DOES HEBREWS REFUTE EPHESIANS 1:7?

Hebrews 10:26: For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,

Ephesians 1:7: In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

The wording of Hebrews 10:26 in the King James Version is somewhat clumsy and outdated, but I suppose that is not surprising since the English rendering of this verse is over four centuries old. Because it tends to be clumsy, it can also be, for some, rather confusing. Even more puzzling for many students of the Scriptures is that this text, as here worded, seems to be in conflict theologically with other vital Christian doctrines relating to our redemption and salvation.

Specifically, this verse appears, at least at first reading, to refute the powerful Pauline proclamation of God’s grace found in Ephesians 1:7, in which this apostle tells us we have the forgiveness of "willful/deliberate sins" (and since this statement appears in the present tense, and the sins are plural, it speaks of ongoing sins as we journey through life).

I have dealt with the meaning of this statement in Ephesians 1:7 in the previous article titled, "Deliverance from Deliberate Sins: Insight from a Greek Word in Ephesians 1:7."

(If Paul declares our continuing willful sins are forgiven by the sin-offering sacrifice of our lord Jesus on the cross, but the writer of the passage in Hebrews says these sins are NOT covered by that sin-offering sacrifice on the cross (or any other sacrifice), then there is a huge problem here that needs to be addressed.

Before you continue, however, go back and read the article “Deliverance from Deliberate Sins,” for the study you are about to read will make a lot more sense if you have the context in mind of the apostle Paul's prior teaching found in Ephesians 1:7. There are several key Greek words and theological concepts that one must be aware of before the concerns raised by Hebrews 10:26 can be truly understood and reconciled with ultimate biblical truth. The two passages really are not in conflict with one another at all; indeed, they harmonize with each other and with truth quite well.

On the surface, due to imperfect translations of key terms and the rise of certain church dogmas over the centuries, the two verses might seem to be at odds with one another theologically. I think you will soon find, as you delve more deeply into the texts, that this assumption is completely unwarranted and untrue.

Let's begin with the wording (in English) of the Hebrews 10:26 passage. In the graphic at the beginning of this article you have the wording of the King James Version. Consider several other English versions and translations of this text:

New King James Version - For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

New International Version - If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.

New Life Version - If we keep on sinning because we want to after we have received and know the truth, there is no gift that will take away sins then.

Common English Bible - If we make the decision to sin after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there isn't a sacrifice for sins left any longer.

Contemporary English Version - No sacrifices can be made for people who decide to sin after they find out about the truth.

English Standard Version - For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

Good News Translation - For there is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us.

New Revised Standard Version - For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

The Living Bible - If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Savior after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by the Messiah's death; there is no way to get rid of it.

The Message - If we give up and turn our backs on all we've learned, all we've been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate the Messiah's sin-offering sacrifice and are left on our own to face the judgment.

New American Standard Bible - For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

The point of confusion is obvious just from a general reading of the two texts. In Ephesians 1:7, Paul informs his readers that in the Messiah Jesus "we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (KJV). The sin-offering sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is clearly in view, for our redemption is "through his blood" that was shed on the cross. This act of redeeming us resulted in "the forgiveness of sins," an act of God’s – Yehovah’s grace! As noted in my previous article, the word in this passage translated "sins" is NOT the normal Greek word for sin ("hamartia"), but is the lesser used Greek word "paraptoma," which refers to a reckless, willful, deliberate, intentional falling short of God's will for our lives. Paul says that when we are "in the Messiah Jesus" (i.e., in relationship with him), our misdeeds and missteps, even those which may be willful and deliberate at times, are forgiven by the blood of is sin-offering sacrifice. Yet, the writer of Hebrews informs us that there is NO sacrifice, thus NO forgiveness, for those persons who "sin willfully" after receiving the knowledge of what the Messiah did for them. This, then, is our delemma. Which of these views is true, for they seem to be declaring opposing doctrines? Are those "in the Messiah" who sin willfully (and who among us doesn't at times?!) unable to be forgiven? Are those "in the Messiah" who commit on occasion deliberate acts that are contrary to the will of God (and again, who doesn't ?!) beyond the reach of the cleansing power of the blood of the Messiah? Does his sin-offering sacrifice NOT cover them? If so, are any of us saved?!! This is a very serious matter, and we need to clarify what seems to be a huge conflict between these two biblical texts.

