Hebrews Chapter Nine, Why Christ Died

 

Hebrews 9:28a so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.

 

This verse is laden with doctrinal soundness, and there is much to unearth. Notice first how the writer contrasts verse 27 with his introductory statement. As men die but once, and then face the judgment, so too was Christ offered once to bear the sins of many.

This verse, the sentiment behind it gathering force since verse 23, culminates with this marvelous, revelatory declaration. Men die once. I’ll die but once. As I die but once, so Christ died for my sins but once. He will not be offered, bloodless or otherwise, as a sacrifice for sin again. It only happened once, because the entire tenor of Scripture is united in the revelation that it only needed to happen once. Being God incarnate, Jesus did what man cannot. He completed what the Jewish altars that ran red with animal blood could not. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, Hebrews 9:26.

 

Jesus put sin away. The word imagery suggests taking it out of reach, so fallible, sinful man couldn’t snatch it any longer. The issue for sinners is not whether we are guilty of sin—we are guilty—but what we believe of Jesus Christ. That is why it is insulting to suggest, much less to command, that a parade of offerings must still be performed to coincide with, compliment, or otherwise buffer the singular, perfect act of redemption Jesus won for humanity on the cross. If we do not believe what Jesus declared when He yelled, “It is finished!” then for us it never will be, John 19:30.

 

This powerful truth separated many Christians from Rome long before the Protestant Reformation, and Rome hunted and killed thousands of people for believing that, contrary to the Mass, Christ’s atonement was singular and sufficient. Nothing could be added to it, and Rome was preaching a false gospel, replacing the Biblical gospel. And they died for it, being burned, beaten, beheaded, etc. For anyone who believes otherwise, or Rome’s whitewashed history of its bloody church, read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. It’s chillingly eye opening to see how far the Papacy went to surpress the Bible coming into the hands of the laity, and the simple gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.

 

Yet the word of God is abundantly clear that Christ our Lord was offered (as a sacrfice) once. It was appointed for men to die once. Likewise God appointed Christ an offering for sin once. The comparison is sobering.

 

Furthermore, Jesus bore the sins of many. At first brush this verse seems to endorse the heresy of Calvinism. Christ died for the sins of many. Many does not mean all, so it must mean the elect, whom God presdestined to salvation, even against their own will and without knowledge or consent. But we read in Romans: “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many,” Romans 5:15.

 

The one man that offended was the only man alive at the time. Adam sinned, and through Adam the sentence of death passed to all men, spoken of as “many” in this verse. We know from other passages that this is so, including Romans 5:18, where Paul shifts his phraseology, writing, “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” The “many” of verse 15 becomes “all men” in verse 18. It is clear that the terms are interchangeable, and that many died, and many had the gift of God’s grace abound to them. All men died in Adam, according to verse 18, and the free gift (which is salvation, see Romans 5:16) passed down from one Man, like Adam’s offense. It is possible, by God’s grace, that every person on earth may be saved. Christ’s blood paid the ransom for sin. He didn’t die just for my sins; Jesus died to sin, to deal with sin itself: the sickness that infected and ruined Adam’s race.

 

Many means all, both in Romans and Hebrews. Paul explained as much, using a tautology to more clearly express what he was defining for his readership. Justification of life is universal. Then why are not all men saved? The criterion the Bible sets forth for salvation is belief, John 3:18, 36, 5:24, 6:29, 40, 7:38, 8:24, 9:35, 11:25, 26, 12:46, Mark 16:16, Romans 10:9, et al. One must have faith in Christ to effectually receive the free gift; or to word it more clearly, for the free gift to be used in its intended manner. Say every person on earth receives a $50 gift card in the mail one day, good for 30 days upon receipt. Say that only 10% of the population actually, for various reasons, decide to capitolize on this free gift and redeem the card. Voila! They are $50 dollars richer, because they acted upon what they received. Does this devalue the money of the gift card, or invalidate the offer? No. It simply means not everyone was wise enough to act on what they were told: that if they activated the card within 30 days, they would be $50 dollars richer, simple as that.

 

One can’t divide the offering of Christ’s blood. It wasn’t payment exclusively for the sins of the elect. It was payment for sin. Jesus declared, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many,” Mark 10:45. Who is the “many” in this verse? “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world,” 1 John 2:2. Christ is the Savior of all who believe; that wold be the “our sins,” John mentioned, including himself. But Jesus also paid for the sins of the whole world, apart from the church, who are His by faith. That is why the Holy Spirit compels John to add, “and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” It is the Calvinist that diminishes the value of Christ’s blood, by insisting that the elect alone were paid for when it was shed. On the contrary, the value is immensely greater than the Calvinist permits, for it does away with sin completely, Hebrews 9:26, Romans 6:10.

 

Now the matter is not if we have sinned. The matter is, “Who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:15. The answer divides the saved from those that remain lost. The efficacy of the blood is only realized when, by, faith we come to Him, acknowledging who He is, and our need of Him. God is most soveriegn in this: He set a door open that none may close, and any may enter. That door is Christ, and those who make peace with God through His Son may enter into His kingdom by His own sovereign command. Those that refuse and remain rebels are cast into outer darkness at His own sovereign command. God controls the door, controls man’s fate, and controls the means by which grace is offered and pardon given. Man has no control, may come only as a penitant, and rejects God’s free gift to his own destruction. It is a King’s sovereign will to execute criminals that offend. It is also a King’s prerogative to offer freely the pardon only One so powerful may condescend to grant. The Calvinist’s awful distortortion of sovereignty and grace makes a mockery out of the gospel, and is, in my own opinion, not a Christian doctrine, but heresy.