It is Priests Who Are Appointed Once to Die Before the Judgment (Hebrews 9:27)

As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes the judgment.

-Hebrews 9:27

We will look at the context of this verse in several ways.

• The passage
• The chapter
• The Book
• Paul's teachings
• The Law

This verse is often pulled from its context and used to teach that every human being is placed before God and judged for heaven or "hell" immediately. In light of Paul only knowing of two types of bodies (terrestrial and celestial, of the earth, of the spirit in resurrection), we find no room for any immediate state. We also see in the same chapter (1 Cor 15) Paul's only use "Hades" in his epistles and he is referring to believers, in context.

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come?” You fool! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. When you sow, you do not sow the body that shall be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. Then God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies. The glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. One star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:35-44

When this corruptible will have put on incorruption [in resurrection], and this mortal will have put on immortality, then the saying that is written shall come to pass: “Death is swallowed up in victory."

“O death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?

-1 Corinthians 15:54-55

We have covered the topics of Hades and resurrection elsewhere, but it is important to the understanding of Hebrews 9. Since we cannot cram the common interpretation of Hebrews 9:27 into Paul's teachings on death and resurrection, we should look to the greater context for understanding.

But even without referencing Paul's teachings about resurrection, we can dismiss the common interpretation of our verse from the context of Hebrews chapter 9 and the full passage alone.

It was therefore necessary that the replicas of heavenly things be cleansed with these sacrifices, but that the heavenly things themselves be cleansed with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, which are patterned after the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor did He enter to offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. For then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the world was created, but now He has appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by sacrificing Himself. As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to save those who eagerly wait for Him.

-Hebrews 9:23-28 

The Superiority of Christ is the Context

The greater context speaks to the reality of Christ's perfect and complete sacrifice as being superior to the work of Israel's High Priest and the sacrificial system of the Law. That system was merely a picture of the final work. It also was work that had to be repeated as it could never actually redeem anyone from his sins. We will continue to point us to the superiority and the finality and perfection of the work of Christ as does the Book of Hebrews. We can never stress it to often or too greatly!

For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Hebrews 10:3


But every priest stands daily ministering and repetitively offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

-Hebrews 10:11

The Book of Hebrews, written during the Acts Age to Jews, is a presentation of Christ as superior to everything in the Law and in the sacrificial system. Christ is superior to the sacrifices in the tabernacle and temple for his sacrifice does not need to be repeated. Christ' priesthood is superior in that it never ends. The Roman Catholic church offers thousands of masses everyday in which they teach they are offering an ongoing sacrifice, a work that is neither sufficient nor complete. There is no room for compromise with such a system. 

In the Law, the High Priest enters the Holy Place with blood that was not his own. But neither his blood nor the blood of animals could take away sin. Christ sacrificed himself for sin once and for all. Christ never has to die again. He is Israel's ultimate High Priest (but not according to the Levitical priesthood as we shall see). The High Priest under the Law will die and must be replaced in that system with the next High Priest. 

When Christ died, the judgment came, the offering made, and proof of acceptance was satisfied by his resurrection. The High Priest under the Law dies, yet sin is never washed away (it is merely covered). All men are appointed to die. The use of "judgment" in Hebrews 9:27 as interpreted by almost all schools of theology, completely ignores the rest of the context. Christ's work is thus diminished. 

This is how the New Living Translation renders the verse:

It is in the plan that all men die once. After that, they will stand before God and be judged.

We have spoken favorably of certain NLT translations of verses, but here we see the danger of "dynamic equivalency." A doctrine of men is forced onto a verse that says nothing of the sort. Young's Literal Translation renders the verse, "and as it is laid up to men once to die, and after this -- judgment." Nothing here about a man standing before God to be judged after his death. That is tradition, not truth.

Basic Evangelical understanding of redemption knows we are judged in Christ and redeemed the moment we believe. There is a future judgment of service, but tradition never puts that on this verse (and rightly so). So, what is this "judgment?" 

The NLT continues into verse 28 and things no longer make sense if verse 27 was a judgment for any random person upon death with no knowledge of the outcome.

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

-Hebrews 9:27-28 (NLT)

We have again here, as we do throughout the Acts age, a pointing to the return of Christ. This is the central point of verse 28. So what would "Dolly Parton [or whomever] died and then God sent her to heaven/hell" (whichever position you take on her faith) have to do with the second coming or the work of the High Priest? What "salvation" is the Lord bringing and to whom? The already redeemed? The already judged? Paul is speaking to Jews about the Kingdom in Israel that is to come (as promised by the Lord in Acts 1 at his coming and reflected in Paul's Acts epistles, such as First and Second Thessalonians). 

