Hebrews: Christ or Judgment
Hebrews 10:26-31 - Caution! This is a binary choice in life - Christ or judgment. There is no third alternative.
“For if we go on sinning willfully 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 which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Hebrews 10:26-31 NASB1995
After a fairly pleasant exhortation to tell others the good news, love others, do good and gather together, the author of Hebrews delivers a much more somber and chilling message in this passage. Hebrews 10:26-31 is probably not on the top list of sermon topics for most churches, I would guess, but the message is essential to those who are wavering in their faith and even those who aren’t. This might be fairly lengthy, so be advised.
So what does it mean to sin “willfully” after having knowledge of the truth of Christ’s sacrifice for sins? Let’s do a word study from the Blue Letter Bible lexicon:
Willfully comes from the Greek adverb ἑκουσίως or heinous (Strong’s G1596), with the following Biblical usages:
voluntarily, willingly, of one’s own accord
to sin willfully as opposed to sins committed inconsiderately, and from ignorance or from weakness
Recently, a famous Christian author, editor and lecturer (I won’t name him here as this is not a gossip page and we are all sinners with logs in our own eyes) came forward and confessed that he had carried on an eight-year affair with another married woman. He has been married to his wife for over 55 years. He resigned from his writing and editing functions and is now asking his fans and God to forgive him. I read several of his books a number of years ago after coming to faith, finding them to be beautiful introductions of the ideas of grace and prayer, among many topics. He sinned willfully for eight years, committing adultery over and over again while publicly espousing a Christian faith. He is not the first noted Christian leader to stumble so dramatically and he will not be the last. His repentance and forgiveness is between him and God, but I doubt I will read any more of his books. Perhaps he can point to David and his sins as a hopeful sign of God’s forgiveness.
In a sense, all of us are guilty of willful sinning. We know it’s wrong to curse and gesture with certain digits at a bad driver. We know it’s wrong to drink until we are tipsy or drunk. We know it’s wrong to tell the boss at work a white lie to cover for an absence. We know it’s wrong to look with lust at an attractive athlete or actor. God doesn’t care about the relative size of the sin (“well, I’m not murdering anyone or robbing banks”), He cares about sin, period. As believers, we can backslide and commit sins of ignorance and weakness, too. But don’t fear that you are truly lost, because this passage can be quite troubling for believers. However, if we forsake our fellow Christians and His Word, then that sets us up for forsaking God. I like this list of twenty reasons not to sin that was found on Precept Austin:
TWENTY REASONS NOT TO SIN! - Just for “fun” take a moment to review the following list of 20 reasons not to commit sins (hamartano)…
1. A little sin leads to more sin. (2 Pe 2:18-19, Pr 5:22)
2. Sin invites the discipline of God. (Heb 12:5-11)
3. The time spent in my sin is forever wasted. (Eph 5:16)
4. My sin never pleases but always grieves the God Who loves me. (Ge 39:9, Ezek 6:9, Eph 4:30)
5. My sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders. (Heb 13:17)
6. In time, sin always brings heaviness to my heart. (Ps 32:4)
7. Others, including my family, suffer consequences due to my sin. (2 Sa 12:10)
8. My sin makes the enemies of God rejoice. (Jdg 16:25-27, Ps 35:15, Ps 69:12)
9. Sin deceives me into believing I have gained when in reality I have lost. (Heb 3:13, Heb 11:25)
10. Sin may keep me from qualifying for spiritual leadership. (1 Ti 3:2, 10)
11. The supposed benefits of sin will never outweigh the consequences of disobedience. (Heb 11:25)
12. Repenting of sin is a painful process. (2 Cor 7:9-11)
13. My sin may influence others to sin. (cf 1 Cor 5:9-13)
14. My sin may keep others from knowing Christ. (cf 2 Pe 2:18)
15. Sin makes light of the Cross, upon which Christ died for the very purpose of taking away my sin. (Heb 10:29)
16. It is impossible to sin and follow the Spirit at the same time. (1 Th 5:19, Eph 4:30, Jdg 16:19,20)
17. Others more earnest than I have been destroyed by just such sins. (Jdg 16:28-31)
18. God chooses not to hear the prayers of those who cherish their sin (Ps 66:18, Pr 15:8, 29, Pr 21:13, Pr 28:9, Isa 1:15, Jn 9:31, Jas 4:3).
