Hebrews 10

If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins. Wesley: when we—any of us Christians—sin wilfully by total apostasy from God, termed drawing back; after experimental knowledge of the gospel truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice—none but that which we obstinately reject.

Do not soften. Wesleyan Arminians take this as a terrifying pastoral warning about apostasy from grace: those who had received the truth may willfully reject the only sacrifice. Both camps refuse to shrink this into a cartoon or a minor lapse; it is deliberate persistence in forsaking Christ.

Calvin: those who sin here are not such as offend in any way, but such as forsake the Church and wholly alienate themselves from Christ—not particular falls but complete defection. If we knowingly and willingly renounce the grace obtained, there remains no more sacrifice for sins. Christ offers himself daily to sinners who fall otherwise; he denies sacrifice to those who renounce his death by total renunciation of the faith.

Do not soften. Reformed readers take the warning as terrifying and as a means God uses; those who finally depart show they were not truly of the persevering people—yet the text must still land as dread, not as a paper threat.

But a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. The alternative to the rejected sacrifice is not neutrality; it is dread.

Keep the fear. Those who draw back become adversaries under fire. Both camps must preach this without smirking assurance that "true Christians" need not tremble at the words.

Calvin: a fearful looking for—the torment of an evil conscience in those who know that having tasted grace they have lost it forever through their own fault. Fiery indignation will devour the adversaries—destroy but not consume; it will be inextinguishable. Those who refuse their place among the faithful are counted enemies of Christ.

The expectation is fearful. Warning passages are not theater; they are how God keeps and how he unveils the reprobate who abandon the assembly and the Son.

Anyone who set aside Moses' law dies without mercy under two or three witnesses. Wesley: he that in capital cases despised—presumptuously transgressed—the law of Moses died without delay or mitigation.

Both traditions follow the argument from lesser to greater. If covenant apostasy under Moses meant death without mercy, gospel apostasy is not lighter. Fair reading: the issue is setting aside the covenant, not every stumble.

Calvin: argument from the less to the greater. If violating Moses' law was capital, how much heavier the rejection of the gospel. He speaks of the entire denial of Christ—apostasy—referring to Deuteronomy on renouncing God's covenant.

Without mercy under witnesses showed the old covenant's severity; the comparison elevates the gospel's dignity and the apostate's guilt.

How much worse punishment for the one who has trodden under foot the Son of God, counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? Wesley: by wilful, total apostasy; the blood counted unholy; with which he was sanctified—therefore Christ died for him also, and he was at least justified once; despite to the Spirit by rejecting all his motions.

Arminian reading (fair, not straw): sanctified here can describe a consecration and justification once enjoyed, then spurned. The warning stays serious for both camps: this is worse than Moses, and the Spirit outraged is not a metaphor to shrug off.

Calvin: apostates under Law and Gospel both perish without mercy, but the kind of death differs—eternal perdition. Three marks: Son trodden underfoot, blood counted unholy, despite to the Spirit of grace. The blood of the covenant is that by which sanctification is effected; to count it unholy is done by departing from the faith. The Spirit of grace enlightens, seals adoption, regenerates, grafts into Christ—to scorn him is extremely wicked.

Reformed reading (fair, not straw): covenant privilege and sanctification language can describe those enlightened and associated with the people who then apostasize; worse punishment is no illusion; God remains inexorable toward those who tread underfoot the Mediator.

We know him who said, Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay; and, The Lord will judge his people. Wesley: the Lord will judge his people—far more rigorously than the heathens if they rebel against him.

God avenges; God judges his people. Covenant membership does not cancel judgment; it intensifies accountability. Do not soften into tribal comfort.

Calvin: God will not be mocked with impunity; it is his office to render to the ungodly what they deserve. "The Lord shall judge his people" means he governs his church by purifying it—dreadful to hypocrites who usurp a place among the faithful.

Judgment begins with the household. The quote comforts the oppressed and terrifies the apostate. Vengeance belongs to God, not to private rage.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Wesley: to fall into the hands of his avenging justice.

Do not soften—for either camp. Living faith fears this and flees to the only sacrifice still offered to those who have not finally rejected him; those who go on deliberately in apostasy have nowhere else to go. Pair with 10:32–39: recall, endure, do not shrink back.

Calvin: a mortal man's vengeance stops at death; God's power is not so bounded. Whoever considers he has to do with God must tremble. Whenever the flesh allures us, this admonition alone should arouse us: it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; his wrath is furnished with dreadful punishments forever. The Apostle speaks of wrath dreadful to the reprobate who have closed the door of grace.

The application is to keep the fear. Then immediately, with the next unit, call them to remember former endurance and to live by faith—not of those who shrink back, but of those who preserve their souls.