In the traditional understanding, a man dies, is judged right then, and then floats off in a mysterious form to either heaven or "hell." Who is "eagerly waiting for him?"  What salvation is he bringing and to whom? 

If you don't like the NLT, here it is in the KJV and the problem remains:

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. (KJV)

I reference Dolly Parton because Hebrews 9:27 was employed by the leader of a very large Evangelical ministry to argue that God judged her directly upon death. But Dolly doesn't fit the context nor does any random human. Is the Evangelical leader thinking then that when he dies he'll be judged, go to heaven, then look for the return of Christ for his salvation?

The Greater Context of a Mortal Priesthood

We must also remember, the greater context of chapters 7, 8, and 9 is the superiority of the Priesthood and Offering of Christ, and the types and shadows in the law. Not addressing this issue directly, but in discussing the limited priesthood of the Levites compared to the eternal priesthood of Christ pictured in the priesthood of Melchizedek, Paul wrote:

And in one case dying men [Levitical priesthood] receive tithes, but in the other case [Melchizedek picturing Christ] it is one who is borne witness to that he is living.

-Hebrews 7:8

 

"Dying men" is rendered "mortal men" in other translations and "men that die" in the KJV. These are the ones that die in Hebrews 9:27. They are juxtaposed throughout Hebrews against the superior priesthood of Christ, a priesthood that never ends for Israel. Christ died once for all, was buried, did not decay, rose again to never die again. This is a superior priesthood in every way, certainly superior to "dying men." In any case, all mortal men die whether priest or not, whether believer or not. Christ is superior to all.

As a comparative, Christ's death is the ultimate death. There remains no more sacrifice for sin. All guilt is remitted. No more mortal High Priest is needed. We also have juxtaposed in this book the Lord's priesthood against the Levitical priesthood as a whole. Our Lord is from the Tribe of Judah. This means nothing to gentiles, but Israel's priesthood was limited to the Tribe of Levi. The Lord's priesthood is pictured in Melchizedek, a priest with no beginning or end, a priest of no tribe. 

This is important to remember as this argument was laid out earlier in Hebrews. Melchizedek ministered to Abraham (Abram at the time) while he was still in uncircumcision. 

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to be made a High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:

“You are My Son;
today I have become Your Father.” [Ps. 2:7]

As He also says in another place:

\You are a priest forever
in the order of Melchizedek.” [Ps 110:4]

In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. He was heard because of His godly fear. Though He was a Son, He learned obedience through the things that He suffered, and being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him, being designated by God a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

-Hebrew 5:5-10

The Priesthood Pertains Only to Israel

This priesthood is relevant only to the children of Abraham. When the Lord provided coats of skins for Adam and Eve (the founders of all races), he used no intermediary. The picture was complete. Blood was shed for sin. But we must also note in Genesis that no mention of the blood is given, the focus is on the covering (the atonement). 

Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

-Genesis 3:21

Israel's sins were "covered" by the animal sacrifices, but the sin was never taken away ("For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." -Heb 10:4). For Adam, Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, etc., the only way sin is taken away is by the perfect sacrifice of Christ (to which they looked forward as we look back). The context of a priest (High Priest) is only for Israel. Christ is not our High Priest (just as he is not the Son of David) in the current calling. In Adam, he his our Lord and our God. He has always been the God of the Gentiles (Rom 3:29, 15:10-11; etc.). But Gentiles never (even now) have been called to be a "nation of priests" as Israel was (Ex 19:5-7).

We will never see the Lord as priest in the Post Acts epistles. We must keep all this in mind and we look back at the Law and the inferior priesthood of the Levitical High Priest which is the context of much of the Book of Hebrews. Christ did his work as High Priest as part of Israel's covenant for them. This is the immediate context of verse 27 in question. 

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: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

-Hebrews 9:24-26

When the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies, there was no seat. He did not sit. His work was never done as sin was only covered and not forgiven in full. And no gentile (from Adam on) looked to an annual feast nor waited on the work of a High Priest in a tabernacle or temple. The covering was only for Israel, under the First Covenant, and connected to her special, earthly calling. (We remind ourselves here that the hope of the current calling is greater than Israel's hope.)

