For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with hand, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us
Hebrews 9:24 puts the tent Moses built beside the place where Christ now is. The first was only a copy of the second. The verse turns on three things: where He went, what He does there, and the words "on our behalf."
The earthly sanctuary was never the original.
Remember that the tabernacle in the wilderness was a revelation of heavenly things. It was made after the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain. Then we grasp at once that the "true tabernacle" means the place and scene where the Lord exercises His heavenly priesthood. So everywhere in this letter the earthly tabernacle stands as the antitype of the heavenly: the copy that matches the real thing.
Two systems stand here. Each one carried its own message about the way to God.
Christ comes, accomplishes the sacrifice, makes the conscience perfect, goes into heaven itself; and we draw near to God in the light. To mix the service of the first tabernacle, or holy place, with Christian service is to deny it. The reason is this: the meaning of the first was that the way to God was not yet open; the meaning of the second is that it is open.
The words "in the presence of God" are literally "before the face of God." The last words of the verse say who He is there for.
"Heaven itself" is the place Christ has entered. The presence — literally the "face" — of God teaches us that in that place He appears before God as the great High Priest, the representative of His people. This is clear from the words "for us," or "on our behalf," at the end of the verse. Aaron was to bear the names of the twelve tribes on his shoulders and on his heart before the Lord. In a more excellent way, Christ presents and represents all His people before God as He exercises His priesthood. He does this in all the acceptance of His own person, and in the perfect efficacy of His work.
Israel's high priest had a strict limit on his visit to God's presence. The difference is not only where He is, but how long He stays.
For the cleansing of the heavenly things, Christ has entered heaven itself, not the holy places made with hands. He entered to appear in the presence of God for us, and He is there still. Aaron entered the Holiest on earth for a brief moment year by year. He could not remain there. Our High Priest remains in the presence of God. Israel could boast to other nations of a high priest who entered behind the veil, though he could not stay there. Christians can say that their High Priest remains inside for them. Again it was plain how different the substance is from the shadow.
The picture behind this comes from what Aaron wore.
When Aaron appeared before the Lord in his garments of glory and beauty, he represented the children of Israel. Their names were engraved in precious stones in the beautiful breastplate. What a picture of our real and everlasting place in the heart of Christ! He appears in the presence of God for us, not once a year like Aaron of old, but continually. The name of each believer is kept continually before the eye of God, in all the glory and beauty of Christ, His beloved Son.
His presence there tells the believer something about heaven.
Christ appearing in heaven before the face of God "for us" is the everlasting witness that heaven is secured and thrown open to the believer.
This verse is one of three appearings in the passage.
The passage sets before us three great facts in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of what we may venture to call three distinct appearings: an appearing in the past, an appearing in the present, and an appearing in the future. He has appeared in this world to do a certain work; He does appear in heaven to carry on a certain ministry; and He shall appear in glory. The first is Atonement; the second is Advocacy; the third is the Advent.
- Copy — Moses built the wilderness tabernacle to a pattern shown on the mountain. It was the figure; heaven is the true.
- Entry — Christ went into heaven itself. The old service said the way to God was closed. His entry says it is open.
- Face — "presence" is literally the face of God. There He appears as High Priest, representing His people in all the acceptance of His person and work.
- Continually — Aaron entered once a year and had to leave. Christ remains, and every believer's name stays before God's eye.
- Appearings — past for atonement, present in heaven for us, future in glory. We live in the middle one.
nor in order that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy places every year with blood not his own;
The verse holds up Israel's high priest as a contrast. He went into the holy place year after year, and the blood he carried was never his own. Those two details — the repeating, and the borrowed blood — show why Christ's entry into heaven could not work that way.
The wording turns on the blood itself. One commentator sets the Greek word used of Aaron beside the word used of Christ:
It was said of the high priest in Aaron's line that he "enters the holy places every year with blood not his own" (Heb. 9:25). The word could also be rendered strange or foreign blood (allotrios), since there was no connection between the blood of a bull, or a goat, and himself, a human being. Scripture says of Christ that "by His own (idiou) blood He entered in once into the holy places" (Heb. 9:12), and the word "His own" is repeated again (Heb. 13:12).
Yet His own blood was not what gave Christ the right to enter. It was what set His entrance apart from Aaron's.
He did not enter because of His blood, as if He had no right to enter otherwise. What marked Him out was that He entered by His own blood, just as what marked Aaron out was that he entered by the blood of others. (Heb. 9:25.)
The verse does not just say that Christ chose not to repeat His offering. It says a repeated offering is impossible, and the reason lies in what the offering cost Him.
Notice also the pointed contrast with Jewish sacrifice in verses 25, 26. Repetition could not be avoided even in Israel's most solemn rites, such as the great day of atonement. It is the blessed truth of the gospel that Christ's one offering is complete and everlasting in its effect for everyone who believes. The Holy Spirit even goes so far as to show that a repeated offering on His part is impossible, because it would also mean His suffering often. Any thought of His suffering again must be intolerable even to weak believers, who long for a fresh work for each fresh failure.
Follow the logic back through the centuries, and the picture becomes unbearable.
If that were the case, think of the centuries of suffering for the blessed Lord Jesus! "Then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world." The old sacrifices came over and over again, naming the same sins every year, and they could not really take away sin. What do we have instead? That blessed word: "once for all at the end of the ages."
The yearly return of the day of atonement was not a strength of the old system. It was an admission.
What is more, one sacrifice, effective for ever, has righteously met and removed every barrier that kept the believer out of heaven. The yearly repetition of the sacrifices under the law proved that they could not put away sin.
