THE word which is translated once in our Bibles, is sometimes also translated once for all. Once for all is more strong and emphatic than once; it carries with it a sense of finality and completeness which will bear of no addition or repetition. Let us take from the epistle to the Hebrews the three verses in which the word once or once for all occurs.
(1) Chapter 7:27.
“This He did once for all, when He offered up Himself.”
The Jewish priests needed to “offer up sacrifice” “daily,” because the sacrifices they offered were merely shadows of the true, and had no essential value in them; “for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (10:4). But Christ’s one sacrifice of Himself was offered “once for all,” being absolute and eternal in its perfection. He offered up the sacrifice of Himself for sins once for all; His sacrifice cannot be repeated.
(2) Chapter 9:12.
“By His own blood He entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”
The Jewish high priests entered once a year into the holiest with the blood of their sacrifices, and so made an atonement for Israel’s sins for one year. They had to repeat their work annually, and in those sacrifices of theirs, there was “a remembrance again made of sins every year” (10:3). Those priests did not perfect a work, there was no finality attached to their service. But Christ having offered up Himself once for all for our sins on the earth, entered once for all into the Holy Place of the divine presence in heaven. What He did on earth once for all, magnified God in heaven once for all.
(3) Chapter 10:10
“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
We now come, by the use of the word translated once for all in the epistle to the Hebrews, to its application to ourselves. In the first instance it was applied to our Lord’s offering of Himself on earth; in the second, to His entry in God’s presence in heaven; in this, the third, our sanctification by God is the theme. We are―not shall be―we are now, made holy by God by His gracious will, through the means of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Let the reader ponder over these gracious words, thank God for them, and preach to himself a sermon upon them. Christ’s offering up of Himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins allows of no repetition, by virtue of its absolute value. There is now no longer a veil between God and man; Christ, our Representative, has entered into the Holiest in the power of His own blood. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, Christ’s presence in heaven, have once and for all effected our sanctification.