Hebrews 9:26

These six verses bring to a close the long comparison in Hebrews between the worship of the old covenant and the work of Christ, the mediator of the new covenant set out in Hebrews 8. Chapter 9 opens with the earthly sanctuary, its two rooms and its services (Hebrews 9:1–10), and then shows that the first covenant was put in force with blood, since “almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:18–22). Verse 23 draws the conclusion with its “therefore”.

“The patterns of things in the heavens” are the earthly tabernacle with its furnishings and services, and the priests and people who were consecrated with it. The Greek word, hypódeigma, comes from the verb hypodeíknymi and means an exhibit for imitation or warning, a specimen, or a foreshadowing of something greater. Earlier the letter says that the priests “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5), and later it calls the law a shadow of good things to come (Hebrews 10:1). God gave Israel these copies to teach his holiness, the nature of sin and the need for atonement, and every one of them pointed forward to Christ.

The copies were “purified with these”, that is, with the blood of animal sacrifices. The verb katharízō means to cleanse, make clean or purify, and it can be used of something as ordinary as washing a cup. Under the old covenant it described the cleansing by ritual, often with blood, that made a place, a thing or a person fit for use before God. On the Day of Atonement the high priest made atonement for the holy place itself (Leviticus 16:16).

Then the verse turns, with the Greek particle dé, “but”, to “the heavenly things themselves”: the true sanctuary and the presence of God in heaven, which the tabernacle pictured. These needed “better sacrifices than these”. The word kreíttōn means stronger, and so better or nobler, and Hebrews uses it again and again to set Christ and the new covenant above the old, as in the “better covenant” of Hebrews 8:6. The better sacrifice is Christ’s offering of himself, his own blood offered without blemish to God (Hebrews 9:14), with which he entered the holy place once and obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11–12). The reasoning runs from the lesser to the greater. If the copies had to be cleansed, the realities themselves needed a far greater cleansing, and Christ’s sacrifice is better both in what it is and in what it does.

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands” looks back to the high priests of Israel. The word for holy places, hágion, means a sacred thing or spot, and here in the plural it is the earthly sanctuary, above all the Most Holy Place, where God’s presence dwelt among his people. “Made with hands” marks it as something men built from earthly materials, and so as temporary.

Those holy places are “the figures of the true”. Antítypon joins anti, corresponding to, with typos, a pattern, and means a counterpart or copy that answers to the real thing. The tabernacle was made to correspond to the true sanctuary and to teach about it, and Christ has gone “into heaven itself”, the dwelling of God and the eternal sanctuary that the copy stood for.

He is there “now to appear in the presence of God for us”. The verb emphanízō means to show oneself in person, or to make something known in words, and here Christ presents himself before the very face of God, which is what “presence” renders. “Now” places his work in the present, so he is there today, and he is there “for us”. The letter says that he ever lives to make intercession for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:25). Paul says that Christ, who died and was raised, is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us (Romans 8:34), and John calls him our Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1–2). His entry into heaven also shows that his sacrifice on the cross was fully accepted by God, so our standing before God rests on what Christ has finished.

Verses 25 and 26 draw on the Day of Atonement, the most solemn day of Israel’s year, set out in Leviticus 16. On that day alone the high priest went into the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 9:7). He took the blood of a bull for his own sins and of a goat for the sins of the people, and sprinkled it before the mercy seat. He had to keep every command exactly, lest he die in God’s holy presence, and the next year he did it all again. “Every year”, kat’ eniautón in Greek, shows that each entry covered the sins of that year and left the people waiting for a sacrifice still to come.

“Nor yet that he should offer himself often” sets Christ’s offering apart from that yearly round, with the Greek oudé, “nor yet”. “Himself” is the plain reflexive pronoun heautoû, and the sense of the sentence is that the one who offered and the one offered are the same person, as the letter has already said: “for this he did once, when he offered up himself” (Hebrews 7:27). The high priest entered “with blood of others”. The word allótrios marks that blood as belonging to someone else, the blood of animals brought by a priest who himself lived on.

