Ajax,
My view:
It seems to me that if salvation were something earned, then the sacrifice of Jesus was wholly unnecessary.
The act of wilful sinning (Heb 10:26) is a rejection of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ - or maybe I should say it is a manifestation of a rejection of Jesus' sacrifice. It is the rejection of Christ's sacrifice that leads to a "fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." (verse 27)
This is made clear in verse 28, when the writer draws a parallel to the law of Moses:
"Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses."
The act of sinning, under the law covenant, was a rejection of that law covenant. In the same way, wilful sinning while under the new covenant (the blood of Jesus) is a rejection of the new covenant, a rejection of Christ's sacrifice. Notice verse 29:
"How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"
To practise sin wilfully is to reject the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. To reject the sacrifice of Christ leads to a "fearful expectation of judgement."
Verse 10 clearly shows that we are made holy by the sacrifice of Christ, not works:
"And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"
The entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews is devoted to salvation through faith in the sacrifice of Christ. Notice verse 13-16:
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."
It was their faith, not their works, by which they attained salvation.
Notice chapter 12 verse 25:
"See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?"
You should also note Titus 3:5:
"he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, (6) whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,"
and Romans 3:20-28:
"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."
TS,
Did the Watchtower Society "support" the scarlet beast of Revelation?
: http://www.geocities.com/watchtowersociety/beast.htm
