Johann
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- Joined
- Oct 26, 2022
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WHAT IS WILLFUL
OR DELIBERATE SIN?
John MacArthur comments that "This chapter could be titled, "The Tragedy of Getting over It," because it deals with those who had heard the gospel, had come face-to-face with the claims of Christ, had been associated to some extent with His church, but had gone away. These were people whose hearts had been warmed toward the gospel of Christ, who had made a superficial commitment of faith in Him, and had identified themselves visibly with the true church. But their enthusiasm was cooling and the cost of being a Christian was becoming too high. They were "getting over" the gospel, and were in danger of becoming apostate. Of the five warnings given in Hebrews, the one in this passage is by far the most serious and sobering. It may be the most serious warning in all of Scripture. It deals with apostasy." (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Hebrews) (Bold added)
Before we get into this terrifying passage, we need to understand the main issue the writer is addressing and that is the issue of sinning willfully. Just these words send shivers down our spine! And in one sense they should, but it is important to understand to whom this description of willful sinning applies. So let's first look in the mirror and see how this relates to genuine, born again believers, which is most of you reading this commentary.
Willful describes that which is done intentionally or deliberately. It is doing what one what one wants to do even when he knows it is wrong. The word deliberate (as an adjective) means that which is characterized by or results from careful and thorough consideration. It refers to a mental process in which one proceeds to take some action after thoughtfully weighing the options. Spiritually speaking it would describe a "conversation" as it were with one's conscience regarding whether one should take a particular action in a certain direction! I think you can see where this is going! And in the context of sin, especially the sin which so easily entangles a person, it is the idea of even planning out a situation that might place us in the path of temptation to commit that sin. Romans 13:14+ commands against such foolish logic (actually more like illogic or overt stupidity - Sin is stupidity!) Paul commanding believer to "make no provision (stop making provision - pronoia - present imperative with a negative) for the flesh in regard to its lusts." When we make deliberate decisions to dabble with deceptive, destructive sin, we are walking into the snare of the fallen flesh and we will almost certainly commit the sin we are playing games with and it becomes by definition a willful or deliberate sin! James 1:13-16 explains the sequential process that almost invariably follows when we begin to deliberate (verb) over whether to sin or not to sin...
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed (means to bait a hook, to set a trap with bait, lure into a moral trap by targeting one's innate selfish impulses) by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. (James 1:13-16+).
So then, in a sense we need to be clear, all of us are guilty of deliberate or "willful sinning" in the sense that there are (many) times when we know the truth of God's Word regarding what would constitute righteous, godly behavior (i.e., obedience) and yet we stubbornly walk down the path of temptation until we are guilty of overt, deliberate disobedience. While this should not be taken lightly for a believer, please note that this is NOT what the writer is talking about in this sobering passage. The context is not a person who is a believer and then one day ceases to be a believer (or loses their salvation). So do not let anyone tell you that you can lose your salvation if you willfully or deliberately sin. That is a false teaching which goes against a flood of Bible passages that teach eternal security (read Jesus' promise in Jn 10:27-29, etc). But on the other hand, just because God's infinite mercy does not strike us down when we commit deliberate sin, his grace and mercy should never be treated as a invitation to live licentiously! While we are not longer under law but under grace (Ro 6:14), grace is not license to sin. We are not at liberty to sin willfully or deliberately. To the contrary we now have the power to enable us to fight against the temptation to deliberately sin. We will fail and fall, but it should always be the exception and never the rule, certainly not the habitual practice of our lives. Before we were saved we chased after sin, but now that we are saved, sin chases after us! If willful sinning is an individual's lifestyle, then that individual needs to be very honest with himself or herself and ask "Is my Christian profession really a possession of Christ?" (They need to soberly ponder Paul's words in 2 Cor 13:5+) The incomprehensible truth that Christ in us (Col 1:27) and His Spirit is in us (1 Cor 6:19) should serve to motivate us out of love, enabling us to resist committing willful sins and empower us to fight off those temptations that assault our minds enticing us to commit that willful sin (cf 2 Cor 5:17).
One Way to "Bury the Hatchet"
Another Way to find the buried hatchet!
