HEBREWS ix. 27, 28.
THE inspired Apostle, at the close of the ninth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews, points out that it was not necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ as the great High Priest should offer Himself often as the sacrifice for sin, like the high priest of the old dispensation who every year offered the sacrifices of calves and of goats. These sacrifices could not take away sin; they could only shadow forth the manner in which sin would be effectually removed in “the fulness of the time.” Besides, if Christ should require to offer Himself often, “then must he often have suffered from the foundation of the world,” a thing that had not happened, and that was unnecessary to happen; for, “now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” By this sacrifice, the Apostle declares, Christ had effectually put away sin. His one offering was therefore sufficient for ever. He further clenches the matter by pointing out that as sinful men have two great events to meet, death and judgment, Christ as a Saviour at His first and second advents was adequate to supply their need in view of both. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” It is our purpose to call the attention of our readers very briefly to the leading things here brought before us: first, the appointment of death; secondly, the appointment of judgment; thirdly, Christ as the sin-bearing Saviour at His first advent; and fourthly, Christ as the Saviour “without sin” at His second advent.
I.—Let us observe the appointment of death. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” The meaning here is that God has appointed to men in general “once to die” what is known as natural or temporal death. This appointment was judicially made on account of sin. Man was originally formed for life, not for death.
If he had kept the first estate of innocence he would have lived for ever; but by his deliberate disobedience, death entered into the world. (Rom., chap. v.) By his own sin, he brought upon himself the penalty of death, of which he had been amply forewarned. We are ever to remember, then, that the original cause of death is sin—an evil dishonouring to God, and destructive to ourselves. The appointment of death, though general, is not, however, absolutely universal. God, in His sovereign mercy, has made some exceptions—Enoch and Elijah under the Old Testament dispensation, and the saints who will be alive, under the New, when Christ comes the second time to judgment (1 Cor. xv. 51, 52, and 1 Thess. iv. 15, 17).—These are exceptions to the general rule. We are fully convinced, however, as far as our humble study of Scripture is concerned, that His second coming is not at hand, and that all, who are presently upon the face of the earth, will come under the general appointment of death. It is appointed to each one of us now alive to die.
Let two things be noted carefully, then, in this connection—first, that the event of death is absolutely certain; but, secondly, that the exact time of death is quite uncertain, so far as human knowledge is concerned. These are two very solemn considerations for all, but especially for those who are unprepared for the approach of death. The latter are slow to lay these things to heart—slow to believe that they themselves are to die, though death may be all around them, and slow to consider the necessity of immediate preparation in view of the uncertainty of “the day or the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” Death is truly a happy change to sincere believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is an awful change for those who are without Christ, and without hope. There is no alternative for the latter but the outer darkness, where there is weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. We would therefore most affectionately warn all our readers, at home and abroad, who are still in unbelief, of their dreadful danger of dying without a saving interest in the Lord Jesus. We feel a particularly sympathetic interest in those of them who are defending their country at the present time on land or sea. May the Lord in His infinite mercy incline their hearts so to remember death as to move them to seek immediate preparation at the hands of a gracious God in Christ! The promise is, “Seek, and ye shall find.”
II.—Let us consider the appointment of judgment. “After this, the judgment.” There cannot be the slightest doubt from the context that the “judgment” here referred to is the great day of final account, “when all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” It is certainly plain that there is in some sense a judgment at death—the righteous and the wicked then go to their fixed places of glory and misery—but it is the great general judgment that the Apostle here presents to view. This final judgment, when all of both classes belonging to the human race
are to stand before Christ as judge, is always brought before us in the Scriptures as an event which we should always keep in remembrance, as if it were near at hand. The thought of it, when pressed home by the divine Spirit, is fitted to awaken and alarm the soul that was previously asleep in spiritual unconcern. In fact, we ought always to put the question to our individual souls, “How do I expect to stand when I shall appear before Christ’s judgment seat? Have I the preparation that shall satisfy the infinitely holy judge? Have I any right ground to hope that I shall get the welcome, ‘Come ye, blessed of my Father’? Or is it entirely otherwise?” Such are the questions with which we should be exercised. The day of judgment has been divinely appointed, and is absolutely certain. We must appear, whether willing or not, before the Lord of heaven and earth on that tremendous day. And let it further be remembered that it is those who now in the day of opportunity consider as before God the solemn days of death and judgment, as if they were immediately face to face with them, that shall find them when they actually arrive days, not of unspeakable misery, but of eternal bliss and glory. Such persons, now weighing these awful realities, will seek and find the preparation that is in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners, while those who refuse now to be disturbed out of their carnal slumbers by such considerations will have a dreadful awakening at last. “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!”
III.—Let us proceed to observe next Christ as the sin-bearing Saviour at His first advent. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” The tenor of the Apostle’s argument in connection with this passage seems to be that as it is appointed to men to live one life in this present world, and to die one death, so Christ was once (not many times) offered to bear the sins of many, who have to live this one life and die this one death. There was no necessity for any repetition of His sacrifice. One offering was sufficient for ever to bear and to bear away the sins of the many for whom He died.