The Roman Catholic system of priests, confession, Penance, and Purgatory is reflection of this inferior system. They offer daily a sacrifice that they teach can never take away sin. Men must confess, perform Penance, and then may still have to pay for sin in the fires of Purgatory (only venial sins as grave/mortal sins will damn the soul, Christ is of no value without your  works of Penance, as assigned by a priest). Of course, in that system, your family can pay for sins after death with their suffering and works of charily while Christ's work remains impotent. They have saints who have bled for sin. They are still offering the "blood of others" which can never take away sin.

The Judgment and Salvation in View

The Greek word translated "judgment" in Heb 9:27 is "krísis." As used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew canon, Old Testament), it carries both the idea of judgment and salvation. We need to think of salvation in its broader sense of rescue (but even the narrow sense can be applied). So when the High Priest dies, the accused Israelite is saved from what?

What is the significance of the High Priest dying to a Jew under the Law? A Jewish reader would understand the significance of the comparison. Let's look at how a person who accidentally kills another is handled under the Law.

“Six of the towns you give the Levites [priests] will be cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee. In addition, give them forty-two other towns. In all you must give the Levites forty-eight towns, together with their pasturelands.

-Numbers 35:6-7

A Jewish reader would understand the significance of the High Priest's death in relation to the accused in a city of refuge. The accused must go to the city of refuge or be subject to death by an avenger. He is essentially trapped there. If he were to leave, he was subject to revenge by the deceased's family.

Then the Lord said to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that anyone accused of murder may not die before they stand trial  [judgment: krisis] before the assembly. 

-Numbers 35:9-12

We note again: The accused must stay in the city of refuge if he wants protection from any avenger. If he leaves the protection, he is liable to be killed by an avenger. We repeat this condition so we don't miss the requirement for his full release of responsibility. He must stay in the city until the death of the High Priest. This is paramount to see. The condition is noted three times in one passage.

 

The assembly must protect the one accused of murder from the avenger of blood and send the accused back to the city of refuge to which they fled. The accused must stay there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. ‘But if the accused ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which they fled and the avenger of blood finds them outside the city, the avenger of blood may kill the accused without being guilty of murder. The accused must stay in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest; only after the death of the high priest may they return to their own property.

-Numbers 35:25-27

When the High Priest dies, the avenger cannot act. The accused is judged/saved from vengeance. This fits not only our selected passage from Hebrews 9, but also the greater theme of the one, perfect sacrifice of Christ for all forever. Christ the High Priest died for Israel, all were set free, no new High Priest is needed as the ultimate has risen from the dead! There remains no more sacrifice (death/blood payment) for sin.

This picture is consistent with other Hebrew references. The Passover, The Day of Atonement, etc. and other types and shadows explained in the Book of Hebrews as is the death of the High Priest and its connection to judgment/salvation (krisis). 

One passage to help us further see the connection between judgment and salvation (rescue):

And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered (saved) them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge ... when the judge was dead, they returned (turned back) ...’ 

-Judges 2:18-19\

 

The judges of Israel were first of all saviors. This is seen in the judgeship of Othniel and Ehud ‘The Lord raised up a savior to the children of Israel’ (Judg. 3:9-15). The reader will doubtless call to mind the many passages where the poor, the needy and the righteous call upon God to ‘judge’ them, and such passages as Psalms 1:5 where the ungodly are excluded from ‘judgment’. It is this Old Testament conception of judgment and the particular exercise of it seen in Numbers chapter 35 that must be kept to the fore as we read Hebrews 9:27.

-Charles Welch (Perfection or Perdition, excerpt, P.150) 

We also must remember that chapter breaks in scripture are not in the original manuscripts. After the passage at the Hebrews 9, chapter 10 in our bibles continues the theme of the superiority of the sacrifice of Christ.

For the law is a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of those things. It could never by the same sacrifices, which they offer continually year after year, perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, once purified, would no longer be conscious of sins? But in those sacrifices there is an annual reminder of sins. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:

“Sacrifices and offerings You did not desire,
but a body You have prepared for Me.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You have had no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do Your will, O God,’
as it is written of Me in the volume of the book.” [Ps 40:6-8]

-Hebrews 10:1-7

The cities of refuge, the judgment, the salvation, the finality all point to Christ. We dare not reach into that book and pull out a verse to serve our traditions.  In Christ we are clean. No one can bring a charge against us. Let them judge us. In Christ we are fully sanctified.

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted in the Lord; I will not slip.

-Psalm 26:1

 

Charles Welch offers this structural outline from Hebrews 9 with the idea of judgment/salvation:

A 27. And as. 

