This is another edited and reposted piece from an old series of posts examining the purpose statement that scripture gives us regarding the death of Christ.
… he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.(Hebrews 9:26, ESV)
This statement from Hebrews tells us that Christ’s death (or His sacrifice) was “to put away sin.” It seems like a simple statement, but before I began this post, I could have guessed what it meant, but I wouldn’t have been sure.
One of the main points of the book of Hebrews is that the New Covenant instituted by Christ is much better than the Old Covenant. The writer of Hebrews urged his readers,1 who were most likely Jewish Christians, to hold fast to Christ and his perfect covenant, and to not be drawn back to the familiar ways of the old imperfect system. He contrasts the old with the new, showing that the old system was not the real deal, but a pointer to and a picture of the true and complete covenant that had now been now instituted.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities … . (Hebrews 10:1a ESV)
The bottom line is that the blood sacrifices of the Old Covenant were unable to take away sins (10:4). They accomplished some kind of outward cleansing, but no inward cleansing (Hebrews 9:13—14). And they had to be repeated over and over again, showing that what they accomplished was only temporary. Consequently, the sacrificial system served as a reminder of the sin problem rather than a solution to it (10:1-3).
But in Christ, the answer for sin arrived. He was offered “once to bear the sins of many (9:28).” No more repetitious sacrifices needed; no more constant reminders of sin. It is a finished; sin is finally, truly, forever put away, because Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Another of the purposes of Christ’s death is to put away sin once for all time.
1 Or his audience, if the text of was first a sermon.