Apostasy Described (Hebrews 10:28-29) Part 1

Hebrews 10:28-29 and the Justice of Apostasy

And will you please now turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 and looking at verse 26. We'll read verses 26 through verse 31. Hebrews 10, beginning at verse 26. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot 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?

For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Let's pray together. Our gracious God, our Father, we pray that you would grant us understanding in your word this morning, that you would open our eyes and our hearts and if there are any here who have never trusted Christ for salvation, that they would see their need to do so and that are looking at this passage which warns of turning away from the gospel may truly find a seed and a place in every heart that is here.

Help us to appreciate your great grace today, but also to heed the warning of this passage so that you might be honored and glorified to those who trust Christ and lean upon him and believe upon him for salvation.

Be glorified through this time, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

The Threefold Description of Apostasy

Well, when we stopped our study last week, I had introduced these three statements that we find in verse 29. He has trampled underfoot the Son of God as regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace.

And those describe the sin of apostasy. And apostasy is no small matter and the one who walks away from the truth of the gospel has in effect done all three of those things. That is, the author's explanation of why the punishment is so severe.

How much severer do you think the one would deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God regarded his blood as nothing and then insulted the spirit of grace? Those three things describe the sin of apostasy.

Now, granted, admittedly, the apostate would never describe his own sin that way. The one who turns from the gospel would probably describe his sin this way. He would say, well, I tried the Jesus thing, it just wasn't for me or I just kind of doubt the legitimacy of it or the church is filled with hypocrites and it wasn't my thing or I just didn't like to go to that place.

There's a bunch of people that I didn't know and so I just feel better at home or I could just go out into nature and worship God on a mountaintop somewhere. I have my own little church in my house. All of those excuses for walking away from the assembly of the saints and for departing away from the truth and denying the gospel, those excuses and 100 more are what the apostate would say to describe his own rejection of the truth.

And yet this threefold description of apostasy in verse 29 is in fact the author showing that the judgment that is described in verse 27, the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries, the severe punishment, the vengeance, the Lord judging his people, the terrifying thing that it is to fall into the hands of the living God, this is the author just showing us that that punishment, that justice is actually just and it is not excessive at all.

It is not over the top. It is not beyond the pale. It's not outside of what the apostate would deserve because the apostate in turning from the truth is not simply making an assessment about a church body or a preacher or the worship or the message or a church's ability to reach the community or any other excuse that they might use for walking away from the gospel.

The apostate is not making an assessment of any of those things. The apostate, I keep wanting to say apostle, the apostate in turning away from the truth is actually making an assessment regarding the work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is a direct and blasphemous attack upon the members of the Trinity so that when the author describes the apostate as deserving of this fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries, he is demonstrating that this is, in fact, justice, that the sin matches the punishment and that the punishment is not excessive given the nature of the sin.

Because in Scripture, these two things always go together, the amount of light that is rejected and the punishment that is meted out by God in the eternal scheme or even in an earthly and temporal judgment.

These two things are always proportional to one another, the light rejected and the punishment that is received. So that the greater the light that is rejected, the more deserving the apostate is of the punishment and the worse the punishment will be for the one who rejects that light.

So then, how much severer do you think it would be for one who was embraced by the Christian community and invited in as one of their own and believed to be one of their own and has enjoyed all of the blessings, though giving only intellectual assent, he has enjoyed in a superficial manner all of the blessings that are part of this new covenant community?

And how much more severe do you think the judgment should be upon one who sees the truth and has superficially experienced the truth and has given intellectual assent to the truth, but then has regarded the truth as not true and turned away from it and rejected it altogether?

How much more severe should be his judgment? For who has received more light than one who has been among us and has experienced some of the things that we have experienced and has heard the truth and understood the gospel and come face to face with it?

Who has received more light than that? So the author has this rhetorical question, how much more severe? How much severer do you think he will deserve in terms of punishment? It's kind of like the rhetorical question at the beginning of the first warning passage in chapter two.

How will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? That is a question that is just sort of thrown out by the author to look upon the question itself. How will you escape if you neglect that? How much severe do you think the judgment should be upon one who has embraced these things on a superficial level and been among us and was thought to be one of us, but then has turned away and walked away and apostatized from the truth?

Because the apostate, remember, is not a genuine believer. This is one who has given an intellectual assent to the truth. It is one who has outwardly embraced these things and superficially experienced some of them and then has rejected that truth.

