BY THE LATE REV. PROFESSOR JOHN DUNCAN, LL.D.,
EDINBURGH.
(Hitherto Unpublished.)*
* Preached at Clare Hall, Grange, Edinburgh, on 10th April, 1864.
YOU will have observed in reading the former part of the chapter, that a comparison is instituted between the services belonging to the first covenant and the second. The Apostle had been comparing the Christian dispensation with the Jewish, Christ with Moses, the Apostle of that dispensation, and Aaron, the High Priest of it. He alludes, in the eighth verse of the eighth chapter to the new covenant, quoting from Jeremiah thirty-first: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah”; and reverts to the points of agreement and of contrast between the services that belonged to the first, or Sinaitic covenant, and what belongs to the new covenant. There was a worldly sanctuary, and in it were offered daily sacrifices; and once a year took place the great sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. Besides, at the entering of the people into covenant relation with God, when they met with Him, Moses offered sacrifices, and sprinkled both the book and the vessels of the tabernacle, and the people, with blood. “It was necessary,” says he, “that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” He here makes out then that the services of the Mosaic dispensation were the patterns of things in the heavens, but that the things of the new covenant are the heavenly things themselves. Both had to be purified with blood. For the patterns of things in the heavens, which were types of heavenly things, typical blood sufficed unto an outward end; but, for the heavenly things, there was needed better blood, viz., Jesus entering with His own blood into the true sanctuary.
The contrast therefore is shewn in two particulars. First, in the superiority of the blood: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood.” Secondly, in the circumstance, that while these sacrifices had to be repeated often, that was not necessary in this case—seeing the blood was better blood, it was not necessary it should be offered often—He once suffered. For when true and proper expiation for sin is made, there is no use that the sacrifice should be repeated. And that, by the way, tells against the Romish doctrine of the repetition, or the modified doctrine of the continuation, of the sacrifice of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, or, as the Romanists call it, the sacrifice of the Mass.
The Apostle urges the imperfection of the Levitical sacrifices, on the ground, among other considerations, that these needed continually to be repeated. And so, to say that the sacrifice of Christ needs to be repeated or continued, is to declare that it is as yet imperfect, and so to cast the greatest possible slur—instead of putting respect, it is to pour contempt—on the expiatory death of the Lord Jesus. “Once”—it was once; but it continued to have a permanent effect.
Just as among men one thing takes place, death on account of sin, and is followed by its everlasting effect, the judgment; so the death of Christ once for many needs not to be repeated, but shall be followed by His second appearing unto them that look for Him without sin unto salvation.
You see that in the text there are two pairs of things contrasted—the appointment unto all men once to die, and after death the judgment, and so the first appearing of Jesus Christ, with sin; and His second appearing, without sin, unto salvation.
I.—The appointment unto all men once to die, but after this the judgment (verse 27).
That all men die is a fact of which all are cognisant, and yet which, alas! is far too little laid to heart. The poet’s saying still holds true: “All men think all men mortal but themselves.” And yet this earth which we tread is, as it were, one huge sepulchre of the generations that have passed; and soon it shall be with us, that the place which now knows us shall know us no more. Yes; death is a dread fact. I must die; thou must die; we all must die. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” It is not—as it is sometimes called—the debt of nature; it is the appointment of God. And from this it derives its aspect of the king of terrors. For it is the wages of sin. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The dread curse, given forth first by way of threatening: “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Then the confirmation of it: “Thou shalt return to the ground, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
“It is appointed.”—“I know,” says Job, “that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.” Death, which shall separate us from all that are near and dear to us. So far they can accompany us, but not one step further. Death, which shall separate also between soul and body, and the body shall be laid in the silent tomb till the resurrection. “And after death the judgment.” And is it not a solemn thing, under God’s condemnation to death, to go and face God, and to receive at His hands according to the deeds done in the body, whether they have been good or whether they have been evil; to stand at the judgment-seat of Him who, in His righteous judgment, shall render tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile? “To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.”
