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Questions · Doctrine

Hebrews 10:26: if we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth

What Christian writers said, from about AD 402 to 1930.

30 passages · 16 writers · 6 centuries

The short answer

Calvin, Barnes, Fausset, and Tong read the wilful sin of Hebrews 10:26 as a deliberate renunciation of Christ, or apostasy, after knowing the truth, not as ordinary falls. Calvin, Bunyan, and Barnes say it is not every wilful sin, and Arndt says it is not about those who fall through natural infirmity. Fausset, Robertson, and Barnes say no sacrifice remains because the sinner has rejected the one sacrifice for sin. Edwards and Denney identify the sin of the passage with the sin against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin, and Owen calls such apostasy formally irremissible. Barnes, taking the passage to refer to true Christians, says it should not be regarded as applying to what is commonly called the sin against the Holy Spirit.

What the wilful sin is

12 passages · 10 writers · 1500s to 1900s

Calvin says the writer speaks of those who forsake the Church and wholly alienate themselves from Christ, a complete defection and not particular fallings, and that it means knowingly and willingly renouncing the grace obtained. Calvin also says the Apostle must agree with Christ, whose only exception is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, so these passages give no support to the Novatians. Barnes says "wilfully" refers to a deliberate act by which a man means to abandon his religion and turn away from God, not to every sin, since all sin is voluntary, and he notes the distinction in the Jewish law between sins of ignorance and sins of presumption. Barnes takes the words "after that we have received the knowledge of the truth" as referring to true conversion, and says that on this view the passage should not be regarded as applying to what is commonly called the sin against the Holy Spirit or the unpardonable sin. Fausset says it is to fall away and apostatize to Judaism or infidelity, which is not a sin of ignorance or infirmity but a deliberate sinning against the Spirit. Arndt says the words are not about those who fall through natural infirmity, but about those who sin wilfully and against knowledge and persevere to the end in impenitence. Bunyan says the wilful sin there is not every wilful sin, but the one that throws off Christ and his commandments, done openly and with great despite to the Spirit of grace. Tong says it is total and final apostasy, in which men with a full and fixed will despise and reject Christ, resist the Spirit, and renounce the gospel after professing the Christian religion, and that some distressed persons have wrongly concluded that every wilful sin after conviction is the unpardonable sin. Wesley says it means wilful, total apostasy, and that the passage does not appear to refer to any other sin. Spurgeon says that if believers were deliberately to let the Savior go and apostatize altogether there would be no hope for them, and that he trusts God's grace will keep them from the studied willfulness that would be the sin unto death. Edersheim says the law provided no atonement or offering for wilful, conscious, high-handed profanity, to which the Epistle to the Hebrews alludes.

1549 · John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews 10.26

But the true meaning of the passage, unaided by any help from any other part, is quite sufficient of itself to expose the effrontery of Novatus. Those who sin, mentioned by the Apostle, are not such as offend in any way, but such as forsake the Church, and wholly alienate themselves from Christ. For he speaks not here of this or of that sin, but he condemns by name those who willfully renounced fellowship with the Church. But there is a vast difference between particular fallings and a complete defection of this kind, by which we entirely fall away from the grace of Christ. And as this cannot be the case with any one except he has been already enlightened, he says, If we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth; as though he had said, “If we knowingly and willingly renounce the grace which we had obtained.” It is now evident how widely apart is this doctrine from the error of Novatus. And that the Apostle here refers only to apostates, is clear from the whole passage; for what he treats of is this, that those who had been once received into the Church ought not to forsake it, as some were wont to do. He now declares that there remained for such no sacrifice for sin, because they had willfully sinned after having received the knowledge of the truth. But as to sinners who fall in any other way, Christ offers himself daily to them, so that they are to seek no other sacrifice for expiating their sins. He denies, then, that any sacrifice remains for them who renounce the death of Christ, which is not done by any offense except by a total renunciation of the faith.

