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Response
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.” Hebrews 10:26-29 cautions against the sin of apostasy, which is a purposeful turning away or abandonment. Apostates are individuals who approach Christ, almost reaching the point of genuine belief, comprehend and acknowledge the Gospel, and are close to embracing faith, but then reject the teachings and turn away. These are individuals who may even acknowledge their wrongdoing and profess faith. Instead of progressing towards spiritual growth, their interest in Christ wanes, worldly matters become more appealing, and eventually, they lose all inclination towards godly things and turn away. The Lord illustrated these individuals in the second and third types of soil in Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23. They are those who initially “receive the message with joy,” but are led astray by worldly concerns or discouraged by challenges encountered due to their faith.
The term “willful sinning” in this context implies a conscious and intentional rejection of Christ. To be familiar with God’s ways, to hear them preached, to study them, to consider oneself part of the faithful, and then to turn away is to become an apostate. Willful sinning suggests a pattern of continuous and intentional sinning. Such an individual does not sin out of ignorance, nor is swayed by fleeting temptations that they are too weak to resist. The willful sinner sins due to a firmly established mindset and behavior that they are unwilling to relinquish. Conversely, a genuine believer may stumble into sin and temporarily lose fellowship with God. However, they will ultimately return to God in repentance because their heavenly Father will persistently draw and convict them until they cannot resist any longer. The true apostate will persist in sinning, deliberately and willingly.
Gly and with abandon. John tells us that “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” «Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. », (1 John 3:9).
Apostates have knowledge, but no application of that knowledge. They can be found in the presence of the light of Christ, mostly in the church, among God’s people. Judas Iscariot is the perfect example—he had knowledge but he lacked true faith. No other rejecter of the truth had more or better exposure to the love and grace of God than Judas. He was part of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples, eating, sleeping, and traveling with Him for years. He saw the miracles and heard the words of God from Jesus’ very lips, from the best preacher the world has ever known, and yet he not only turned away but was instrumental in the plot to kill Jesus.
Having turned his back on the truth, and with full knowledge choosing to willfully and continually sin, the apostate is then beyond salvation because he has rejected the one true sacrifice for sins: the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ’s sacrifice is rejected, then all hope of salvation is gone. To turn away willfully from this sacrifice leaves no sacrifice; it leaves only sin, the penalty for which is eternal death. This passage is not speaking of a believer who falls away, but rather someone who may claim to be a believer, but truly is not. Anyone who apostatizes is proving he never had genuine faith to begin with «They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt 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).