“It is appointed unto men.” Ah, how important a nature have we! How solemn, how awful a thing it is to be a man, to be a man, whom God magnifies and sets His heart on, and will bring into judgment with Him! “After death, the judgment.” And suppose that here all our view terminates, and that we are left to our expectations of what that judgment will be, and to form our expectations, on correct views of God’s character and our own, on correct views of that holy, just and good law, which primarily the holy, just and good God gave to man (made by Him holy, just and good, and therefore laid under obligation by Him to remain and to act holily and justly and well), so to appear at His judgment seat, what must our expectations be! I know not what each of you thinks of himself and herself, what, upon this perfect rule regarding the deeds done in the body, your expectations may be. Sure, I am, from what the Word of God declares, and what my own conscience testifies, that for me there were nothing but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, to consume me as an adversary, if I were brought into judgment on that ground.
Death and judgment: these are solemn things, and in themselves most awful. What is it that makes death and judgment so terrible? It is sin. For, “the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” The law, which binds the transgressor up under the execration and curse of God, and so delivers him over unto the reigning power of sin and Satan; the law, which gives its power to sin, for God could sanctify from sin by His omnipotence, but the curse of His law comes in between; and so the accursed is given over to his own heart’s lust—is given over to him to whom in the first man we surrendered ourselves, the terrible one whose lawful prey we became. What a solemn thing to stand for life and death even before a human tribunal, and to stand in jeopardy and peril of having our life adjudged unto the vindication of that law which keeps human society bound together! But to be judged of God for the transgression of His law, for enmity to Himself involved in transgression of His law; to be declared God’s enemies, driven from His bliss-giving presence, and made vessels of his righteous, relentless wrath, without end and without hope, that is what I deserve. What dost thou deserve? If therefore there be no escape from sin, there is no escape from death; and if there be no escape from sin, likewise there is no escape from being cast in the great judgment. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” Men have but once to die—but once. And if they die wrong, they cannot amend it.
Well, what an awful thing if we die wrong! And yet, alas! it is no uncommon thing. Those who would die well should think much on death. Not that this of itself is sufficient—far from it; but there is scarcely anything else that will fix our minds to the contemplation of the atoning death of the Lord Jesus but the realisation of our own mortality, and the cause of it, our own sinfulness.
II.—The first appearing of Christ, with sin, and His second appearing, without sin, unto salvation.
This is the other pair of things with which the Apostle compares death and judgment. “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.” Amidst all the deaths that have taken place, there is one that stands out distinct and pre-eminent above them all. We die, because we are sinners; we die, because we sinned in the first of men; we die, having added innumerable actual transgressions, sin having abounded. But there died One who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; One who did no violence, neither was deceit found in His mouth; One of whom the Heavenly Father proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”; and One who was not involved in the guilt of Adam’s transgression, for He came not by ordinary generation. “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” But He came not—He did not enter, as we do—by connection with Adam, for He had divine being eternally. He existed from eternity as the co-equal Son in the bosom of the Father. Nor did He take our flesh by ordinary generation, and so incur the guilt of Adam’s first sin. And why was He put to death? It will not solve the question to speak of the wicked and of the rage of devils. True, men took and, by wicked hands, crucified and slew Him; true, the prince of this world came, and though he found nothing in Him, many bulls of Bashan compassed Him about. What the malice of earth and hell could do, was done. But there is One higher than the highest. This act took place under the government of a righteous God. Why did He permit it? Permit it, do I say? “It pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath put him to grief.” “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” He offered Himself a sacrifice to God; but they are striking words, these already quoted: “It pleased Jehovah to bruise him.”
Now, why this? We can all see, that whatever views of the death of Christ there may be other than as a true and proper sacrifice for sin—the sin of others imputed to Him, “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him”—that without this solution, it remains insoluble. Speak of a manifestation of the love of God to man! If the death of Christ was not a sacrifice to divine justice, it told nothing of love. What lesson could we learn from it? Only this lesson, that God had no regard to justice; that, under His government, the only holy one that had been since Adam fell was the greatest sufferer; and that, as the innocent suffered, so the guilty may escape. But, “herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Yes; He loved His Son with all the fulness of divine love, and He gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, maintaining the honour of His law and justice, of all His perfections, in His plan of saving us. Christ’s death was an atoning death, was a propitiatory sacrifice. He was “offered”—He was offered unto God.