1666 · John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners 224

Then I considered that in the tenth of the Hebrews, and found that the wilful sin there mentioned is not every wilful sin, but that which doth throw off Christ, and then His commandments too. Secondly, That must also be done openly, before two or three witnesses, to answer that of the law ( ver. 28). Thirdly, This sin cannot be committed, but with great despite done to the Spirit of grace; despising both the dissuasions from that sin, and the persuasions to the contrary.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Hebrews 10.26

The word rendered "wilfully" - ἑκουσίως hekousiōs - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, except in 1Pe 5:2, where it is rendered "willingly" - "taking the oversight thereof (of the church) not by constraint, but willingly." It properly means, "willingly, voluntarily, of our own accord," and applies to cases where no constraint is used. It is not to be construed here strictly, or metaphysically, for all sin is voluntary, or is committed willingly, but must refer to a deliberate act, where a man means to abandon his religion, and to turn away from God. If it were to be taken with metaphysical exactness, it would demonstrate that every Christian who ever does anything wrong, no matter how small, would be lost. But this cannot, from the nature of the case, be the meaning. The apostle well knew that Christians do commit such sins (see the notes on Rom. 7), and his object here is not to set forth the danger of such sins, but to guard Christians against apostasy from their religion. In the Jewish Law, as is indeed the case everywhere, a distinction is made between sins of oversight, inadvertence, or ignorance, (Lev 4:2, Lev 4:13, Lev 4:22, Lev 4:27; Lev 5:15; Num 15:24, Num 15:27-29; compare Act 3:17; Act 17:30), and sins of presumption; sins that are deliberately and intentionally committed; see Exo 21:14; Num 15:30; Deu 17:12; Psa 19:13. The apostle here has reference, evidently, to such a distinction, and means to speak of a decided and deliberate purpose to break away from the restraints and obligations of the Christian religion.

Whether it is the unpardonable sin

4 passages · 4 writers · 1600s to 1900s

Edwards says the sin against the Holy Ghost is intended in Hebrews 10, because the passage refers to Numbers 15:30-31, where presumptuous sins had no sacrifice. Owen says that when men tread under foot the Son of God and count the blood of the covenant unholy, they will do despite to the Spirit of grace, and that under this degree the sin of apostasy becomes formally irremissible. Denney says that to lapse from the Christian religion is to be guilty of the unpardonable sin of counting the blood of the covenant a profane thing. Spurgeon says that if a Christian apostatizes and renounces his faith it is impossible to reclaim him, though a backslider may be restored.

1676 · John Owen, The Nature and Causes of Apostasy from the Gospel 12

When once men “tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing,” as they do in the former instances, they will assuredly “do despite unto the Spirit of grace,” Heb. x. 29. How this is done in particular shall be considered on that place, if God will, and we live thereunto. Under this head and degree the sin of apostasy becomes formally irremissible.

1834 · Jonathan Edwards, Notes on the Bible heb-rev

Heb. x. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. That the sin against the Holy Ghost is here intended, is confirmed from the place in the Old Testament that seems to be referred to in the 28th and 29th verses.; for the place that seems especially to be referred to is that in Numb. xv. 30, 31., &c.; where God having been speaking of the sins of ignorance, that should be atoned for with sacrifice, tells what sins should not be atoned for with sacrifice in these words, “But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people; because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment; that soul shall be utterly cut off:” and then in the words next following, there is an instance given of such a man so sinning presumptuously, viz. the sabbath-breaker, that gathered sticks on the sabbath, and how no sacrifice was accepted for him, but he perished without mercy by all the congregation’s stoning him with stones. See margin of the Hebrew Bible. That the apostle here refers to this passage, seems evident by these things. The apostle is here speaking of a sin, for which there remains no more sacrifice, and in that in Numbers shows what sins were not to be atoned for by legal sacrifice. He speaks here of him that despised Moses’s law, which agrees with those words in that place in Numbers, “Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken the commandment:” the reason given in that place why no sacrifice was to be accepted for him, so here the reason given why no more sacrifice remains, is that he sins wilfully.

1908 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 54 (1908) 3102

26, 27. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. Here the Truth of God taught is that if a Christian apostatizes—if he renounces his faith and goes back to the world, it is impossible to reclaim him. A backslider may be restored, but anyone who should willfully, after receiving the Truth, reject it, has rejected the only Savior. He has rejected the only regeneration and, consequently, he is without the pale of the possibilities of restoration.

1911 · James Denney, The Death of Christ 4

We have boldness to enter into the holiest in the blood of Jesus (10:19). His blood is the blood of the covenant with which we are sanctified, and to lapse from the Christian religion is to be guilty of the inconceivable, the unpardonable sin, of counting that blood a profane thing (10:29).