19. My unwillingness to reject this sin now grants it authority over me greater than I understand. (Pr 5:22, Eccl 7:26)
20. I promised God He would be the Lord of my life. (Ro 10:9-10) (Source unknown)
Sin will take you farther than you ever thought you’d stray
Sin will leave you so lost, you think you’ll never find your way
Sin will keep you longer than you ever thought you’d stay
Sin will cost you more than you ever thought you’d pay
One other commentator in this section of Precept Austin said that sin makes you stupid!!
A lot of the commentary I read for this very, very challenging passage believes the author, when discussing willful sinning when the truth is known, are people that are following the path of apostasy. The wobbly Jewish believers who are the targeted audience are thinking about bailing out and going back to their Old Covenant beliefs; this would be a form or apostasy because they are trampling the Son of God underfoot, regarding the blood of the covenant as unclean, and insulting the spirit of grace. I’ve explored this topic before when describing our faith journey (alleged faith in our youth, falling/turning away, returning/finding faith of a sort, and now reaching a more robust understanding of our beliefs). Here’s what Gotquestions.org defines as apostasy and how to recognize it (the full article is worth reading; these are key excerpts);
Apostasy, from the Greek word apostasia, means “a total desertion of, or departure from, one’s faith, principles, or party”; in theology, “a total abandonment of the Christian faith” (The Century Dictionary, vol. I, p. 265). It is a turning away from God, a rejection of core doctrine, and a separation from the people of God. The apostles addressed apostasy in the early church, and the battle against apostasy has continued through the years. Today, sadly, some still choose to totally abandon their Christian faith.
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Christians should understand how to recognize apostasy and apostate teachers, and they should consider apostate teaching to be spiritually dangerous.…
Apostasy comes in two forms. One is a falling away from key biblical doctrines into heretical teachings that claim to be the “real” Christian doctrine. The second is a complete renunciation of the Christian faith, which results in a full abandonment of Christ.
The second form of apostasy often begins with the first. A heretical belief takes root and grows until it pollutes all aspects of a person’s faith, and that can lead to a complete abandonment of Christianity.
In 2010, Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola published a study called “Preachers Who Are Not Believers.” Dennett and LaScola’s work chronicled five different preachers who over time were presented with and accepted heretical teachings and now have completely departed from the faith (Evolutionary Psychology, Vol. 8(1), 2010). These pastors ended up being either pantheists or clandestine atheists. One of the most disturbing findings of the study is that these preachers maintained their pastoral positions. They led their churches, but their congregations were unaware of the true spiritual state of the preacher in the pulpit. [see after the excerpt for a link to this article].
A. W. Tozer wrote, “So skilled is error at imitating truth, that the two are constantly being mistaken for each another. It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain and which is Abel” (That Incredible Christian, Bailey, A., ed., Moody, 2008, ch. 14, p. 53). The discerning believer—and we all must be discerning—can spot doctrines that depart from the truth.
A crucial doctrine that cannot be compromised concerns the person and work of Jesus Christ: “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). In other words, Jesus Christ and His work of redemption are of utmost importance; anyone who denies Jesus’ deity or humanity or who downplays Jesus’ sacrificial death is teaching falsehood.…
Jude [the half-brother of Jesus and author of the short epistle] highlights the reason we must contend for the faith: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4, ESV). In this one verse, Jude reveals three traits of apostate teachers:
1. Apostates are subtle in their approach. They have “secretly slipped in” to infiltrate the church. The Greek word literally means “slipped in sideways; came in stealthily; sneaked in.” Compare this with Paul’s description of false apostles as “deceitful” men who “masquerade as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). It is rare that apostasy begins in an overt and easily detectable manner; instead, it starts as a small, seemingly insignificant alteration of the truth.
2. Apostates are ungodly in their actions. They commit immorality and justify it by claiming to be under the grace of God. Jude points out that this is a perversion of grace; no Christian has a license to sin. In addition to their immorality, the apostates are guilty of rebellion (verse 8), grumbling and faultfinding (verse 16), selfishness, arrogance, and flattery (verse 16), and divisiveness and worldliness (verse 19).
