Thursday, January 23, 2025

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley on Hebrews 10:29

To see how desperate Calvinists and other proponents of some form of eternal security are, see the following from Beeke and Smalley vis-à-vis Heb 10:26-29:

 

In the warning of Hebrews 10:29, it is not clear that the phrase “the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified” (ESV) indicates that the apostate was once saved by Christ. First, it is possible to translated “he was sanctified” was “one who was sanctified,” meaning that it does not refer to the person rejecting Christ, but to a general principle of salvation by Christ’s blood that the apostate rejects. Second, the person “sanctified” by the blood may be the apostate, but his sanctification could refer to outward consecration as a professing member of the “saints” (6:10; 13:24), not inward sanctification. Third, it may be that “he was sanctified” refers to “the Son of God” (10:29). It could refer to Christ’s consecration as a priest, for priests were consecrated with blood (Ex. 29:29-21). Or it could refer to Christ’s consecration as the true and living sanctuary that unbelievers “trampled underfoot” just as the Gentiles did to the blood-consecrated sanctuary. In any of these interpretations, it is not a person redeemed by Christ’s blood who falls away, and so the text is consistent with the efficacy of his sacrifice.

 

It is highly unlikely that Hebrews 10:29 indicates that Christ’s blood consecrates some who will perish, for earlier in the same chapter we read that Christ accomplished the work to fulfill the promises of complete salvation: “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (10:14-17, citing Jer. 31:33-34). Christ’s sacrifice secures all grace for his people, including the sovereign grace that achieves their inward transformation so that they meet the conditions of the covenant and, unlike many in old covenant Israel, will not be rejected as covenant breakers. (Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, 4 vols. [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2020], 2:1068-69)

 

To see why Beeke and Smalley are wrong (e.g., in their claim that the one sanctified in v. 29 could be Jesus) and that vv. 10-14 supports Reformed theology, see:

 

 Refuting Tony Brown on the theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews

  

 

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