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"SINNING WILLFULLY" AND HEBREWS 10:26 One of the "problem" verses that Satan keeps believers confused over is Hebrews 10:26: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." Like most problem verses, the verse is almost always extracted from its context and applied to the individual believer who "sins wilfully" after he has been saved, even thou he doesn't have a priest offering sacrifices with the blood of bulls and goats (vss. 1-11). The context is not born again believers in Christ today who fully understand and have benefitted from Christ's work on the cross, but rather first century Jews who felt the need to still trust in the "blood of bulls and of goats" (vs. 4) by "every priest" offering sacrifices that "can never take away sins" (vs. 11). For Jews still believing in the old Mosaic system, Calvary was of none effect. The whole point of verse 26 was that anyone really coming to the FULL "knowledge of the truth" would understand that continual sacrifices were useless, even blasphemous. Paul was basically saying, "You Christian-Jews just don't get it, even if you think you do, and the proof is in the fact that you still trust in your animal sacrifices, sacrifices that are no longer effective in dealing with sin. Sin was dealt with 100% at Calvary, so leave it there and stop trying to deal with it elsewhere." As for believers like us who DO get it, verse 39 applies: "But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." No doubt, the passage also has tribulation reference concerning Jews who turn to Christ at that time, but the above is how to handle the passage for concerned believers today.