The immanence language saturating the New Testament was not rhetorical urgency meant to be stretched across millennia, but covenantal nearness grounded in the Day of Atonement pattern that framed how first-century Jews understood atonement, mediation, and divine verdict.
Under the old covenant, the high priest entered the Most Holy Place with blood and the people waited outside, and the sign that the sacrifice had been accepted was the priest’s re-emergence from the tabernacle; the atonement was publicly confirmed when the mediator came back out alive (Lev. 16), which is precisely the pattern Hebrews applies to Christ when it says, “The Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing” (Hebrews 9:8) and then, “so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28)—the logic is not that Christ will be re-sacrificed, but that His re-appearance functions as the covenantal confirmation that the atonement has been accepted and the old order has been judged.
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