Hebrews 10:26-30

²⁶If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

How To Accept Grace and Express Love

At first, this seems like one of the scariest passages in the entire Bible, directly threatening that even though we think we have been saved, we may still burn like God’s enemies or be punished severely. One could read this as implying that the best choice would be to do all our sinning before knowing and accepting God’s grace, and then to die immediately afterwards to avoid the risk of sinning further. That, at least, was the way I interpreted this passage when I first read it as a teenager. But, in the three decades since, my understanding of this message to the Hebrews has matured in ways that have improved my relationship with God and with others.

As a child, I understood sin in a way I now consider very transactional: perform a bad act, and be punished. As I became a husband, father, and productive citizen, I came to understand sin not as transactional deeds, but rather as relationship failure, specifically our failure to reciprocate the loving relationship God offers us. That has steered my focus from the word sinning in the above passage, to the word deliberately, reminding me that intention is more important than the technical judgement of each of my actions. In human terms, while I understand the sinfulness of being angry with my wife, what ultimately matters is that love remains the primary driver of how I treat her, even if moments of human weakness show I may be imperfect at practicing that love myself. Ultimately, it is love that naturally orients me towards treating my wife with adoration and service most of the time, and to be able to correct when I may slip and treat her with wrath. Similarly in our relationship with God, we avoid deliberately sinning by focusing on our love for him as the primary orientation of how we treat the relationship, accepting that we can never act out that love 100% perfectly as he may do towards us. 

This Lenten season, try reflecting on more positive ways of showing accepting grace and expressing love in your relationship with God and with others. Look for ways to avoid sin not only by depriving yourself of things you may consider sinful, but also by appreciating the acts of love you might too often take for granted, and try to deliberately extend grace in situations you might not have habitually done before.

Prayer: Lord, open my heart to appreciate the grace I receive from you and from others. Orient my mind so that I may express love as a habit. Assure my soul that I am loved despite my imperfect acts, and that my relationship with you is sound. Amen.