To us, the sacrifice for sins is the Lord Jesus Christ; He is our sin offering. Yet, the Jews were still not clear whether the Lord Jesus Christ or bulls and goats was their sacrifice for sins. At that time, they still had the priests, the altar, and the sacrifices of bulls and goats on the altar. Not only did they have the spiritual sacrifice for sins, they also had the earthly sacrifices for sins. Christians and Jews do not stand on the same ground. The Gentile believers are different from the Hebrew believers. In A.D. 70 the Roman prince Titus destroyed the temple at Jerusalem, and not one stone was left upon another. However, when the book of Hebrews was written, the earthly temple was still there, and the sacrifices were still being offered. After a number of Jews had believed in the Lord Jesus, they had to make a decision whether they wanted the earthly altar or the heavenly one, the earthly sacrifices or the heavenly sacrifice. At that time, the Jews could not have both the heavenly and the earthly sacrifices at the same time. Everyone who reads the book of Hebrews knows that this book was written with the purpose that Christians would forsake Judaism and would accept Christianity. The purpose of the book of Hebrews is to encourage the Christians to drop the earthly sacrifices and to accept the heavenly sacrifice. This is the background of the book.

Therefore, when it says that one should not abandon the assembling of oneself together, it does not mean that the assembling of Christians can save them or qualify them to have eternal life. The assembling of Christians indicates whether a believer wants Judaism or Christ. The assembling of ourselves becomes an expression of our attitude toward Christ. At that time, all those who assembled together were Christians. No matter if you were a Gentile or a Jew, if you assembled together, you were a Christian. Hence, assembling together became a sign of accepting Christ, and forsaking the assembling together was a sign of forsaking Christ to embrace Judaism. In the same way, sinning willfully here does not refer to things such as murder, arson, eating, drinking, gambling, and licentiousness. Sinning willfully here does not refer to moral sins; it refers to doctrinal sins. This does not pertain to whether or not your walk is proper. This refers to the fact of whether or not you receive Christ or Judaism. To assemble yourselves together means that you want Christ and that you stand on the ground of Christ. To abandon the assembling together shows that you have your back toward Christ and that your face is toward Judaism. To abandon the assembling means that you want the earthly temple, the earthly altar, and the earthly sacrifices. This indicates that you want to go back to Judaism and forsake Christ. If this is the fact, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

Now let us return to the first point. Verse 26 says, "After receiving the knowledge of the truth." It does not say, "After being regenerated," nor does it say, "After our sinful deeds are washed away." If it had said, "After being regenerated" or "After being washed," then to sin willfully would be a matter of our conduct. However, it says, "After receiving the knowledge of the truth"; it is a matter of knowing. Do we know what the truth is? The truth is the faith of a Christian. The truth is that God sent His Son into the world that He would become the sin offering. The truth is that God sent His Son to die for us and resurrect to satisfy all of God's requirements. All of these have to do with the items of faith on God's side. Hence, to sin willfully does not mean transgressions in life. It means to sin against the truth. This is not a behavioral sin, but a doctrinal sin, and a sin regarding one's belief. This is a sin that opposes the faith and the truth, after receiving the full knowledge of the truth.