‘Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, otherwise must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages has he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.'
Nor was His entry into Heaven one of many such entries which had to be made by Him, as though He had no permanent right there, for His one offering of Himself was sufficient for all sin for all time. Therefore could He be permanently before the face of God. He was not like the High Priests who had to enter to make atonement year by year, offering blood which was not their own, and then had to leave again, for had the effect of His sacrifice been of such a temporary nature He would have had to undergo regular periodic suffering, beginning from the very foundation of the world, when sin first began. (Note the implication that His own blood was the only offering that He could make in view of the kind of priest that He was). But it was not so. For now, once at the end of the ages, He had been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and He had been wholly successful.
The implication in these words is enormous. Firstly that He has entered into the presence of God and has put away sin once-for-all for all time, reaching right back to the beginning and right on to the end. His sacrifice is sufficient to cover all sin of all ages, and once made does not have to be repeated. For those who are His, sin has been ‘put away'. And secondly that this is ‘the end of the ages'. It is now the last age, the promised ‘coming age' of the prophets, the age of the everlasting kingdom, already here and bound up in Christians, and to be consummated in the eternal Kingdom. There remain no further earthly ages to come.