Hebrews 10:26Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Trees planted and preserved with every care by the farmer's hands, yet giving no recompense for his labors, are torn up by the root and thrown into the fire. The same happens with those enlightened by baptism.

If we have been planted by Christ and counted worthy of spiritual watering, yet afterward show a barren life, Gehenna's fire and the unquenchable flame await us.

Therefore Paul, after offering exhortation concerning love and the fruit-bearing of good works, and after setting before them joyful motives, now again urges the same thing by setting forth more grievous motives. The joyful motives were that we have entrance into the holy place, and the new way there which Christ opened for us.

"For if, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, we sin willfully." From what is most useful he persuaded them that we have boldness and have been counted worthy of forgiveness. Now he frightens them with what is most grievous.

See how condescending he is. He says, "we sin willfully," as though, if you sin unwillingly, there is some measured forgiveness. Notice also that he did not say, "we have sinned," but "we sin," that is, we remain in sin without repentance.

Thus, if we do not remain in sin, but show repentance, there will be forgiveness. Where then are those who say that repentance is rejected here?

By "receiving the knowledge of the truth," he means either Christ or all the dogmas.

Everyone, as far as he has strength, must heal the one who has something against him. One must not remember evil against a man who has sinned and repented, but must forgive him from the heart, cf. 2 Cor 2:7.

Whoever says that he has repented of sin must not only be contrite over what he has sinned, but also bring forth worthy fruits of repentance (Lk 3:8).

Whoever was instructed concerning his former sins and was counted worthy to receive forgiveness for them, yet sins again, prepares for himself a judgment of wrath stricter than the former.

If someone remains in his transgression after the first and second admonition, he must be reported to the superior. Then, after receiving a rebuke before many, he may perhaps come to shame.

But if we waver and sin willfully after receiving this knowledge of the truth, given to us through Christ, then we no longer have a sacrifice better than that which Christ offered for sins.

By this the Apostle does not deny repentance. He says that there is no other sacrifice, because the Master Christ was slain for us once. The Apostle used the word "willfully" to teach that what is done against the will receives a measure of indulgence. By "adversaries" he meant not only enemies of the truth, but also those who dare to act against the divine laws. He again proves the impropriety of this by comparison with what existed under the Law.

Having encouraged them to zeal by depicting what is joyful for them, he now urges them to the same by pointing to something fearful. For if we sin "after receiving the knowledge of the truth," that is, after understanding the true dogmas, which we appropriate through preaching, faith, and baptism, then in this case no sacrifice for sins is found for us.

That means there is no second death of Christ and no second cleansing through baptism. For the death of Christ is one, and cleansing baptism is one.

By the word "willfully" he showed that people sin by their own choice. They are not in any way compelled by evil spirits, but slip into sin and into voluntary sins.

By this he did not deprive people of repentance, as the followers of Novatus teach. He only rejected a second death of Christ and a second washing of regeneration.

Therefore the one who has once received forgiveness of sins must sin no more. After the first and only repentance for sins, committed during the former pagan life that passed in ignorance, immediate repentance is offered to those called. It cleanses the soul of everything foreign to it and prepares a place for faith to be established within it.

The Lord is the Knower of hearts and knows beforehand all that will happen. He foresaw the light-mindedness of man, the wickedness and malice of the devil, and how the devil would envy the possibility of forgiveness of sins given to man. He foresaw that the devil would continue giving God's servants deceitful occasions for sinful actions, so as wickedly to bring them to a fall after himself.

Notice that the Apostle did not say, "we sinned," but used a continuing tense, wishing to show persistence in sin until the end. From this it is beautifully clear that he does not abolish repentance.

[...] the divine Apostle says: "If we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins" (Heb 10:26), that is, cleansing through Baptism. For the death of Christ is one, and the cleansing Baptism is one. On Holy Baptism.

"There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." This passage fully corresponds to what was examined above (Heb 6:4ff.), where it was said that it is impossible to renew to repentance those who have fallen away from the faith. The whole gravity of the sin lies in the force of the will with which it was accompanied.

Here he does not mean every voluntary and conscious fall into sin, but apostasy from Christ. This is expressed in renouncing the "confession of hope" (v. 23), abandoning the Christian assembly (v. 25), trampling upon the Son of God, regarding the blood of the covenant, given in the Eucharist, as defiled, and insulting the Spirit of grace (v. 29).

Whoever has rejected faith in the saving action and sacrificial meaning of Christ's blood, and has even imagined that it is something defiled, "there remains no more sacrifice for sins" for him. He will find nowhere another redemption or another Mediator. For "there is no other name," apart from Christ's, "by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

By this the boundless redemptive action of Christ's blood is not limited in forgiving sins committed without apostasy from the faith and the Church.

To persuade his readers still more firmly to hold fast the salvation granted them in Christ, the Apostle next depicts the grievous consequences to which apostasy from faith in Christ leads.

A voluntary transgression means a conscious and continuing apostasy from the law of Christ, after a man has already known by his own experience the greatness of Christ and His Gospel. The present tense, αμαρτανόντων, indicates this. Such apostasy finds no sacrifice that could blot it out.

Such a man openly denies the meaning of Christ's sacrifice, although it alone blots out every sin. Therefore nothing remains for him to expect except fearful punishment.