Let me give you an illustration of making provision for sin - say there is someone who you know that your conscience and the Spirit is leading you to forgive lest a root of bitterness begins to spring up (Heb 12:15+). And so you begin well, determining (led by the Spirit - Ro 8:13+, Gal 5:18+) to "bury the hatchet.' But our fallen flesh is very clever and will attempt to make provision for stirring up your unforgiveness. And so what do we do? Yes, we bury the hatchet, but we leave the handle exposed (see picture above)! Or in another crafty move, the flesh leads us to write ourselves a note that says something like "I will bury the hatchet but make a map of where I have it buried!" So can you see how subtle and persistent the lust of the flesh is to take us down the path of provision for later willfully or deliberately committing a sin? That is why we need to be continually filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18+), so that we might be supernaturally enabled to fight the good fight of faith (1 Ti 6:12+) against the serpentine snares of sin that continually come from our fallen flesh.
Now all of the preceding is simply background to help you understand what the writer of Hebrews means when he warns against willful or deliberate sin. As you study this difficult and disturbing passage, ask your Teacher the Spirit of Truth to lead you into all the Truth (Jn 14:26, 16:13, 1Jn 2:27, 1Cor 2:12)
R Kent Hughes gives a superb introduction to this difficult passage - It is commonly thought by those who have only a passing recognition of Jonathan Edwards that his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was preached with sadistic glee to his bewildered congregation. The supposition is that Edwards enjoyed afflicting his people and that the sermon was preached with pulpit-pounding vehemence. Such thinking is wide of the mark. Shouting was not Edwards’s style. It is a matter of historical fact that Edwards quietly read his sermons from tiny pieces of paper he held up in front of him. Neither did Edwards enjoy such preaching. Rather, it was necessitated by the famous “halfway” covenant, an earlier Puritan attempt to keep as many people as possible under the influence of the church, though they were not professed believers. The church in Enfield contained baptized unbelievers who were barred from the Lord’s Table. Ultimately, Edwards was dismissed as pastor over the question of the admission of the unconverted to the Lord’s Supper. Edwards was preaching for their souls, and also against the follies of the “halfway” covenant. Therefore, we must understand that Jonathan Edwards’s passionate love for God and his flock was the reason he employed every tool in his considerable stores of logic and metaphor to plead for his people’s souls in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He was less concerned with God’s wrath than with his grace, which was freely extended to sinners who repented. Jonathan Edwards gave his people a whiff of the sulphurs of Hell that they might deeply inhale the fragrances of grace. Edwards’s intense concern joins him in heart with the preacher who wrote to the Hebrews some 1,700 years earlier. The stakes were identical—Heaven or Hell. And the symptoms, though not identical, were similar as well—a declining regard for the church’s authority, a willfulness to define one’s relationship to the church in one’s own terms, and, in some cases, quitting the church altogether. To such are addressed the thunderous warnings in verses 26–31, in which the brilliant writer summons his own prodigious logic and literary talents. (ILLUSTRATION) To glimpse his passion, we can imagine ourselves as parents raising our children along a boulevard on which huge trucks regularly pass at great speed. Our warnings are couched in the most dramatic terms and lurid illustrations—“Do you know what happens to little children if…”—in the hope that somehow what we say will penetrate the imagination and thinking process of our children, so they will stay out of the deadly street! (Preaching the Word - Hebrews)
Another anecdote about Edward's sermon...
Jonathan Edwards started a sermon that he did not finish. Such was the impact of his preaching that the people listening shrieked and cried out, and the crying and weeping became so loud that Edwards was forced to discontinue the sermon. Instead, the pastors went down among the the people and prayed with them in groups. Many came to a saving knowledge of Christ that day.
If we go on sinning - Although the writer includes himself in this warning ("if we go on sinning" - just as he did in his first warning in Heb 2:3+ "how will we escape") note that he switches pronouns in Hebrews 10:29+ to "he". And at the end of the chapter (Heb 10:39+), the writer makes it clear that he considers himself a true believer by including himself in the "we" who do not "shrink back to destruction".
Go on sinning (264) (hamartano) means to miss a mark and in this context means to miss God's will. It means to act contrary to the will and law of God. In classic Greek hamartano was used to describe a warrior who threw his spear but failed to strike his adversary or a traveler who missed his way. Hamartano emphasizes loss which always results from missing God's mark or target, His good and acceptable and perfect will (Ro 12:2). Gary Hill adds that "hamartánō ("choosing sin") asserts the agenda of self, by (for) self, over God's loving plan. Ironically, this insists on bringing self-made condemnation (cf. Titus 3:11 = "and is sinning, being self-condemned."). In sum, hamartánō always results in loss of reward for believers, and everlasting condemnation for unbelievers.
