The Peril of Playing Christian

Hebrews 10:26-31

August 12, 2001

 

The 18th century was a remarkable time of divine awakenings. Throughout New England the Spirit of God invaded one community after another, bringing the spiritually dead to life, and transforming the worship of churches. During this era awakening appeared to follow the strong doctrinal preaching of the evangelical pastors, often setting forth the righteousness and severity of God in justice before broaching the subject of the gospel of grace. It was not that there were no professing Christians in these villages. Each little community had a village church with many of the townspeople having been baptized into membership. But there was little spiritual reality until the Spirit of God blew in gale force upon the dry, dusty corpses of church members. Like Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, upon the preaching of the Word, the Spirit of God breathed life.

 

One such village was the town of Enfield, Connecticut. Though neighboring villages had tasted of the goodness of God in spiritual awakening, they had not. They remained stubborn and defiant, self-satisfied with an outward form of religion; playing Christian we might say, without knowing the peril before them. On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards arose as a substitute preacher to declare before them the word of the Lord, accompanied by his friend and co-laborer, Eleazer Wheelock who was later founder of Dartmouth College. The sermon was not new to Edwards since he had preached it previously in his own church of Northampton, MA. Without any pulpit antics, Edwards carefully followed his manuscript, delivering a picture of divine judgment upon sinful men, particularly upon those who were the baptized members of the Enfield church and yet gave no evidence of regenerate life. It was based upon a text from Deuteronomy 32:35, "Their foot shall slide in due time." It was this same passage and context that was quoted in Hebrews 10:30 of our text. The last verse of our text provided the basis for Edwards' title, "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was no delicate, entertaining sermon, but a striking exaltation of God in his righteousness and exposing of man in his sinfulness. The effect of the sermon was immediate. Wheelock reported to a friend that these "thoughtless and vain" people were changed before the sermon ended so that they were "bowed down with an awful conviction of their sin and danger." Another eyewitness recorded in his diary, "There was a great moaning and crying out through ye whole House-What Shall I do to be saved-oh I am going to Hell-Oh what shall I do for Christ & c. So yet ye minister was obliged to desist-ye shrieks & cries were piercing & Amazing...." After referring to Edwards and Wheelock praying and then speaking with one after another of the people under conviction, the diarist continues, "Some in one place and Some in another-and Amazing and Astonishing ye power God was seen--& Several Souls were hopefully wrought upon [that] night, & oh ye cheerfulness and pleasantness of their countenances [that] received comfort" [quoted by Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 167-169].

 

Edwards' sermon made ten doctrinal points regarding the certainty of divine judgment for all who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ, and among them I would identify the following:

There is no want of power in God to cast men into hell at any moment... They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them... They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell... They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell... There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell-fire, if it were not for God's restraints... It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand... All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment... God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise, to keep any natural man out of hell one moment [Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, pp. 7-9].

Though he used the text in Deuteronomy as his base, Edwards had to have considered our text in this sermon. It breathes of the same air that we find in the clear warning before us. I can think of no text that offers a more sobering look at the final reality of playing Christian than the one before us. Its details are clear, and warning is alarming. After layering one truth on top of another in explaining the supremacy of Jesus Christ in his person and sufficiency in his redemptive work, our writer gives a series of summarizing applications. In the first he exhorts on the basis of the work of Christ to draw near to God, hold fast the confession of hope, and consider how to stimulate the church to love and good deeds (19-25). In the second, that of our text, he warns of the consequence of apostasy, the deliberate turning away from faith in Christ and association with the church (26-31). And in the third application he encourages them to endure their present persecution in light of how God has worked in them formerly and what he has promised for their future (32-39). 

 

But before we can dig into the encouragement we must consider the warning before us. And it is a needed warning in our own day as much as it was in the first century. The writer even includes himself in the warning, a fact we see by his use of "we". We find that it is a dangerous thing to be frivolous with the truth of the gospel and presumptuous regarding our own faith. To play Christian and to neglect anchoring one's faith in Christ may lead to apostasy. And apostasy will inevitably lead to fearful judgment. How do we avoid such judgment? We do so by paying heed to our author's warning.

