What About Willful Sins?
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”
Hebrews 10:26
Few Bible verses have frightened Christians more than Hebrews 10:26, especially when it comes to willful sins. Read by itself, it appears to say that if you knowingly commit a sin after believing in Jesus, His sacrifice no longer applies to you. The problem is that every Christian has said or done something wrong while knowing it was wrong, even after first trusting Jesus. Therefore that interpretation would leave everyone wondering if they’ve crossed the line with God.
I sinned again. Oh no. There remains no sacrifice for me!
Was that a willful sin?
No, that wasn’t on purpose. Or was it?
“God help me! I’m sorry!”
Sounds fun, huh? Sounds peaceful. Sounds like we have blessed assurance.
No, it does not. It sounds like an absolute nightmare. So you know it’s not the truth.
Ask yourself, “Self, did Jesus forgive every sin except the ones I commit on purpose? Is there now no sacrifice left for me?”
I joke because I think it’s funny. Mainly because I understand the context of the passage. Remember, if you don’t get the context, you will be conned by the text.
The writer of Hebrews wasn’t warning Christians that one deliberate sin—or even a pattern of deliberate sins—could undo the finished work of Jesus. They were warning people who had received the knowledge of the truth about Christ but were rejecting His sacrifice and returning to the temple to receive forgiveness by way of animal blood.
They were deliberately sinning according to the Law of Moses, thinking, All I have to do is go to the temple, hand off my animal to be sacrificed, and that blood will forgive me.
The issue was not whether a believer had committed a sin willfully.
The issue was that non-believers were rejecting the final bloody sacrifice of Jesus and attempting to receive forgiveness through animal blood at the temple. There no longer remained a sacrifice for sins there. Why not?
Because the final sacrifice for sins happened on the Cross.
READ WHAT COMES BEFORE THE WARNING
Hebrews 10:26 does not appear at the beginning of the chapter. It comes after twenty-five verses explaining the superiority and finality of Jesus’ sacrifice compared to the insufficient and ongoing sacrifices of animals.
Keep in mind, this was not written in chapters and verses but as a full letter. Those numbers were added many centuries later to make passages easier to locate and reference—not to determine their context.
But if we begin with what we now call Hebrews 10, it starts by saying the Law was only a shadow of the good things to come. The animal sacrifices were part of the Law-system—the shadow—and the good things to come were found in the grace-system, in Jesus.
The repeated animal sacrifices could never make the Jews perfect. If those sacrifices had permanently cleansed them, they would have stopped being offered, and the worshipers, the Jews, would no longer have possessed a consciousness of sins (see Hebrews 10:1–2). In other words, breaking the commandments in the Law would no longer be their focus. Instead, their focus would be what Jesus had done about the punishment for their commandment-breaking: He permanently paid the penalty with His own blood.
Therefore, their consciousness would have shifted toward appreciation of Him. This would have strengthened their hearts by grace (see Hebrews 13:9).
Sadly, even after these Hebrews received the knowledge of what Jesus had done, the animal sacrifices did not stop. More animals died, more blood was presented, and the same Law-based Judaic ritual was repeated year after year because animal blood could never take away sins (see Hebrews 10:3–4).
Unlike the human priests who repeatedly offered these sacrifices that could never remove sins, Jesus offered Himself one time, permanently removing sins by way of His blood:
“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10)
A few verses later, the writer said:
“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14)
Notice the language: once for all and perfected forever.
Then, immediately before the warning about willful sin, the writer concluded:
“Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required.” (Hebrews 10:18)
No further offering through animal blood was required because Jesus had already made the final offering with His own blood. As a result, Hebrews 10:26 cannot mean that His sacrifice stops working whenever a Christian sins deliberately. That would contradict the entire argument leading up to the actual verse.
Jesus did not offer a perfect sacrifice—His own blood—only for it to remain effective until your next sinful action or attitude. His grace has superabounded over every sin you’ll ever commit—and not just yours, but the sins of every person who will ever trust Him once, by grace.
KNOWING THE TRUTH IS NOT THE SAME AS BELIEVING IT
Hebrews 10:26 refers to people who had “received the knowledge of the truth.” It does not say they had received Christ, His eternal life, or His Holy Spirit. You can learn the truth without believing it. You can understand the gospel without trusting Jesus. Comprehension does not equal faith.
They had stood among Christians and heard about the finished work of Christ, but they still refused to trust that His work was enough to replace the system of forgiveness through animal blood. This bloodshed involved more than annual forgiveness; it also involved drawing near to God. They believed the daily shedding of animal blood allowed them to draw near again. This is why the author of Hebrews said that a better hope had been introduced through which we draw near to God: Jesus (see Hebrews 7:19,25, 10:19–22).
These Hebrews had been informed that Jesus was the Messiah their scriptures prophesied about and that His sacrifice had replaced the temple sacrifices. They possessed the knowledge that animal blood could never take away sins and that Jesus had offered the only sacrifice capable of doing so, but knowledge presented them with a decision to make.
Would they trust the blood of Jesus, or would they reject Him and return to the blood of animals?
Walking back to the temple after learning the truth about Christ was not an innocent misunderstanding. It was a willful rejection of the only sacrifice that could take away sins.
WHAT WAS THE WILLFUL SIN?
One of the biggest lies taught today is that deliberate sins—intentional, willful sins—are somehow treated differently from every other sin. By immediately proof-texting Hebrews 10:26, preachers and teachers reveal some major flaws in that theology.