The present tense this indicates this is their lifestyle, their habitual practice. It describes an abiding state of willful, deliberate sinning! Saved persons still commit sins (and as noted above, sadly even do so deliberately) but sinning is not their continual practice once they are born again by the Holy Spirit. They become new creations in Christ "the old things passed away (INCLUDING CONTINUALLY LIVING IN SIN); behold, new things (A NEW DIRECTION, NEW POWER, NEW MOTIVATION, NEW LOVE TO NOW LIVE FOR JESUS) have come." (2Cor 5:17+). If such an spiritual transaction has not occurred, then such a person should be very careful to perform a self-examination (cp 2Cor 13:5+) to be absolutely certain there is tangible evidence a person is a possessor of Christ and not simply professor of Christ. Jesus gave a stern, even frightening warning that "many" would profess knowing Him, but that their life would indicate otherwise.
“Not everyone who says to Me (THEIR PROFESSION) ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does (present tense - continually because they are enabled by the indwelling Spirit - NOTE: Jesus is not describing PERFECTION but DIRECTION!) the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter. Many (WOE! cf Many in Mt 7:13+) will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (NOTE CAREFULLY JESUS DOES NOT DENY THEY DID THESE THINGS!) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never (ABSOLUTE NEGATION - NEVER AT ANY POINT IN TIME - IN OTHER WORDS THESE ARE NOT FOLKS WHO WERE SAVED AND THEN LOST THEIR SALVATION! JESUS NEVER, EVER KNEW THEM!) knew (SPEAKS OF INTIMACY, FELLOWSHIP, ONENESS, COMMUNION) you; DEPART (command) FROM ME, (THEIR PRACTICE CONDEMNS THEM! see Titus 3:11+) YOU WHO PRACTICE (present tense - willfully, deliberately, continually) LAWLESSNESS.’ (Mt 7:21+, Mt 7:22-23+) And Jesus adds " ‘Depart (command) from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." (Mt 25:41)
Beloved, do not confuse what the writer of Hebrews is saying and not saying -- he is NOT teaching sinless perfection, but he is teaching about the "general direction" of your life as indicated by your day to day behavior.
www.preceptaustin.org
Are we still going on sinning willfully and deliberately as believers in Christ?
OR DELIBERATE SIN?
John MacArthur comments that "This chapter could be titled, "The Tragedy of Getting over It," because it deals with those who had heard the gospel, had come face-to-face with the claims of Christ, had been associated to some extent with His church, but had gone away. These were people whose hearts had been warmed toward the gospel of Christ, who had made a superficial commitment of faith in Him, and had identified themselves visibly with the true church. But their enthusiasm was cooling and the cost of being a Christian was becoming too high. They were "getting over" the gospel, and were in danger of becoming apostate. Of the five warnings given in Hebrews, the one in this passage is by far the most serious and sobering. It may be the most serious warning in all of Scripture. It deals with apostasy." (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Hebrews) (Bold added)
Before we get into this terrifying passage, we need to understand the main issue the writer is addressing and that is the issue of sinning willfully. Just these words send shivers down our spine! And in one sense they should, but it is important to understand to whom this description of willful sinning applies. So let's first look in the mirror and see how this relates to genuine, born again believers, which is most of you reading this commentary.
Willful describes that which is done intentionally or deliberately. It is doing what one what one wants to do even when he knows it is wrong. The word deliberate (as an adjective) means that which is characterized by or results from careful and thorough consideration. It refers to a mental process in which one proceeds to take some action after thoughtfully weighing the options. Spiritually speaking it would describe a "conversation" as it were with one's conscience regarding whether one should take a particular action in a certain direction! I think you can see where this is going! And in the context of sin, especially the sin which so easily entangles a person, it is the idea of even planning out a situation that might place us in the path of temptation to commit that sin. Romans 13:14+ commands against such foolish logic (actually more like illogic or overt stupidity - Sin is stupidity!) Paul commanding believer to "make no provision (stop making provision - pronoia - present imperative with a negative) for the flesh in regard to its lusts." When we make deliberate decisions to dabble with deceptive, destructive sin, we are walking into the snare of the fallen flesh and we will almost certainly commit the sin we are playing games with and it becomes by definition a willful or deliberate sin! James 1:13-16 explains the sequential process that almost invariably follows when we begin to deliberate (verb) over whether to sin or not to sin...