 

I. Particular identification

 

We must understand what the author is doing. He is not pulling out a hammer to pound the struggling, suffering believers under persecution. But he is raising a red flag and sounding the alarm for those few among them who had grown arrogant toward the gospel and complacent toward the church. It was not the weak that tripped along that were in danger but those who deliberately, in calculated fashion, stood against the gospel after having once professed to be Christians. Claiming to be Christians they rejected the sufficiency of Christ. They had played Christian, perhaps for several years. Now they stood on the precipice of eternal judgment as apostates, those who fall away from the faith that they claimed to embrace. The writer pleads the last warning for them to repent before their hearts were hardened beyond remedy and they were exposed, in the words of Peter, as a dog returning to its own vomit and a sow after washing returning to wallowing in the mire (II Pet. 2:22). And with the pleading was a clear warning lest any of those remaining fall prey to the same peril.

 

1. Deliberate process

 

Apostasy does not happen overnight. It is a process, a deliberate process, on the part of one who is not satisfied with the revelation of God in Christ and the effectiveness of the redemptive work of Christ. "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." Our translation brings out the present tense verb showing the willful sinning against Christ. "Willfully" stands at the front of the sentence in an emphatic position as a reminder that the ones he addresses are not the weak or immature or ignorant or occasional doubters that are true believers but struggling with their perseverance. It is the deliberate, intentional, voluntary rejection of the sufficiency of Christ that he refers to.

 

The "sinning" has reference to rejection of precisely what this writer has set forth: the person of Christ and his effective work as our great high priest. They are rejecting or speaking against the revelation of Jesus Christ as the one in whom God has spoken with finality, who created and upholds all things in the world, and who as the Incarnate Son came to make purification for sins (1:1-3). They reject that Christ is more excellent than the angels and Moses and all the Aaronic priesthood (1:5-2:9; 3:1-6; 5:1-10). They reject that Christ mediated a new covenant that totally replaces the old covenant, and that he ratified its excellence by his atoning death (8:6-13; 9:11-28). Instead of depending upon the atoning death of Christ they cling to the blood of bulls and goats as superior to that of the Son of God offered at Calvary (10:1-18). It was not a momentary lapse, a struggle because of pressure from family or culture that was the problem. They "willfully" sinned, in calculated fashion they picked through the revelation of God in Christ and rejected precisely what the gospel reveals.

 

But perhaps it was ignorance on their part, one might say, and so God is being unjust in his austere dealing with them. Consider that this action took place "after receiving the knowledge of the truth." The word he uses for knowledge (epignosis) implies an intense recognition of truth or the gospel. In other words, there was no problem of ignorance of the truth; they could explain the truth with great accuracy. It was a rejection of the truth that had put them into the position of apostasy.

 

Does this happen today? It might be seen in young people that grew up in the church with Christian parents, hearing the gospel on a regular basis. They professed to be Christians at some point in their early years and gave outward appearance of being serious. But the day came when they were challenged about the gospel and rather than believing God, they embraced a lie. Not repenting of such sin they continued to grow cold toward any thought of divine truth. They gave themselves to sin, indulging their desires without restraint, maybe even laughing at the thought of the law of God. The years pass and they care nothing of the church of Jesus Christ, easily forsaking the church because they have forsaken the gospel of Christ. They shunned warnings with ease. Their heart gets harder. They can still rattle off the basic elements of biblical truth but it means nothing to them. In willful defiance they turn away from Christ, the gospel, and the church. They are apostates, the sow after the outward washing returning to the wallowing in the mire of their own sinful, unregenerate nature. Are you playing loosely with this perilous process of deliberately turning from the gospel of Christ?

 

2. Detailed process

 

The details of the process provide us a look at the stark reality of what it means to apostatize from the gospel of Jesus Christ. What is involved? He begins with the lesser and goes on to the greater so that we understand the gravity of rejecting anything regarding the revelation of Christ. "Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." Based on Deuteronomy 17:2-7, one who transgressed the covenant by serving other gods or embracing idolatry was to be stoned to death if it was confirmed by two or more witnesses. The public testimony of severity was to awaken the people to the holiness of God and the demand for obedience. That was the old covenant. But the new covenant through Christ is greater! "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Notice the three details of this process of apostasy.

