Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus ”‹”” ”‹he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh ) ”‹and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? -- Hebrews 10:19-29 (CSB)
I presume all know this passage well. I want to point out one thing from it though that struck me as vital.
In the last days, we know that our faith in the promise of God for eternal life in Jesus will get tested and our faithfulness to God's will commanding love and good works will be likewise severely tested.
To inherit what has been promised, we must have endurance in these things, that is, faith in the promise bought with the precious blood and the precious suffering of Jesus, the beloved Son, and the love and good works bought by that precious blood and precious suffering and the work of the indwelling Spirit bought by that precious blood and precious suffering.
The failure to so endure has severe consequences. Why ?
This passage says it is because our faithlessness is a deliberate sin because we know the truth but fail to walk in it to the end. That is what the passage says. But the greater reason for the severity of the consequence is that a deliberate lack of faithfulness and endurance in love and good works even in the face of severe trial and opposition is that God considers it a:
1. trampling of His Beloved Son,
2. profaning of the blood of the new covenant in His Son (
cleansing, new heart and filling of the Spirit), and
3. insulting of the Holy Spirit of Grace,
Not a small infraction. Not a good plan or course of Christian life.
The passage speaks to the critical need for endurance of the saints. This endurance in faith in Jesus and love and good works is achieved by, 1) prayer to "not back down" or draw back in these two things, 2). the gathering of the saints to encourage one another to press on in these things and, 3) a fear of the Lord by heeding this warning and honoring and not profaning the Son and the consequences of failure to heed and act.
I know very few people who pray and gather with a goal of direct fearful obedience in this way according to the kind of simple and acceptable faith of Noah who believed God's warning (Hebrews 11 immediately following this Hebrews 10 passage) .
Further, I know very few Christians who affirm with zeal that deliberate sinning is defined by God to be knowing the good you are to do yet not doing it and the deliberate sin of not praying, gathering and provoking as the means for enduring in that good.
It is a fearful thing for the believer who ran for years the race but did not endure in faith and love and good works until the end because they failed to employ the means of prayer and mutual encouragement to one another to so endure.
The throne of grace for this kind of critical help from God to endure and the help of the encouragement of the saints to endure is available, is necessary, is commanded and is critical. One rightly assumes that without using these means, failure is certain.
This help, prayer and brotherly love specifically unto endurance to the end of the race, was secured by Jesus, his new covenant in His blood and the supply of the Holy Spirit. Thus, no excuses either for, shrinking back, falling away or for not using prayer and encouragement (His designed means) to get all the saints to the finish line. Falling away is defined in the passage as shrinking back from trusting solely in Jesus and/or drawing back from your calling unto love and good works.
Failure in this is deliberate sin both in the not doing and in the not using the means God makes available because of Jesus suffering for it.
Next time we pray or meet as a body in small or large number, remember that it is an opportunity and a sacred moment and pregnant with hope or consequence.
It is a moment when we can trample the Son of God, profane the blood or insult the Holy Spirit or a moment to honor Jesus, His Blood and the Spirit as worthy through Godly fear, prayer for endurance and help and the provoking of one another to endurance in love.
Prayer time, gathering time and the words we speak and the example we give to one another is sacred and consequential.