Hebrews 9:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Its beauty drew everyone, for people came there from the ends of the earth, from Babylonia and Ethiopia. Luke expresses this in Acts when he says: "There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome" (Acts 2:5, 9-10). Thus people came there from all countries of the inhabited world, and the glory of that temple was great. What, then, does Paul do? What he did regarding the sacrifices, he does here as well. As he set Christ's death against them, so here he sets the whole heaven against the temple. But he shows the difference not only in this, but also in the fact that our Priest is nearer to God. He adds, "to appear before the face of God." Thus he proves the greatness of the matter not only by heaven, but also by the entrance itself. There Christ does not see God through types, as here, but sees God Himself. Do you see that everything lowly said of Him is said according to His condescension? Is it surprising, then, that Paul presents Him as interceding like a high priest? "For Christ entered not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear for us before the face of God. Nor," he says, "that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the sanctuary every year with another's blood." Thus this is the truth, while those things are types. That temple was built according to the likeness of the heavens. But what are you saying? If He had not entered heaven, would He not have appeared before the face of God, He who is everywhere and fills all things? Clearly all this is said of His flesh. "Now to appear," he says, "for us before the face of God." What does "for us" mean? He entered, he says, with a sacrifice able to propitiate the Father. Tell me, for what reason? Was He an enemy of God? Some of the angels were enemies of God, but He was not an enemy. And that the angels were enemies, hear what the Apostle says: "through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth or things in heaven" (Col 1:20). Therefore it is rightly said that He entered heaven "now to appear for us before the face of God." He stands before Him even now, but for us.

Paul says this with reference to His human nature. He shows the difference not only for this reason, but also to show that our High Priest is nearer to God. For the Old Testament high priests saw God through symbols, but Christ beholds God Himself, appearing before the face of God. This too is said according to His condescension, with reference to His human nature. What does "for us" mean? He entered, he says, with a sacrifice able to propitiate the Father and also to reconcile us with the angels. For they too were hostile toward us, as toward enemies of their Lord. Therefore He now appears for us. "Now" signifies that He entered as High Priest, for He entered for the sake of our reconciliation.

For this purpose, after first noting that images of heavenly things were generally hidden in these rites, the Apostle turns his remembrance to the Old Testament rite on the great and only day of cleansing in the year. On that day the high priest alone entered with sacrificial blood into the sanctuary behind the veil, which concealed the Holy of Holies. If all this was to receive its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, the great High Priest of the new and better covenant, then He too clearly had to enter the sanctuary with sacrificial blood. But since "Christ entered not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear for us before the face of God," His sacrificial blood clearly had to be of a better and higher quality than Old Testament blood. What this blood is, we already know from what precedes. But another circumstance also points to the surpassing value of Christ's redeeming blood. Having ascended into heaven, Jesus Christ had no need to repeat His great sacrifice by shedding His own blood many times, as the Old Testament high priest did each year in the earthly sanctuary with another's blood. Otherwise, as the Apostle notes, Christ would have had to suffer and die many times from the foundation of the world. The once-for-all character of Christ's sacrifice was typologically indicated by the very offering of the Old Testament high priest. Though repeated every year, it was still the single offering of the year. It was as though it annually foretold another singular sacrificial offering, which would be single and once-for-all in its very essence, yet unceasing in its continuation. All this was in fact fulfilled. Jesus Christ died only once, and likewise ascended into heaven with His blood only once. By His priceless death and blood He acquired eternal redemption for us once for all (Heb 9:12). Yet the Lord began the offering of His great sacrifice from the first moments of His earthly life. He will continue it in heaven and on earth until the full completion of the great work of redemption and salvation for all human generations at the end of the ages. "But now once, at the end of the ages, Christ has appeared to put away sin by His sacrifice" (Heb 9:26). Do the Apostle's words contradict the repeated celebration of the mystery of the Eucharist? Not at all. The Apostle speaks only of Christ's once-for-all accomplishment of the bloody sacrifice, not of the bloodless one. The Lord Jesus Christ established the mystery of this latter sacrifice solely in remembrance of His bloody sacrifice. He established it as a sign of the unceasing continuation of the redemptive work that He accomplished by His bloody sacrifice on the cross. This was so that, for their salvation, men might have a means of continually appropriating the fruits of Christ's bloody sacrifice, accomplished once for all.