 

First, the apostate scorns the divine person: "who has trampled under foot the Son of God." The use of "Son of God" intentionally points to the deity of Christ. "Trampled" means to treat with utmost contempt. This person has heard and understood the revelation of Scripture regarding the person of Christ, that he is "very God of very God," the radiance of the divine glory, and the exact representation of the divine nature bodily (1:3), yet he snubs his nose at Christ. He despises the Son of God and even though he knows the revelation of God to be true, he just does not care.

 

Second, he profanes divine redemption: "and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified." He treats the sacrificial death of Christ-for that is the meaning of blood of the covenant throughout this epistle-as common or profane. He has no use for Christ's atonement in his system of religion. He had come under the outward elements of the Christian faith-that is the meaning of "by which he was sanctified." To some degree after his profession of Christ and membership in the church, he tasted of the good things of God (6:4-6). He knew something of the beauty of holiness because he witnessed it in the fellowship of believers. He understood something of the joy and peace of Christ because he saw it in the church. He grasped the glory of worship and even felt the wonder of being in God's presence. In this sense "he was sanctified," or set apart from the world, tasting the good things of God. But it was not a sanctification wrought by the Holy Spirit in regeneration and continued until glorification. Because the apostate sees no need for the death of Christ, his was an "atonement-less" religion.

 

Third, the apostate insults the divine Spirit: "and has insulted the Spirit of grace." This interesting phrase shows the Holy Spirit as the immediate dispenser of divine grace, but the apostate "in headstrong antagonism to what he knows to be the truth, traitorously denounces the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, of which he has claimed personal experience, as demonic instead of divine" [Philip Hughes, The Epistle to the Hebrews 423]. Like the religious leaders who ascribed the work of the Spirit in Christ to the devil, they too commit the unpardonable sin (Mark 3:22-30). For such sin there is no forgiveness. Louis Berkhof explains, "In committing that sin man willfully, maliciously, and intentionally attributes what is clearly recognized as the work of God to the influence and operation of Satan" [Systematic Theology 253].

 

Persistence in "playing Christian" imperils a person to be in need of a divine warning. Thus we have a sobering declaration.

 

II. Sobering declaration

 

The warning declared is not hard to grasp. It is starkly plain but glaringly horrifying.

 

1. Forgiveness impossible

 

To persist in willfully sinning against the gospel of Christ after coming to an understanding of it, at least a mental comprehension, by denying the person of Christ, the sufficiency of his redemptive work, and the gift of grace by the Spirit, means that such a person has removed himself from the possibility of forgiveness: "there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." It was not that there was never a sacrifice. That sacrifice is Jesus Christ as he bore divine judgment on our behalf. Such a sacrifice was available to him up to a point. But now it means that the sacrifice of Christ, willfully opposed by the apostate, is never available for him. He, like Esau, can find no room for repentance even though he seeks it with tears (12:17). The present tense of "remains" or leave behind and the divine passive voice, combine to demonstrate that this is no tickler given to persuade the apostate to turn back. It is over. There is no place for repentance ever again. It is the God he has offended that has decreed it. This God, so full of patience and longsuffering, has declared, "Enough!"

 

Is this too harsh? No indeed, for these are the very ones who have spurned the truth of God and callously rejected the only sacrifice acceptable to God. It did not happen overnight, but it came with their deliberate opposition to the truth of the gospel, truth that they knew and understood but now rejected. Kent Hughes observes, "The ignorant cannot commit this sin. It cannot be committed inadvertently. It is a sin only "church people" can commit. To such, "no sacrifice for sins is left" because they have rejected the one and only valid sacrifice-Christ" [Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, vol. 2, p 41].

 

2. Judgment certain

 

Forgiveness is impossible for the apostate. That is horrifying but it does not stop; judgment is certain. The writer warns of "a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries." "Terrifying" is the same word as in verse 31, a fearful anticipation of certain judgment. The apostate who has arrogantly spoken against and denied the very gospel that he knew to be life, joy, forgiveness, and peace will not mock God. Terrifying judgment, compared to "the fury of a fire" consumes and keeps consuming (present infinitive) God's adversaries. I turn to Jonathan Edwards to help us grasp something of the terror of divine judgment. He uses a number of vivid imageries to enable the hearers to feel the immediacy of divine terror:

Your wickedness makes you as it were as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf... There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you... The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose...the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward... The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all of you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls, all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced, light and life, are in the hands of an angry God [ibid. 9].

