Doesn't The Bible Say That There Is No Sacrafice For Willful Sins?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steven87
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Steven87

Guest
I know that the church teaches the only unforgivable sin is dying unrepentant. And also that it is associated with saying a Miracle of God is of the devil.

But reading in Hebrews it says “When someone Sins willfully after recieving the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrafice for tose sins.”
In other words, if you know that something is wrong and you do it willfully then there is no forgivness available, even if repented.

Am I reading this right or somehow misinterpretted it… Because it sounds like a sin which is not covered by the blood of Jesus, therefore unforgivable.
 
Oh, there was something else I wanted to ask…
When someone says “You cannot be saved by God’s grace alone, but by grace and works”

What do they mean by works?
 
40.png
Steven87:
Oh, there was something else I wanted to ask…
When someone says “You cannot be saved by God’s grace alone, but by grace and works”

What do they mean by works?
Click to expand...
It is not by grace and works that you are saved. It is by grace through faith and works. What it basically means is that you have to live your life for Christ, or atleast try. It means that you are saved by more than just a belief in Christ. By living the teachings of Christ you proclaim him to the world.

Everyone sins and no one is perfect, but how we live affects whether we are saved.
 
Oh, I don’t know why I didn’t know that, but thanks for clearing that up.

Anyone have some insight on the first question?
 
I believe what the author of Hebrews meant was a person who became a Christian at some point in their life and then totally rejected all that they believed til his death. Because Jesus is always willing to forgive the truly repentant soul. Just look how many times we have sinned after becoming Christians in thought, word or deed. It is because we are willing to confess our sins that God freely grants us absolution.
 
Steven –

If you read the NAB version of Hebrews Ch 10 v26 there is a footnote that indicates the author is speaking of apostasy.

Keep reading to v 29 and you will see the sin explained as contempt for the Son of God, considering unclean the covenant blood,** and **insulting the spirit of grace – pretty hefty stuff.

Finally, understand that Hebrews really is a re-write of Leviticus in light of Christ. In Lv 4 v 2, 13, 22, 27 and Ch 5 v 15, 17) the sacrifice is directed for inadvertent sins. But remember these sacrifices were with the blood of rams and bulls – an imperfect atonement for sin. Christ’s blood on the cross atones once and for all (see Hebrews 9:12 and following) It is denial of this – that Christ is the Son of God, that his blood atones and insulting the spirit of grace that is unforgivable.
 
Finally, understand that Hebrews really is a re-write of Leviticus in light of Christ. In Lv 4 v 2, 13, 22, 27 and Ch 5 v 15, 17) the sacrifice is directed for inadvertent sins. But remember these sacrifices were with the blood of rams and bulls – an imperfect atonement for sin. Christ’s blood on the cross atones once and for all (see Hebrews 9:12 and following) It is denial of this – that Christ is the Son of God, that his blood atones and insulting the spirit of grace that is unforgivable.
**
^^^Is That True, Because I’ve never heard of this before^^^^
 
Doesn’t it somehow relate to venial sins being done away by sacrifice and mortal ones needing a more personal conversion of heart? Just guessing. There’s no sin if you aren’t willing at least a little bit, so all sins are willful.
 
The reason I say that Hebrews is a re-write of Leviticus in light of Christ is because the main theme of the entire book is the priesthood and the sacrifice of Christ. The book of Leviticus main theme is the levite priesthood and the sacrifices to be made to God by Israel. They parallel each other in many ways. Of course Hebrews has much more to it than just re-writing leviticus.
 
The one and only unforgiveable sin is the sin against the Holy Spirit, which happens when any person refuses to accept the truth all the way to death. Another way to say this is, a person at their death who remains unrepentant, has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit and cannot be saved. All other sins, no matter their type, quantity or seriousness, can be forgiven through the normal means of sacramental confession.

It is the unrepentant soul that has no hope at the time of their death. A good example is the theif on the cross, he was unrepentant throughout his life, yet on the cross at the moment of his death, he accepted Christ and was saved.
 
Bill Smith:
Steven –
If you read the NAB version of Hebrews Ch 10 v26 there is a footnote that indicates the author is speaking of apostasy.

Keep reading to v 29 and you will see the sin explained as contempt for the Son of God, considering unclean the covenant blood,** and **insulting the spirit of grace – pretty hefty stuff.

