The Grotesque Reality of Apostasy

By Eric Davis - Posted at The Cripplegate:

It’s never something we want to talk about. But, with it happening more than any of us would like, we must. And with a handful of passages addressing the issue, we must all the more. All Scripture is profitable. That even includes the sections covering apostasy.

It’s a big enough deal that God addresses it. And the way in which he does so is telling:

“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:26-31).

Much could be said about these loving, sobering words. But it does the soul well to especially consider v. 29. “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God.” What a loving and faithful pastor to sit down and pen those soul-care words to the church then, and for us now.

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