Blood, haîma, is the means of atonement throughout Scripture, because the life is in the blood and is poured out for forgiveness (Leviticus 17:11). The blood of animals gave a ceremonial covering, and the letter says plainly, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Christ’s own blood truly cleanses and establishes the new covenant.

Verse 27 turns from Christ to every human being, and its “as” is answered by the “so” of verse 28. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” The verb apókeimai means to be laid up or reserved, to await someone. Death is laid up for every person, part of the order God set when Adam was told he would return to the dust (Genesis 3:19), and death entered the world through sin (Romans 5:12). The word hápax appears again, so each person dies once.

“But after this the judgment.” The word krísis means a decision, a judgment or justice, and it can mean condemnation. After death comes accountability before God, and each person will answer to him for his life. Daniel foresaw the dead raised to judgment (Daniel 12:2), Jesus described the Son of man judging the nations (Matthew 25:31–46), Paul speaks of God’s impartial judgment of every person (Romans 2:6), and John saw the dead judged according to their works before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11–15).

Set beside verse 26, this verse shows how final Christ’s work is. A person’s life and death happen once and are followed by a verdict, and Christ’s offering happened once and dealt with sin for good.

“So Christ was once offered.” The word hoútō means “in this way”, and here it points back to verse 27. As each of us dies once and then faces judgment, Christ died once, and what follows his death is his return to bring salvation. The sinless Son of God went through death once, for our sins and in our place.

“Once offered” joins hápax to prosphérō, a verb made from pros, toward, and the verb to bear, so that it means to bring something to someone, here an offering brought to God. “To bear the sins of many” uses anaphérō, which means to take up, to carry up or to offer up, and is used of bringing a sacrifice up to God. Christ took up the weight and penalty of sin and offered himself to God for it. “Sins” is hamartía, the ordinary word for sin. The picture recalls the scapegoat, which carried the iniquities of the people away on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:20–22), and the suffering servant of Isaiah (Isaiah 53:4–6). Peter says that Christ bare our sins (1 Peter 2:24), and Paul that God made him to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). “Many”, polýs, is a great multitude, all who would believe, and it is open to everyone who comes to him by faith.

“Unto them that look for him” uses apekdéchomai, to expect fully, to wait eagerly and with patient endurance. Those who look for him have received his first coming in faith, and now they long for his second. Paul writes that our conversation is in heaven, and he speaks of Christ’s return from there (Philippians 3:20–21).

“Shall he appear the second time.” The verb optánomai is the ordinary word for appearing or being seen, and it promises a return that people will see. It is a different verb from emphanízō, “to appear” in verse 24. Deúteros means second, and sets this coming after the first. “Without sin” uses chōrís, without or apart from. He comes again apart from sin, because his first coming dealt with it completely, and he comes “unto salvation”. The preposition eis marks purpose and result here, so salvation, sōtēría, is what his coming is for: the full and final deliverance of his people, when he brings them into everlasting fellowship with God. Jesus promised that he would come again and take his own to be with him (John 14:3).

These verses hold the whole of Christ’s work, past, present and future. He appeared once, at the end of the ages, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He appears now in the presence of God for us. He will appear the second time unto salvation. The tabernacle and its yearly blood were God’s own teaching, given ahead of time, and in Christ God gave the reality they pictured.

What the passage gives us is a sacrifice that is finished. Our acceptance with God rests wholly on Christ’s one offering, and his blood purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). Because our High Priest is in God’s presence for us, we may come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).

It also shows us who God is. He is holy, so sin had to be dealt with before we could come near, and he himself provided the sacrifice that deals with it. He set the time for his Son’s coming, and he has set the time for his return. Death is appointed to us once, and judgment follows, and the One who will appear is the same One who bore our sins. Those who look for him are waiting for salvation.