(GRACE AND DISGRACE - Day 1 of 7)
“How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”
Hebrews 10:29
Not all scripture on the subject of “grace” is as beautiful as the word. How we can sometimes (too many times) treat the grace of God is just downright dis-graceful. And what the inspired Hebrew writer makes clear here is that this is not only not ok, but worthy of the judgment and condemnation and wrath of God. Punishment.
This is very relatable when Jesus exposes the same truth in Matthew 18 with the parable of the wicked debtor. The slave owes his master 10,000 denari (60,000,000 days' wages) and is forgiven by the grace of his master. This forgiven debtor goes to a fellow slave who owes him 100 denari (100 days' wages) and is unmerciful and unrelenting in demanding full repayment. The fellow slaves see this injustice and report back to the master who has this wicked debtor punished. Any reasonable person can see how the wicked debtor disgraced his master's grace in how he mistreated his fellow slave. The master was right to enact such punishment upon the wicked.
This is very relatable in the parable, but not always something we can so easily relate to ourselves. It can be difficult sometimes for us to see ourselves as the guilty party. To see how we disgrace the grace of Jesus with our continued willful sin. To see how we “trample under foot the Son of God” (regarded as useless and vain Matthew 5:13) when we ourselves are selfish, disobedient, unmerciful, unkind, unforgiving, and/or unloving. To see our disgracing the grace of Jesus as regarding as unclean the blood He shed for our sin when we willfully bound headfirst into it continually. It’s hard for us to see ourselves in that, but we are in that when we come to the knowledge of the gospel and yet choose the path of sin.
“How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve…” is a potent rhetorical question. Because it’s the punishment I will deserve if I don’t consider the truth taught here and be truly penitent of heart in changing my attitude and actions toward sin. God has warned us of the punishment and warned us of who will receive it. May we heed the warning so as to ensure it is not us! May we not insult the Spirit of grace with our sins, but honor the Spirit of grace by living in the righteousness of His grace!
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