3. Apostates are heretical in their theology. They “deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Either in what they say or what they do, the apostates reject Christ. They might deny His deity, His humanity, or His eternal sonship. They might oppose the teaching that Jesus is the Messiah or the only Savior. They might downplay the effectiveness of Jesus’ sacrifice or deny the need for it.A person who falls away from the truth of God’s Word and His righteousness will eventually show his or her true colors. Apostates are adept at covering up the truth and showing a false front, but they cannot maintain the ruse forever. The apostle John says about apostates, “These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us” (1 John 2:19, NLT).
The study by Evolutionary Psychology referenced in this Gotquestions.org article is at this link: Sage Publications. It is quite lengthy but definitely worth reading. The examples could be people who were pastoral leaders at the ELCA church we attended. We had bishops and senior pastors tell us the Bible was a pleasant collection of unconnected stories written by humans (no mention of Godly inspiration) or that science has overcome the simple-minded mythology of the creation or the virgin birth and belief is really a way of becoming a social justice warrior for pet political causes. All five examples in the article at Sage Publications are pastors in extremely liberal churches who sanctioned and promoted ideals that are decidedly unbiblical; this eventually led to their closeted atheism and/or pantheism, while still pretending to be Christian. God’s word is too hard to believe, for so many. They prefer to walk a dark path.
The author of Hebrews describes those who died without mercy if they had fallen away from the law of Moses. Here is verse 29, repeated again from this passage: How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? One commentary I read said that there are four types of people occupying seats at your church:
Genuine believers who are confident in their salvation through Christ.
Genuine believers who have doubts and are concerned about their salvation.
Those who think they are Christians but they are not.
Those who do not believe at all.
Precept Austin has long sections of commentary from different sources that believe that this applies to items 3 or perhaps 4 above, while there are some who believe that verse 29 can apply to unconfident believers. I think this commentary from a sermon from Steven Cole, quoted in that same Precept Austin link, helps define the three actions taken by an apostate:
He [the author of Hebrews] describes such apostates by three phrases.
(1) First, he “has trampled under foot the Son of God.” To trample something under foot is to treat it as completely worthless. The use of the title, “Son of God,” seems “to indicate that the form of apostasy in view involves a scornful denial of the deity of Christ” (Philip Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews [Eerdmans], p. 422). It means repudiating all that the author has argued for ten chapters on the supremacy and superiority of Jesus Christ, who is God’s final word to us. He is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His nature, and He upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:1-3). To treat this exalted Son of God like a bug under one’s foot is an indescribably horrific sin!
(2) Second, such an apostate “has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified.” The first charge trashed the person of Christ. This one despises His work on the cross. I have already explained that the best way to understand “sanctified” is in an outward sense, of being set apart with God’s people through public worship and outward confession of Christ. “To regard as unclean” means, literally, “to treat as common.” It may refer to partaking of communion even though his faith was not genuine, and so profaning the cup representing the blood of the covenant (Hughes, p. 423). Or, it could mean viewing the death of Jesus as a common death. The apostates shrugged off any vicarious, substitutionary significance to Christ’s death. Maybe they viewed His death as a noble tragedy, but nothing more. By so doing, they treated the blood of the new covenant as commonplace.
(3) The third charge was that the apostates had “insulted the Spirit of grace.” (This is the only time this phrase is applied to the Holy Spirit; but see Zech. 12:10.) He imparts God’s undeserved favor to us through the sacrifice of God’s own Son. The phrase shows that the author viewed the Holy Spirit as a person, not as just an influence, since He could be insulted. “Insulted” has a nuance of arrogance or insolence (“hubris” comes from the Greek word). This is similar to the unpardonable blasphemy against the Spirit of which Jesus spoke. (Matt. 12:31, 32). For a guilty sinner to spit in God’s face when His Spirit offers a free pardon made possible through the death of God’s Son is simply outrageous.
Picture a man lying in the gutter in rags, covered with sores, hungry and homeless. He is there because of his own sinful choices. A kind, generous man offers to take this man to the hospital, pay all of his bills, and then to bequeath on him all that he would ever need in life. He would have a comfortable home, all the food he could eat, and every comfort he could dream of. But the ungrateful wretch in the gutter spits in the man’s face, curses at him, and then tells others that the man’s offer was worthless. That would not be as bad as insulting the Spirit of grace by turning your back on the free pardon that He offers through the blood of Jesus Christ! The person who spurns God’s grace in Christ deserves far greater punishment than physical death by stoning. He will suffer justly throughout eternity.
