Resurrection Sunday 2026- Psalm 90 and Hebrews 9:26

Our text this morning is from Hebrews 9:23-28. It says, “Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 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.”

Jesus died to put away sins. After Christ’s resurrection Jesus presented Himself in heaven before His Father. And since then he continually intercedes for His people as their Mediator.

Now let’s turn to Psalm 90. In the superscription we see that this psalm was written by Moses and he is described as ‘The Man of God’. This description stands out because this psalm is about the universal nature of sin that permiates all of humanity. And because of sin God’s righteous judgment and wrath is against mankind.

Moses is NOT described as a ‘man of God’ because he was sinless, more pious than others, or intrinsically good. No, he is described this way because he was a sinner Moses took refuge in the LORD. It is evident that Moses believe this because he writes in Psalm 90:7-11, “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.”

Moses is described as a ‘The Man of God’, NOT because of his own righteousness or goodness, but because he understood that he was a sinner and he took refuge in the LORD. It is because of this that the Holy Spirit testifies that Moses was ‘The Man of God’. In fact, this psalm is a plea to God for others to be given the wisdom to do the same, saying, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (12)

Moses has identified himself as a sinner but in Psalm 90:1 Moses identified himself with a different group of people. This was a small remnant of people who by faith sought refuge in God, saying, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Some translations say, “LORD, you have been our refuge in all generations.” This small remnant has fled to the LORD for mercy and to obtain grace.

Let’s read verses 7 once again, “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” Think about what Moses says in that last sentence, “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”

For any honest and sincere person these are terrifying words because the LORD takes all of our sins and places them in front of Him. He takes all of our sins and sets them continually before His righteous and holy eyes. No sins are forgotten or hidden from Him. No sin is too small that it isn’t added to that pile. No plea can be made, or any excuse given, that will make any of this evidence to be suppressed or thrown out of God’s eternal courtroom.

Before the LORD are all the sins of every generation: past, present, and future. The sins from all ages are carefully laid before the eyes of God. We are powerless to enter into His presence to snatch them away. These sins continually provoke the LORD to anger and wrath.

With this in mind let us consider Hebrews 9:26 which says, “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” What we could not do, Christ has done.

To appreciate what Christ has done we need a biblical understanding of sin. Paul understood that sin is our greatest danger when he used six Old Testament passages to make that argument in Romans 3:10-18, saying, “‘None is righteous, no, not one; no on understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’ ‘Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’ ‘The venom of asps is under their lips.’ ‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their path are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”

As a result of these texts Paul concluded that the Law silences everyone and the whole world is accountable before God. (3:19) All mankind is guilty of sin and we cannot save ourselves or anyone else. If there is to be salvation for anyone God must act to save us by sending a Savior. Hebrews 9:26 affirms that God has done this, saying, “He (Jesus Christ) has appeared…”.

On Friday we looked at some Old Testament verses that referred to Christ’s reign in heaven.

• Psalm 11:4, “The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven…”.

• Psalm 96:5-6, “...the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.”

• Isaiah 66:1, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool…’.

From His throne the LORD sovereignly rules and reigns over all things visible and invisible; but to provide salvation for sinners Jesus Christ had to leave His throne in heaven, He had to appear among us, and take upon Himself a body with a human nature to deal with our sins.

In the garden God enjoyed fellowship with Adam and Eve, but when Adam sinned that relationship became estranged and there was a separation in the fellowship that God enjoyed. (Genesis 1:27) Because of sin Adam and Eve’s hearts were continually inclined to run away from the LORD; nevertheless, God’s heart was still inclined to come seeking for them and to call out to them. (Genesis 3:8-9)

Since the fall. man has always run away from God (without exception); but God has always been in the world actively working towards the salvation for sinners and the fulfillment of His promise in Genesis 3:15 when He spoke to Satan, saying, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

In Hebrews 9:26 we see that the LORD has fulfilled that promise through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sin is so devastating, corrupting, and ruining that Christ had to appear to deal with sin by offering Himself up as a sacrifice for our sins.

Let us consider four things about the fact that Christ ‘put away sin’. First, consider just how hard it is to ‘put away sin’. Some say that there are many saviors. So although sin is hard to put away, there are are many who can do this! The scripture, however, is clear that sins are hard to put away and there is only one Person who can put away sins once and for all.

Psalm 90 said that all our sins, even our secret sins, are before the LORD.

• Who can ascend to heaven to remove their sins?

• Who has entrance into the throne room of God?

• Who among us would have the strength to pick up our own sins, much less the sins of others, and carry them off. The burden of sin entangles us to much to do this.

