Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2283
“Now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put a way sin by the Sacrifice of Himself.” Hebrews 9:26.
I NEED not read the text again, for I shall not go far away from it, but again and again shall we come back to these precious words about our Lord’s one great Sacrifice for sin.
What Christ meant to do on the Cross, He actually did. I always take that for granted. He did not die in vain. He did not leave any part of His work undone. Whatever was His intent, by the laying down of His life, He accomplished it, for, if not, dear Friends, He would come here again! If any of His work were left undone, He would return to the earth that He might finish it, for He never did leave a work incomplete, and He never will! Christ effected the redemption of His people by one stroke—coming here, living, and dying—He put away sin. He did not merely try to do it, but He actually accomplished the stupendous work for which He left His Glory-Throne above.
He did not die to make men salvable—He died to save them. He did not die that their sin might be put away by some effort of their own—He died to put it away. “Once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself.” There was one death, one Sacrifice, one Atonement, and all the work of man’s redemption was forever accomplished, so that we can sing—
“Love’s redeeming work is done; Fought the fight, the battle won.” If the mission on which Christ came to this earth had not been fulfilled, I say again, He would have returned to complete the work that He had begun.
That would have meant that He should often have been offered since the foundation of the world, an idea which we cannot hold for a single moment! For Christ to die twice would be contrary to all analogy. He is the second Adam. He, therefore, is like unto men. Read the words of Paul in the verse following our text, “It is appointed unto men once to die” (not twice), “but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” For Him, who is the true Adam, to die twice, would be contrary to the analogy of things.
It would also be most repugnant to all holy feeling. For Christ once to die a shameful death upon the Cross on Calvary has made an indelible mark upon our heart, as though it had been burned with a hot iron. I have sometimes half said to myself, “God forbid that His dear Son should ever have died! “The price seemed too great even for our redemption. Should He die, the Holy One and the Just, the Glorious and Blessed Son of God? The answer to that question is that He has died. Thank God He can never die again! It were horrible to us to think that it should be possible that He should ever be called upon to bear our sins a second time!
It would be traitorous to His Person, it would be dishonorable to His Gospel to suppose that His Sacrifice is still incomplete and that He might be called upon to die again because His first death had not satisfied the claims of Divine Justice. The simple suggestion, even for the sake of argument, is almost blasphemous! Christ either paid the ransom price for His people, or He did not. If He did, it is paid. If He did not, will He come again, you think? That can never be! To-plady knew that Truth of God when he taught the saints to sing to their Lord—
“Complete Atonement You have made, And to the utmost farthing paid Whate’er Your people owed.
Nor can His wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Your righteousness,
And sprinkled with Your blood.” The idea that Christ’s one Sacrifice for sin is not sufficient to accomplish His purpose is also opposed to Revelation. We are told that, “Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more, death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God.” The sinner for whom Christ died is free because of his Substitute’s death. And the Substitute, Himself, is free, for He has discharged every liability and given to God the full satisfaction that Divine Justice required—
“He bore on the tree the sentence for me,
And now both the Surety and sinner are free.” Take a good look at Calvary. Get the Cross distinctly photographed upon your eyeballs. Behold the five wounds and the bloody sweat. The whole Gospel was hung on the Cross. It was all there—the battle and the victory, the price and the purchase, the doom and the deliverance—the Cross and the crown. See again, in the death of Christ on the Cross, a clear idea of what He meant to do and of what He actually did when He laid down His life for us. And be glad that once, and only once, this great deed had to be done! Nothing more is needed—Christ has put away the sin of those for whom the Covenant was made, according to the Word of God that we read just now—“Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” “Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”