26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins [sin-offering],
From God’s point of view, there can be only one exclusive sacrifice for sins. It is especially egregious when people who have discovered the finished work of Christ on the cross revert to any other system of salvation. Those who reject Christ’s sacrifice and assume belief in Old Testament sacrifices must personally bear the penalty for their sin (He 10:18). Those who rejected God’s Word in the Old Testament also bore their own sin (Nu 15:31). Eternal salvation is not in view in Numbers 15. The issue there was the punishment of physical death for violating the covenant. In like manner, those who reject Christ after learning of His sacrifice must bear their own penalty for sin. The issue of Numbers 15 was not persistent sin but the kind or nature of sin they committed. This sin warranted physical death.
This phrase “there no longer remains a sacrifice of sin” has Numbers 15:22–31 in view. This is a sin that the New Covenant believer could do; that is, to revert to the Mosaic Covenant. The doing of this peculiar type of sin is what makes this sin so tragic.
Intentional sin would not avert God’s temporal judgment. As long as the believer reverts to the type, he cannot maintain fellowship with the Lord. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. It is either Christ’s sacrifice or none.
PRINCIPLE:
There is a New Covenant counterpart to the Mosaic Covenant: “willful sin.”
APPLICATION:
It is impossible to revert to the sacrifices of bulls and goats as a means of fellowship with God. Should a person attempt this, there is no place for him or her to turn. This believer spurned his only means of connection to God.
To attempt to live the Christian life without faith is sin (Ro 14:23). We can expect judgment from God for not living by faith. To return to temple sacrifices is to enter the same judgment as Judaism’s rejection of Christ’s work on the cross.