The precious truth, thus set before us, is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was a sin-bearer. The Father laid upon Him by imputation the sins of all His people, and He was once offered as a sacrifice to satisfy justice for these sins. He is “the Lamb of God, who taketh the sin of the world.” By “the sacrifice of himself” which culminated in His death upon the accursed tree, He put away sin for ever and ever. This is the grand central truth of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and happy are those souls who are enabled by grace and through faith to behold the Lamb, and put their complete and unreserved confidence in Him as a perfect Redeemer from all iniquity.
Let us notice that they are sadly misguided who trust to any merely human goodness or human sacrifice for salvation. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” before God. No less a Redeemer was required than the Eternal Son of God, the brightness
of the Father’s glory and the express image of His Person, possessing all the perfections of the Godhead equally with the Father and the Spirit—God, over all blessed for ever. Such a Redeemer assumed bone of His people’s bone, and flesh of their flesh ; He was God manifest in the flesh. The sacrifice which was required was one that would satisfy the requirements of the infinite God as a righteous judge, and that would also satisfy the needs of finite, guilty men. Such a sacrifice was found in Christ, very God and very man, and only in Him. “There is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.” Though the Lord Jesus did not obey and suffer immediately in His Godhead, yet His holy humanity which obeyed and suffered was in personal and vital union with the Godhead, so that it was in all reality God the Son in human nature who obeyed, suffered, and died upon earth. The sacrifice which was offered derived infinite worth and merit from the infinite dignity of the Person of the Lord Jesus, and by such an all-suitable sacrifice He made an end of sins and brought in everlasting righteousness.
Here, then, is the ground of hope, presented to sinners in the gospel, in view of the solemn prospects of life and death—Christ at His first advent, once offered to bear the sins of many. Guilty souls are invited and commanded to look to this Divine Sin-bearer, that they may behold their sins eternally made an end of, and find the weighty burden of guilt fall off their sinful shoulders. “They looked unto Him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed.” “Look unto me,” He saith, “and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” And it is in dependence by faith upon this Christ as Priest and Sacrifice that those, who look in a day of mercy and power, must go forward to meet the last enemy, death, and to find in him a conquered foe. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
IV.—Let us observe lastly Christ as the Saviour “without sin” at His second advent ; “and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” It is plain from the two verses under view that Christ’s appearance the second time is contemporaneous with the future and final judgment. His second advent is at the great day when He shall sit upon the throne of His glory, and judge all nations. He came the first time with the burden of sin in circumstances of humiliation ; He is to come the second time without the burden of sin in circumstances of exaltation. His first advent took place with a view to bear away the sins of His people in order that they might partake of salvation in its beginning ; His second advent will take place in order that they may partake of salvation in its perfect completion. The Apostle then presents to the view of believers Christ’s second coming as a source of the greatest comfort. It is a coming, no doubt, to judgment—a judgment of final condemnation to the wicked, but a judgment of final acceptance to the righteous. It will be the most sad and terrible day that
ever dawned for the former, but the most comfortable and happy day that ever dawned for the latter.
True believers are spoken of as “them that look for him.” His Apostles were sad at heart when they perceived that their glorious Lord and Saviour was to leave them and to ascend on high; but they were richly comforted when they got the assurance that He was to return again in like manner of honour and glory to that in which they saw Him depart. His second coming is constantly represented in Scripture as the time when His marriage with His bride, the Church, shall be perfectly and eternally consummated. All those, therefore, who “look to him” now by faith as their divine and all-sufficient Redeemer, and are rightly exercised as to the coming eternity, “look for him” to appear the second time to take vengeance, holy and just, on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel, and to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe (2 Thess. i. 7-10). Such are the solemn anticipations of those who live by the faith of the Son of God here, and hope to spend a happy eternity with Him hereafter. Sincere believers, who examine themselves carefully in the light of God’s Word and feel their deep sinfulness and unworthiness, may often have grave fears as to how they shall stand in the dread day when the great white throne will be unveiled and the heavenly books will be opened. But the Apostle would have them to consider that Christ is a complete and perfect Saviour, and that His second advent will not be to their confusion and destruction, but to their eternal happiness and glorification. They are therefore to lift up their heads with solemn joy when they think of the day of judgment and of Christ’s second coming. “He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
It is lamentable, however, to consider the awful prospects of the impenitent and unbelieving—outer darkness and everlasting destruction. May the Lord grant that many such may be aroused out of spiritual sleep now in the day of privilege, and be made to flee to Him for refuge, who bore away the sins of many upon earth, and now sits at God’s right hand, a Prince and a Saviour, ready to receive sinners and able to save unto the uttermost!
SOME fruit here, and part of corn in the field, have been shaken out by the wind. How often do winds of temptation cast down many who have real grace, and make shocking discoveries of those that want it! How quickly fallen fruit spoils if it continue on the ground. How fearfully do professors’ continuance in apostacy and earthliness discover and promote the rottenness of their heart! How busily the gardener gathers in his fruit before winter. How often God takes away the righteous from the evil to come! May I lay up great store of thoughts and prayers in heaven before my winter of affliction and death. Oh, to lay in Christ, lay up Christ, and lay out for Christ.—John Brown.