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed (means to bait a hook, to set a trap with bait, lure into a moral trap by targeting one's innate selfish impulses) by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. (James 1:13-16+).
So then, in a sense we need to be clear, all of us are guilty of deliberate or "willful sinning" in the sense that there are (many) times when we know the truth of God's Word regarding what would constitute righteous, godly behavior (i.e., obedience) and yet we stubbornly walk down the path of temptation until we are guilty of overt, deliberate disobedience. While this should not be taken lightly for a believer, please note that this is NOT what the writer is talking about in this sobering passage. The context is not a person who is a believer and then one day ceases to be a believer (or loses their salvation). So do not let anyone tell you that you can lose your salvation if you willfully or deliberately sin. That is a false teaching which goes against a flood of Bible passages that teach eternal security (read Jesus' promise in Jn 10:27-29, etc). But on the other hand, just because God's infinite mercy does not strike us down when we commit deliberate sin, his grace and mercy should never be treated as a invitation to live licentiously! While we are not longer under law but under grace (Ro 6:14), grace is not license to sin. We are not at liberty to sin willfully or deliberately. To the contrary we now have the power to enable us to fight against the temptation to deliberately sin. We will fail and fall, but it should always be the exception and never the rule, certainly not the habitual practice of our lives. Before we were saved we chased after sin, but now that we are saved, sin chases after us! If willful sinning is an individual's lifestyle, then that individual needs to be very honest with himself or herself and ask "Is my Christian profession really a possession of Christ?" (They need to soberly ponder Paul's words in 2 Cor 13:5+) The incomprehensible truth that Christ in us (Col 1:27) and His Spirit is in us (1 Cor 6:19) should serve to motivate us out of love, enabling us to resist committing willful sins and empower us to fight off those temptations that assault our minds enticing us to commit that willful sin (cf 2 Cor 5:17).
One Way to "Bury the Hatchet"
Another Way to find the buried hatchet!
Let me give you an illustration of making provision for sin - say there is someone who you know that your conscience and the Spirit is leading you to forgive lest a root of bitterness begins to spring up (Heb 12:15+). And so you begin well, determining (led by the Spirit - Ro 8:13+, Gal 5:18+) to "bury the hatchet.' But our fallen flesh is very clever and will attempt to make provision for stirring up your unforgiveness. And so what do we do? Yes, we bury the hatchet, but we leave the handle exposed (see picture above)! Or in another crafty move, the flesh leads us to write ourselves a note that says something like "I will bury the hatchet but make a map of where I have it buried!" So can you see how subtle and persistent the lust of the flesh is to take us down the path of provision for later willfully or deliberately committing a sin? That is why we need to be continually filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18+), so that we might be supernaturally enabled to fight the good fight of faith (1 Ti 6:12+) against the serpentine snares of sin that continually come from our fallen flesh.
Now all of the preceding is simply background to help you understand what the writer of Hebrews means when he warns against willful or deliberate sin. As you study this difficult and disturbing passage, ask your Teacher the Spirit of Truth to lead you into all the Truth (Jn 14:26, 16:13, 1Jn 2:27, 1Cor 2:12)
R Kent Hughes gives a superb introduction to this difficult passage - It is commonly thought by those who have only a passing recognition of Jonathan Edwards that his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was preached with sadistic glee to his bewildered congregation. The supposition is that Edwards enjoyed afflicting his people and that the sermon was preached with pulpit-pounding vehemence. Such thinking is wide of the mark. Shouting was not Edwards’s style. It is a matter of historical fact that Edwards quietly read his sermons from tiny pieces of paper he held up in front of him. Neither did Edwards enjoy such preaching. Rather, it was necessitated by the famous “halfway” covenant, an earlier Puritan attempt to keep as many people as possible under the influence of the church, though they were not professed believers. The church in Enfield contained baptized unbelievers who were barred from the Lord’s Table. Ultimately, Edwards was dismissed as pastor over the question of the admission of the unconverted to the Lord’s Supper. Edwards was preaching for their souls, and also against the follies of the “halfway” covenant. Therefore, we must understand that Jonathan Edwards’s passionate love for God and his flock was the reason he employed every tool in his considerable stores of logic and metaphor to plead for his people’s souls in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He was less concerned with God’s wrath than with his grace, which was freely extended to sinners who repented. Jonathan Edwards gave his people a whiff of the sulphurs of Hell that they might deeply inhale the fragrances of grace. Edwards’s intense concern joins him in heart with the preacher who wrote to the Hebrews some 1,700 years earlier. The stakes were identical—Heaven or Hell. And the symptoms, though not identical, were similar as well—a declining regard for the church’s authority, a willfulness to define one’s relationship to the church in one’s own terms, and, in some cases, quitting the church altogether. To such are addressed the thunderous warnings in verses 26–31, in which the brilliant writer summons his own prodigious logic and literary talents. (ILLUSTRATION) To glimpse his passion, we can imagine ourselves as parents raising our children along a boulevard on which huge trucks regularly pass at great speed. Our warnings are couched in the most dramatic terms and lurid illustrations—“Do you know what happens to little children if…”—in the hope that somehow what we say will penetrate the imagination and thinking process of our children, so they will stay out of the deadly street! (Preaching the Word - Hebrews)
Another anecdote about Edward's sermon...
