A Second Time (Hebrews 9:27-28)

A Second Time
Hebrews 9:27-28

I want to introduce you this morning to a simple but profound comparison that should change the way we live, the way we think, and the way we love while we walk in this world. Throughout this book of Hebrews it has been the Holy Spirit’s purpose to encourage and motivate God’s people to fall so deeply in love with Jesus Christ that we are removed farther and farther from the possibilities of spiritual drifting, practical indifference, nominal faith, and utter ruin that can easily beset of the unconcerned.

The Spirit has pointed out to us the superiority of Jesus over such spiritually exalted beings as angels and over such spiritually exalted persons as Moses and Joshua. Jesus provides a more effective sacrifice than the Old Testament Law, a more powerful ministry than the Old Testament priest, a more personal covenant than the Old Testament covenant. Not only does Jesus transform the nature of our relationship with God, through his sacrifice, our nature itself is changed as we trust in Christ. Our guilt is removed, our shame is healed, our conscience is cleansed and we are adopted, through faith in Jesus Christ, as God’s own sons and daughters.

Besides all this, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us, permanently residing in the presence of the Father, offering himself as God’s reason to bestow grace and mercy and forgiveness and love upon weak and willful human beings. The ministry of Jesus that God loves and that God loves through is not merely a thing of the past, but a present reality through which each of us receives the fullest measure of God’s grace right now.

James reminds us in his New Testament letter that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) Every good and perfect gift comes from God and it comes through Jesus Christ by virtue of his superior sacrifice and ministry over the sacrifices and ministries under the Old Covenant. This is the fulfilment of Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” God has made a way for us, in Jesus, to walk in this world with focus, victory, and hope, and I want to show you the way in these verses in Hebrews 9:27-28.

The comparison included in these verses is quite simple but incredibly profound. It is a comparison between you and Jesus, between Jesus Christ and all other human beings. The comparison is made with the words “just as” in verse 27 and the word “so” in verse 28. “Just as it is appointed to man” “so Christ.” There is the basis for the comparison. But let’s look at the three degrees of comparison in these verses and ask how so simple a comparison should so utterly change our lives. We’ll follow the form the Holy Spirit uses here in Hebrews: first we’ll talk about us, then we’ll talk about Jesus.

In setting up the comparison, the Spirit first describes the universal conditions under which every human being lives from the moment they are born. First, every human being dies. It is appointed for man to die.

Romans 5:12 reminds us, “ Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” A chapter later in the same letter the apostle Paul reiterates this truth when he writes, “The wages of sin is death.” These verses tell us that death is included in the life process because of sin. God applies death in response to sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, human death entered the world and God appointed the curse of death for all their descendants, for every one of their ancestors. Every human being has a God-set appointment with death.

God told Adam and Eve, when he showed them the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden and told them not to eat of it that if they did so, they would die. Well, guess what. God wasn’t kidding. He did not misrepresent his intentions. He desired and required their obedience and he held to the consequences when they disobeyed. They ate and they died, spiritually and physically, and God appoints the same consequences of sin to all their offspring, including you and including me. Our appointment with death comes not merely by natural process as evolutionary reasoning would have us believe, but by divine appointment. I like what one pastor said, “God plans our birthday and our death day.” This is what God means in Psalm 139:16 when he has the Psalmist write, “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Our first day and our last day are all determined by God. Our appointment with death is appointed by God. Now listen, there is hope here. Our lives are in God’s hands. There is no room for despair here. No room for discouragement. It is not illness or accident that determines our death. It is not some Satanic or demonic influence that determines the shortness of our days. Fate does not arbitrarily cut the threads that end our life. There is no meaningless ending just because some natural process runs its course. God, the great God himself, Creator of heaven and earth, upholder of the universe and Savior of the world determines our appointment with death and sees that we keep it in his timing, the time he has set for us.

Do you see this? Without having to be concerned about the capricious nature of death, we can trust God all the more for our life! Henry Martyn, a long ago missionary to Persia said, “If [Christ] has work for me to do, I cannot die.” he was right to say this. It is not man or Satan or fate that determines our day to die. It is Christ himself.

But let us take note here that not only is it appointed unto every man to die, it is appointed unto every man to die ONCE. Anyone dreaming of reincarnation and thinking they can come back and try again needs to surrender that dream. It ain’t going to happen. Death happens once and only once. Death doesn’t happen “once in a lifetime” or “once in a while.” Death happens once, period. No next time around. No second chances. The entire point of including this word “once” is to highlight and emphasize the finality of death.