Finally, understand that Hebrews really is a re-write of Leviticus in light of Christ. In Lv 4 v 2, 13, 22, 27 and Ch 5 v 15, 17) the sacrifice is directed for inadvertent sins. But remember these sacrifices were with the blood of rams and bulls – an imperfect atonement for sin. Christ’s blood on the cross atones once and for all (see Hebrews 9:12 and following) It is denial of this – that Christ is the Son of God, that his blood atones and insulting the spirit of grace that is unforgivable.
Click to expand...
Just thought the commentary in my Haydock Douay-Rheims might be of interest as well:

Ver 26. *If we sin wilfully. *He speaks of the sin of wilful apostacy from the known truth; after which, as we cannot be baptized again, we cannot expect to have that abundant remission of sins, which Christ purchased by his death, applied to our souls in that ample manner as it is in baptism; but we have rather all manner of reason to look for a dreadful judgment; the more, because apostates from the known truth seldom or never have the grace to return to it.

Ver. 28-29. A man making void, etc. He brings this comparison from the manner transgressors were dealt with under the law of Moses, to shew how much greater punishments Christians deserve when they are ungrateful to Christ after much greater benefits, when they may be said to have trodden under foot the Son of God by despising him, who was the author of their salvation, by shedding his blood upon the cross. --What is here said of the crime of apostacy may in some measure be applied to every deadly sin committed after baptism or the sacrament of penance; for a Christian by returning to sin, trods under foot the Son of God, despises the adorable blood by which he was sanctified, and offers a heinous affront to the spirit of grace. Apostacy, though enormous, like all other sins can be forgiven by true repentance; but the apostle declares, there is no victim for the guilt of a person who perseveres and dies in apostacy.
 
**Catechism of the Catholic Church

1864 **“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”[136] There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit.[137] Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss

136 Mt 12:31; cf. Mk 3:29; Lk 12:10.
137 Cf. John Paul II, Dominum Et Vivificantem 46.May 18, 1986,
Pope John Paul II
Encyclical Letter, on the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World, Dominum Et Vivificantem
  1. Against the background of what has been said so far, certain other words of Jesus, shocking and disturbing ones, become easier to understand. We might call them the words of “unforgiveness”. They are reported for us by the Synoptics in connection with a particular sin which is called “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”. This is how they are reported in their three versions: Matthew: “Whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come”.(180) Mark: “All sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”.(181) Luke: “Every one who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven”.(182)
Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? How should this blasphemy be understood? St. Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is “unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place”.(183)

According to such an exegesis, “blasphemy” does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross. If man rejects the “convincing concerning sin” which comes from the Holy Spirit and which has the power to save, he also rejects the “coming” of the Counselor–that “coming” which was accomplished in the Paschal Mystery, in union with the redemptive power of Christ’s Blood: the Blood which “purifies the conscience from dead works”.

We know that the result of such a purification is the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, whoever rejects the Spirit and the Blood remains in “dead works”, in sin. And the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit consists precisely in the radical refusal to accept this forgiveness, of which he is the intimate giver and which presupposes the genuine conversion which he brings about in the conscience. If Jesus says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven either in this life or in the next, it is because this “non-forgiveness” is linked, as to its cause, to “non-repentance”, in other words to the radical refusal to be converted. This means the refusal to come to the sources of Redemption, which nevertheless remain “always” open in the economy of salvation in which the mission of the Holy Spirit is accomplished. The Spirit has infinite power to draw from these sources: “he will take what is mine”, Jesus said. In this way he brings to completion in human souls the work of the Redemption accomplished by Christ, and distributes its fruits. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a “right” to persist in evil–in any sin at all–and who thus rejects Redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, thus making impossible one’s conversion, and consequently the remission of sins, which one considers not essential or not important for one’s life. This is a state of spiritual ruin, because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not allow one to escape from one’s self-imposed imprisonment and open oneself to the divine sources of the purification of consciences and of the remission of sins.
  1. Mt 12:31f.
  2. Mk 3:28f.
  3. Lk 12:10.
  4. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo.IIa-IIae, q. 14, a. 3: cf. St. Augustine, Epist. 185, 11, 48-49: PL 33, 814f.; St. Bonaventure Comment. in Evang. S. Lucae, Ch. XIV, 15-16: Ad Claras Aquas VII, 314f.
 
Let me try and clarify one point IMHO - good works are the evidence of your faith. You are saved by grace through faith, how do you know about your faith? This is where some Christians (non-Catholic) get hung up - you can’t just say “I believe in Christ, therefore I am saved.” If there is no evidence of it, according to Scripture and the CCC, then it’s likely (although we cannot see what’s in people’s hearts or judge, only God can) you are not because your faith is not there.

And to clarify further, people that say good works save you are also wrong - it’s not about anything you do, it’s about your faith in receiving the gift of grace from God. Good works are just the indicator of your faith. A subtle point that confuses people.

By the good works you do. Also, the good works are God’s true goal, not saving us. He is saving us so we can glorify God through our good works.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top