Untitled article | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 3, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 47.

3927 — Heb. 10:26, 27; 1 John 1:9

How can Heb. 10:26, 27 be harmonized with 1 John 1:9? S.

1 John 1:9 reads, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Heb. 10:26, 27 reads, "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries." In the one case there is repentance of heart, in the other case there is none. The man who treads underfoot the Son of God, counts the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and does despite unto the Spirit of grace, has rejected the only means God has of saving him. The influence of the Spirit of God upon the heart to reprove of sin, and the blood of Christ to wash away the sin, are the means by which God saves men. But when a man utterly repudiates the Spirit of God, God has no means of reaching his heart; nor does the man know, when the Spirit comes, that it is the Spirit. And when a man turns from the only thing that would wash him clean, God has no other means. There is no other way but God's way. The man who comes, however, and confesses his sins, is a man who has repentance of sin. The Spirit of God has not left him, he responds to its reproof, and there is cleansing in the blood of Jesus. The unpardonable sin is the unrepentable sin, and the unrepentable sin is that which man brings upon himself by his resistance and rejection of the Spirit of God. He counts the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy and common thing, and does despite to the Spirit of grace. Heb. 10:29.