Hebrews Chapter Nine, Culmination

 

Hebrews 9:28b To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

 

Do we eagerly wait for Jesus? Jesus asked, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. This rhetorical question sadly addresses the end time, when our Lord will return for His bride, and then bodily and visibly for Israel, as her King, in glory. The unspoken answer can be inferred from the narrow gate Jesus refers to that leads to life. Few there are that enter it, He tells us. The broad road, like a highway, that leads to destruction, or perdition, is traveled by many.

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.

Hebrews Chapter Nine, Death & Judgment

 

Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

 

The Greek term “appointed” is, “apokeimai.” It means, “to be reserved, or to await.” Men await death; we are reserved for it. Why? We are the inheritors of Adam’s sin nature, and also the curse that attends it. Job says of his own race, “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble,” Job 14:1. Eliphaz, though he agreed with Job on little else, adds, “Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward,” Job 5:7.

Hebrews Chapter Nine, Putting Away Sin

 

Hebrews 9:25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—[26] He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

 

Before beginning to unfold this passage, here is what the Roman Catholic Church says about the once for all sacrifice of Christ in what they refer to as Mass:

 

The Mass is the Sacrifice of the New Law in which Christ, through the ministry of the priest, offers Himself to God in an unbloody manner under the appearances of bread and wine.

 

The Mass is both a sacrifice and a sacred meal because it is an unbloody representation of the sacrifice of the Cross; in application of its sacred power, the Lord is immolated in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

 

Thus the Mass does not re-crucify Christ. It perpetuates His one sacrifice that stands outside of time. God cannot be killed and when His humanity died in the Person of Jesus Christ on Good Friday such an event must break through the confines of time if God is truly eternal and infinite.

 

The Mass is classed as a sacrament (an outward sign of an internal truth or experience) because the Eucharist is received within each Mass. The Mass is also classed as a sacrifice, as the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is made present and true each time the Eucharist is celebrated.

 

(Quotes taken from AFC.org and EWTN.com)