Dr. F. F. Bruce (1910-1990), the renowned Scottish biblical scholar, author, and university professor, correctly observed, regarding the text in Hebrews 10:26, "This passage was destined to have repercussions in Christian history beyond what our author could have foreseen" [The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 258]. The American theologian, author, and abolitionist Dr. Albert Barnes (1798-1870) wrote, "This passage has given rise to much difference of opinion" [Barnes' Notes on the Bible, e-Sword]. Dr. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), the acclaimed Nonconformist theologian and author from Wales, also observed, "This text has been the occasion of great distress to some gracious souls, for they have been ready to conclude that every willful sin, after conviction and against knowledge, is the unpardonable sin; but this has been their infirmity and error" [Commentary on the Whole Bible, e-Sword].

The failing of many who examine this text is that they fail to consider the context within which this statement appears, as well as failing to carefully consider the actual Greek words employed in the text itself, both of which are critical to one's grasp of the author's original intent. In other words, when the writer of Hebrews 10:26 speaks of someone persisting in sin, we must ask:

(1) of whom is he speaking,

(2) what word for "sin" does he use,

(3) what specific term is employed that we translate into English as "persisting in," and

(4) what is the message here in view of the overall context of this epistle and the main purpose of this author?

One then needs to consider: considering the responses to these same questions posed with respect to Ephesians 1:7, how do these two passages relate to one another? Is there consistency of teaching, or is their inconsistency? Does one passage truly refute the other, as some have suggested, or are the two in harmony, and the confusion lies with the reader, not with the texts themselves?

Look at the word "sin" used in the two texts, for example. Are they the same word? In English, the word "sin" may be used in both, but in Greek the words are different. When Paul spoke of sins or trespasses done deliberately or willfully, he used just one word, and it was not the commonly used word for "sin" (hamartia) in the NT writings. Instead, Paul used the word "paraptoma," with the concept of willfulness and deliberateness inherent in the word itself. It spoke of various willful failings that one makes while still in him. Thus, these missteps by those attempting to walk in the light with the lord Jesus, but who daily fall short of perfection in that endeavor (and sometimes willfully), are covered by the blood, the sin-offering sacrifice of the Messiah. His sin-offering sacrifice continually cleanses them of all sin, for these redeemed ones are in him. Jesus, having dealt with the state/condition of sin by his once-for-all sin-offering sacrifice, put an end to that state for us, and he transferred us to a new condition: one of grace. We are transferred from death to life, and our daily stumbles and falls are no longer counted against us while in him.

This is not what is being talked about in Hebrews 10:26, however. The word for "sin" is not "paraptoma," which describes these individual faults and failings, some of which are, sadly, willful in nature, but it is the word "hamartia," which is describing the state or condition of sin, which all men are in outside of the Messiah; a state our lord "took away" for those who believe and are thus now in him as new creations. So, the writer of Hebrews is talking about some circumstance in which some people willfully and deliberately embrace this state or condition of sin, which the sin-offering sacrifice of Jesus "took away." The context tells us that these people who do this, do so after learning the truth of what the lord Messiah Jesus did for them (vs. 26), and after being sanctified [set apart] by his blood (vs. 29). The writer also states that this action of embracing this "state of sin" is done by a deliberate act on their part. They didn't stumble back into that "state of sin," they chose it. He uses the Greek adverb "hekousios," which appears only here and in 1 Peter 5:2. It means "voluntarily, of one's own accord" [Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest, Word Studies from the Greek NT, vol. 2 - Hebrews, p. 183].

It should also be pointed out that this voluntary embracing of the state or condition of sin is phrased as a present participle in the Greek, not as an aorist, thus informing us that one is willfully, deliberately, voluntarily persisting in this state/condition of sin. It is a rejection of walking in the light, and a voluntary return to a habitual life of sin, and it is done after having experienced the blessed state of grace where such sins are covered and forgiven while in him. When one rejects God's greatest gift, however, when one rejects the lord Messiah Jesus and his sin-offering sacrifice, what is left? No further gift remains. A return to the sacrifices of Judaism won't avail them. They have trampled underfoot the Son of God and counted his blood as "common," which is an insult to the Spirit of God (Hebrews 10:29). When one does this voluntarily, willfully, they have passed that point of no return (Hebrews 6:4-6), and all that remains for them "is a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume" them (Hebrews 10:27).