You have once chance to get it right, one opportunity to get right with God. The Scripture tells us, “Today is the day of salvation. Now is the appointed time.” Most of us avoid thinking about death. We don’t care for it. It doesn’t make us happy. But we have to think about it because we have an unavoidable appointment for which we must make preparation. Death is huge. Death deserves some serious consideration. It’s time to stop daydreaming in the now and take some action for forever.
There is an added weight to the need to consider the future. It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Death is not the end of our existence. We are not merely organic masses that simply “go out of consciousness and decompose int eh ground.” We have a future beyond death. Beyond death we face God.

Consider Paul’s words to Timothy. He has just admonished his younger protégé to “keep himself pure” and then he writes, “The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.” He means that some people confess their sins and repent of them and take care of their guilt before they appear before God and in that manner establish their hearts pure in faith. Others however, hide their sins, and when they appear before God, their hands are full and God’s judgment is just. Hebrews 10:27-31 describes the judgment that people face, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Wake up and see what lies ahead. See what God in all his mercy reveals to us. Take account of what really matters in this world.

Now, what about Jesus? What is his part in this comparison that should change the way we live, think, and love in this world? Verse 28 takes up this question. 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.

Please be encouraged by what the Holy Spirit sets before us in his word. Just as men die, so Jesus died. Just as men come to judgment, so Jesus will come to the judgment. But there is an infinite difference here that ought to make our hearts sing out in praise and thanksgiving.

Compare Jesus' experience with our experience and we will discover that though he has similar experiences, they do not parallel our experiences, they transform our experience!
First, Jesus died: “having been offered”. This is good news! We know from the previous verses in this chapter that Someone had to die in order for God's "last will and testament," his covenant with us to be put into effect. Jesus died and all the good that God intends for his heirs to inherit is now available to them.

Verse 28 also tells us that Jesus died once to bear the sins of many. This is also good news. Jesus death to bear the sins of many means that for those who put their trust in him, their death is no longer punitive. He took our sins and suffered the death our sins deserve. Through faith in Jesus we can send our sins on ahead for judgment in him, so that when we arrive at judgment through the doorway of death, we can enter without fear for our sins will already have been judged in Christ on the cross. Christ has transformed death from an occasion of dread to an occasion of joy! This is how we can get right with God in spite of being sinners. Christ took our punishment in his death on the cross.

Verse 28 also tells us that Jesus appears a second time, not to deal with sin, but to rescue sinners who by faith have trusted him for their salvation, not to be judged but to save those who are eagerly waiting. He has dealt with sin once and for all. There is nothing left for him to do in regard to sin. We need to confess our sin to God and trust him to forgive us through Christ, but there is nothing left for Jesus to do to make forgiveness available. He is done dealing with sin. His work cannot be improved upon.

But there is more here. We had to face death, and so Jesus faced death and bore the punishment of death for us. But we also have to face judgment, so Christ comes a second time for us, this time not to deal with sin but to save us from judgment. He will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” This is not salvation in addition to the cross but the application of the salvation gained through the cross. This is the fulfilment of God’s word in Romans 5:9-10. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Finally we need to ask to whom does this rescue from the wrath of God come? According to verse 28 Jesus bore the sins of “many.” Those “many” are further identified as “those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Those who are eagerly waiting are those who putting their faith in Jesus deeply long for his return, for their rescue from this world and their establishment in his kingdom forever.

This is how “those who are eagerly waiting for him” are described elsewhere in the New Testament:

Romans 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

1 Corinthians 1:7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Galatians 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

These people have faith that is eager for Christ to come, earnest in their desire for him and for his return. These are people who trust Christ in such a way that makes them eager for him to come. Many people who profess Christ today are not eager for his return. They love the world and the things of this world and they are reluctant to release their grip on the temporal pleasures this world extends. Many who profess Christ are quite happy with the delay in his return and rarely if ever pray, “Even so, Lord, come quickly.”

Eagerness for Christ’s return is an indication, a sign that we love him and believe in him authentically. Can there be any real love for someone whose presence we do not desire? There is a “phony faith,” a false faith that wants to escape hell but has no desire for Jesus. That kind of faith does not save. That kind of “fire insurance faith” that desires deliverance but not the Deliverer is not the faith of those who are saved, those who are “eagerly waiting for him.”

Paul wrote, in 2 Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” Do you wait eagerly for Jesus to come? Do you love his appearing?

I urge you this morning, as one who share with you an appointment with death, turn to Jesus. Trust him. Trust God to forgive your sins on his behalf. Turn to him as your eagerly awaited Savior.