B 27. The men die once. 

C 27.Judgment. 

A 28. So also. 

B 28. Christ was offered once. 

C 28. Salvation. 

The Hebrew Context of the Book of Hebrews

 A Jewish reader wouldn't need the explanation. That is for two reasons. First, he would be familiar with the history of Israel, the Law, the High Priest, the sacrificial system, the cities of refuge, and the annual feasts. Second, he would not have any concept of a bodiless "soul" floating about. When Lazarus died in John 11, there is no mention of any hope that he is sitting around, bodiless, somehow in Abraham's bosom. There is only talk of the only hope for the dead, resurrection in Christ.

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You may ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

-John 11:21-27

We have covered this topic elsewhere, but we note it in this study to once again point out that no Jew would understand the context of the priesthood and the dying spoken of in Hebrews 9:27 as being some teaching on bodiless souls going to either heaven or into God torture chamber. The hope is always freedom from death ("the gates of Hades/Sheol") in a future resurrection. 

When Job faced death, he wasn't rejoicing or thinking he would immediately be in "Abraham's Bosom" (which was not possibly in any case). Did Adam and Noah go to "Abraham's Bosom?" Just food for thought as the passage concerning Abraham's Bosom in John is almost universally plucked out of its context as the sole "evidence" for a bodiless future (a doctrine of the Pharisees).

They change the night into day;
the light is short because of darkness.
If I wait, the grave is my house;
I have made my bed in the darkness.
I have said to the pit, ‘You are my father’;
to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister.’
Where now is my hope?
As for my hope, who will see it?
Will they go down to the gates of Sheol?
Will we descend together in the dust?”

-Job 17:12-16

This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

I said: In the middle of my days,
I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.
I said, I shall not see the Lord,
even the Lord, in the land of the living;
I shall see man no more
with the inhabitants of the world.

-Isaiah 38:9-11

 

These are believers. And the entire passages should be read to get a sense of the full gloom they have in facing death. The gates of Sheol (Hades, Hell) is death. And death is not looked to in joy. This is why the Lord states that a profession of faith in him is a the key to bursting forth out of the gates of Hades (compare Paul in 1 Cor 15). Gates aren't attacking the "church" (the picture alone makes no sense), gates are holding in the dead. And the only escape is resurrection life.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (KJV: hell) shall not prevail against it.

-Matthew 16:15-18 (MEV)

It is Gentiles who have taken this passage and this book from their purpose and have imposed the Greek mythological version of Hades and our own religious traditions upon them.

Reading the Passage With a Jewish and Scriptural Understanding

Let's read our passage in Hebrews 9 again (even using a biased translation) with hopefully a better understanding of the significance of the High Priest (which is present in the entire last section of the epistle as a whole):

It was therefore necessary that the replicas [pictures, types, shadows] of heavenly things be cleansed with these sacrifices, but that the heavenly things themselves be cleansed with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, which are patterned after the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor did He enter to offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. For then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the world was created, but now He has appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by sacrificing Himself. As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to save [rescue] those who eagerly wait for Him.

-Hebrews 9:23-28

As with the Book of Acts and the  other Acts-Age epistles, we stress again, the expectation of the return of Christ is part of the context.  We have looked at this elsewhere. But we need to be reminded (in light of the human traditions of Christendom) that the churches of the Acts age (with Jews and grafted-in gentiles) were anticipating both the Tribulation, the Return of Christ to the land to establish his Kingdom in Israel.

While none of that applies to us in the current age, it is present in the Book of Hebrews. But even without that piece, the passage stands on its own when we understand the teachings connected to the High Priest and the cities of refuge under the Law.

The Jewish believer is being assured that Christ's priesthood is superior to any priesthood in the Law. His sacrifice was not like that of bulls or goats, but of his own blood (something no other High Priest could offer). Upon his death, all sin was remitted. The city of refuge inhabitants were free. No charge could ever be brought against them whether inside or outside the city. It is appointed unto the High Priest to die, then the judgment from the council of innocence, then the full release. 

After the human High Priest died, the accused were free. Christ's sacrificial death is far superior and never had to be repeated for anyone else. All in Christ are free forever.  

When we allow ourselves to see this, Hebrews 9:27 comes alive for Jew specifically and for us in its continuing glorification of the finished work of Christ. It is not a random, out of place threat. It is pointing the glorious freedom from even accusation we have in a Savior who has died to make us free, but who will never die again!

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