Judgment is certain for the apostate and for all who reject the only Savior of sinners, Jesus Christ. This is judgment by a righteous and angry God.

 

III. Awakening realization

 

I conclude with the awakening realization that our writer sets before us concerning God. We have such a skewed, twisted view of God in our day, seeing him as a jolly old grandfather that winks at our sin and is easily manipulated by our pleas. But that picture is found nowhere in the Scriptures! As the writer contemplated this entire warning he thought of God and what he has spoken: "For we know Him who said." There is a certainty of knowledge expressed and assurance that what God has spoken will surely come to pass.

 

1. Justice exacted

 

God will exact justice. He is a just God and therefore must satisfy his justice. Here we see the legal aspect of divine justice. Quoting from Moses' song in Deuteronomy 32:35, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." It was a warning to Israel in anticipation of their apostasy. It is in that text he warns, "In due time their foot will slip." A person may think that he is getting away with his sin, and in this case, deliberate opposition to the gospel. But divine justice will be exacted; "in due time their foot will slip."

 

Justice will always be served. We observe this on a regular basis as men and women who have committed crimes against society for extended periods, thinking that they would never be discovered, are caught and judged, though some appear to get away with their crimes. Paul Johnson, in his book Modern Times, details the Nazi war crimes against the Jews and other European citizens. His descriptions of Auschwitz where 25,000 Jews "were literally worked to death" and 2,000,000 were gassed with Zyklon-B, followed by "the ghastly search for gold and the removal of the teeth and hair which were regarded by the Germans as strategic materials," then burned to ashes at the rate of "2,000 bodies every twelve hours," defies the imagination. He explains the Nuremberg trial where German industrialists involved in the death camps were given remarkably light sentences and paid little reparations for those victimized. Then he asks the probing question, "But who is foolish enough to believe there is justice in this world?" [Modern Times, 415, 417, 422]. He is right. Vengeance belongs to the Lord; He will repay.

 

2. Distinguishing promised

 

Some will consider that their involvement with the church at some point in their lives is adequate cover from the wrath of God. But the next quote from Deuteronomy 32:36 explodes this deceitful notion: "The Lord will judge His people." The implication in context is that the Lord discerns among his people. There are those who were part of the nation of Israel, the people of God, who were not believers. Outwardly they appeared to share in the blessings of God, but inwardly their hearts rebelled. The same is true in the church. The visible church does not contain a pure body of genuine believers. As much as church leaders try, as closely as Scriptural principles are adhered to, absolute purity is impossible in this world. Tares are found among the wheat. Goats are part of the flock of sheep. But the day will come when the Lord distinguishes between the wheat and tares, the goats and sheep. In that day there will be no more hiding and masquerading as Christians. What will that day expose about you?

 

3. Wrath visualized

 

The wrath of God is real. We have not seen his wrath displayed but here can visualize it: "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." John Owen's comment explains, "When a person falls into the hands of his enemies there is no law or love between him and them, and he can expect nothing but death." Such has been the case through the centuries in times of great conflict. But Owen adds, "This is what it is to fall into the hands of the living God. There is nothing in the law, there is nothing in the gospel that can be appealed to to stop the punishment" [The Crossway Classic Commentaries: Hebrews, 215]. Just as God has shown us the excellence of his love through Christ, he will also show the terror of his wrath to those who reject Jesus Christ and the offer of pardon in the gospel [Edwards 10].

 

Conclusion

 

Are you playing Christian?  I would not suppose that any among us have gone to the extreme of apostasy but neither had any of those who listened to this epistle being read in the church. But the danger is there because of the deceitfulness of sin and unbelief. I just made the statement that we have not seen wrath displayed, but we have in one place, the cross. Christ bore the wrath of God for you so that through faith in him alone you might be declared righteous (just) before God and know the delights of divine grace for eternity. I plead with you to turn to Christ in repentance and faith while mercy awaits.

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