Hebrews 9:26

Hebrews 9:26

Once for all!

Thank God that the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus was once-for-all and need never be repeated. As the writer of Hebrews states, “Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.” These words do not just show us the supremacy of His sacrifice but that it was also part of a divine plan that has always existed. If the sacrificial system is the only means of cleansing and forgiveness of sins, and if Christ’s offering fell short or was not acceptable by heaven’s standards, then He would have had to offer Himself annually just as all other High Priests had made regular sacrifices before Him. Thank God that was not necessary, in fact Yahweh had always known, from the creation of the world, that animal sacrifices would not suffice, and He  always had in mind to offer His Son as the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, once for all. Some may ask, then why did the Jews have to relentlessly follow the rules and obligations of the Law when it was so pointless, and God always knew it? Hebrews tells us that the world would never have understood God’s plans or man’s place in them unless there was an earthly replica, an inferior copy of the heavenly reality that was always destined to be enacted in the fulness of time. We humans have to learn that we cannot save ourselves or make ourselves good enough for God. We need to grasp the truth that animal sacrifices or any other kind of sacrifice do not cover our sin. It was also necessary that the ultimate sacrifice was human and he must be a willing participant in God’s redemptive plan. The plan that began to unfold even before sin entered at Eden, a plan to redeem a people for Himself from the sin-scarred multitudes on the earth. That plan was to provide a way for mankind that met all of heaven’s demands and could elevate mankind to the place they always longed to be, for we are all made in the image of God. 

And so, “Christ has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” By the way, the term “culmination of the ages” is not the same as the end of time. When you think about it there had been countless attempts at reaching out to God or the gods, throughout the eras leading up to Christ’s coming. Initially there were the gods of the Egyptians, the Canaanites and the people of Babel and Mesopotamia. Then followed the Persians, Hindus, Buddhism and the Greeks and the Romans, all offering ways of appeasing the gods but none of them could compare with the Jewish and Christian God who was obviously superior to them all. Thus, Christ’s coming was at the end of the ages in religious terms, but He also ushered in the Messianic age which has had enormous impact across the globe. The only major religion that has originated since the time of Christ is Islam, which many scholars believe is a ingenious replica of Judeo/Christianity and may also be the false prophet of Revelation. This is not a subject that is discussed in Hebrews!

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