... I am asking you how you would use your interpretation in a setting of pastoral care-giving. It is a legitimate question, not in the least rhetorical, nor even really lawyerly clever, but straightforward and blunt. Someone comes to you having sinned after becoming a Christian. Does this passage apply? What is the exact nature of the willful sin ?
Yes? No? Qualified yes? Qualified no? I'm open to hearing your true thoughts on the matter. Nuance them however you like. But I think it's a fair question, and I am not sure why it is taking so much effort to get a straightforward answer.
The scripture always applies. How it applies depends on the nature of the sin. One seeking to confess one's sins is on the right path and should bring forth fruits meet for repentance. One seeking to justify oneself and remaining an adversary to the Messiah and his one holy catholic and apostolic church is surely at risk of judgment, fiery indignation, and destruction.
What is the exact nature of the willful sin ?
I've always thought that was pretty obvious. I would ordinarily say any sin, because every sin requires an act of the will. But as I said at the beginning, that's a solution that works too well in this passage. Where I was hoping we could go was the recognition that the author qualifies this sin in context to his overall theme of the book, the superiority and finality of the sacrifice of Christ, versus the mentality under Moses, in which there was always hope of some future sacrifice. It is incontrovertible that the Mosaic system of sacrifice has ended. Jesus and what He did is all that remains for those who seek atonement. Defy that, and there remains no alternative. In which case we get to the idea that the willful sin here warned against is repudiation of Messiah and His sacrifice and returning to the shadows of Moses, even after having a clear opportunity to see the truth about Jesus through close contact with His believing community.
That this is not some one irreversible sin is further brought home by the fact that the sin spoken of is
ongoing, in the Greek a participle, so not those who commit some single act of apostasy, but those who
keep on defying the truth about the Messiah. If they remain in that state of continuously denying Messiah, especially after having been exposed to the most convincing evidences through the teaching and body of Christ, there is truly no where else for them to go, and nothing for them to look forward to, other than their own doom.
None of this defeats or contradicts all of the evidence elsewhere that clearly indicates that when an apostate permanently leave the fellowship of believers, it is because they were not in fact a true believer, but an antichrist, as John says. The wheat is always a wheat from a seedling, and the tare always a tare. But in their early days they look a lot alike. But as John says, when they leave, they are
revealing their lostness, not
causing it.
So this passage is not at all in conflict with the stability and permanency of the grace God gives us in saving us as His elect. Quite the opposite. The author even confirms this at the end of the chapter:
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
(Hebrews 10:38-39)
Do you see how the author is making a categorical distinction here? We don't belong to the category of those who apostatize. Why? What's the distinction? The nature of belief. Some belief, as James says, is mere intellectual assent. The devils believe and tremble. But we are those who have the kind of faith that results in the saving of the soul. Very clear. Very consistent, even textbook consistent, with perseverance of the saints, per the Reformed view.
Are there some Protestants/evangelicals who avoid this passage? No doubt true, probably out of ignorance. But many do teach on it, and teach it well. It is a suitable warning to those who have come among Christians but have not found a secure footing in faith that saves, and who are wavering in their commitment to Messiah. There is no more temptation to return to the Mosaic sacrifice, so the circumstances have changed from when this was written. But the essential truth remains. No one should settle for half-faith. Go big or go home. Playing Christian without the power of God's Spirit working through a changed heart is a losing game.
But for those who have sinned, and sinned willfully, and grievously, and yet are true in their repentance, we have this word:
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
(Matthew 18:21-22)
The servant is not greater than the master. If we are to forgive so many times over, will God be less gracious than us? God forbid. He will always be more gracious than we expect Him to be. Those who have sinned, despite knowing the truth, if they repent, and finally come to have the faith that saves, as Hebrews 10 teaches, they do NOT qualify for the warning of the passage. Only those who unrepentantly continue in their rebellion, because until they come to true repentance and true faith, there is nowhere they can go for atonement, if they refuse the once for all sacrifice of Jesus.
Peace,
SR