Trampling Underfoot the Son of God

So note the threefold description here of this treachery. And I briefly mentioned last week that there are a couple of different ways that we could categorize these three statements. And last week, we just kind of introduced them and observed some things about all three of these.

We saw that these three statements really could be categorized in terms of the person who is slighted, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, or the work that is repudiated. In other words, the work of the Father in sending the Son to be the Savior of the world is spurned when one tramples underfoot the Son of God.

It is the sending work of the Father and the Father's love for the Son that is spurned. Or to assess the work of the Son in his self-giving sacrifice and then to repudiate that or to consider as unclean the blood that he has shed that has sanctified him.

Or to look at the work of the Spirit of God in drawing and illuminating and enlightening the mind of the unbeliever to the point where they see and understand the gospel. To turn away from that is an insult to the Spirit of grace.

So these three sins are a spurning of the Father, a scorning of the Son, and a slighting of the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are in some way repudiated and renounced in the sin of apostasy.

And the work of each person, the sending of the Father, the self-giving of the Son, and the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, the work of all three of them is slighted by the apostate who turns away from it and renounces it.

So that brings us all up to speed. Three persons and their three works. So now let's look at each of these statements. He has trampled underfoot, first of all, the Son of God. How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God?

The reference here to Jesus as the Son of God is I think, well, I know, it's intentional. The author's not doing this by accident. There were a number of ways that he could have referred to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He could have referred to him as a high priest. He could have said how much more him who has trampled underfoot the high priest, or who has trampled underfoot Jesus, or has trampled underfoot the Christ, or even Jesus Christ.

There are a number of titles and designations the author could have used. It's interesting to me that he chooses the term Son of God because that is a designation, that is a description that is intended to show the shocking nature of this apostasy, that the person that is being slighted and trampled underfoot is not an ordinary man, just a man named Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Joseph.

He's not just the Messiah, but he is in fact the Son of Joseph, the Son of David, the Messiah, the King of Israel, and above all of that, he is the divine Son of God. This designation of referring to him as the Son of God demonstrates the shocking nature of this.

It reminds us of his divinity. In fact, this is the title of his divinity. When we see Jesus referred to as the Son of God, it reminds us that this one whom we are talking about is of one nature and one substance with the Father.

He shares the substance and nature of God in full so that he, though being fully man, he is also fully divine in his essence and his nature, and this describes his divine nature. It is also how the same designation, the Son of God, is used in the previous warning passage, Hebrews 6, and I think for the very same purpose.

In Hebrews 6, verse six, the author says, describing these apostates, and then if they have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame.

Hear that description?

They crucified to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. It's almost like he is describing the same thing in this warning passage when he speaks of trampling underfoot the Son of God. It is an open shaming and repudiation of this one who shares the divine nature so that he, being fully God and fully man, shares in full all of the nature and the substance and the essence of divinity.

He possesses fully the divine nature, so he is not just the Son of God, he is God the Son, and that phrase describes his divinity. So this is a divine person that is being described here. Imagine the sin of trampling underfoot the divine Son, the one who is not just the Son of God, he is God the Son, this one who shares the very nature of the Father himself, and when Jesus is described as the Son of God in Scripture, it is intended to show us his connection to the Father.

It is intended to remind us that he shares the same nature with the Father that he has always shared from eternity past. And that title, Son of God, also reminds us of the relationship that he shares with the Father.

He is the Son of God. When you and I read the word God in the New Testament, most of the time when we read that word, with very rare exceptions, and there are exceptions, it is referring to the Father as the person of the Trinity.

It is either the entire Godhead that is mentioned or specifically it is addressing the Father. So when we read here, for instance, that he is the Son of God, we're saying here that he is in relationship to the Father.

He is the Son in terms of his relationship ontologically with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, sharing that divine nature. He is related to the Father, and there is an intimate and personal and loving fellowship between the Father and the Son.

So this is not just an ordinary man. Not only does he have a divine nature, and he is the divine Son, but his nearness with the Father and his relationship with the Father, and the Father's love for him cannot be overstated.

In Matthew chapter three, the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That is the Father's assessment of the Son. So this one that we are describing as the Son of God shares not only the divine nature, but he has enjoyed from eternity past the infinite and unspeakable and perfect love of the Father and the Spirit from all of eternity past.

There has been between the persons of the Trinity this infinite love, this perfect affection, this perfect fellowship between them. So that this one who is trampled underfoot here is not just one who is of the same nature as the Father, but he is one who has enjoyed perfect fellowship and all of the infinite love that the Father could lay upon anybody he has put upon his Son.

