Hebrews 9:28Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“So Christ also, having once offered Himself in sacrifice.” By whom “was He offered”? Clearly, by Himself. Here he shows in Him not only the priest, but also the offering and the sacrifice.

Then he adds the reason why He “was offered.” “Having once offered Himself in sacrifice,” he says, “to bear the sins of many.”

Why did he say “many,” and not “all”? Because not all believed. He died for all in order to save all, as far as depended on Him. His death had power to save all from perdition.

Yet He “bore the sins” not of all, because they themselves did not will it.

“So Christ also, having once offered Himself in sacrifice.” Although He is the High Priest, He Himself is also the offering and the sacrifice.

“To bear the sins of many.” As in the Liturgy we bear sins and say, “We have sinned willingly and unwillingly; forgive.” That is, we first call sins to remembrance, and then ask forgiveness.

So He Himself said to the Father, “For their sake I sanctify Myself” (Jn 17:19). Or, He bore sins, that is, He took them away from men and brought them to the Father, that He might remit them.

Why did he say “many,” and not “all”? Because not all believed. His death corresponded to the perdition of all, and, as far as depended on Him, He died for all.

So also Christ appeared once and offered Himself for the sins of all. He will appear a second time, not in order then to die for the sins for which He once died, but to appear in a new world. There those who await salvation from Him in hope will have no sins.

As it is appointed for each man to die once, and the one who has reached the limit of mortality sins no longer, but awaits the result of all he has done in life, so the Master Christ. Having once offered Himself for us and taken our sins upon Himself, will appear to us again when sin no longer reigns, that is, when sin no longer has any place among men. For Christ Himself, while still having a mortal body, “committed no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (1 Pet 2:22). It should also be noted that the Apostle said, “to bear the sins of many,” not of all, for not all believed. Therefore Christ loosed the sins only of those who believed.

For this reason, says the Apostle, He died once, because men die once. Since He Himself became man in the most perfect manner, He “was offered once,” that is, He became a sacrifice, “to bear the sins of many.”

The word “many” is used to show that not all believed in Him, although on His part He died for all.

He bore sins to the Father by recalling them before the Father, in order to obtain His condescension toward them. For priests too, when making offerings, bear the sins for which those offerings are made.

They say, “Whether they have sinned knowingly or unknowingly, forgive them, Master.” Thus the bearing of sins means the priests’ remembrance of them before God, and their request that those who have sinned may receive remission.

The Apostle says that the Father sent Him to bear the sins of many upon the Cross, in order to destroy them by enduring the punishment for human sins, making Him now a sacrifice for sin (2 Cor 5:21). For Christ truly was a sinner, because He took upon Himself and appropriated the sins of the whole world. But after enduring on the Cross the fitting punishment, and the one certainly due to sinners, He will appear with the Father’s glory, no longer as a sinner and no longer numbered with transgressors (Is 53:12; Lk 22:37).

That on this day the High Priest was sent to make atonement for the sanctuary, the tabernacle of the covenant, the altar, the priests, and all the people, John himself reveals.

He also reveals who this High Priest will be, and what sort of atonement He will accomplish, when he comes with Him for His baptism and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).

This is the atonement appointed to be accomplished once a year. For the Apostle says of it, “Christ, having once offered Himself in sacrifice to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not for the cleansing of sin, but to those who wait for Him unto salvation.”

“To bear the sins of many.” Christ Himself, at the Mystical Supper, when offering the disciples the cup of the New Covenant in His Blood, said that this Blood is poured out for many, not for all (Mt 26:28). “But why only for many, and not for all? Because,” answers Saint John Chrysostom, “not all believed. Christ died for all, so far as it depended on Him, in order to save all. His death was powerful enough to save all from perdition. Yet He did not bear the sins of all, because they themselves did not will it.”

How do these words of the Apostle relate to the preceding thoughts? In them the Apostle presents a new consideration concerning the once-for-all character of the Savior’s sacrifice on the Cross.

Immediately before this, he derived this once-for-all character from the infinite value of Christ’s sacrifice. Such value, even when the sacrifice is offered once, is fully sufficient for all times. The yearly singularity of the Old Testament sacrifice on the Day of Atonement prefigured this.

Here the Apostle derives the once-for-all character of Christ’s sacrifice from the unnaturalness and incongruity of its supposed repetition. Christ, he says, would have had to suffer and die many times from the foundation of the world.

After offering Himself once in sacrifice, nothing remains for Christ except to appear a second time in order to bless those who await Him with faith.

Explaining this, the Apostle says that, as with death everything earthly ceases to have significance for man, and in the future only judgment remains, so also Christ was once offered by God as a sacrifice (cf. Rom 8:32).

He was offered in order to bear in Himself alone the punishment for the sins of many, or better, of all men (cf. Rom 5:15ff.).

He will appear a second time on earth for salvation, or for the salvation of believers. He will be free from the burden of human sins and will have no need to offer Himself again as a sacrifice.

The term κρίοις, without the article, determines neither the time nor the quality of the judgment.