"26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Hebrews 10:26-31
Again a solemn warning to remind us how critically important it is how we react to the truth of God, and this time, concerning wilful sin. What is wilful sin? The Apostle seems to have something definite in mind when he uses this phrase, and we need to understand it properly. In an earlier Note it was pointed out that there are two elements in sin, human frailty and weakness on the one hand, and revolt and rebellion against God on the other, and in greater or lesser proportions these are always combined. It is possible for one aspect to predominate and be in the ascendant in any particular act of sin, and it is possible for the one to increase until it almost eclipses the other and brings a man's heart into a state in which he deliberately flouts the authority of God. This means that his sin has passed beyond the realm of human frailty and weakness and verged on the demonic. This is the point at which wilful sin becomes a possibility, and it really speaks of a point of no return, a point at which nothing more can be done, even by God, for such an one. We recall how Jesus prayed, 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do', and Paul said, 'I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief'. But when a man does know what he is doing, and still deliberately turns his back upon Christ, when his problem is not a fatal weakness of nature, but pure rebellion against God, then he has reached the danger point. This is very frightening, but the Apostle means it to be. We may well ask, 'How do we know when we are in danger of sinning wilfully?' There is only one answer: we must strive to the utmost of our power to see to it that we do not sin at all!