Heb 9:27-28 - Christ - Christ - Savior AND Judge

Heb 9:27-28 - Christ - Christ - Savior AND Judge

Heb 9:27-28 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 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.


What is being spoken of here is not the salvation that is received and abided in through faith, but the salvation that Christ brings with Him on His return to the earth. When we first believe, that aspect of our salvation is called justification. When we live in the light of this through faith we are being sanctified. Ultimately, when we either die and return with Christ, or when He comes back for us, we shall have manifested in us that concluding aspect of our salvation which is known as glorification. It is the latter that is being spoken of here. The consummation of all things in the actual bodily presence of the Lord.

But notice that the salvation spoken of is in conjunction with the judgement. All men will be judged after they die. Now all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God, so all deserve to be punished. There are, however, a number (many) whose offences against God were put upon Christ, and those are the ones who will be saved from the condemnation of judgement for their sins.

Those who are not covered by the sacrifice of Christ will fall under this "dealing with sin" that is spoken of. This is not a light thing. When He returns He will indeed save His people to the uttermost, but He will also unleash the wrath and condemnation and judgement of God upon all who have not believed and trusted in Him. So, the writer is speaking eschatologically. Christ the Lamb will re-appear as God the judge. And it is His Own once-for-all-time sacrifice that will shelter those who believe from the fury that is to come.

So the point of the whole Mosaic/Levitical sacrificial system summed up as "the law" was to point to the deliverance from the wrath of God that is found only in Jesus Christ, the eternal sacrifice.