Hebrews 10:26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For if we sin wilfully— "For if any of us, who make a profession of Christ's name, be so much under the power of unbelief, prejudice, pride, and a worldly temper, as, not merely through some sudden hurry of spirit, temptation, or fear of danger; but deliberately, resolutely, and willingly, with full consent, to reject the doctrines of the gospel and the good ways of the Lord, and to turn back to Judaism, Heathenism, or infidelity, after we have been enlightened in, and convinced of the truth of the gospel, with respect to the way of salvation alone by Jesus Christ; the case of such apostates is of all others the most dreadful: for as all legal sacrifices are of no farther use in the worship of God, nor ever were available to purge from the moral guilt of sin; and as there never was any sacrifice appointed under the law for presumptuous sinners; so there remains no other, than the one only sacrifice of Christ, for the remission of sins; and they that reject this last and only remedy, by perfidious unbelief, can have no interest in it; nor can there be any hope of pardon and acceptance with God on any other ground whatever." The sin here intended, as appears from all the preceding and following context, is wilful, resolute, and contemptuous apostacy from the profession of Christ and his gospel: and therefore, though we ought to be always upon the strictest guard against every known sin, and to be deeply humbled before God, in thorough contrition of spirit, and resolute determination to forsake it, if ever we fall into it; yet this text is not to be understood of every sin which has been committed under the power of temptation, against light and conviction, as some tender-spirited Christians are often apt to apply it, to their own great discouragement and terror, almost to utter despair, but, as observed before, of real, wilful, contemptuous apostacy.