V. 28.— So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Christ was made in all things like unto his brethren, yet without sin. In exact correspondence with the appointment that man should once die, Christ once suffered to bear the sins of many (even the children whom God had given Him). The Apostle Peter says,—“ His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24. Such is the unity between Christ and His people, that they all died in His death and rose in His resurrection; nay, they are represented as seated with Him in heavenly places. Ephesians 2:6. Their citizenship is in heaven, whence they look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the head, they are the members; His suffering is their suffering. They were created in Adam, who is the source of natural life. It is dried up; the Second Adam is the source of spiritual and eternal life, and He says,—“ Because I live ye shall live also. Thus their life is hid with Christ in God; and when He, who is their life, shall appear, then shall they appear with Him in glory. Sin had doomed His people to death, but He descended into their prison-house. He felt the pillars by which it was supported— the justice and truth of God; but He so magnified and made honorable the law which they had broken, that mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed each other. Hence the Gospel is called the revelation of God’ s righteousness; for, by Christ’ s fulfilment of the law in all its extent, by the most perfect obedience and the perfection of His atoning sacrifice, He has brought in everlasting righteousness, arrayed in which the believer stands unrebukable, and can challenge the universe to lay anything to his charge. God is, in short, the just God and the Savior, and in the salvation of an innumerable multitude of our fallen race has given a more awful proof of his hatred of sin and of the impossibility of its passing unpunished than if all had perished, like the angels who kept not their first estate. He has entered heaven with His own blood, His people are waiting without for His second appearing; they are looking for Him, and He will appear the second time, not in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin; [A sin-offering is sometimes called “ sin,” because the sin of the worshipper was in a figure transferred to it; but Christ, in taking part with His people in flesh and blood and becoming their substitute and surety, was responsible— the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of them all. Hence He says, “ Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more in number than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart faileth me.” Psalms 40:12. which was once imputed to Him, but is now cast into the depth of the sea. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of all His people, and when they are sought for they shall not be found. In the day of his second coming the Church will appear a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle. Their robes will be so white that “ no fuller on earth can white them,” and they shall for ever drink of the river of God’ s pleasures. The Second Coming of Christ was typified by the high priest coming out of the holy of holies to bless the people.