What is the definition of willful sin? Hi, welcome to today's lesson. Thank you so much for joining me. Today's question comes from one of our beloved
viewers asking about the definition of willful sin, and you probably recognize that phrase,
wilful sin, as being straight out of the Bible, and it is. It's from Hebrews 10:26. And so before I try to answer that question,
what is the definition of willful sin, let's read it from the Bible. Okay, I think Paul wrote Hebrews, but nobody
knows for sure, but it doesn't make any difference. The Holy Spirit inspired whoever the author
was and he wrote, "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge
of the truth." So there's that phrase, "sinning willfully,"
and "If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins." Of course, we know that Jesus was the sacrifice
for our sins, but the author of Hebrews says, "If we go on sinning willfully after receiving
the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin." So whatever that means, you know, it's clear
that it generally means that Jesus' sacrificial death doesn't atone for your sins, that as
you continue on willfully sinning. And this of course ought to raise some consideration
and thought about a hyper-grace teaching that says that Jesus died for all of your sins,
past, present, and future. Therefore, there's no need to ever worry about
sinning ever again, and there is no need to confess your sins when you do sin, even after
you believed in Jesus because Jesus died for them all. Well, hmmm, you know here, the author of Hebrews
says there's obviously a possibility for a certain category of people for they're no
longer to remain a sacrifice for sins, for those that continue sinning willfully. So there is no sacrifice, so there's no salvation,
there's no atonement for their sins. But here's the antithesis, here's what they're
going to receive since they're not going to get, since there's no sacrifice of sins, what
is there that waits for them? But a terrifying expectation of judgment and
the fury of a fire. Well, that kind of sounds like hell, doesn't
it, which will consume the adversaries. All right, so you know, no doubt there's good
reason to be concerned about verses like these because you know, nobody wants to go to hell. And this indicates that a person who at one
time did have, there was remaining a sacrifice for their sins of this person, there no longer
remained that sacrifice. But you know what awaited for them was hell,
and it applies to the person who sins willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth. All right, let's talk about what it means
to sin willfully. Well, notice it's willful sin after receiving
the knowledge, the truth. So there's a greater degree of accountability
and expectation at that point in time. Because prior to them receiving the knowledge
of the truth, everyone is sinning willfully, right? I mean, their whole life is characterized
by willful sin. And they might have some goodness. There might be some little spark of, you know,
kindness or generosity in them, although even a lot of times that's just selfish in unsaved
people. But there's a line of demarcation after receiving
then all of the truth. What does that mean? You know, it at least means they've heard
the Gospel, but I think it implies even more than that. I think it implies receiving the knowledge
so they believe the Gospel. But people will of course debate about that
because those who believe that if you're once saved, you're always saved, and salvation
is like a tattoo. Even if you regret it after you got it, you
can't ever get rid of it, you know? Well, I think there's a lot of Scriptures
that would challenge that viewpoint. And I know all the Scriptures that the people
who believe in once saved, always saved, lists all about the faithfulness of God and so on
and so forth. And there's no doubt that God's faithful and
no man is going to snatch you out of God's hands. But that doesn't mean you can't walk away
yourself. You can go on sinning willfully after receiving
the knowledge of the truth. And that's the whole theme of Hebrews actually. It's written to Jewish believers undergoing
great persecution, who are being tempted to revert back to Judaism, and the author is
trying to get them to not do that, and here's one of the examples. Don't, don't do that. Don't, don't go back to the way you were. And so that really helps us when we read this
verse in the entire context of Hebrews, it's not just a verse spoken in a vacuum, it is
a verse spoken in a book and a book that's in the Bible, right? So we've got a whole lot more information
to use in order to understand this because we all still sin as Christians, right? And it's in a sense, every sin is willful. You can't sin without deciding to do it. And I think the Scripture makes it very clear
that Christians are still apt to stumble. We all stumble in many ways. The author of James wrote, "If anyone doesn't
stumble in what he says," James said "He's a perfect man," but we're all still stumbling. Goodness, in the Lord's prayer Jesus taught
us pray that God would forgive us as we forgive others. Well, you know, that's an every day prayer. Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive those,
the debts of others. So every day there's that possibility of sinning,
and on some level, Christians are still falling into sin, at times yielding and giving in. And it's in a sense, willful, because how
can sin not be willful? So that's not what this is talking about. When we read it in the context of the entire
New Testament and in the context of Hebrews, it becomes very clear that what the writer
is talking about is a person who after receiving the knowledge of the truth then reverts back
to just the same kind of attitude and lifestyle that he or she had prior to salvation. After you get saved, your motivation is to
please God and to do His will. And you're concerned about that. You're very concerned about that, you know? Your passion in life becomes to please God. But if you return to your former lifestyle,
well, you didn't care what God. God was not a part of your life, and so you
just dive headlong into willful sinning, lifestyle, practice, no resistance, just yielding. You see, that's what he's talking about. And that person is in deep trouble as the
author of Hebrews makes so plain, okay? So the willful sin that the author of Hebrews
is talking about is not what we're all familiar with, where the spirit wars against the flesh,
and sometimes the flesh wins, but the spirit resisted the whole time. It's saying, "No, no, no, no, no. Run, run, run, run, run." And the flesh is saying, "Please, let's go
ahead and dive in to this." And maybe we yield to the flash, or yield
to the devil, or yield to the temptation of the world, but as soon as we've done it, we
have regret. We're asking God to forgive us and so forth. You see, that's totally different than the
person who's sitting willfully as a lifestyle practice turning his back on Jesus, and for
that person, there is no sacrifice for sins. there's no guarantee of salvation for that
person. And we hear this argued, that these people
that well, we're sure they were saved at one time. Now it looks like, you know, they, they have
no fruit in their life. They say they're not a Christian, but we know
they're going to heaven. Well, not according to what we just read here
in Hebrews 10:26, okay? All right, so that's the best I can do in
eight minutes. Thank you so much for joining me. Hope to see you next time. God bless.
