Evangelicals Believe Christ Was Sacrificed Once for All, and Need Never Be Offered Again

Perhaps the greatest cleavage between the Roman church and the evangelicals is that in connection with the sacrificial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Both, as I have said, believe in His atoning work, both believe that He offered Himself on the cross for sinners, but the great difference between the two is this: the one believes that although He offered Himself there on the cross for sinners, this is not enough to save souls, but there must be a continual unbloody sacrifice offered on Rome’s altars day in and day out, year after year, for the sins of the living and of the dead and that only as men avail themselves of this constant sacrificing of Christ in the mass can they have some hope of eventual salvation; hope, not assurance, because, as I have said, nothing is known of assurance there.
But now I turn to the Word of God and what do I read? This is Hebrews 9:24-26:
“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 entereth 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.”
What does that tell us? It tells us this, that Christ’s one offering on Calvary’s cross is all-sufficient to settle the sin question, that nothing can ever be added to it, nothing can ever be taken from it. It is not necessary that He should offer Himself often.
I was having a friendly talk with a priest one day, in Santa Barbara, California. He had come out of the monastery. Talking to him, I said:
“Do you officiate at the altar, at the sacrifices of the mass?”
“Yes.”
“And you affirm that when you officiate you offer up Christ for the sins of the living and the dead. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Our Bible says, ‘Without shedding of blood there is no remission.’ Do you believe that when you thus offer Him, it gives more efficacy to His blood?”
“Yes.”
“But it means, then, that you yourself immolate Him, you kill Christ afresh.”
“Oh. No.” he said. “It isn’t that exactly. Christ is both offerer and sacrifice and in the person of the priest He offers Himself in the mass every time that sacrifice takes place.”
“Well, then,” I said, “explain this: ‘Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others’” (Heb. 9: 25).
He looked at me a moment and said, “Well. I don’t think we had better discuss it,” and he walked away.
There is God’s own word for it, that there is no other offering, no other sacrifice contemplated, no other atonement for sins possible. The one offering of the Lord Jesus has settled the sin question forever.