Hebrews 10:26–31

Context

The author of Hebrews is not known with certainty. Addressed to Christians who, amid persecution and discouragement, were in danger of abandoning their faith, the epistle argues at length that Christ is superior to the old sacrificial system. The immediately preceding passage, Hebrews 10:19–25, urges readers to draw near to God with boldness and not to forsake assembling together. This passage warns against disregarding that exhortation. It is commonly counted among the five warning passages in Hebrews. Verse 28 recalls the provision of the Law under which the death penalty was carried out on the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6), and verse 30 quotes Deuteronomy 32:35–36. In the verses that follow (32–39), the author turns to encouragement, reminding the readers of the sufferings they had endured in the past.

Interpretation

In the phrase "sin wilfully" (the Greek adverb means "deliberately"), the verb "sin" is in the present tense. For this reason, many interpreters hold that the verse refers not to inadvertent sin but to a state of deliberate and continuing rejection of Christ.

• Reformed (Calvinist) reading: The Calvinist tradition does not take this passage to mean that a truly regenerate believer can lose salvation. One explanation is that it refers to people who outwardly belonged to the church community and then departed. Another is that the warning itself is a means by which God preserves the saints to the end. This interpretation is connected with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.
• Arminian and Wesleyan reading: The Arminian and Wesleyan traditions read the passage as a real warning that even those who have genuinely believed can fall from grace through willful unbelief. This understanding is widely held in Methodist, Holiness, and Pentecostal circles.
• Rigorist reading in the early church: In antiquity there were reportedly groups that cited this passage and Hebrews 6:4–6 as grounds for holding that grave sins committed after baptism could not be forgiven. The church as a whole, however, did not accept this view.

Debates and Issues

A point of dispute is the phrase in verse 29, "the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified." Arminian interpreters regard it as evidence that the person in view was a genuine believer. Reformed interpreters explain it as outward participation in the covenant community or interpret it in other ways.

Commentators in a number of denominations also point out that applying this passage to every sin a believer commits after conversion, and thereby instilling fear, takes it out of context. Rather than being read as a denial of the very possibility of repentance, the passage is often discussed alongside blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in Mark 3:28–30 and the "sin unto death" in 1 John 5:16. In pastoral counseling, a common explanation is that "the very fear of having committed this sin is itself a sign that one has not rejected Christ." This, however, is pastoral counsel rather than interpretation.

Related Passages

• Hebrews 6:4–6
• John 10:27–29
• 1 John 2:19
• 2 Peter 2:20–22
• Deuteronomy 32:35–36