⁴ Because it’s impossible to restore people to changed hearts and lives who turn away once they have seen the light, tasted the heavenly gift, become partners with the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age. ⁶ They are crucifying God’s Son all over again and exposing him to public shame. ⁷ The ground receives a blessing from God when it drinks up the rain that regularly comes and falls on it and yields a useful crop for those people for whom it is being farmed. ⁸ But if it produces thorns and thistles, it’s useless and close to being cursed. It ends up being burned.

Judgment for intentional sin

²⁶ If we make the decision to sin after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there isn’t a sacrifice for sins left any longer. ²⁷ There’s only a scary expectation of judgment and of a burning fire that’s going to devour God’s opponents. ²⁸ When someone rejected the Law from Moses, they were put to death without mercy on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment do you think is deserved by the person who walks all over God’s Son, who acts as if the blood of the covenant that made us holy is just ordinary blood, and who insults the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ We know the one who said,

And he also said,

³¹ It’s scary to fall into the hands of the living God!