The difference, therefore, between Ephesians 1:7 and Hebrew 10:26, is that the former speaks of the blessed reality of having our misdeeds and stumbling’s, some of which, sadly, we will do knowingly and deliberately, forgiven because we are still new creations in him, whereas the latter speaks of those who had chosen to embrace Jesus, but who later chose to deliberately reject him and his sin-offering sacrifice, and who willfully return to a life and state of habitual sin. For the former, such occasional deliberate acts are covered by his blood; for the latter, because of their deliberate rejection of the lord Messiah Jesus and his blood and deliberately embrace of the state of sin as a lifestyle, no sacrifice remains, only judgment, for they trampled both the lord Messiah Jesus and his blood into the dirt.

So we understand that both texts proclaim truth and neither text is against the other, for they are not describing the same type or condition of sin, nor the same type of person. The confusion of some over these two texts is quickly cleared up by considering both context and text properly.

The Greek scholar Dr. Kenneth Wuest, in his comments on the Hebrew 10:26 text, correctly states: "This willful sin must be defined in its context. It will not do to ignore the historical background of this book and its analysis, and then put an arbitrary meaning upon the words. That is not exegesis, but eisegesis" [Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek NT, vol. 2 - Hebrews, p. 183]. Although the immediate context of the Hebrew epistle is Jewish Christians rejecting the lord Messiah Jesus and returning to Judaism; rejecting his blood and embracing again the blood of bulls and goats, thinking that in them one may find the solution to the state/condition of sin, one must also not discount the broader context of those who reject the lord Messiah Jesus and his blood for a return to the world. Both are deadly departures from faith in him, although one seeks to find other solutions for sin, while the other has no interest in a solution at all, but joyfully returns to a life of sin.

"This case is that of a an apostate - one who has utterly rejected the lord Messiah Jesus and his atonement and renounces the whole Gospel message. It has nothing to do with backsliders in our common use of that term. A man may be overtaken in a fault, or he may deliberately go into a sin, and yet neither of these renounces the Gospel message Jesus brought, nor do they deny the lord Messiah Jesus that bought him by his shed blood. His case is dangerous, but it is not hopeless; no case is hopeless but that of an apostate, who rejects the whole Gospel message, after having been saved by grace. To him there remains no more sacrifice for sin; for there is but the one sin-offering sacrifice that the lord Messiah Jesus presented to God - and this he has utterly rejected" [Dr. Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Whole Bible, vol. 6, p. 757]. "The context suggests that something much more serious is in his mind than what Paul calls being 'overtaken in any trespass.' ... That outright apostasy is intended here - those who have deliberately abandoned reliance on the perfect sin-offering sacrifice of the Messiah - seems plain from the language of verse 29. ... This is that renunciation of Christianity against which he warned his readers in chapter 6:4-8. To have received the knowledge of the truth and then reject it is to give up the only way of salvation" [Dr. F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 258-259].

Let's be painfully honest with ourselves! All of us who are new creations in the Messiah Jesus, all of us who believe in him, and wear is name, will at times in our walk with him through this life commit acts that are sinful. It is the reality of our fallen nature; and sometimes these sins will be voluntary, willful, and deliberate, i.e. as David's sin with Bathsheba. We will find ourselves in the same state of disgust with ourselves as the apostle Paul did in Romans 7:14. However, as Paul himself realized, God's grace and love, and the blood of His Son, covers/propitiates those sins as long as we strive, with the help of his indwelling Spirit, to walk in the light and become more and more like him in our attitudes and actions. Will we ever be perfect? No! But we will be forgiven, and we will be cleansed, by the blood of His Son's sin-offering sacrifice. But what becomes of us if, after having come to this state of grace in him, we willfully and voluntarily and deliberately choose, of our own free will, to reject our Savior and his sin-offering sacrifice and return to that state/condition of sin? Then, the Hebrew writer declares, we have cast off the only source of our redemption, for there is no other sacrifice that "takes away the sin of the world" except the sin-offering sacrifice of the lord Messiah Jesus on the cross. Reject that and we face certain judgment! In Ephesians 1:7, Paul speaks of those believers who choose to remain in the lord Messiah Jesus, but who at times along the way will stumble and fall, and who will at times do so willfully. Such believers are covered. The Hebrew writer, however, speaks of those who reject the lord Messiah Jesus, and who, in so doing, return to the state/condition of sin from which his sin-offering sacrifice provided the only source of relief. Thus, by their rejection of him, they perish.

