvation in a perverted gospel (Rom. 11:6; Gal. 1:6-9). Heb. 10:38-39 help clarify the teaching of the passage. The writer of Hebrews concludes this section by affirming that those who have genuine saving faith will persevere in that faith and those who draw back are those who do not have genuine faith. But what about the statement in Heb. 10:29 that says the individual “was sanctified”? Some claim that this must mean that the person was actually saved and then loses his salvation when he turns from Christ. It is crucial to understand that Bible words must be defined by their context. The method of false teachers is to give one definition to a Bible word and then to force that definition into all passages. This is the wrong method. The correct method is to allow the context to define the word, and when we do this we see that Bible words have different meanings in different contexts. That is how we define words in daily life. The word “run” can mean to run or it can mean to walk or even to drive depending on the context in which it is used. If I say, “I have to run downtown for a few minutes,” that probably means that I will be driving my car and not actually and physically running. Likewise, the Bible term “sanctify” does not always refer to salvation. The basic meaning of the word is “to set apart.” In 1 Pet. 3:15 the child of God is commanded to “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you...” This means to set the Lord and the things of the Lord apart in one’s thoughts so that they are not crowded out by the things of the world. 1 Cor. 7:14 says “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband...” This does not mean that the unbelieving husband or wife is saved. It means that they are set apart from other unbelievers in certain ways. If an unbeliever is married to a believer, that unbeliever hears the gospel more often, sees it lived out more clearly than other unbelievers. An unbelieving husband who is married to a believing wife also participates in the blessings that God pours out on that believer. In that sense, the unbelieving husband or wife is “sanctified.” Thus the word “sanctify” does not always refer to salvation. In Heb. 10:29 “sanctify” is not describing a person who is saved but a person who has come close to being saved, who has been sanctified in the sense of having come apart from the things of the world and having looked closely upon the things of Christ and having become a member of a church. A person can do all of this without being born again. We see a similar thing in 2 Pet. 2:20, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” The people described in this verse escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ, but they aren’t saved and in 2Pet.2:21-22 we see that they never were saved. The reason that they turn back to the world is because they were not born again and their nature was not changed (2 Cor. 5:17). A pig goes back to the mire because she is a pig. If the pig could receive a new nature it would no longer desire to go back to the mire. When a person is truly born again through repentance and faith his desires are changed and though he is still a sinner he no longer wants to live in sin as he did before he was saved. “There is an expression used in these verses that may still perplex and bewilder those who have not apprehended that profession is one thing, and possession another. … He who is sanctified by the one offering of Christ upon the cross, that is, by His precious blood, is perfected forever (Heb. 10:10,14-19). But in this passage it is equally plain that one who counts the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, shall be forever lost. In order not to miss the true force of this for our souls, it is necessary that we give some attention to what we have already designated “positional sanctification.” Of old all the people of Israel, and all who were associated with them, were set apart to God both on the night of the passover and afterwards in the wilderness. But this did not necessarily imply a work of the Spirit in their souls. Many were doubtless in the blood-sprinkled houses that solemn night, when the destroying angel passed through to smite the unsheltered first-born, who had no real faith in God. Yet they were by the blood of the Lamb put in a place of blessing, a position where they shared in many hallowed privileges. So afterward with those who were under the cloud and passed through the sea, being baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All were in the same position. All shared the same outward blessings. But the wilderness was the place of testing, and soon proved who were real and who were not. At the present time God has no special nation, to be allied to which is to come into a position of outward nearness to Him. But He has a people who have been redeemed to Himself out of all kindreds and tongues and peoples and nations, by the precious blood of the Lamb of God. All who ally themselves by profession with that company are outwardly among the blood-sheltered: in this sense they are sanctified by the blood of the covenant. That blood stands for Christianity, which in its very essence is the proclamation of salvation through Christ’s atoning death. To take the Christian place therefore is like entering the blood-sprinkled house. ALL WHO ARE REAL, WHO HAVE JUDGED THEMSELVES BEFORE GOD, AND TRULY CONFIDED IN HIS GRACE, WILL REMAIN IN THAT HOUSE. IF THEY GO OUT, IT PROVES THEIR UNREALITY, and such can find no other sacrifice for sins; for all the typical offerings are done away in Christ. These are they of whom the apostle John speaks so solemnly: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:19). These unreal ones were positionally sanctified; but as they were ever bereft of faith in the soul, they “went out,” and thus did despite to the Spirit of grace, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing. These sin wilfully, not in the sense of failing to walk uprightly merely, but as utterly abjuring, or apostatizing from, Christianity, after having become conversant with the glorious message it brings to lost men” Wow a lot of writing, I hope this explains about eternal security. Just a thought ~ D
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 19:50:21 +0000
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