This week, my Bible study has taken me to Hebrews 9 and 10, where scripture explains the connection between the Old Testament laws of sacrifice (the Mosaic Law, the Old Covenant) and the New Covenant Jesus established by the sacrifice of His own body on the cross.

I love to read Matthew Henry’s commentary on scripture. He lived from 1662-1714 and was a pastor in Wales. One website describes him as “a diligent student of the Word, sometimes rising as early as 4 o’clock in the morning and often spending 8 hours a day in his study in addition to his pastoral labors.” Before he died at the age of 52, he had completed his commentary on Genesis – Acts; after his death, his fellow colleagues in the ministry completed the remainder from his notes and writings.

As you can imagine, Henry writes on a whole different level than we write today. You have to take time to really think about what he’s saying; it takes a bit of effort to comprehend. But if you do, you run across gems like this phrase, from the paragraph below.

The gospel is the last dispensation of the grace of God to men.

Now it is very evident that the sacrifice of Christ is infinitely better than those of the law from the frequent repetition of the legal sacrifices. This showed the imperfection of that law; but it is the honour and perfection of Christ’s sacrifice that, being once offered, it was sufficient to all the ends of it; and indeed the contrary would have been absurd, for then He must have been still dying and rising again, and ascending and then again descending and dying; and the great work had been always in fieri – always doing, and always to do, but never finished – which would be as contrary to reason as it is to revelation, and to the dignity of His person: But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The gospel is the last dispensation of the grace of God to men.

Merriman-Webster defines “in fieri” as being in the process of accomplishment: pending; beginning to have existence: not yet completely formed. The phrase is from Medieval Latin, it’s pronounced [in-ˈfē-ə-rē]. If you google the pronunciation, it sounds a lot like you’re saying, “in theory!”

The gospel is not a theory.

The gospel is not “one way of many” to be reconciled with God.

The gospel was not made up by human men as a great idea that’s influenced the world since it began.

The gospel is Jesus, God’s final word to humanity.

The gospel is the last dispensation of the grace of God to men.

Hebrews 1:1-3 – God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Matthew 17:1-2,5 – Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. … While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

John 19:16-18,28-30 – So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. … After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Jesus is not just a good teacher we should follow on our way to improving ourselves. He is not “part of the process” of becoming gods ourselves. His work is not “pending.”

When Jesus died on the cross, the means of redemption was complete. His blood made the final (and only acceptable) payment for the great sin debt that we could never pay. To accept this payment by faith and repentance is to enter the Holy Place, dressed in the righteousness of Christ, sprinkled with His blood.

How dangerous to think we might enter the presence of God when our lives end, on our own merit, or thinking that His precious Son’s death, burial, and resurrection was just one of many options.

God opened the veil into heaven for one reason alone: the finished work of Jesus, our Great High Priest.

The gospel is the last dispensation of the grace of God to men.

We dare not scorn this offer of grace or presume on it by taking it lightly or for granted. God offers no other way, but the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:24-28 – For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.