John Darby (1800-1882), the British scholar and Bible translator (translating the Scriptures from the Hebrew and Greek into English, Dutch, German, and French), made this observation about the text in Hebrews 10, "This is about the renunciation of the confession of the Messiah, deliberately preferring, after having known the truth, to walk according to one's own will in sin. It was not simple disobedience, however evil that might be; it was contempt of the grace of God, and of that which He had done, in the person of Jesus, to deliver us from the consequences of disobedience" [Synopsis of the Bible, e-Sword].

The Anglican priest and author Robert Hawker (1753-1827), known as "the Star of the West" for his very popular preaching, wrote, "Willful sins against light and knowledge are not the sin which the writer alluded to in this scripture. Such there are in the best of men!" [Poor Man's Commentary, e-Sword]. There is simply no way, from the text and context itself, Hawker states, that this passage "could allude to the common sins and infirmities of the brethren, whether involuntary errors or those of a more deliberate nature" [ibid]. Such apostates have "rejected all the work, the words, the preaching, the pleadings of the Holy Spirit. ... They have despised God's mercy and trampled it underfoot; they have treated his [Jesus] blood as if it was unholy" [Dr. B. W. Johnson, The People's NT with Explanatory Notes, vol. 2, p. 324-325]. "It is clear that the writer has apostasy in mind. The people in question, then, know what God has done in the Messiah; their acquaintance with Christian teaching is more than superficial. If, knowing this, they revert to an attitude of rejection, of continual sinning (the present participle 'hamartematon' is rendered 'keep on sinning'), then there remains no sacrifice for sins. Such people have rejected the sin-offering sacrifice of the Messiah, and the preceding argument has shown that there is no other" [The Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 12, p. 106].

The apostle Peter writes, "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'A dog returns to its own vomit,' and 'A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire'" (2 Peter 2:20-22).

The use in Hebrews 10:26 of the Greek present participle, according to Dr. Henry Alford (1810-1871), the Dean of Canterbury, who produced a four-volume commentary on the Greek NT that is a classic work to this day, indicates to us that the sins spoken of in this text are "not isolated acts, but a state of sin," not just isolated violations of God's will, but a rejection "of the whole economy of the New Testament" [quoted by Drs. Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown, Commentary Practical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, p. 1429]. "The state described is one of willful and continued sin, which is the result and the expression of apostasy from the Messiah" [Dr. Charles Ellicott, Commentary on the Whole Bible, vol. 8, p. 327]. He goes on to say that the sins found in the Hebrew text are not those we commit daily due to our human nature, but rather they refer to a willful, deliberate, continuous state of sin that constitutes a complete rejection of God's grace and Jesus' sacrifice. In The Expositor's Greek Testament, it is stressed that "the present tense of 'hamartematon' must not be overlooked! Willful sin, continued in, means apostasy, repudiation of the covenant. ... It is a condition which is explained in detail in Hebrews 6. Without this preceding knowledge of the covenant, its willful repudiation is impossible.

For those who have repudiated and keep repudiating the sin-offering sacrifice of the Messiah, it is an irredeemable condition" [vol. 4, p. 348]. "The participle is not aorist, but present tense, expressing a persistent habit. ... The state contemplated here ... implies total repudiation of the Messiah ... deliberate sin with a high hand ... a final obdurate defection from the faith" [The Pulpit Commentary, vol. 21 - Hebrews, p. 268].

Let me close with this quote from the American theologian Dr. Paul E. Kretzmann (1883-1965), and may it serve as strong warning against the drift into apostasy that so quickly leads to a state of sin from which there is only one fate! He wrote, "The writer is not speaking of some ordinary transgression of the Ten Commandments, such as even Christians become guilty of every day. ... The denial of the Messiah is the sin, and the contempt of the means of grace is the road leading thereto. People that become guilty of this sin do so purposely, with deliberate intent, and they go on sinning, they persist in their transgression. Having received the knowledge of the truth, having accepted Jesus the Messiah and his salvation, such people maliciously and blasphemously deny the accepted facts, the truths of the Gospel. And in their case, it holds true that the sin-offering sacrifice for sins no longer exists for them. The very nature of their sin has this result; for, having denied the expiatory offering of the Messiah which they had once received in faith, they have discarded the only means of salvation" [Popular Commentary of the Bible: The NT, vol. 2, p. 477].