Judgment, Salvation and the Second Coming – Hebrews 9:27-28

In the comparison, we must first consider the force of it in general, and explain the words. That, as we have observed, which the apostle designeth to confirm and illustrate, is what he had pleaded in the foregoing verses concerning the singularity and efficacy of the offering of Christ; whereon also he takes occasion to declare the blessed consequent of it. Hereof he gives an illustration, by comparing it unto what is of absolute and unavoidable necessity, so as that it cannot otherwise be, namely, the death of all the individuals of mankind by the decretory sentence of God. As they must die every one, and every one but once; so Christ was to die, to suffer, to offer himself, and that but once. The instances of those who died not after the manner of other men, as Enoch and Elijah, or those who, having died once, were raised from the dead and died again, as Lazarus, give no difficulty herein. They are instances of exemption from the common rule by mere acts of divine sovereignty; but the apostle argues from the general rule and constitution, and thereon alone the force of his comparisons doth depend, and they are not weakened by such exemptions. As this is the certain, unalterable law of human condition, that every man must die once, and but once, as unto this mortal life; so Christ was once, and but once, offered. – John Owen