First of all, the Hebrews did not have random sins like the box church does today: “All that drinking, smoking, cussing, looking at the porn, fornicating, going to the club, and bad music!” No. They had 613 different specific ways to sin spelled out. 613 different ways to transgress the Law. 613 commandments, ten of which are the Ten Commandments.
When they broke one or more commandments, they were required to receive forgiveness through animal blood at the temple. Those who did not truly believe God would deliberately break the commandments, knowing full well, All I gotta do is go to the temple to be forgiven.
Jesus confronted this mindset in Matthew 5:23–24, telling them that if they brought a gift to the altar and remembered someone had something against them, they were to leave the gift there and first be reconciled.
They were willingly sinning against the commandments in the Law and abusing the forgiveness system at the temple.
But what most Christians are never taught is that even unwilling, unintentional, non-deliberate sins still required animal blood for forgiveness (see Leviticus 4:2–3,27–29,32–35, 5:17–18, Numbers 15:27–28). Because the Law contained hundreds of commandments, sins could also be committed in ignorance, and animal blood was required for those sins as well.
For us, however, there is no such thing as a non-willing sin. Our will is involved every single time we choose to have a sinful action or attitude. We are not robots.
The good news is, we are already forgiven of even those sins (see Colossians 2:13).
When we bask in this truth, we finally understand the greatness of Jesus’ sacrifice. Then we begin to understand His grace, and grace teaches us how to live an upright, holy, self-controlled life (see Titus 2:11–12). We stop saying, “That sin wasn’t willing!” and simply say, “That was wrong. I’m sorry.”
Do you see the difference there?
No more shame. No more guilt. No more Mosaic commandments. Just grace.
The warning in Hebrews 10:26 concerns deliberately rejecting the grace that came through Jesus, the final sacrifice for sins.
This is why the writer later described their offense so strongly:
“How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29)
Being sanctified in this context does not automatically mean someone had received eternal life. Under the Old Covenant, people, places, and even objects could be sanctified—set apart by blood—without being spiritually reborn (see Hebrews 9:13). These Hebrews understood repeated, ceremonial sanctification under the Old Covenant and had now been exposed to the blood of the New Covenant, which sets believers apart once for all time (see Hebrews 10:10). Yet they were still rejecting the Son to whom that blood pointed.
Notice the pattern? Trampled on the Son of God? Treated His blood of the New Covenant as unholy? Insulted the Spirit of grace?
Grace isn’t fair, and they didn’t like that.
This was not a Christian struggling with willful sins but someone treating the blood of Jesus as common and rejecting the Spirit’s testimony about God’s grace.
WHAT ABOUT THE WORD “WE”?
The writer said, “If we sin willfully.” Some use that one pronoun to insist the writer must have been describing believers who could lose their salvation. But the letter was written to an entire group of Hebrews who did not all share the same response to Jesus. Some believed, sure, but others heard the truth and remained unconvinced.
Not only that, the writer identified with the audience as a fellow Hebrew and used inclusive language while warning the entire group. A warning addressed to a group doesn’t prove that every person within that group is guilty of the danger being described.
In other words, “If the shoe fits, stick that thing on.”
Let’s say, for example, you stand up in front of a room and say, “If we reject God’s grace, we have no hope,” yet you have already accepted God’s grace. You are placing yourself within the conversation so everyone will take the warning seriously, not identifying yourself as someone who has rejected grace.
We is a soft way of saying you.
That’s why this letter also contains encouragement for those who had drunk in the rain—that is, those who believed and were safe (see Hebrews 4:14–16, 6:7,9–12,17–20, 7:25, 8:10–12, 9:12–15, 10:10–23,35–39, 12:22–24,28, 13:5–6,9,20–21).
We is also another way of referring to the Hebrews and their shared lineage. None of this would apply to any Gentile—a non-Jew—because we (see what I did there) weren’t included in the Old Covenant (see Ephesians 2:12).
The meaning of one word cannot be used to overturn the promises of Jesus.
He gives eternal life, and those who receive it will never perish (see John 10:28). He saves completely those who come to God through Him (see Hebrews 7:25). By one offering, He perfects believers forever (see Hebrews 10:14).
The writer was not contradicting those promises. The warning urged fellow Hebrews not to reject them.
YOUR WILLFUL SINS WERE NOT LEFT OUT
Perhaps you understand the historical context but still wonder, What about the sins I commit while knowing better?
Those were included on the Cross.
Jesus did not die only for what you might call accidental sins; remember, there are no accidental sins. He did not separate your sins into two piles—unintentional sins He would forgive and intentional sins you would have to pay for yourself.
When Jesus died, every sin of your entire lifetime was still in the future. He knew which sins you would commit and the motives behind them.
None of those sins surprised Him, and He still decided to forgive all of them. If this weren’t the truth, no person who’s ever trusted Him could have lasting assurance. We’d spend our lives attempting to determine exactly how much awareness, temptation, or supposed intention transformed a forgivable sin into an unforgivable one.
Did I know it was wrong?
How strongly did I know?
How long did I think about it?
Did I plan it, or did I simply give in?
If God isn’t asking you those questions to determine whether you’re forgiven, you don’t need to ask yourself those questions for that purpose either. In fact, He has chosen to remember your sins no more (see Hebrews 8:12). Constantly judging your performance to determine whether you’re forgiven is another religious system built on measuring.
But there’s nothing left to measure concerning your forgiveness because of what Jesus has done.
The gospel directs your attention away from the quality of your behavior and toward the quality of Jesus’ sacrifice.
His sacrifice was perfect, just as God required.
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