I tremble for so many in this world who cavalierly mock Christ and spit at Him. I see it all the time on social media; if you don’t believe me, read the comments that come out of nowhere on posts that are from large Christian organizations. The enemy is working overtime to create little smug anti-Christs all over the place who are guilty of the worst types of apostasy. I tremble even more for those who would believe, but decide to walk away when they know the truth.
So we come to verses 30 and 31 in this passage. I’ll repeat them here: For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
I think this commentary from Phil Newton, quoted on Precept Austin is quite good about God’s vengeance:
God will exact justice. He is a just God and therefore must satisfy his justice. Here we see the legal aspect of divine justice. Quoting from Moses’ song in Deuteronomy 32:35, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.“ It was a warning to Israel in anticipation of their apostasy. It is in that text he warns, “In due time their foot will slip.” A person may think that he is getting away with his sin, and in this case, deliberate opposition to the gospel. But divine justice will be exacted; “in due time their foot will slip.”
Justice will always be served. We observe this on a regular basis as men and women who have committed crimes against society for extended periods, thinking that they would never be discovered, are caught and judged, though some appear to get away with their crimes.
Paul Johnson, in his book Modern Times details the Nazi war crimes against the Jews and other European citizens. His descriptions of Auschwitz where 25,000 Jews “were literally worked to death” and 2,000,000 were gassed with Zyklon-B, followed by “the ghastly search for gold and the removal of the teeth and hair which were regarded by the Germans as strategic materials,” then burned to ashes at the rate of “2,000 bodies every twelve hours,” defies the imagination. He explains the Nuremberg trial where German industrialists involved in the death camps were given remarkably light sentences and paid little reparations for those victimized. Then he asks the probing question, “But who is foolish enough to believe there is justice in this world?“ [Modern Times, 415, 417, 422]. He is right. Vengeance belongs to the Lord; He will repay. (Hebrews 10:26-31 The Peril of Playing Christian).
Well, here I am back at the atrocities of World War II again. Learning about that war has become a serious hobby for Steve and me. When you read or watch stories about the Holocaust, you find yourselves wondering how a nation could end up committing those acts of mass genocide. But it is comforting to know that even if judgment was not properly applied to these mass murderers from human courts and tribunals, that God will repay and have perfect justice.
Verse 31 is the real spine chiller in this passage. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Yes, the writer of Hebrews is going all “fire and brimstone” on these wobbly early believers (and any apostate or person who is just pretending to be a believer). When’s the last time you heard a good “fire and brimstone” sermon”? Hell is real. In fact, according to Biblical scholars, Jesus talked more about hell than about heaven and He should know. I have to confess that I cringe now whenever an acquaintance talks about a loved one being in a “better place” after they died when you know or at least have a reliable suspicion that the person was not a believer. Universalism is apostasy and is not Biblical. I think I’ll end this with a link to Gotquestions.org, where they describe and then reproduce in its entirety one of the most famous “fire and brimstone” sermons of all time, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, preached by Jonathan Edwards in 1741 in Connecticut. This sermon helped start a great revival in the church during that time.
Whew!! My next devotional examines Hebrews 10:32-24 - The believers are reminded of their suffering.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I pray that I do not continue to willfully sin and to be aware of the fatal sins of apostasy. I pray for those who have confessed to willful sin and for those like Scott Adams (late creator of “Dilbert”) who claimed a conversion to belief on his deathbed. Love is a great motivator, but fear of You, dear Lord, is also a great motivator. Amen.
Credits and Citations:
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.
“G1596 - hekousiōs - Strong’s Greek Lexicon (NASB95).” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 16 Jan, 2026. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1596/nasb95/mgnt/0-1/>.
Precept Austin was accessed on 01/16/2026 to review commentary for Hebrews 10-26-31. Within the Precept Austin commentary: Steven Cole Sermon https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-30-only-options-christ-or-judgment-hebrews-1026-31, Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2004, All Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. This commentary was not excerpted for this devotional.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 01/16/2026 to answer the question, What is apostasy and how can I recognize it? COPYRIGHT 2002-2026 GOT QUESTIONS MINISTRIES. A link to the same organization was provided for their answer to the question about the Jonathan Edwards sermon.