Hebrews 10:26 English Standard Version (ESV) For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we ask if we have a proper understanding of this scripture.

Where we must focus our attention in understanding first our own behavior in this situation rather than God’s reaction. This is not just deliberate sin but continual deliberate sin. We know the truth because the scripture says specifically that we have received the knowledge of truth. Before we can understand God’s reaction to this we must acknowledge our own responsibility in choosing sin over truth.

God is faithful while we on the other hand tend to dabble in sin. It is much like the junky who has gone through rehab and kicked his habit. It can be said of the dry drunk. We are still in danger of being caught up in a past sin if we dabble in it. Junkies call it chipping. Take a huge rock of cocaine and chip off just a little bit and do it. Just a little taste, just a little sip, one can’t hurt me. It is a lie.

Romans 7:23 English Standard Version (ESV) but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Sin can once again take you captive because the capacity to sin remains even while the inclination to sin disappears.

1 Peter 2:11 English Standard Version (ESV) Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Continuous willful sin means we have been taken captive once again by sin. Once we accept our fault in the behavior we can then examine God’s response to our actions.

We will pick this up again tomorrow.

John 11:25-27 English Standard Version

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Yesterday we discussed the scapegoat and the dismissive attitude we might take about it taking away sin. Then we saw Jesus and His sacrifice and how that is not so easy to dismiss. I ended that devotional with the word “My death He died.”

My sins make me worthy of a death sentence. Because I have placed my faith in Christ and His atoning work on the Cross I shall resurrected at a time appointed by the Father. Until then I live in Christ and Christ lives in me.

But I still sin. I have not escaped the presence of sin. If I take on the attitude of the scapegoat’s being put out on my mind and say “they are forgiven”, I am dismissive of Christ’s sacrifice. The fact that all I have to do is confess those sins and be forgiven is not a justification for willingly allow them to occur. Each and every temptation to sin should bear the weight of the Cross upon which these sins were sacrificed.

I have heard others say as they are about to sin, don’t worry, I am already forgiven. That is a disrespectful attitude towards His death. It might not condemn you to hell but it hurts the relationship. Will asking for forgiveness for a sin you are not sorry for committing heal that relationship?

Hebrews 10:26 English Standard Version (ESV) For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

This is a hard truth. Do we understand what it means?