Hebrews 9:27

THE UNIVERSAL SENTENCE

‘It is appointed unto men once to die.’

Hebrews 9:27

There are no diversities of opinion among men concerning death, for nothing is more obvious and certain. And yet they think very little comparatively about it.

But what is death? It is the cessation of material being. First, there is coldness, then stillness, then decay.

I. The changes wrought by death.

(a) It closes the probation of man.

(b) It sunders the union of body and soul.

(c) It imposes a change of residence.

II. The appointment of death.

(a) It is Divine. God Himself determined it at the first; and it is according to His original threatening (Genesis 2:16). Man partook of the forbidden fruit, and instantly began to die, and now man,

The very moment of his breath,

Receives the lurking principle of death;

The young disease, that must subdue at length,

Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.

But God, notwithstanding, carries out His own appointment. He gives life, and he takes it away (Job 1:21).

(b) It is punitive. If man had not broken the primal mandate, God would have continued his life in Eden, or ultimately raised him to a higher and still more blissful Paradise.

Illustration

‘Whatever we can only do “once,” necessarily carries with it a greatness and an awe—if it be only for this, that if we do it badly, we can never do it again. This is one reason of the solemnity of death. If you fail in it, you will never have an opportunity of repeating it, that you may do it better. And we ought—if God permit us our senses—we ought to die well—peacefully, usefully—to the glory of God. “May I die the death of the righteous!” was a prayer true to every instinct of our minds.’