Because the verse rules out a repeated offering, any claim to offer Christ again runs straight against it.
God has said that Christ's offering of Himself was a work so perfect and so effective that it never needed repeating. Indeed it could not be repeated, because such an effect required Christ to suffer. He has declared that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. So if the offering of Christ had to be repeated, Christ would have had to suffer often. Now if I claim to offer this sacrifice again, and say that such an offering is necessary and right, I deny the effectiveness of Christ's one offering of Himself on the cross.
The same reasoning reaches the believer who keeps going back to the blood as if it had to be applied again each time he fails.
To think of the blood of Christ as needing to be applied again and again dishonours His work. It lowers His work to the level of what was only its shadow... It also separates the offering from the infinite suffering that gave it all its value. (Heb. 9:25-26) If He had to keep presenting His blood for us, as the high priest did for Israel, then He would have to suffer often. See also verse 22. It does not say "without the application of blood", but "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins".
- Borrowed blood. Aaron carried blood that had nothing to do with him. Christ entered by His own.
- Repeated blood. The yearly return of the day of atonement was the old system admitting it could not put away sin.
- Costly blood. A second offering would demand a second suffering. That is why repetition is impossible, not just unnecessary.
- Re-offered blood. Any claim to offer Christ again denies that His one offering was effective enough to stand.
- Shed blood. Forgiveness rests on blood shed once, not on blood applied again and again. The failing believer looks back to a finished work.
since he had [then] been obliged often to suffer from the foundation of the world. But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for [the] putting away of sin by his sacrifice.
Hebrews has just said the earthly sanctuary was only a copy; Christ has entered heaven itself. Verse 26 answers the two questions that follow: why did He not repeat His offering, and why did He come when He did?
The phrase older translations render "the end of the world" is not about the planet burning up. It marks the close of a long stretch of time in which God tested man.
This closes the first Adam's history — the history of man responsible in the flesh. It was the end of the world; that is, in moral terms the world had ended and stood judged. So the apostle speaks in Hebrews 9:26: "Now once in the end of the world." Literally that is "in the end, or consummation, of the ages" — the ages in which God was testing man in responsibility, as a sinner who might still be won back. "He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
That timing is not only an ending. The same act that shut one period opened another.
Until Christ, the question of sin was not settled. God was still making every trial of man under responsibility. Whether man had no law or lived under law, sin had come to full growth. Besides, there was no more reason for an age to run on with man under the same responsibility as before. The ages were complete. Christ appears. He closes the earlier period by abolishing sin, and opens new ages for the glory... He appeared (the verb here is in the perfect tense); the fact is past and still stands.
The verse opens with an impossible picture. If Christ's sacrifice had to be repeated, so would His suffering.
Continual repetition was part of the ritual system. Christianity stands in contrast with it. He has offered Himself once and for ever. If He had to offer Himself repeatedly, He must also suffer often. The two things cannot be separated. For then, we read, "he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world." A fresh offering of Christ to God without fresh suffering is not merely a mistake. It is in direct opposition to His word and to the foundation of Christianity.
The word "once" runs through these chapters.
The word which characterises these chapters is "one," "once" (see Heb. 9:12, 26, 28; Heb. 10:2, 10, 12, 14). It comes seven times over, so that we do not miss how sufficient the precious blood of Christ is, and how unique its glory.
Every other sacrifice needed three: the man who brought it, the animal, and the priest. Here all three meet in one person.
The offerer first identified himself with his offering and killed it. Only then did the priest act. So the Lord offered Himself... The offerer, for whom the sacrifice was brought, killed the animal. But the true sacrifice offered up Himself (Heb. 7:27). In reality the offerer, the offering, and the priest are one and the same person. We see Him in three different characters.
Notice the wording: sin, singular. The reach of that is wider than it looks.
Let us mark that phrase, "to put away sin." How comprehensive it is! The payment for our sins is of course included, but it is not limited to that. The judgment of sin is included, but it is not limited to that. It takes in sin in all its branches and bearings. Sin the root, and all the sins that are its fruit. Sin as it has affected man and the earth. Sin as it has affected the heavens. Sin in its totality — all put away by His sacrifice. And His sacrifice was the sacrifice of Himself!
If sin was put away, why is the world still full of it?
What is the meaning of Hebrews 9:26, "Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself"? I believe it extends to the new heavens and new earth, where righteousness dwells... The work that accomplishes it is done, but the power is not yet put forth. In Hebrews 9:26, 28 we get two things: "to put away sin" and "sins borne." We get the same two on the Day of Atonement — the sin offering and the scapegoat.
Because the sacrifice cannot be repeated, the standing it gives cannot be revised.
If all our sins had not been cancelled by this one offering, they could never be, for Christ cannot die again... When a person believes, he comes into this blessing. He is for ever perfected in Christ before God. Sin cannot be charged to him, because Christ, who has borne and paid for it, is always in God's presence for him — a witness that his sins are already put away.
- Once — in time. He appeared at the close of the ages in which God tested man. That testing ended in judgment. His appearing opens new ages for glory.
- Once — not often. Repeating the offering would mean repeating the suffering. He has offered Himself once and for ever. "Once" is stamped seven times over these chapters.
- Once — by Himself. Offerer, offering and priest are one Person; He had no victim to bring but Himself.
- Once — for sin itself. Not our sins only, but sin at the root, on earth and in the heavens, in its totality.
- Once — therefore final. The full clearing waits for the new heavens and new earth. For the believer the account is already closed, since Christ cannot die again.