Project Description

NO SACRIFICE BUT CALVARY!

 Timothy Cross

Should you ever holiday in the seaside town of Blackpool, in the north of England, you could not fail to notice its iconic tower. Whilst there once I was informed that the task of painting the tower is never completed. Once finished, the corrosive salty air is such that it has to be painted all over again. Household maintenance can seem similar. Something goes wrong with the plumbing. That is fixed. Then something goes wrong with the electrics. That is fixed. Then the oiler goes on the brink. Oh to be able to fix things once for all!

Hapax

In relation to the above, there are two synonymous Greek adverbs ‘hapax’ and ‘ephapax’ which both mean ‘once for all time’ and ‘once for all never needing to be repeated.’ Their use in the original Greek New Testament is not that frequent. But when they are used, the Holy Spirit uses it in relation to Christ’s death on the cross. For instance:-

‘Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once (ephapax), when he offered up himself” (Hebrews 7:27)

‘But now once (hapax) in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself’.(Hebrews 9:26).

‘So Christ was once (hapax) offered to bear the sins of many’ (Hebrews 9:28).

‘For Christ also hath once (hapax) suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God’ (1 Peter 3:18).

What is the Holy Spirit telling us then, when He guided the writers of the New Testament to employ the words hapax and ephapax in relation to the death of Christ at Calvary?  He is telling us of the finality of Calvary. He is telling us of the all-sufficiency of Calvary to save us eternally. In Hebrews, He is contrasting the frequent, on-going sacrifices of the Old Testament economy with the ‘one, perfect sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world’ (Book of Common Prayer).

Unemployed priests

Christ’s all-atoning sacrifice of Himself brought an end to the Old Testament sacrifices. It rendered them obsolete – just as a modern word processor renders a typewriter obsolete, and as a typewriter superseded a pen and ink. Things valid in their day get superseded by something better. Christ’s sacrifice has superseded all sacrifice. It will never be superseded as it never needs to be superseded. Perfection cannot be improved upon. Christ has rendered the sacrificial priesthood redundant. Calvary is all-sufficient to save eternally all who avail themselves of it by faith. ‘Hapax’ enforces to us that Christ is the all-sufficient Saviour of sinners. His work o the cross is all-adequate to secure our eternal welfare. It is through His single sacrifice on the cross – a sacrifice of eternal validity – that our sins are forgiven and we are reconciled to God for time and eternity. 1 Peter 3:18 again: ‘Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God:-

Once only once and once for all

His precious life He gave

Before the cross in faith we fall

And own Him strong to save

 

One offering, single and complete

With lips and hearts we say

And what He never can repeat

He shows forth day by day

 (William Bright 1824-1901)

No priest but Christ!

‘No priest but Christ!’ and ‘No sacrifice but Calvary!’ were mottoes of our Protestant forefathers. They were good ones as they were Scriptural ones. Even today, Bible believing Protestants are forced to take issue with Roman Catholicism. Why? Because in the light of what we have considered, the ‘sacrifice of the Mass’ is not congruent with Scripture. In fact, it contradicts Scripture. It is diametrically opposite to the ‘hapax’ – once for all, never to be repeated – nature of the offering of the Lamb of God. It denies the very essence of the finished work of Christ. It even denies His adequacy to save. To date, Chapter XXI of the Thirty Nine Articles has never been revised or rescinded. It is entitled ‘Of the one oblation of Christ upon the cross.’ It reads:-

‘The offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits’.  

The one, true Faith

At the very heart of the Christian Faith lies the finished work of Christ at Calvary – an all-sufficient, atoning death; an eternal salvation flowing from His ‘once for all – ‘hapax’ – sacrifice. This is the essence of Protestantism. This is the Faith of the Bible, the Word of God. This is ‘the faith once for all (hapax) delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). This brings constant fuel for Christian praise.

Paschal Lamb, Thine offering finished

Once for all when Thou wast slain

In its fullness undiminished

Shall for evermore remain

Hallelujah

Cleansing souls from every stain!

 (George Bourne 1840-1925).

 

 

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