Hebrews 9:23-28 (NRSV)

11/22/2007

Christ has appeared once for all

Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than
these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy
of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high
priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the
world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, 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.