What was the meaning of sacrifice, sacrifice typical under the law? (The ceremonial law could have no meaning by itself—it had its meaning in reference to moral law, and the sanction of that law—”The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”) God was pleased to manifest His design of accepting a substitutionary death of His own provision by the appointment of sacrifices. The sacrifices obtained freedom from death, so that the worshipper was allowed to enter the sanctuary of God, and to enjoy the privileges of an Israelite. His sin deserved death, and only by the endurance of death could his sin be put away. Sacrifice there was, founded on the connection that is between sin and death. And that connection is not appointed arbitrarily by God, but is founded on the very nature of God, sin, not only warranting, but demanding, at the hands of justice, its proper desert, death. And death, as under God’s displeasure for sin, can only be death in all its wide extent—the threefold death, as it is called—death temporal, spiritual, and eternal: the one great death of the soul’s separation from God, the fountain of life, and being left in that condition for ever.
It was necessary that the sacrifice should be perfect: the animal had to be of clean beasts, and to be perfect. For nothing could be expiatory, nothing could come on the altar of God, that was not perfectly pure. “Redeemed, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” And the innocent creature was laid hold of by the sinner; laying his hands on it, he confessed his sins, and his sins were transferred to the innocent. For the death could not be inflicted, unless the sin was imputed. So, the nature of a sacrifice is the death of the innocent for the guilty, by the transference of the guilt of the guilty to the innocent.
“Christ was once offered”—He was offered but once. Not many times since the foundation of the world. Indeed, if it had not been for the sufficiency of His death, it must have been repeated. Nothing but the death of Christ could put away sin; and, if it had been necessary that it should have been more than once, “then,” as the Apostle takes for granted, “must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world,” or since the fall of man. But it was not necessary that He should be offered often. He was offered once—once, with efficacy stretching back through all time, and stretching forward through all time. God’s saints under the old dispensation looked forward through the typical blood—it was with much obscurity, yet it was sufficiently bright to faith—to what was meant by it, the sacrifice of the new covenant. Christ’s death thus extended back through all time, and so it extends forward: There is no need of any more sacrifices for sin.
“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Ah! my fellow sinner, I am one sinner; what art thou? My fellow-sinners who, along with me, are going on to judgment, this is an important matter to hear of Christ in connection with sacrifice, and in connection with sins. There remaineth no other sacrifice, He being once offered to bear the sins of many; and so, when we come into judgment, either our sins shall be found on Him or on us. If they are not on Christ, then are they on ourselves, and we have, with them lying on us, death before us, and judgment before us. And how shall we die with this weight upon us?
O perhaps, like many, we may sleep, and sleep on, and never feel the heavy weight, and die blind to what is immediately beyond death. But we shall not remain ignorant of the weight one moment longer. If our sins are out of our memory, they are in God’s book of remembrance, and our own memories shall be refreshed—the memories of such as shall be found Christless—and shall testify against us to the awful facts.
But there shall be found those who had sinned—”fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, covetous, drunkards”—the Apostle says to the believers, “Such were some of you”—these shall be found—and “when the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, they shall not be found.” “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many”—many. Around the One, who died once, shall be found the many who were wicked as well as others—the many who ought to have died eternally, being condemned and executed. But, no; their sin has been borne, and borne away. And mark how excellent that one offering must be, from a consideration of the many. No creature would have been able to bear—no mere creature would have undertaken to bear, God would not have allowed any mere creature to undertake to bear—the sins of others; and, if he had undertaken, he must have failed. But around the One are the many—”the number of them,” as the Apostle says in the Apocalypse, “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” Every one of them was a sinner. For ever shall be the song, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” O what must be the value of that redemption price that was paid, when it was a price for the many!
