Once For All

Scripture — Hebrews 9:24-28 (NRSV)

Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Devotion

I will go on record as admitting that Hebrews is one of my favorite books in the New Testament. I like its logical approach, its beautiful prose, its reminder in the twelfth chapter that we are surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses” (12:1-3), and the fact that, since we will never know who wrote it, I can imagine that it might have been Priscilla (who with her husband Aquila instructed Apollos; Acts 18:24-26). I’ve written before in Life for Leaders how passages from both Hebrews 4 and Hebrews 10 were very meaningful to me on my spiritual journey—emphasizing the fact that Jesus’s work for us on the cross is finished and we do not have to continue restlessly striving to win anyone’s approval, including God’s.

This passage from Hebrews 9 is part of the preparatory argument for that great statement in Hebrews 10 which so affected me many years ago, that Christ “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. . .by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (10:12, 14). Throughout the book, the author of Hebrews compares the sacrifices of the ancient Israelite sacrificial system to Jesus’s sacrifice. Those ancient sacrifices were real sacrifices, and they had really been commanded by God in Leviticus to deal with the problem of human sin. But they were sacrifices made only by humans in earthly temples, and as such they had to be continually repeated.

Jesus’s sacrifice is different, the author of Hebrews says. Although the author doesn’t mention it, we can’t deny that Jesus’s sacrifice also occurred on earth—at Calvary, which is a real place—and was also made by a human—since Jesus was fully human and fully divine. But unlike the sacrifices in Leviticus, that was not _all _that was going on. Somehow, as Jesus was crucified on earth he was also entering the heavenly sanctuary, and what he did there on our behalf solved the problem of sin at its root, “once for all” (9:26).

One reason I love this passage is because it speaks to me about what happens at the Communion table. Many people have tried to explain over the years what is going on in the Eucharist and how Christ’s sacrifice is related to that. I have never found a better explanation of this than one of my favorite hymns by Charles Wesley.

It’s one of Wesley’s more obscure hymns, but it is clearly based on the descriptions in Hebrews of Christ’s work on the cross. It pictures us coming to the table, not simply remembering Calvary, but being there in that moment when Christ sacrificed “once for all.” I don’t usually print lyrics of a whole hymn in here, figuring you can Google them or follow the links I give, but these are such a theologically dense exploration of this passage I’ll give them in full (they are in the public domain):

Victim Divine, thy grace we claim
while thus thy precious death we show:
once offered up, a spotless Lamb,
in thy great temple here below,
thou didst for all our kind atone,
and standest now before the throne.

Thou standest in the holiest place,
as now for guilty sinners slain;
thy blood of sprinkling speaks, and prays,
all prevalent for helpless ones;
thy blood is still our ransom found,
and speaks salvation all around.

The smoke of thy atonement here
darkened the sun and rent the veil,
made the new way to heaven appear,
and showed the great Invisible;
well pleased in thee our God looked down,
and called his rebels to a crown.

He still respects thy sacrifice,
its savor sweet doth always please;
the offering smokes through earth and skies,
diffusing life, and joy, and peace;
to these thy lower courts it comes,
and fills them with divine perfumes.

We need not go up to heaven,
to bring the long-sought Savior down;
thou art to all already given,
thou dost e’en now thy banquet crown:
To every faithful soul appear,
and show thy real presence here!

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Jesus’ Intercession Empowers Our Life and Work (Hebrews 7:1–10:18).