Redemption Accomplished: “Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Hebrews 9:26. In this single verse the whole system of types, shadows, altars, lambs, priests, and ceremonies finds its appointed end. Nothing in the Old Testament ever accomplished the putting away of sin; every sacrifice pointed toward it, but none achieved it. Hebrews 9:26 proclaims a salvation wholly grounded in the final and effectual sacrifice of Christ, who came not to offer potential forgiveness but to secure actual forgiveness, removing sin as a judicial charge against those He represented. This divine declaration dismantles every notion that seeks to mingle human effort with divine redemption, for if Christ has put away sin, nothing remains to be added by repentance, faith, ritual, or obedience. The word “once” announces the perfection and finality of this work, a single sacrifice, never to be repeated, never to be supplemented, never to be amended by human obedience or religious effort. The Lamb has been slain, the offering is complete, sin has been removed, and the believer’s peace rests not in some “conversion” experience, but in the finished work of Christ accomplished once for all in that sacred appointed hour.
With this truth before us, that Christ has appeared once to put away sin, we now arrive at the moment in which that finished work is carried out, the eternally decreed hour, fixed in the purpose of God, toward which He moved with unwavering resolve, and which He Himself declares to be the very reason for His coming. “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour.” John 12:27. If the divine hour was decreed, then the timing of that hour could not be left to the whims of men. The Lamb of God could not die at any random moment, under any random arrangement of events, but precisely at the time appointed in the law and foretold in the prophets. The entire sacrificial system operated on a divinely fixed schedule, and Christ, the substance of every shadow, fulfills not only the meaning of those sacrifices but the timing of them as well.
Scripture next unfolds the astonishing exactness of this hour, its divinely appointed day, its measured timing, and its prophetic conformity to all that was written beforehand. For just as the meaning of every sacrifice pointed to Christ, so the timing of every sacrifice was divinely set to anticipate the cross. The Passover lamb was not slain at any random moment but at a specific hour, “between the evenings,” Exodus 12:6, understood to be the ninth hour, about 3 p.m., being the precise moment when the blood of deliverance was shed for Israel, the appointed hour in which their safety, redemption, and passage out of bondage were secured. The daily lambs were likewise offered on a fixed schedule, one in the morning and one in the evening, framing every day of Israel’s worship upon the altar of atonement. And it is at these very hours, not before nor after, that Christ is lifted up. Let this sink in for a moment, for it is a truth beyond all human crafting, and the wonderment of it all is indeed staggering. Christ is crucified at the third hour and dies at the ninth, precisely the hours God had fixed in the law from ancient days. It’s the very hours appointed in the old covenant sacrificial order. Such perfect precision cannot be overstated; it is the eternal counsel of God aligning perfectly with the sacrifice of His Son. The hour fixed by God is the hour Christ steps into, and in that precise moment the Passover reaches its fulfillment, the continual sacrifices find their interpretation, and every pattern and symbol of the law is gathered up in the person of the crucified Christ.
And if the timing was divinely orchestrated, then so also was the entire meaning of the old covenant itself. Nothing in the Mosaic system stood on its own; its priesthood, sacrifices, laws, and ordinances were deliberately constructed to prefigure the reality that would be revealed in Christ. Its priesthood existed to foreshadow the true High Priest, Hebrews 7:26, its sacrifices to mirror the one effective offering, Hebrews 10:14, its altars to imitate the real place of atonement, Hebrews 10:19-20, and its festivals sang of a deliverance that had not yet arrived. Galatians 4:4. And because every part of the old covenant pointed beyond itself, Scripture now opens the curtain to show the heavenly reality to which these shadows belonged. “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Hebrews 9:23-24. The covenant unfolded as an expansive framework of anticipation, Hebrews 11:13, setting forth substitution, magnifying divine holiness, exposing the depth of human guilt, and directing all expectation toward the One in whom these realities would be perfectly fulfilled. The entire system functioned as a God-designed roadmap, directing every step of Israel’s worship toward one final destination: Christ crucified. Galatians 3:24.
