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Except Jesus isn’t being sacrificed in heaven. He is the Lamb that WAS slain, not the Lamb being slain.

True statement. He is not sacrificed again and again.

But as I pointed out in my earlier post, we must always remember that time in a heavenly sense is not the same as time in an earthly sense. To quote St. Peter again,

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Of course, you know Hebrews 9:9 -- talking about how the things of before were a figure for (or symbolic of) the work of Christ (the actual Greek is "a parable")

In light of that, I would point out a couple of other verses in Hebrews.

In Hebrews 7:23-24, we read, The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever. It goes in talking about how the old testament priests were prevented by death from continuing in office, thus, there were many of them. They could not make intercession for men for all time, even in their imperfect way, for this reason. Christ, on the other hand, was able to make that intercession in the perfect fashion with the perfect sacrifice for all time.

In Chapter 8, we see the contrast between the furnishings of the Old Covenant and the New. Again, the point that the Old Covenant is being shown as a copy of the heavenly sanctuary of the New Covenant.

Then we enter into Chapter 9, which details the sacrifices offered in the old covenant and new. Of particular interest is Heb 9:11-12 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Where was this Holy Place? Heaven. Looking toward verse 24, we see For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Chapter 9 continues on to talk about how it is one sacrifice, one set of suffering, because the sacrifice was perfect and sufficient for all time. Chapter 10 culminates this particular discourse where it says that we have been sanctified by the offering of Christ once for all. And that this offering was accomplished once and for all, after which He sat at the fight hand of God.

All well and good. But, we see what St John saw in heaven: I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, Why would John, writing his apocalypse in 95 or 96 AD, depict having a vision of the Lamb standing. And He is still immolated. (Note: I did not say that he was immolated afresh). In Hebrews 10, He was identified as being seated. In Revelation 5, He is identified as standing. Likewise in Hebrews 10, He is identified as being done (signified by sitting), but in Hebrews 9:24, He is NOW offering intercession for s entered into the heaven, the sanctuary made without hands, itself, NOW to appear on our behalf.

If we recognize the significance of the above-quoted 2 Pet 3:8, we can see that heavenly time is not the same as our time. And then it starts to make a bit of sense...maybe some things should be considered somewhat in parallel rather than strictly serially.

And that is basically why I wrote:

If one could look into heaven and see what was going on, though, one would still see the mortally wounded Lamb, despite His wounds, being fully alive (See, for example, Rev 5:6).

Yes, Jesus isn't being sacrificed in heaven. He was sacrificed on Calvary. He was slain, he is not being slain.

But where did He, the High Priest of the new covenant, offer Himself, the Paschal Lamb? From what I see, He did this offering in Heaven.

Let me ask you one question (as a Baptist, you are likely more conversant than I am, as a Catholic, in the Scriptures): in the old covenant, was there ever an occasion where sacrifice was offered in anticipation of future sins? (If so, could you show me where in the OT that this was documented)

Thank you for the thoughtful response.

I differ from some in that I see no evidence from scripture that God is not ‘in time’. I used to assume God was outside of time, but when I went looking for a verse that indicated it, I failed. If you know of any, please share them - I don’t pretend I couldn’t have missed them.

As for Peter, what he writes covers God’s eternity and infinite nature. For an eternal and infinite being, a thousand years IS like a day, or even a second.

The second part refers to God’s infinite nature. Infinity divided by any number is still infinity. God has a thousand years worth of attention to pay to markomalley’s day. Jesus said the hairs on our head are numbered. There are roughly 100,000 on a man’s head, with 100-200 falling out each day. God knows when markomalley’s hair 44,569 falls out...there is no aspect of your day to small for God’s attention.

A priest has several roles. One is offering sacrifice. That is why the NT has no role for Christian Priests - there is no sacrifice for them to offer. The only Christian Priest is Jesus Christ, who offered himself “once for all”.

But a Priest also is a mediator between God and man...and again, we now have one mediator who intercedes for us.

Please notice what it says in Hebrews 7: “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” What does he do? “He always lives to make intercession for them.” Not sacrifice, but intercession.

But what about the sacrifices, such as the Aaronic priesthood offered? “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”

No more sacrifices. “He has no need”.

Chapter 8 asks the question, what does this new high priest offer? He then digresses to criticize the old priesthood, before resuming this theme in Chapter 9. In verse 11 he points out, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent ( not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” To repeat, “he entered once for all into the holy places”.

And why did he do it? “For Christ has entered...to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.”

He enters on our behalf, but not to offer himself repeatedly, “for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world”.

So what does he do? As best I can tell - Hebrews jumps around a bit - “Behold, I have come to do your will.” No more offering for sin...”But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God...For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified...then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

So Christ doesn’t offer sacrifice. He DID that, and Hebrews repeatedly makes the point that he does it no longer. Now he intercedes for us, and offers obedience to God. This may be a bit of a stretch, but since we are the body of Christ, perhaps our obedience is his offering. I don’t know that, just thinking out loud.

You write: “Let me ask you one question (as a Baptist, you are likely more conversant than I am, as a Catholic, in the Scriptures): in the old covenant, was there ever an occasion where sacrifice was offered in anticipation of future sins? (If so, could you show me where in the OT that this was documented)”

To the best of my limited knowledge, no. But then, the point of Hebrews is how vastly superior the New Priest is to the old priesthood. One Priest, not many. One offering, not many. And the Law is written on our hearts, not on stone tablets, and God remembers our sin no more...so there is no need for further sacrifice.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

As for sitting or standing, I don’t think that is meant literally. Sitting probably means He is resting, and the stuff being discussed is finished. Standing probably means he is about to act, because what is being discussed needs action. Just a guess. I’m sure someone somewhere has studied what those phrases mean.