How much severe punishment do you think he deserves who has trampled underfoot that one? And has repudiated that one?

Who has trampled underfoot that one?

And his designation as the Son reminds us of his divinity, of his relationship with the Father and of the mission that he came into the world. The idea of his Sonship, his Sonship is related in Scripture most specifically in the Gospel of John to the Father sending him into the world to accomplish a task.

The Son was sent with a mission from the Father and it is the Father in the Gospel of John who sends the Son. In fact, it is John in the New Testament that describes this most frequently and it is one of the main themes of the Gospel of John.

If you were with us for that trek through the Gospel of John, you probably remember how often that theme came up of the Father sending the Son. John 6, 38, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

John 8, 42, Jesus said to them, if God were your Father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God, that is from the Father, for I have not even come on my own initiative, but he, the Father, sent me.

And he sent him for salvation. 1 John 4, verse 14, we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. So there is this intimate connection between the Father and the Son.

They share the divine nature. They share love between the persons. And then the Father has sent, dispatched the Son into the world as Savior for the world. This one the Father has sent into the world and what is the Father's assessment of this one he has sent into the world?

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, one of divine nature, one of divine relationship to the Father and one with a divine mission. And the Father has sent the Son into the world and therefore the Son is a special love gift from the Father to this world, the one whom the Father loved from eternity past.

As far back as your mind could go in time, prior to creation and go back further and infinitely back before anything even existed, including angels, and the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit existed in perfect harmony, perfect unity and perfect love together.

And one was sent by the Father into this world to take upon himself human flesh and to live a perfect life and then to die in the stead of men to bear the sins of all who will believe upon him. This one being God in human flesh, enjoying perfect fellowship with the Father was sent on this divine mission.

And so Christ then is one of infinite value. He is one of infinite worth. He is one of unspeakable majesty. He is one whom the angels worshiped before he ever came into this world. He was in the form of God and did not consider his equality with God as something to be held onto at all costs.

But in the counsel of the triune God, the Father willed to send the Son into the world and the Son came at the heating of the Father's will and the Son came voluntarily, not coerced, not against his will, but he came voluntarily to lay down his life on behalf of any and all who will believe.

How much severe punishment do you think he deserves who's trampled underfoot that one? When the Father and the Son will bear witness against that one. Because the sin of apostasy is in fact a rejection of and a repudiation of the most precious gift that could ever have been given.

One of infinite value and one of infinite worth. And there is nothing higher and nothing greater and nothing more majestic than the one whom the Father has sent into the world. And what does the apostate do?

Tramples him underfoot. Now this is obviously not describing a literal physical trampling underfoot. The definition of that word tramples means to despise, to treat as useless, to trample on or to tread down.

And it's not literally describing that physically this would happen by the apostate. Obviously Christ seated at the right hand of God does not endure that physical shame, but metaphorically speaking, this is exactly what the apostate does.

He treats by turning away from the gospel and the truth of the gospel, he treats with rudeness and insult and spurn and insults Jesus Christ in trampling him underfoot. This is metaphorically speaking exactly what the apostate does.

He views Christ as nothing more than a doormat to be trampled underfoot for his own purposes or used for his own purposes. He treats him as nothing greater than a stick or a piece of dirt or a gravel path to be walked upon.

This one whom the father loved and sent into the world, the beloved son in whom the father is well-pleased, one with the father, the object of his eternal love. The apostate tramples him underfoot. Imagine then that you are hearing this as a Jew who is considering going back to the Old Testament sacrifices in the temple for your worship in the first century.

Here's what the author is intending to say. If you go back to that, you are esteeming the person of Christ as nothing greater than an ox or a bull or a lamb that is slaughtered on your behalf. If you would prefer the blood of an ox as better than and greater than the blood of Christ who shed it to atone for your sins, you are esteeming him as nothing more than blood to be trampled on in the courts of the temple.

You're esteeming Christ as nothing of greater value than an ox or a sheep or a lamb to be slaughtered in the temple. That's the trampling underfoot. Today, if you turn from the gospel and reject Christ and refuse to heed the call to salvation, then what you are doing, for whatever reason you're doing it, what you are doing is you are saying that the pleasures of this world, the pleasures of sin for a season, are more valuable to me than that one whom the Father sent into the world.