Do you understand that it is not an easy thing to ‘put away sins’? In the Old Testament there were countless sacrifices, all of them were commanded by God, but none of them could take away sins. Not even if you were to offer up as Solomon did 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep on one occasion could you ‘put away your sin’. (1 King 8)

Hebrews 10:1-5 says, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

If you had to ‘put away sin’ what would you do? No amount of good deeds and good works could help you to ‘put away your sins’. Consider these words from the Baptist Confession, “We cannot by our best works, merit pardon of sin or eternal life from God’s hand, due to the huge disproportion between our works and the glory to come, and the infinite distance between us and God. By these we can neither benefit God nor satisfy Him for the debt of our former sins. When we have done all that we can, we have only done our duty and are unprofitable servants. Since our good works are good, they must proceed from His Spirit; and since they are performed by us, they are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot withstand the severity of God’s punishment.” (16:5) It is a very foolish thing to boast of your goodness to others, how much more foolish to try to boast of your goodness before the LORD?

Sin is a very hard thing to put away. Consider that even your death does not ‘put away sins’. Your death ends your responsibility regarding your contracts, your obligations, your covenants, and your debts; but it does not remove your liability before the LORD regarding your sins.

Hebrews 9:27 clearly says, “It is appointed for men to die once and then face judgment.” When you die, apart from having taken refuge in Christ (Psalm 90:1), you face the day of judgment where all of your sins are brought before you as evidence against you. Some may have more sins brought forward than others, but it only takes one sin for us to be declared guilty.

It is a very hard thing to ‘put away sins’ and if you do not believe this you will look to yourself or others to do it. But if you realize that you cannot ‘put away sins’, but that you add to them daily, you will be compelled to look to Christ who is the only Savior of all the world throughout all the ages.

This brings us to our second point. Notice that ‘sin’ is singular, “Christ...put away sin”. By Christ’s one sacrifice all of the sins of God’s people has been ‘put away’. While Christ was on the cross the Father gathered up all of the sins of His people, of all of the elect from every generation, and He put them on His Son. Christ bore the curse and judgment of those sins and He ‘put them away’.

Christ did not just deal with a particular category of sin, or a certain type of sin, or a certain number of our sins. Christ did not just address the majority of sins and now we have to deal with the other stuff on our own. No, Jesus has put away the sin of His people and then He imputes unto them His righteousness.

• Christ has put away big sins and little sins.

• Christ has put away acceptable sins and heinous sins.

• Christ has put away sins of omission and sins of commission.

• Christ has put away all sins related to the breaking of His Righteous Law. Think of this in the context Jesus’ teaching during the Sermon on the Mt. (Mt. 5-7)

• Christ has put away sins of the heart, mind, words, deeds, and thoughts.

• Christ has put away our forgotten sins, overlooked sins, unknown sins.

• Christ has put away sins against committed against others.

• Christ has put away all defiling sins, corrupting sins, polluting sins of soul, body, and spirit.

• Christ has put away all sin, iniquity, and transgressions.

This brings us to our third point. Notice that our text says that He ‘put away sin’. It does not say...

• “Jesus began to put away sin.”

• “Jesus continues to put away sin.”

• “Jesus tried (attempted) to put away sin.

• No, our text emphasizes Christ’s success at having put away the sin of His people ‘once for all at the end of the ages…’. To all who repent and believe upon Christ all of their sins have been put away. They are now forgiven, reconciled, and given an inheritance in the family of God.

Fourth, consider a few pictures of how the scriptures use the phrase ‘put away’.

• In the scriptures God’s people are commanded to ‘put away’ their idols. This does not mean that Israel is supposed to pack them up and store them away in some safe place for some future purpose. No, they are supposed to turn away from those idols and destroy them completely. That is what Christ did to our sin.

• Consider that Christ has put our sin away like the scapegoat did on the day of atonement. On that day the people lay their hands on the head of that goat and then someone picks the goat up and runs away with it for a full day and then he drops off that goat in the wilderness where it wonders off. The sins of the people are put away, carried far off, removed to never be seen again. Similarly, our sins were placed upon Jesus and He put them away.

• Consider how divorce is often spoken of in the scriptures as a putting away of a prior relationship. Similarly, through Christ my relationship with sin has been put away and annulled.

The end of Hebrews 9:26 tells us how Jesus accomplished the great task of putting away our sins, “...by the sacrifice of himself.” And then Hebrews 9:28 says, “...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.”

Jesus came to do the will of God and offer a sacrifice to ‘put away sin’ and to ‘bear the sins of many’. What He meant to do He has accomplished. He did not just die so that men might be savable, but He died to save His people from their sins. He has put all their sins away. The work that He begins n His people He will finish. (Philippians 1:6) Now our risen savior is continually before the Father interceding for us and mediating for us. Now His people are eagerly waiting for Him to return without sin because they have been put away.

Look away from yourself as a means to put away your sins and look to Jesus who alone can do this for us. This is what we celebrate today on Resurrection Sunday, and every other day throughout the year, Christ has ‘put away our sin’.