“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Heb 9:28 AV)
What a statement! The sin of which He is without is my sin. The last time lost Israel saw Jesus was on the cross and He took upon Him the sin of the whole world. They saw Jesus marred in the sin of humanity. Not exactly a pretty picture. Isaiah was right. There was nothing about Him they desired. It was a horrifying picture of the absolute destruction of their Messiah by the sin of the world. However, when He returns, they will see Him in His glorified state. No longer will He bear the sins of the world because the justice of God has been satisfied. He will appear for the second time without spot or blemish. He will appear the second time with no association with our sin because our sin has been absolved. I cannot help but think of how wonderful that is. My sin, past, present, and future was satisfied on Calvary’s cross. When the writer states Jesus will appear the second time without sin, what he means is He will appear the second time without my sin.
Years ago, I helped a young man who saw the LORD move the world for him. I have never seen anything like it before. I will not go into all the details, but relay one event in particular. He worked for a furniture company that sold and delivered furniture on a cash-only basis. So, he would load up a truck and head out. He would come back to the warehouse and turn over all the proceeds from that day. They were usually in the thousands. If he returned after hours, he would turn the proceeds in the next morning. This young man had a substance abuse problem and a gambling problem. He had already spent time in jail and was on probation. Any mess up and he would go back to prison. His gambling addiction got the better of him and he took the proceeds and went to a casino. Because he lost it all, he could not return to his business the next day. He told me he was laid off. That is, until a week went by and he was extremely nervous. He eventually confided in me and I convinced him to go back to his employer and offer to work it off. When he arrived, there were a couple of squad cars waiting for him. He was arrested on felony charges. He was released on his own recognisence with an appearance ticket. On that day, I took him down to the Cook County courthouse to await his desk appearance. We looked at the docket list. His name did not appear. We asked a court officer and he checked. There was no record of his appearance ticket and was not scheduled for a trial. Cook County lockup is not a place you want to be. It is one of the worst county lockups in the nation. He was facing serious jail time and he was more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of occupied rocking chairs. But there was no record of his ticket. It was as if it never happened.
This is the picture the writer is trying to convey. We shouldn’t be bogged down with sin that has already been forgiven. Furthermore, if Jesus Christ has paid for it all, then why do we still go after it? What earthly difference would it make? The world cannot understand this. They assume eternal security and complete absolution gives the saint the license to sin. They think there are no eternal consequences for those who believe in complete and final absolution. What they do not understand is the heart of the child of God. If he truly is saved, then as enticing as sin might be, there is a part of him that is repulsed by it. He or she wants to be free from it. If Jesus paid it all, there is no reason to pursue it. You and I can rest in the truth our account has been eternally settled in Jesus. No more memory of it. It is gone forever!
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