This was the appointed hour toward which all redemptive history pointed, the moment in which every type, promise, and prophecy found its fulfillment. In that single sacrifice Christ rendered complete satisfaction for sin, brought forth an everlasting righteousness, and secured the redemption of His elect by the shedding of His blood. In this one momentous act the whole basis of salvation was set in place and the glory of God displayed in its purest light. There, the entire witness of Scripture found its center and its meaning.
It’s a staggering thought! As if all of history rushes toward this point and all eternity flows out of it, the cross standing as the center of God’s unfolding purpose. “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:” Ephesians 1:10. What heart can truly grasp the magnitude of this? Who can gaze upon this and remain unmoved? At the very point of His offering, the entire weight of sin was borne, the whole demand of the law was met, and the full measure of God’s wrath was spent upon the Substitute. There is no second sacrifice, no additional offering, no supplementary work to be performed; salvation stands complete because Christ’s work stands perfect.
For the believer this is the day of salvation, and this is the place to which the Spirit continually leads us, back to the cross, back to the hour where sin was put away. It is here that our hearts are flooded with the love of God in Christ Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. No wonder the Spirit leads us here again and again, for there is no brighter display of divine love in all the universe. In that hour love itself is defined. Nothing in heaven or earth can measure it, and nothing in time can diminish it. The cross is the supreme revelation of God’s glory, the place where the believer sees love in its purest form. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” I John 4:10.
To those of us who rejoice in the eternal, all-encompassing purpose of God, I believe that there is sometimes a danger, subtle, unintended, but real, of misdirecting our gaze away from the place where redemption was actually accomplished. It is a precious truth that God’s love toward His people is eternal, that Christ was the Lamb set apart before creation, and that grace was already ours in Christ before time itself existed. Yet none of these eternal realities substitute for, nor overshadow, the one moment in history where the ransom price was paid, the hour, the appointed hour, when Christ laid down His life upon the altar of His own sacrifice. “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” Ephesians 5:2.
In embracing the eternal dimension of God’s purpose, we must guard against drifting into a theological abstraction that inadvertently relocates redemption outside of the cross. In other words, no matter how high our view of God’s eternal purpose, we must never lift redemption out of the hour in which it was accomplished. To blend decree, accomplishment, and application into a single “eternal act” is to flatten the gospel and to obscure the sacred hour in which sin was put away by the sacrifice of Himself. Once these truths overlap in our thinking, the majesty of the cross can be dulled, its centrality weakened and glory diminished as our minds wander from the moment Christ secured our salvation, the hour in which sin was actually put away. If redemption is anywhere but at the cross, it is nowhere at all. But because redemption was accomplished there, in that hour, by that Christ, it stands unshakable, unalterable, and forever secure. May the Lord keep our thoughts, our hope, and our confidence fixed upon Christ, who offered Himself without spot to God and perfected forever them that are sanctified.
I’m not too familiar with many hymns, but fragments of this one keep returning to mind, and I can think of no better way to bring these thoughts to a close: “Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, which before the cross I spend; life and health and peace possessing, from the sinner’s dying Friend — Here I’ll sit, forever viewing, mercy’s streams in streams of blood; precious drops, my soul bedewing, plead and claim my peace with God — Here it is I find my heaven, while upon the Lamb I gaze; love I much, I’ve much forgiven, I’m a miracle of grace — Lord, in ceaseless contemplation, fix my heart and eyes on Thee; till I taste Thy full salvation, and Thine unveiled glory see.” MPJ
Postscript: God’s love and purpose toward His people are eternal and stand outside of time, but Scripture never places redemption outside the cross. Eternal union is the womb from which salvation proceeds, yet the ransom price was paid in the hour appointed, and the glory is that both are perfectly united in Christ. Eternal union tells us why Christ came; His sacrifice in time reveals how redemption was accomplished. Scripture never allows us to lose sight of either. MPJ