Hebrews 9:27,28 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And as it is appointed, &c. Inasmuch as this is the constitution of God, that sinful men shall die once, and but once; (see the margin;) and after this the judgment Of the great day, between which and death nothing shall interpose to make any alteration in the state or condition of any one, for at death every man's final state is determined; but we do not find a word in the Scriptures of any particular judgment taking place immediately after death. So Christ, &c. In correspondence to that state of things, and for a remedy against it; and the relief (O wonderful effect of infinite wisdom!) is eminently proportionate to the evil, the remedy to the disease. Christ was once offered to bear the sins, Matthew 26:28; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21; the guilt and punishment due to them; of many Even of as many as are born into the world; or the expression, ανενεγκειν αμαρτιας, may be rendered, to carry away sins; in allusion, perhaps, to the scapegoat, which bare all the iniquities of the congregation into a land not inhabited. The meaning, however, if the word be so rendered, will be the same in effect, namely, that Christ was once offered to make atonement for the sins of many. And unto them that look for him Which all true believers do; see Rom 8:23; 2 Corinthians 5:2; 2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 3:12. Shall he appear the second time Οφθησεται, he shall be seen, by every eye, Revelation 1:7; there shall be a public sight of him in the heavens, when he comes to raise the dead and judge mankind; without sin Not bearing men's sins as formerly, or without any thing that wears the marks of humiliation and abasement, or resembles the form in which he came to make an atonement for sin; unto salvation To bestow complete happiness of soul and body upon us. Thus Archbishop Tillotson; “What is the meaning of this opposition, that at his first coming he bare our sins, but at his second coming he shall appear without sin unto salvation? These words can have no other imaginable sense but this, that at his first coming he sustained the person of a sinner, and suffered instead of us, but his second coming shall be on another account, and he shall appear, not as a Sacrifice, but as a Judge.” Thus the Jewish high-priest, after entering into the holy of holies in the plain dress of an ordinary priest, in linen garments, making atonement for the people, came out thence arrayed in his magnificent robes to bless the people, who waited for him in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. To this transaction, as Limborch and many others have supposed, there evidently seems to be an allusion here. And as the trumpet of jubilee, each fiftieth year, sounded at that time to proclaim the commencement of that happy period, there is not, says Doddridge, perhaps, an image that can enter into the mind of man more suitable to express the grand idea which the apostle intended to convey, than this would be to a Jew, who well knew the grand solemnity to which it referred. “But there will be this difference between the return of Christ to bless his people, and the return of the high-priest to bless the congregation. The latter, after coming out of the most holy place, made a new atonement in his pontifical robes for himself and for the people, Leviticus 16:24; which showed that the former atonement was not real, but only typical. Whereas Jesus, after having made atonement, with his own blood, will not return to the earth for the purpose of making himself a sacrifice a second time; but having procured an eternal redemption for his people by the sacrifice of himself once offered, he will return for the purpose of publicly absolving them, and bestowing on them the great blessing of eternal life, which absolution and reward he, being surrounded with the glory of his Father, Matthew 16:27, will give them in the presence of the assembled universe, both as their king and their priest. And this is the great salvation which Christ himself began to preach, and which was confirmed to the world by them who heard him, Hebrews 2:3.” Macknight.