Hebrews 9:24-26 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For Christ is, or, hath, not entered With the sacrifice of his crucified body; into the holy places made with hands He never went into the holy of holies of the temple at Jerusalem; the figures of the true tabernacle in heaven; Greek, αντιτυπα, the antitypes. “In the mount Moses had τυπος, the type, or model of the tabernacles, and of the services to be performed in them, showed to him. Hence the tabernacles, with their services, which he formed according to that model, are called antitypes, or images of that model; consequently images of heaven itself, and of the services to be performed by Christ as the High-Priest of the heavenly holy places, of all which the model showed to Moses in the mount was a shadow or dark representation.” But unto heaven itself, now to appear As our glorious High-Priest and powerful Intercessor; in the presence of God for us That is, before the manifestation of the divine presence, to officiate on our account. Nor yet Was it needful that he should offer himself often The atonement made by Christ being founded on the sovereign pleasure of God, it was to be made according to the appointment of God. Wherefore Christ having made that atonement only once, it follows that no more atonement was required by God in order to his pardoning believers in all nations and ages. As the high-priest entereth into the earthly holy place every year On the day of atonement; with the blood of others Of another kind of creatures, that is, of bullocks and goats. For then must he (Christ) often have suffered since the foundation of the world “This reasoning,” says Macknight, “merits the reader's particular attention, because it supposes two facts which are of great importance. The first is, that from the fall of Adam to the end of the world, no man will be pardoned but through Christ's offering himself to God a sacrifice for sin. The second is, that although Christ offered himself only once, that one offering is in itself so meritorious, and of such efficacy in procuring pardon for the penitent, that its influence reacheth backward to the beginning of the world, and forward to the end of time; on which account Christ is with great propriety termed, (Revelation 13:8,) the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;” or from the time of man's fall, for the necessity of Christ's offering himself a sacrifice for sin did not take place immediately at the creation, but at the fall. But now once in the end of the world At the conclusion of the Mosaic dispensation, and the entrance of gospel times, which are the last season of God's grace to the church. The apostle's expression, συντελεια των αιωνων, may be properly rendered, the consummation, or conclusion, of the ages, or divine dispensations, termed the dispensation of the fulness of times, Ephesians 1:10. See also Galatians 4:4. The sacrifice of Christ divides the whole age or duration of the world into two parts, and extends its virtue backward and forward. He hath appeared Πεφανερωται, been manifested; to put away sin Or, for the abolition of sin, as the original expression signifies; that is, to remove both its guilt and power, (and not merely, or chiefly, to abolish the Levitical sin-offerings, as Macknight strangely interprets the clauses) by the sacrifice of himself Which at once purchases the pardon of it for us, and grace to subdue it, and effectually teaches us to mortify it, when we see such a ransom paid for our forfeited lives.