Some of us have often wondered what the Hebrew writer was referring to in Hebrews 10:26 where he says, “For if we sin willfully after we received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”
It could well be that when many of our members read this, they are burdened with a load of guilt because they are aware that they have sinned willfully.
So we ask, what does the writer refer to when he writes “if we sin willfully”? If one willful act of sin forever shuts the doors of Heaven to us, then all of us are lost. Which one of us has never deliberately done anything wrong? We all know Peter deliberately denied three times that he knew our Lord. (Matthew 26:57-75). We know that Simon the sorcerer willfully sinned by attempting to purchase the power to lay hands and give the Holy Spirit. Peter told him to repent and pray that he may be forgiven. He did not tell him there remains no sacrifice for your sin (Acts 8:14-24).
In this context, to sin willfully literally means to be habitually engaged in sin. Here it had reference to a willful abandonment of Christianity for Judaism. Put simply that means to keep on sinning. These are sins which are committed without regard for being in step with the Lord.
One cannot help taking note of what the writer later says of such a one who has been in deliberate sin. He has trodden under foot the Son of God, counting the blood of the covenant unholy, and done despite unto the spirit of grace (verse 29).
For the elders, Tony Williams