‘For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.'
For they must note that now that Christ has come there remains no other sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:18). It is Christ or judgment. We cannot now turn back to the old ways and the old sacrifices. All a turning from Christ can do is result in fiery judgment. There is no other path to God.
‘If we are those who sin wilfully --.' The verb means to do something willingly, without constraint. See its use in 1 Peter 5:2; Philemon 1:14. There are different ideas among commentators as to what these words signify. Some point out that all sins are wilful, and that it simply emphasises what sin is. The interpretation then is that having turned from Christ they have no One to turn to because they have deserted Him. Thus there is nowhere else that they can look for cleansing. They are doomed. Unless of course they repent and turn back to Christ.
This is, of course, true. Each sin of ours deserves God's full judgment, and that judgment would be severe. We do need to take this lesson to heart. And we do need to repent and turn back to Christ (1 John 1:5-10). But such sin is nowhere else called ‘wilful sin' and the verses that follow do seem to suggest a sinning which is of unusual severity. Furthermore the opposite of wilful (ekousios) sin, which is ‘akousios' sin, sin done unwittingly or in error, is found in Leviticus 4:2; Leviticus 5:15; Numbers 15:24-29. Wilful sin is clearly more than just sin.
But finally the meaning of the phrase is surely made clear by the following verses, it means deliberately with considered forethought setting Christ at naught by continual, open rejection (Hebrews 10:28-29). It is a rejection after receiving the full knowledge of the truth. It is true that there is a sense in which all sin is wilful. But the Old Testament distinguished the sins of daily life from ‘sin with a high hand', sins of deliberate defiance against God (Numbers 15:30 compare Deuteronomy 17:12-13). Such sins demanded an immediate death penalty. They included premeditated murder, the taking of a life which belonged to God (Exodus 21:12-14); idolatry, the setting aside of God for the worship of idols (Exodus 22:20, and especially in this context Deuteronomy 13:6-9; Deuteronomy 17:2-7), and being deeply involved with the occult (Exodus 22:18). In all these God was openly set at naught.
The present tense indicates a continual state. Such people have chosen this way of sin in which they are found and are intent on persevering in it. Note the ‘if' which suggests his hope that it is not true of his readers, and the ‘we' which includes himself as one who must himself take care that he does not do the same.
‘After that we have received the knowledge of the truth.' The emphasis here is on the fact that the sin is in full knowledge or possibly a philosophical knowledge (epignosis) of the truth (on the other hand epignosis does not necessarily mean ‘spiritual knowledge'). It is not a sin done in ignorance or in a moment of weakness, or while in absolute darkness, it is a deliberate turning of the back on ‘the truth', God's revealed truth in Jesus Christ (Galatians 5:7; Eph 1:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:12; John 1:17; John 3:21; John 16:13; James 3:14; James 5:19; 1 Peter 1:22), as received from God and understood and outwardly lived under. It is a considered rejection of what it once professed.
‘There remains no more a sacrifice for sins.' In Hebrews 10:18 it is said that where there is full forgiveness of sins there is ‘no more an offering for sin'. Through Christ the provisions of the old dispensation were no longer required. Sin offerings had become invalid. The same principle is in mind here. We cannot turn from God and reject His revealed truth about Jesus Christ, and find that the old sacrifices, or indeed anything else, will still suffice. Once the new covenant comes into focus the old has lost all efficacy.
‘But a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness (zelos) of fire (puros) which will devour the adversaries.' Thus having lost any means of finding mercy by turning from Christ, only the expectation of judgment (compare Hebrews 10:13) awaits, and that a fearful one and a certain one, for it is dreadful and it comes from God. The wording is taken from Isaiah 26:11 LXX, (compare Psalms 79:5-6), ‘jealously (zelos) shall seize on an untaught nation, and now fire (puros) shall devour the adversaries', and can be compared with the judgment on the adversaries of Elijah, those who rejected Elijah as God's prophet, where fire came down on them and devoured them (2 Kings 1:10; 2 Kings 1:12), or God's judgment on the sons of Korah who rejected Moses and Aaron and were consumed by fire because they had shown contempt for God (Numbers 16:35; Numbers 26:10), or that described in 2 Thessalonians 1:8, ‘in flaming fire rendering vengeance to those who do not know God'.
‘Certain.' This does not actually mean ‘certain and sure' but is an enclitic indefinite pronoun such as we use when we say ‘a certain man', etc. It suggests something that is indefinable. Yet the judgment is certain, for it is the judgment of God.
‘The adversaries.' By their turning from Christ they have become enemies of God.