The Warning Against Apostasy

Jim ButlerHebrews 10:26–31

Hebrews 10:26–31 is one of the most pastorally misread warning passages in the New Testament, and this expository sermon works carefully to distinguish the sin of apostasy from the ordinary, ongoing sin of weak believers. The apostate is not a struggling saint who confesses and seeks mercy; he is one who, having made an outward profession of faith, openly and obstinately repudiates Christ — trampling the Son of God underfoot, counting the blood of the covenant a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of grace. The sermon draws on Owen, Calvin, Gill, and Ursinus to establish that apostasy is a total, willful renunciation of the gospel, not any species of sin for which Christ has made atonement. Believers burdened by remaining corruption are urged to distinguish themselves from apostates by the very instinct that drives them to the throne of grace — and to make full use of the means of grace God has appointed to preserve them from the apostasy the passage warns against.