d in one
eternally unbroken act. He did not enter heaven to come out again, as
the high-priests presented their offering repeatedly, year after year.
They could not do otherwise, because they entered "with blood not their
own," or, as we may render the word, "with alien[182] blood." The blood
of goats and bulls cannot take away sin. Consequently, the absolution
obtained is unreal and, therefore, temporary in its effect. The blood of
the beasts must be renewed as the annual day of atonement comes round.
If Christ's offering of Himself had only a temporary efficacy, He must
often have suffered since the foundation of the world. The forgiveness
under the former covenant put off the retribution for one year. St. Paul
expresses the same conception when he describes it as not a real
forgiveness, but as "the passing over[183] of the sins done aforetime,
in the forbearance of God." The writer of the Epistle infers that, if
Christ's sacrifice were meritorious for a time only, then He ought to
have repeated His offering whenever the period for which it was
efficacious came to an end; and, inasmuch as His atonement was not
restricted to one nation, it would have been necessary for Him to appear
on earth repeatedly, and repeatedly die, not from the time of Moses or
of Abraham, but from the foundation of the world. But our author has
long since said "that the works were finished from the foundation of the
world."[184] God Himself after the work of creation entered on His
Sabbath rest. The Sabbath developed from initial creation to final
atonement, and, because Christ's atonement is final, He has perfected
the Sabbath eternally in the heavens. But the Sabbath of God would have
been no Sabbath to the Son of God, but a constant recurrence of
sufferings and deaths, if He did not finish transgression and atone for
sin by His one death. "Once, at the end of the ages," when the tale of
sin and woe has been all told, "hath He appeared," which proves that He
has finally and for ever put away sin through His one sacrifice.[185]

The Apostle speaks as one who believed that the end of the world was at
hand. He even builds an argument on this to him assured fact of the near
future. True, the end of the world was not yet. But the argument is
equally valid in its essential bearing. For the important point is that
Christ appeared on earth only once. Whether His one death occurred at
the beginning of human history, or at the end, or at the end of one