It was for many; not for all. The Word says many—not all; not all. We read in our Catechism, “God having, out of His mere good pleasure, from all eternity elected some unto everlasting life.” We are apt to wonder that the compilers did not say many instead of some merely, though no doubt they said some, meaning many, very many.
This leads us to the second part of this head, for it suggests the important question: How may I know—how may any one know that he is among the “many”?
That is answered in the second part: “unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.” The many for whom Christ was offered, and they that look for Him, to whom He shall appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation, are the same.
The “many” are defined to be “those that look for him.” We are not called in the Gospel, first of all, to ascertain whether our names are in the Lamb’s book of life, whether that propitiatory death was for us personally, or not. The Lord has not revealed the names of the elect saved, but He has revealed the name of the elect Saviour. And He has given signs of the elect saved—they know, receive, come to, believe in, cleave to the elect Saviour. The “many” know the One. “I know my sheep, and am known of mine.” “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” He does not say that the sheep know themselves, but, “I know the sheep, and the sheep know me, who, as the Good Shepherd, give unto them eternal life.” The word “many” offers this great encouragement—the multitude of the saved. Ah! there is the multitude of the lost. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” But in the everlasting Gospel the invitation is addressed to all. To those that have the everlasting Gospel, the words of Christ are: “Come unto me”; “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” To the inquiry, “What must I do to be saved?” the answer is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
The inquiry is not then, in the first place, “Am I among the many?” but, “Am I a sinner that have to die, and be judged; and is Christ the Saviour of sinners that had to die and be judged; and does He invite me in the everlasting Gospel?” That is the one warrant. “This is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” And He opens that: “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
If you ask me, who will come? I say, God’s called according to His promise. If you ask, who may and should come? I answer, every one to whom the word is sent, to whom Jehovah says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else,” a just God and a Saviour.
The “many” there are described as “them that look for him.” The position, with reference to Christ, in which they are placed, is between His first and His second coming—occupying till He come—as in the parable: the man went into a far country to receive a kingdom, and to come back again. Christ’s “many” are described to be those that believe in His first, and wait for His second coming. It is said in 1 Thessalonians, “Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come,” when “He was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Such are the characteristics of the “many.” They have turned unto God from idols, to serve the living and true God. They believe in Jesus, who delivered us from wrath to come; they have received Him, being born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of man, but of God. And turning unto God through Him who died, “the just for the unjust,” they have turned to wait for His second coming—girding up the loins of their mind, being “sober, and hoping to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto them at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, they love.”
“Them that look for him.” This is not bare expectancy, but such looking as denotes preparation. “Occupy till I come.” The not looking produces sloth. So the servant, who said, “My Lord delayeth his coming,” began to beat his fellow-servants, and to eat and to drink, and be drunken. But the servant who expected his Lord’s return was diligent, careful to have all things in readiness that, whatever hour of the night He might come, He might find him watching and ready.
Well, then, from these and similar tokens, you may judge whether or not you be among the “many.” If you have these marks, you are among the “many,” and if you have not these distinctive marks, you are not among the “many.” Let those who have these marks seek to glorify God, who has made them what they are. And let those who are destitute of them consider. You know not what God’s sacred purposes are, not yet being among the called according to the purpose, yet hearing about death and judgment, and hearing about the death of Christ, and His coming again in the glory of His Father and of His holy angels to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe, and in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of His Son, you, who have been as sheep going astray, be ye now as sheep returning to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, who refuses none that come to Him.
“Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin.” Once more He appears—without sin, without sin-offering, and without the imputed sin which caused the sin-offering. “Without sin”; our Lord was always without sin in Him, but He had a great load of sin on Him. O how much sin had the ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, each of them having had the primeval guilt of the race and manifold actual sins, especially the sins of their unconverted state! What a load! And Christ bore them all. He accomplished the work; went through the task. Sin was on them once, they having committed it. Then it was on Him; by Him undertaken, and by God imputed. It is not on them now, for it was transferred to Him; and it is not on Him now, for He bore it and put it away. “The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.” It is gone; abolished. He hath finished transgression and hath made an end of sin. There was a load of sin on Him; but there is now a crown of glory on His head, and the King is made most glad for evermore with the light of Jehovah’s countenance. And without sin He comes in His own glory, and in the glory of His Father, and of the holy angels. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe.” The Apostle adds—O! that we could add it—”because our testimony among you was believed.”
“Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.” Salvation is a word used in manifold senses; salvation has manifold aspects in Scripture. Sometimes it is put for the procuring of our salvation: “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling.” Salvation, being here placed before effectual calling, must mean the procuring of salvation by Christ’s meritorious life and atoning death. Sometimes it is put for the state of grace into which men are brought when, through the receiving of the Holy Ghost, they see and believe in the only begotten Son of God: “The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.” Sometimes it is put for the progress of salvation in increasing sanctification: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Sometimes it is put for the completed salvation at the last day: “It is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
The salvation which was purchased by Christ, in its outgoing and application, has various stages. But, if we should suppose an individual converted just in the moment previous to Christ’s appearing, what would take place? The forgiveness of all his sins—the entire sanctification of his nature—and the change equivalent to death and the resurrection. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” “Then we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up, together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” And this is what gives us the completeness of the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
But it comes out ordinarily in steps. There is the communication of the Spirit of life in regeneration, and union to Christ by faith—justification, adoption, increased sanctification—deliverance from the power and dominion of sin—at death deliverance from indwelling sin—deliverance from death and all the consequences of sin—and the possession of a spiritual, glorious body. That is the complete salvation. It is salvation from condemnation—from indwelling sin—from death and the power of the grave—from hell. And it is the salvation of the whole man unto God—in the soul being made perfectly holy, and in the body being raised up and made glorious—in believers being openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
This full enjoying of God to all eternity is salvation in its full sense. And “Unto them that look for him Christ shall appear the second time without sin” (having no sin in Him, as He never had, and none on Him) “unto salvation.” They for whom He died, and rose again, and went away, shall be received and beheld by Him with inconceivable acceptancy, and presented before the presence of the Father “with exceeding joy.”
Now, is this nothing to men who have to die, and have after death the judgment? Is this nothing? What is Jesus to you, to me? Sinner, what is the Saviour to you, deserving to be condemned, what is the Saviour to you? What have you done with your sins? What do you do with them? Do you bring them to Him on whom it pleased the Lord to lay the iniquity of all those who, turning to God from idols to serve the living and true God, wait for His Son from heaven?
If you deposit your sins where the Lord deposited the sins of His people, then is Christ a mediator, a high priest, to bring you to God. And now, “It is appointed unto men once to die.” Yes; but death now to Christ’s “many” has altogether changed its nature. “It is appointed unto men once to die; but, said He to His disciples, and not to them only, but unto all them also who should believe on Him through their word, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Having died and risen again, He quickens the dead soul, and will quicken the mortal body. “Our friend, Lazarus, sleepeth.” “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Jesus died—it was death in all its terribleness there: believers sleep—sleep in Jesus. And “after death, the judgment”; but the judgment-seat of Him who bears the sins of many; the judgment-seat of Him for whom, having turned to God from idols, they have been looking—the judgment-seat of Him who will say at death, and say at last at the resurrection, His old word, which the sheep know so well, “Come, come.”
There is a word He never spake yet to a son of man, nor will ever speak till then: “Depart from me.” He will speak it then. He never said it to a son of man yet, nor ever will till then. And the word He will speak to His own then, He speaks to His own now. And the first word of it at least He speaks to thee, sinner, who art going to His judgment, “Come; come.” Come to Him who bare the sins of many; turning from idols to serve the living God, commence looking for His second coming. And you who have turned, continue looking for His second coming. And as troubles may increase, and days decrease, remember that now is your salvation nearer than when ye believed. “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them who believe, to the saving of the soul.”