Hope Deferrd

Hope Deferred?

"And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him." (Hebrews 9:27-28)

You should read all of chapter nine, or all of Hebrews to capture the context for this excerpt of the text. It presents an interesting aspect of salvation that most of us have not considered. The context is Christ as the ministering High Priest in the heavenly tabernacle. Understanding the type on which this statement is based will aid our understanding of the passage. The language is pregnant with meaning if we take the time to investigate the type itself. That study means going to all that boring stuff in Leviticus we usually read over!

Annually, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest sacrificed a bull and entered the Holy of Holies. There were bells on his robe so the others could hear him moving about and know he was still alive. There was a rope tied to his leg so he could be pulled out if he did not survive the encounter with God. His first trip was to offer sacrifices for His personal sins.

He then left the Holy of Holies and sacrificed a goat for the sins of the people before them and took its blood into the Holy of Holies to atone for their sins. He then appeared a second time, not with respect to sin, but to announce their salvation.

It is this image that the author of Hebrews is drawing upon. Christ appeared the first time with reference to sin. Following His death, burial and resurrection, Christ ascended to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies. For the typology of Hebrews to be consistent, demands that He appear a second time with reference to salvation, not sin (Hebrews 9:28).

The second appearing was to acknowledge the acceptance of the Sacrifice by God, and proclaim the salvation of those "who eagerly await Him."

The typology suggests that if Christ has not appeared a second time, we have no assurance of salvation. The assurance of salvation we see in the New Testament writers is based on their conviction that Christ would appear while some of them yet lived.

Read the New Testament again and listen to the imminency of the message. Notice how often we read, "the time is at hand" or similar phrases. There is no hint that Christ, the apostles or the early church anticipated a delayed second appearing. If you find such references, let me know.

The idea of a delayed return of Christ inherently means that we do not know if Christ’s sacrifice for our sins was acceptable. This confronts with the question, "What then is the time of His coming?" Or worse yet, "Was His sacrifice acceptable?"