Jonathan Edwards started a sermon that he did not finish. Such was the impact of his preaching that the people listening shrieked and cried out, and the crying and weeping became so loud that Edwards was forced to discontinue the sermon. Instead, the pastors went down among the the people and prayed with them in groups. Many came to a saving knowledge of Christ that day.
If we go on sinning - Although the writer includes himself in this warning ("if we go on sinning" - just as he did in his first warning in Heb 2:3+ "how will we escape") note that he switches pronouns in Hebrews 10:29+ to "he". And at the end of the chapter (Heb 10:39+), the writer makes it clear that he considers himself a true believer by including himself in the "we" who do not "shrink back to destruction".
Go on sinning (264) (hamartano) means to miss a mark and in this context means to miss God's will. It means to act contrary to the will and law of God. In classic Greek hamartano was used to describe a warrior who threw his spear but failed to strike his adversary or a traveler who missed his way. Hamartano emphasizes loss which always results from missing God's mark or target, His good and acceptable and perfect will (Ro 12:2). Gary Hill adds that "hamartánō ("choosing sin") asserts the agenda of self, by (for) self, over God's loving plan. Ironically, this insists on bringing self-made condemnation (cf. Titus 3:11 = "and is sinning, being self-condemned."). In sum, hamartánō always results in loss of reward for believers, and everlasting condemnation for unbelievers.
The present tense this indicates this is their lifestyle, their habitual practice. It describes an abiding state of willful, deliberate sinning! Saved persons still commit sins (and as noted above, sadly even do so deliberately) but sinning is not their continual practice once they are born again by the Holy Spirit. They become new creations in Christ "the old things passed away (INCLUDING CONTINUALLY LIVING IN SIN); behold, new things (A NEW DIRECTION, NEW POWER, NEW MOTIVATION, NEW LOVE TO NOW LIVE FOR JESUS) have come." (2Cor 5:17+). If such an spiritual transaction has not occurred, then such a person should be very careful to perform a self-examination (cp 2Cor 13:5+) to be absolutely certain there is tangible evidence a person is a possessor of Christ and not simply professor of Christ. Jesus gave a stern, even frightening warning that "many" would profess knowing Him, but that their life would indicate otherwise.
“Not everyone who says to Me (THEIR PROFESSION) ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does (present tense - continually because they are enabled by the indwelling Spirit - NOTE: Jesus is not describing PERFECTION but DIRECTION!) the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter. Many (WOE! cf Many in Mt 7:13+) will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (NOTE CAREFULLY JESUS DOES NOT DENY THEY DID THESE THINGS!) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never (ABSOLUTE NEGATION - NEVER AT ANY POINT IN TIME - IN OTHER WORDS THESE ARE NOT FOLKS WHO WERE SAVED AND THEN LOST THEIR SALVATION! JESUS NEVER, EVER KNEW THEM!) knew (SPEAKS OF INTIMACY, FELLOWSHIP, ONENESS, COMMUNION) you; DEPART (command) FROM ME, (THEIR PRACTICE CONDEMNS THEM! see Titus 3:11+) YOU WHO PRACTICE (present tense - willfully, deliberately, continually) LAWLESSNESS.’ (Mt 7:21+, Mt 7:22-23+) And Jesus adds " ‘Depart (command) from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." (Mt 25:41)
Beloved, do not confuse what the writer of Hebrews is saying and not saying -- he is NOT teaching sinless perfection, but he is teaching about the "general direction" of your life as indicated by your day to day behavior.
Hebrews 10:26-27 Commentary | Precept Austin
Are we still going on sinning willfully and deliberately as believers in Christ?
