D. Scott Meadows

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Heb 9:27).

This verse appears in its context as a helpful analogy for understanding God’s redemptive work in Christ. As men die once and are judged afterward, so Christ died once and for all in the past (for the sins of many) and shall yet return in the future for judgment, which means final and ultimate salvation for those in whose place He died, since He will vanquish all our enemies (cf. v. 28). This return of Christ is divinely appointed, follows His death, and pertains to judgment.

To the original readers, the basis for the analogy, that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” would have been already understood and believed. They were Christians of a Jewish background. There is no difference on this point between the orthodox Jews of the first century (e.g., the Pharisees) and the Christians. They all had the Old Testament. There is even evidence that some pagan Greeks believed in judgment after death (e.g., Plato, Plutarch, Lucian; cited by Luke Timothy Johnson, Hebrews: A Commentary, in loc.). But today, many either opt for annihilationism, or the Eastern antichristian belief in reincarnation, or some just put thoughts about certain death and judgment out of their minds.

Consider the obvious parts of this biblical declaration. First, death is a reality in this fallen world. Only the rarest quacks in religious history have denied this because both the clear biblical testimony and our painful human experience in this world abundantly affirm it. Death is not a natural part of creation but was introduced as an element of the divine curse upon man because of our sin. Remember the faithful warning to Adam (Gen 2.16, 17). He disobeyed God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam consequently died, along with all his descendants after him. Genesis 5 is a true funeral dirge for Adam’s posterity, as it repeats, with sonorous voice, “and he died” (8 times).

Second, physical death is appointed by God for all of us. “It is appointed” means “it is necessary” (LN 71.37). The word “men” is gender-neutral and encompasses all humanity, each and every person. While there have been two exceptions in biblical history (Enoch, Elijah), and while there is a blessed hope of Christ’s return while we are still alive (1 Thess 4.17), these do not disprove the rule for everyone else from the beginning to the end of the world. The Puritan George Swinnock wrote, speaking of death, “against this arrest there is no bail.”

It is possible for a person to think in a morbid way about his or her impending death, but we may also think of it in a sober-minded way, and we should. Another Puritan, William Gurnall, urges us to do this.

Familiarize the thoughts of the evil day [i.e., the day of your own death] to thy soul; handle this serpent often, walk daily in the serious meditations of it, do not run from them because they are unpleasing to flesh, that is the way to increase the terror of it. Do with your souls, when shy of, and scared with the thoughts of affliction or death, as you use to do with your beast [horse] that is given to goggle [i.e., stare] and start [i.e., to move suddenly] as you ride on him; when he flies back and starts at a thing, you do not yield to his fear and go back, that will make him worse another time, but you ride him up close to that which he is afraid of, and in time you break him of that quality. The evil day is not such a fearful thing to thee that art a Christian, as thou shouldst start for it. Bring up thy heart close to it, show thy soul what Christ hath done to take the sting out of it.

 
Third, judgment follows death. This life is a time of testing which precedes the judgment in view here. The Lord is very long-suffering with all of us, and though sometimes He makes us suffer some of the painful consequences of our sins, these are either disciplinary for His beloved children or else only infinitesimal precursors of eternal torments for the reprobate. But with respect to the Lord, justice delayed is not justice denied. The Bible assures us of “pay day someday” (title of a famous sermon by R. G. Lee). We have a sinful tendency to indulge our sins because we have a temporary reprieve from their full punishment. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl 8.11). The 1689 LBCF helpfully summarizes the biblical doctrine (e.g., Acts 17.31; 2 Cor 5.10).

God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ; to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father; in which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil (XXXII.1).

 
When that Great Day comes, all who are found in Christ shall be saved, and the rest will be forever lost and subjected to the punishments which Christ, in His perfect justice, assigns to them. These holy realities are little known and pondered in our secular age. We do well to take them to heart and make them known to others. Ω