No more sacrifice, the Son trodden underfoot

14 passages · 9 writers · 400s to 1900s

Fausset says there is only one sacrifice that can atone for sin, and Robertson says the one in view has renounced the one and only sacrifice that does or can remove sin. Barnes says a man who deliberately rejects the only atonement made for sin has no other, since the Redeemer's sacrifice is never to be repeated, and Tillotson says those who renounce Christianity reject the only way of expiation. Owen rejects the suggestion that God will pardon without a sacrifice, and says the apostle argues that where there is no sacrifice for sin there must be a looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. Owen also says the sin is backsliding and wilful renunciation of the truth known and professed, which deprives men of all hopes and means of recovery, and that apostates reject the promises of the gospel out of hatred to Jesus Christ. Calvin says the desertion of Christianity is described by three things, treading the Son of God under foot, counting his blood an unholy thing, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace, and that treading under foot is more heinous than despising or rejecting. Tong says those who do despite to the Spirit of grace have grieved, resisted, and quenched him, which is the highest act of wickedness, in refusing to have the gospel salvation applied to them. Barnes says apostasy would treat the Spirit, by whom believers were renewed, with the highest indignity, and that the "sorer punishment" refers to future punishment, since death was the severest penalty for apostasy from the Jewish religion. Tillotson describes the sin as downright apostasy, a direct renouncing of God and rejecting of his truth after men have owned it and been convinced of it, and Spurgeon says apostasy from Christ would amount to treading underfoot the Son of God, counting his blood unholy, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace. Chrysostom says a man who partakes of Christ in the mysteries and then sins has made no account of him, as men make no account of what is trodden under foot, and that one who returns to his former vomit awaits excommunication and fire.

1549 · John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews 10.29

Who has trodden under foot the Son of God, etc. There is this likeness between apostates under the Law and under the Gospel, that both perish without mercy; but the kind of death is different; for the Apostle denounces on the despisers of Christ not only the deaths of the body, but eternal perdition. And therefore he says that a sorer punishment awaits them. And he designates the desertion of Christianity by three things; for he says that thus the Son of God is trodden under foot, that his blood is counted an unholy thing, and that despite is done to the Spirit of grace. Now, it is a more heinous thing to tread under foot than to despise or reject; and the dignity of Christ is far different from that of Moses; and further, he does not simply set the Gospel in opposition to the Law, but the person of Christ and of the Holy Spirit to the person of Moses.

1648 · John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ 4.5

The intention of the apostle in this place is the same with the general aim and scope of the whole epistle, — to persuade and urge the Jews, who had embraced the doctrine of the gospel, to perseverance and continuance therein. This, as he doth perform in other places, with divers and various arguments, — the most of them taken from a comparison at large instituted between the gospel in its administration, and those legal shadows which, before their profession, they lived under and were in bondage unto, — so here he urgeth a strong argument to the same purpose “ab incommodo, seu effectu pernicioso,” from the miserable, dangerous effects and consequences of the sin of backsliding, and wilful renunciation of the truth known and professed, upon any motives and inducements whatsoever; which he assureth [them] to be no less than a total casting off and depriving themselves of all hopes and means of recovery, with dreadful horror of conscience in expectation of judgment to come, verses 26, 27. Now, this he confirms, as his manner is in this epistle, from some thing, way, and practice which was known to them, and wherewith they were all acquainted by that administration of the covenant under which they had before lived, in their Judaism; and so makes up his inference from a comparison of the less; taking his example from the punishment due, by God’s own appointment, to all them who transgressed Moses’ law in such a manner as apostates sin against the gospel, — that is, “with an high hand,” or “presumptuously:” for such a one was to die without mercy, Numb. xv. 30, 31.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Hebrews 10.26

There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins - Should a man do this, there is no sacrifice for sins which could save him. He would have rejected deliberately the only atonement made for sin, and there will be no other made. It is as if a man should reject the only medicine that could heal him, or push away the only boat that could save him when shipwrecked; see notes, Heb 6:6. The sacrifice made for sin by the Redeemer is never to be repeated, and if that is deliberately rejected, the soul must be lost.