And that I would rather have my sin, I would rather have the fulfillment of my lusts, I would rather be king of my own domain than to bow the knee to this one whom the Father esteems as the most valuable thing in all of creation.

Or to walk away from and repudiate Christ is to say I value higher the esteem of the world and the reputation that the world may give me if I can turn away from the gospel and instead have the fame and accolades of the pagan world or of this creation.

To turn away from Christ is to esteem something else as higher than that which the Father esteemed as higher than all else. That is what trampling him underfoot is. And one who rejects and turns from the gospel does this very thing.

You see, a rejection of the gospel message is in fact a rejection, not just of a message or of a declaration or of an offer or of an invitation, the rejection of the gospel is a rejection of Christ himself.

That's the hideousness of the rejection of the gospel because Christ is the prize of the gospel. What is offered to us in the good news of the gospel is not just a message, it's not just an invitation.

Again, it is a person. It is him that we receive. It is him that we are to believe upon. So what is held forth to us in the offer of the gospel is the atoning work of that son. It is all that he did as the divine one loved by the Father on the cross for our sake.

And to look at that, to behold that and to turn away from it is to value something else as higher than that. What is offered to us in the gospel is his work, his sacrifice, his perfection and his righteousness.

What is given to us in the gospel is all of his doing and all of his perfect life and all of the righteousness that he has, an infinite and unblemished and perfect righteousness. That righteousness is offered to us in the gospel.

All of his wisdom, his truth, his glory, the reward for years of faithful service and belief and faith, his headship. You see, what is offered to us in the gospel is bowing the knee to Christ and making him our head since he is given as head over all of the church and God has made him as the preeminent one over all of creation.

When the gospel offers us Christ, it offers us him as the head of all things. And when we reject the gospel, we are rejecting him. His kingdom and his glory, his nature, his goodness, his mercy, his loving kindness and his grace, all of that is wrapped up in the gospel.

When you hear the proclamation of the good news of the gospel, what you are being offered is Christ. That's it. You say, that's it? Yeah, that's it. But guess what? That's it is everything. He's not just that's it, he's everything.

So what God offers to us in him, yes, it is Christ, but in him we have everything. Every good thing that God could give us is offered to us in the person of Christ. His infinite wisdom, his infinite righteousness, his infinite grace, it's in the person of his son.

This one who is the beloved one, who is the divine one, who is the one in whom the father is well-pleased, the most valuable and esteemed one by the father, the one whom the father esteems and has elevated above all else.

He is what is offered to us in the gospel. And the apostate that turns from that and says, no, no thanks, he's trampling underfoot the son of God. And receiving the gospel is receiving Christ. To receive the gospel is to receive him.

To reject the gospel is to reject him, is to say, yeah, I don't want him. I'd rather have something else. It's to say that there is something else more valuable than him. Because in the gospel, Christ is offered to us.

In fact, the command of the gospel commands us to embrace not a message, not a system of propositional truths, not some beliefs or a doctrinal statement or dogmas or a life reformation plan, none of that.

The gospel command is to repent and to believe upon and trust him. So the command of the gospel is to come to him all ye who are weak and heavy laden and he will give you rest. The command of the gospel is to trust him for your salvation and eternal life.

The command of the gospel is to turn from your sin to him. You're turning from idols, from your sin to the living God and an embrace of Jesus Christ. To trust and believe the gospel is to yield yourself to him, to believe upon him, to trust him like one trusts a parachute, to put him on, to embrace him, to borrow the analogy of John chapter six, it is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood, to appropriate himself to us.

What is provided in the gospel, what is offered in the gospel is forgiveness of sins and it is righteousness, but it is those things contained in Christ and you cannot have those things without having Christ.

So if he is not precious to you, if he is not valuable to you, if you are not willing to submit to him and yield to him and love him and obey him, then you have no part in anything that he offers you because you cannot have the blessings of the gift without the giver of the gift as well because the blessings that come to us are in fact given to us in and through the giver of the gift which is Christ himself.

And so I can't have righteousness and forgiveness and grace and mercy and escaped hell without receiving Jesus Christ and appropriating him to myself. I must take him, eat his flesh, drink his blood, I must have him, I must have an infinite connection to him.

And if he is not precious, then I trust you, trust me, there is nothing else in the gospel that will be precious to you because everything that is provided in the gospel is summed up the glorious and majestic person of Christ.

Reject him, refuse him, you're trampling him underfoot. And it is a rejection of the father as well because Christ is a revelation of the father. This is what we read in John chapter one. No one has seen God, the father, at any time.

