The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 296

o.posto.sy." It is not o. case of ordinary religious backsliding or declension from Christ ; f~r then ther~ would b~ some hope ?r repentance and encouragement to repent (Jer. 111.14 ;_Hos.xiv. 4) .. I~ 1s_a co.se of w1l~ul, deltberat~, contemptuous, persistent rejectiou of Chnst o.nd of Christianity, after having known his truth all(\ experienced his grace. II. A PUNISIIMENT OF TIIE MOST TERRIBLE SEVERITY, 1. The utter loss of the hope of spiritual reformation. "There remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins." The sacri- fices of Judaism to which, in the case supposed, the apostate returns have no power to take a.way sins. The efficacy of the sacrifice of the Saviour has not been exhausted by him, but he has deliberately and scornfully rejected it, so that for him it has no lon"'er any atoning or saving power. And no other exists for him, or will be provided J'or him, When a man wilfully, contemptuously, and persistently rejects the only sacrifice through which salvation may be attained, what hope can there be for him of for"'iveness and spiritual renewal? 2. The dreadful anticipation of an awful judgme'fit. ~. There remaineth a certain fearful expectat10n of judgwent.'' The apostate looks forward with dismay, and even with terror at times, to the approaching judgment and the righteous retributions which will follow. His punishment is already begun in his o.larming anticipations of the dread penalties awaiting him hereafter. 3. The infliction of a punishment worse than death. "A fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man that bath set at nought Moses' Law dieth without compassion," etc. If an Israelite apostatized from Jehovah to idolatry, when "two witnesses or three witnesses" testified against him, he was to be stoned to death (Deut. xvii. 2-7). If one sought to seduce another to idolatry, the person so tempted was to take the lead in stoning the tempter to death, even though the tempter was the nearest and dearest relative, or a. friend beloved as his own soul (Dent. xiii. 1-11). But for the apostate from Christ there is a. "much sorer punishment" than the death of the body by stoning. The severity of the punishment will be in proportion to the clearness of the light a.nd the richness of the grace and the preciousness of the privileges rejected by the apostate. " The wrath of God burns as hotly as his love, and strikes no less surely than justly." Yet it seems to us tliat nothing in the punishment of the apos- tate ca.n be darker or more terrible than this, that for him " there remaineth no more a. sacrifice for sins." " Wherefore let him that tbinketh he standeth take heed lest he fa.11."-W. J. Ver. 31.-Falling into the hands of God-a contrast. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the banda of the living God." "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord" (1 Chron. xxi. 13). State briefly what led to this utterance of David. The taking of the census, etc. Wherein was the sin of numbering the people? Not in the mere act ; for Israel had been numbered thrice before by the command of the Lord. But David took this census (1) without Divine authority or sanction; (2) from motives of pride and ostentation. Perhaps he was contemplating schemes of foreign conquetit. Cer- tainly the motive was a sinful one, and therefore the act was sinful. God was dis- pleased thereby, and he determined to punish the king and his people for this and previous sins, e.g. the rebellions in which the people had joined. He, however, sent Gad the seer unto David to give him the choice of one out of three punishments (1 Chron. xxi. 11-14). With becoming humility and piety, the king left the judg- ment in the hand of God. He prayed that he might "not fall into the band of man," a.n<l his people be destroyed three months before their foes; but whether the punish- ment should be '' three years' famine, or three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land," he left to the decision of the merciful God. "David said unto Gad,'' etc. (1 Chron. xxi. 13). After these words the text from our Epistle has a strange sound : "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Ii ving God." The sacred writer has been treating of a sin of extraordinary wickedness-apostasy from Christ; and apostasy characterized, not by ignorance, but by despite of the clearest know- ledge; not by weakness but by wilfulness; not by transitoriness, but by persistence. It is of the punishment' of such an apostate that it is said," It is a fearful thing,'' etc. "The hands of God are his almighty operations, whether in love or wrath." He is "the living God" because he is self-existent; his exist~nce is ind~pend~nt, ~bsolute, eternal. So "the hands of the living God" present the ideas of his alm1ghtmess and eternity, How fearftil to foll into the punitive hands of such a Being I Man may be  THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [err. x. 1-39.