Can you imagine anything more terrifying than the judgment of God?
In high school, one of the older student leaders of my Christian fellowship made a tearful confession at our weekly meeting.
In total sincerity, and taking pauses to get through what he had to say, he shared,
So, I have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, and the Bible tells us this is an unforgivable sin. I know I will never be loved by God again, but even though I have lost my salvation, I still want to help you be saved, and tell others about Jesus.
It was a heavy moment. We all felt for him as he seemed so burdened by his sin. But at the same time, even as a teenager, it was hard to see how he could have lost his salvation if he was still so dedicated to serving God.
Have you ever felt this kind of fear and anxiety with God?
One passage that has caused a lot of anxiety is Hebrews 10:26-31. It reads,
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?
For we know the one who has said,
Vengeance belongs to me; 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 (CSB).
It’s an intense, scary passage.
First, the Teacher (the best way I know to reference the unknown author of Hebrews) explains that if the Mosaic law required the death penalty for some violations, the cost of rejecting Christ will be much more severe.
Second, the Teacher explains the nature of sin as a personal offense against God: trampling on Jesus, profaning his death, and insulting the Holy Spirit.
Then, the Teacher quotes Deuteronomy to give additional authority to his argument that God will judge his people.
This section also ends with a stern warning that God’s judgment will be terrifying.
Most troubling for me is the initial warning that, in this situation, there is no longer any hope of forgiveness: “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”
Nearly everyone I know will admit to deliberately sinning against God. Whether it is doing something unethical at work, having premarital sex, cheating on a significant other, watching pornography, lying to someone, stealing something, getting drunk, or going on an irresponsible spending spree, most of us can think back on things we’ve done that we wouldn’t want anyone to know about.
Imagine standing before the Holy, Triune God, trembling before his Judgment Seat. You know you’ve broken his laws, and he’s seen everything you’ve done wrong.
If this passage was about every sinful thought or action — even our deliberate, willful sins — none of us would stand a chance.
But is that really what the Teacher is saying?
Let’s take the passage seriously — the judgment of God is coming, and as uncomfortable as it is to consider, God does uphold justice and moral order.
Even though it is an unpopular doctrine, it’s in the Bible, and it clarifies our need for the mercy and grace of Jesus.
But there’s a difference between taking the Bible seriously and giving into hellfire and brimstone preaching.
Why is that?
First, because, usually, apostates are not at church!
But why do I mention apostates? The severe language makes it supremely evident that this passage is not about the faithful Christian who struggles with sin but about a person who totally rejects God.
As Dr. Donald Hagner explains in the UTB Commentary, " The words if we deliberately keep on sinning do not refer to ordinary sins, but to the most grievous and final sin, apostasy…Apostasy is the equivalent of the unforgivable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (e.g., Matt. 12:31f.)."
In a sense, we can summarize the drama of this passage in a very straightforward way:
If you accept God’s offer of forgiveness but then completely harden your heart and thoroughly reject Christ for the rest of your life, you will eventually face God’s judgment.
But for the Christian who struggles with sin? Do we need to live in fear?
Consider the many warm, reassuring passages in just Hebrews. Moments before, the Teacher writes:
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:
This is the covenant I will make with them
after those days,
the Lord says,
I will put my laws on their hearts
and write them on their minds,
and I will never again remember
their sins and their lawless acts.
And moments after this passage he encourages the believers,
For yet in a very little while,
the Coming One will come and not delay.
But my righteous one will live by faith;
and if he draws back,
I have no pleasure in him.
But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.
The point?
The Teacher wants to encourage us that God has made us new, written his law of love on our hearts and minds, filled us with the Holy Spirit, given us faith, and made the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
His letter is a sustained argument that we do not live in fear, but rather, we can live with confidence that Jesus has done all the work to save us. Reassured of God’s love, we can live wholeheartedly for God, as we encourage one another in our faith.
What can we take away from this passage?
I know my friend in high school felt completely sincere. And he isn’t alone in feeling anxious that somehow, he fell short, and God is going to get him.
Maybe it’s because we had overbearing parents, teachers, spouses, or bosses, and we wonder if God isn’t the same way but worse?
The message of Hebrews 10 isn’t meant to terrorize believers who struggle with sin—that would, in its own way, deny the sufficiency of Jesus’ death.
Instead, it’s meant to warn those who might completely abandon their faith of the danger of doing so.
But at the heart of the letter is ongoing reassurance that we can be confident that Jesus is our perfect Savior.
As the Teacher argued in Hebrews 7:25-28,
Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.
For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all time when he offered himself.
For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.