April 26, 2023

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgement, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. Hebrews 9:27-28a

The word appointed corresponds directly with the Creator’s warning to Adam as recorded in Genesis 2:17: “…for in the day that you eat of it [a certain tree] you shall surely die.” From the moment that our first parents chose to listen to the serpent instead of Yahweh, they indeed began to die. The fact that they lived for hundreds of years—Adam lived 930 years—is a testament to the vitality of the Creator’s design for our bodies.

We have all tried our own ways of operating—ways that deviate from divine instructions; ways that cast off the authority of our loving heavenly Father. The purpose of His patience with each of us is that we might learn of His character and the ultimate authority which is founded upon love. It is a love so pure that our tainted minds can only scarcely comprehend it. Nevertheless, Yahweh’s authority is the only authority under which we ought, by faith, to place ourselves.

This appointment with death, to die once, applies to all humans because we all have sinned. How amazing is the love of the Savior in His coming to live and walk among us in human flesh! And not only that, but to gather up our sins and their resultant infirmities, placing them all upon Himself. He bore the punishment that each of us deserves: total separation from God. What indescribable love!

Then . . . after this the judgement.

It was not possible that [Jesus] should be held by [death] (Acts 2:24) because of His sinlessness. He desires to credit each of us with His sinless record in exchange for our confessed and forsaken sins. All who, by faith, relinquish their own ways and accept His will for their lives are appointed to experience a metamorphosis into His likeness. It is meant to serve others as an extension of His invitation to life eternal. Therefore, the judgement is the best news ever for all who are submitted to His authority.

. . . so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. On the unique day that the Savior hung upon the cross, there was an apparent victory for Satan. In fact, in his usurped authority, Satan has instituted an occultic ritual in the church arrayed in purple and scarlet (Revelation 17:4) whereby Christ is killed over and over: the priest “sacrifices” Jesus in every mass. It is erroneously taught that the round wafer and fermented wine actually become the body and blood of the Lord. In this ceremony of endlessly repeating the death of Christ, Satan celebrates his supposed victory. It is a perversion of the communion service given by Jesus to His disciples (see Matthew 26:26-29) when He used bread and new wine (grape juice) as symbols of His all-sufficient, one-time sacrifice to pay the penalty of Yahweh’s broken law.

For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Romans 6:10