“so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Hebrews 9:28
Hebrews 9 continues the theme from the previous few chapters of Christ being our high priest, of the order of Melchizedek, and being superior to the Levitical priesthood for a number of reasons:
- The Levitical high priests’ terms were limited; Christ is a priest forever
- The Levitical priests had to make atonement for their own sins before they could minister to the people; Christ had no sin
- The sacrifices made by the Levitical priests could only cover sin, not remove it, and had to be made over and over again; Christ’s sacrifice cleansed us of our sin once and for all.
In Hebrews 9 we see the contrast between Christ, and the high priest entering the Holy of Holies. This happened once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur - see Lev. 16). The high priest would take the blood of his sin offering into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. Then he would take the blood of the sin offering for the people and do the same thing. The people would wait eagerly for him to emerge, because then they knew that their offering had been accepted by God and their sin had been forgiven. This is a beautiful picture of Jesus: His resurrection proves that His sacrifice was accepted by God on our behalf. And His one sacrifice was sufficient to cleanse every sin.
Also in this verse we see the promise of the Second Coming. Jesus came the first time as the suffering servant. He will come a second time, as the victorious King. Are you ready and waiting for Him?
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