Sovereign Grace Church

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

(HEBREWS 10:26-27)

In order to a right apprehension of this passage, let it be first considered, that the Apostle is here writing to the Church of the Hebrews; that is, to persons who were brought up in all the prejudices of Jewish ideas, and of consequence had been in the habit of observing all the sacrifices of the law. When, therefore, by regeneration, they were gathered to the Lord, and had learnt the blessed truth, that Christ, by the one offering of himself, once offered, had forever perfected them that are sanctified; a firmness of faith in this one all-sufficient offering, ought to have kept them from having the least disposition to return to any of the sacrifices of the law. Nevertheless, as in this Church of Christ, made up of true believers, there were with them, as there is with us now, a visible professing Church also, of men unregenerated; the weak and fearful of God’s people among them were tempted by such characters to suppose, that there could be no harm in observing the sacrifices of the law, and still look to Christ. To prevent this, and to shew the danger of such conduct, the Apostle solemnly points out that such a willful perversion of the truth, in looking to the shadow, now the substance was come, became virtually a denial of the full and complete sacrifice of Christ for sin; and therefore there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. I am inclined to think that this was the case in this church of the Hebrews; and that this was the object had in view in this Scripture. We know that it was so with the Church of Galatia, which was composed of a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. And we know that in our own day, too many there are, who mingle law and Gospel, and but few, comparatively speaking, who live wholly upon Christ, as the sole cause of justification before God.