But the only begotten God who is in the bosom, in close relationship with the father, he, that is Christ, the divine son, has explained or exegeted the father to us. John chapter one is saying that no one has seen the father at any time but the son closely related to the father, sharing one in essence and nature with the father, that one who was the word from eternity past, who was always with God and always was God, that one has explained to us what the father is like.

So that Jesus could say in John chapter 14 to Philip's question, show us the father. Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. And it's not that Jesus and the father are the same person, they're not the same person, but they are the same nature, they are the same essence.

And Christ is so much a revelation of the nature and the character of God, the father, that Jesus could say, if you have looked at me and have seen my character and my nature, then you have beheld the very same nature and character of the father.

Without seeing his person, you have seen his nature. All of the revelation of the father that we could need or that we could receive is in the person of the son. So to reject the son is also to reject whom?

The father, it's to reject the father. To look at Christ and say, I do not want him, I will not have him, I will not yield to him, is also to repudiate the father. So if this one whom the father has loved and has sent into the world, and this one who shares the very nature of the father, and this one who has revealed the nature and the purpose of the father, if this one who is himself the revelation in human flesh of the glory and majesty of the person and the being of God, if you reject him, you are also rejecting the father.

Jesus said, he who receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. In John chapter five, listen to the close connection between believing Christ and receiving the father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.

He who hears my word and believes him who sent me, to heed the word of Christ is to believe the testimony of the father. Because Jesus said, I don't say anything on my own initiative, but I only say those things that the father gave me to say.

And Jesus said, I don't do anything on my own initiative, I only do those things that the father sent me to do. I only do what the father sent me to do, and I do all that the father sent me to do. And Jesus claimed to be a perfect revelation of the father.

John 12, verse 44, Jesus cried out and said, he who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me. See, to receive him was to receive the father. John chapter 13, verse 20, truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

Because Christ being one in word and mission and purpose and will and nature with the father has revealed the father to us, so to reject the son is also to reject the father. You cannot reject the son and expect to have the grace of God, because all the grace of God that is to come from the father comes in one place and one place only, and that is in his son.

You see, Christianity is an exclusive religion in this sense that there is only one path to the father, and that is through the son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other name given under heaven among men by which men must be saved.

And if anybody is to be saved, it will be through Christ and Christ alone.

Why?

Because there is only one perfect revelation of the father, and that is through Christ, and there is only one person who is the channel of all of God's grace, and that is Christ. And there is only one who has done the work necessary to atone for the sins of men so that we may have our sins forgiven, and that is Christ.

And to reject him is to reject all that the father might give you. It's also to reject the father's assessment of the son. See, the father said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. To reject the son is to say, the father's assessment of the son, yeah, not so much.

It's not really accurate. That's not really truthful. I reject the father's approbation of the son. I reject the father's love for the son. I reject the father's assessment of the divine son. It's to reject him, his beloved son, the father, this one whom the father has highly exalted and put at his right hand and given him a name which is above every name, and it exalted him in the heavenlies above all authority and all power, and he has made him head of the church.

This is the father's assessment of the son. So that when the son said, it is finished, and he died, the father vindicated his work by raising him from the dead and then bringing him to his right hand and seating him there above all authority and above all power and has given to him the disposal of all of his creation.

This one through whom the father created all of the world, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him by the father. The judgment of all mankind has been committed to him by the father, and everything in heaven and everything on earth and everyone on earth and in heaven and under the earth will bow the knee to this one whom the father has loved.

And so to reject Jesus Christ is to reject the assessment of the father, and it is to reject the father himself. The very nature and character of that revelation. This is the one whom the father has given.

How much more severe punishment do you think he deserves? Who spurns the son of God by trampling him underfoot and turning from him and saying, he is not valuable, he is not worthy, he is not majestic, he is not deserving of my worship or my faith.

Instead, I would rather have the passing pleasures of sin, or instead, I would rather have the accolades of this world, or instead, I would rather have the acceptance from my family and my friends, or instead, I would rather have my own freedom and my own autonomy.

How much more severe punishment do you think he deserves than that? They would choose playing around in the dirt to enjoying the fellowship with the divine son and the father who sent him into the world.

The Responsibility of the Unbeliever and the Comfort of Communion

Now, non-Christian, if you're here and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you reject the truth of the gospel and the person of Christ, all the responsibility for that rejection falls upon you and your head.