Appointed Unto Death

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many...”

(Hebrews 9:27-28)

So often we have quoted Hebrews 9:27 in connection with warnings to sinners of the inevitability of death and judgment to follow for those who die in their sins, without giving any consideration to the context. Notice how the verse begins with the conjunction “and” which ties the statement of “appointed unto death” to the death of the LORD Jesus, as does the verse following.

The meaning then is clear. The reason for speaking of death appointed is not so much to explain why people as sinners die but why Christ the Sinless One had to die. Even as it was decreed [appointed] by God that sinners die and stand in judgment by Adam’s sin, so it was necessary that the LORD Jesus Christ come and bear the sins of the many elect of God and die in their stead for judgment. God is the Just God and Savior and to save His people unto Himself He could do nothing less than satisfy His justice on their behalf by the very death of His Son. The apostle Paul expressed it in Romans 8:32: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”This is Sovereign Grace ordained by God for sinners for whom Christ paid their horrible sin debt. God could not save them in any other way than by the same appointed death that their sin had incurred.

Christ died once and He will die no more. He bore the sin of the many once and when that Truth is revealed in the heart of the redeemed, it is a comfort and peace to their souls. Although we must yet face physical death, our Good Hope is that because of Christ’s death, our sin has been forever put away and being justified by His blood, we no longer face any judgment to come because that judgment was already rendered at the cross. Although Christ did not bear everyone’s sins, still, there are the many for whom He did lay down His life, Mark 10:45.

He bore their sin completely away and made an entire satisfaction for them in His death on the cross. God the Father imputed to Him all their sins and He voluntarily took them upon Himself, Romans 8:33. That’s where justice found them and demanded satisfaction by Him for them and He fulfilled and finished it completely. Simultaneously, God imputed to the Spiritual account of His elect that righteousness that His Son earned and established on their behalf.

What a glorious redemption and justification of His elect that the LORD Jesus has accomplished for them in His perfect life and effectual death for them!