“How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29)

They say that knowledge is power, but true power comes with great responsibility. And today’s verse speaks to the consequences of that responsibility. The Apostle Peter has even said, “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.” – 2 Peter 2:21. Because after knowing the truth, which is the gospel, we are forced to make a decision about what we have learned. This is a decision that leads to the power of life and salvation through Christ Jesus, or it leads to death in the Spirit. And while dying in the Spirit may not manifest itself as [immediate] death in this life, it is certain to be death in the next. So, it is true that never knowing God leaves an open question on the confidence of one’s afterlife. But knowing God, and denying Him, brings a level of certainty to the idea that God would choose to give you exactly what you desire – and eternity away from Him. In all of this, we look at answering the question from today’s verse. “How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished?” Well, I’m going to say it’s not our call (on the punishment). But I will say that if we believe in the good news of the gospel, then we ought to also believe in the truth that “[Jesus] the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [Him].’” – John 14:6. So today remember, we do not get a vote on anyone else’s passage to Heaven, but we do own the decision to definitively choose for ourselves. (Choose Jesus, and be saved)