All of us have to keep an appointment at some time or other. We may forget, however, or be late, or it may even be cancelled. There is an appointment you may have forgotten. It is the one spoken of in God’s word, the Bible, which says “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation”, Hebrews 9:27,28.

So there is an appointment with death, and we ourselves are powerless to avoid it or cancel it. This is because we have a nature which is sinful, and “the wages of sin is death”, Romans 6:23. We have all forfeited our right to continue on the earth, yet God in His mercy and long-suffering gives us time to repent of our sins and seek His salvation before we die. There will not be opportunity to do this after we have passed from this world into eternity.

Death is not the end of us, for our verse says, “after this the judgement”. The apostle Peter writes, “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished”, 2 Peter 2:9. There is a day of reckoning ahead in which God will, in strict justice, punish each and every sin with a judgement that is unending.

But it need not be like this with us, for our verse continues, “so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many”. The sinless Christ, the Son of God. as He hung upon the cross of Calvary in the hours before He died, became God’s answer to the question of sins, taking responsibility for them and paying the penalty they deserved. He was fully qualified to do this, for being equal to God the Father He has infinite ability to deal with sins. He completed this work by giving up His spirit in death. He rose from the dead, however, and ascended back to His Father in heaven.

Our verse also tells us that the Lord Jesus shall “appear the second time”, and there are those who are eagerly awaiting His return. As believers they already have salvation from the penalty of their sins, having claimed by faith the forgiveness His death made possible. He is coming to save them from the very presence of sin, and they can say with confidence, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him”, 1 Thessalonians 5:9,10.