Hebrews 10:31

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Here the dreadful result and the final consequence of falling from faith is portrayed with terrible realism: For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge' of the truth, there no more remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expecting of judgment and of a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. The writer is not speaking of some ordinary transgression of the Ten Commandments, such as even Christians become guilty of every day. He emphasizes that he refers to a willful sin, which consists chiefly in neglecting that to which he has just admonished, namely, that people that have come to the faith do not hold fast the confession of hope without wavering, that they neglect the means of grace, no longer attend church services, or at best very irregularly, and neither apply nor receive brotherly admonition. The denial of Christ is the sin, and the contempt of the means of grace is the road leading thereto. People that become guilty of this sin do so purposely, with deliberate intent, and they go on sinning, they persist in their transgression. Having received the knowledge of the truth, having accepted Jesus Christ and His salvation, such people maliciously and blasphemously deny the accepted facts, the truths of the Gospel. And in their case it holds true that the sacrifice for sins no longer exists for them. The very nature of their sin has this result; for, having denied the expiatory offering of Christ which they had once received in faith, they have discarded the only means of salvation. What they have to expect, therefore, is the terror of the Last Judgment, of the final doom; what they must look forward to is the fury of the fire of hell, which will consume and destroy forever, throughout eternity, the adversaries of the Lord. The intensity of this punishment is such as to make it impossible adequately to portray its fierceness.

The writer makes an attempt to do this by means of an example taken from the story of Moses: Any one that has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses; of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be considered worthy that has trampled on the Son of God and has reckoned the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified a common thing, and has insulted the Spirit of Grace? The readers of the letter were familiar with that provision of the Mosaic code which placed the penalty of death upon the sin of idolatry, Deuteronomy 17:2. If any person belonging to the children of Israel was found guilty of that sin, as substantiated by the testimony of two or three witnesses, capital punishment was the only punishment which was deemed adequate. For idolatry is essentially denial, a malicious breaking of the covenant existing between God and His people. In such a case, therefore, no distinction was made, there was no respect of persons: death was he penalty. Now the author lets his readers judge for themselves as to an adequate punishment for him that denies the faith in Jesus Christ in the manner here described. In order to show the heinousness of the offense, the blasphemous apostasy is characterized. It consists in trampling the Son of God under foot as a contemptible thing, not worthy of a better treatment. It includes a despising of the blood of the covenant, of the holy, innocent blood of Christ, as something common, of no more value than the blood of any 'human being. It finally goes to the extent of insulting the Spirit of Grace, the same Spirit who, in the means of grace, has given the redemption of Christ, has wrought sanctification in the heart. Such a person deliberately blasphemes. Such is the description of a man's condition who, after having received the grace of God in conversion, now sins in such a terrible manner, and not only once and under particular provocation, but again and again, with a certain fiendish delight in shocking others by his utter recklessness. Note: There can be no doubt that the author is here describing the sin against the Holy Ghost, which, on account of its peculiar character, is outside of the pale of God's forgiveness. But mark that he does not accuse any of his readers of having committed the sin, his only object being to warn them lest they do become guilty and be lost forever.

To bring home his warning properly, the sacred writer refers to two passages of the Old Testament: For we know who said, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay; and again, The Lord will judge His people. Terrible it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Deuteronomy 32:35; Psalms 135:14. When God, who is faithful also in keeping His threats, will sit in judgment and execute vengeance, then it will be too late to flee from the wrath to come. Then the knowledge that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God will no longer be able to turn the condemned person to repentance. If we believers, who are condemned by the Law, but have become partakers of the grace of God through the gift of the Holy Ghost, willfully and maliciously deny the saving truth and grace and blasphemously spurn all offers of salvation, we have no one but ourselves to blame if the terrible vengeance of God strikes us on the last day.