What is the one particular sin that God will never tolerate or forgive? It is a sin that draws a person closer to heaven but then suddenly takes him to eternal damnation in hell. What do you think this sin is?  According to what we read and see in the Book of Hebrews 10:26-31, it is the sin of apostasy.

Apostasy means falling away from the truth of the gospel.  When a person receives the full disclosure of Who Christ is (Christ being the way, the truth and the life) and intentionally and purposely rejects that truth, the sin that the person commits against the Lord is called the sin of apostasy.

In his discussion of the sin of Apostasy, the author of the Book of Hebrews makes it clear that those people who commit this deadly sin against the Lord and his son Jesus Christ will receive severe punishment from God.  In fact, in Hebrews 10:26, the writer of the Book of Hebrews tells us that there will not be a sacrifice that will atone for the sin of apostasy.  And the reason for that is because the sin of apostasy is a sin that an apostate (a person who rejects Christ and His sacrificial blood) commits against the Lord deliberately and constantly after receiving the full knowledge of God and salvation.

It is for that reason that the author of the Book of Hebrews exhorts and reminds us that for those who reject Christ intentionally and perpetually, there will not be mercy from God. They should expect a fearful judgment and a fury of fire that will consume them as adversaries.  (Hebrews 10:26-27)

Often when people hear such a warning from God through preachers, they try to deny and reject it by hiding in a wrong conception of God’s love towards sinners.  One of the common arguments that people try to present is that God is the God of love and he would never send anyone to hell.

But the Bible over and over again (in both the Old and New Testaments) shows us clearly and undoubtedly that God is both the God of love and justice. God through his eternal love and mercy forgives repentant sinners and saves them through the perfect sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ on the cross.  But at the same time God is holy and hates sin. He specially will never tolerate the sin of apostasy and punishes it with his anger in hell forever. The words from Psalm 7:11 “God is a righteous Judge, and a God who feels indignation everyday” are a clear evidence of that.

But why is God angry towards the sin of apostasy in this way? Why is there no mercy and sacrifice for the sin of apostasy at the end of times? Doesn’t that contradict the idea of God being the God of love?

Well, if you want to know the answer to that question and hear more about the nature and character of the sin of apostasy, I invite you to watch or listen to last Sunday’s sermon entitled “The Fruit of Apostasy”.

May the Lord bless your hearing and meditation on it!

Pastor Zecharias