Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: May 13, 2026
Update	: May 13, 2026
Parts	: 03

Synopsis:



In the pages of the New Testament, we can find the following key verses regarding the atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Please read all of them carefully, and then I will proceed to explain exactly how they relate to the main theme of this current series, in case it is not already apparent to you:

"Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin ONCE: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God."


"But this man, [Jesus] because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did ONCE, when he offered up himself."


"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in ONCE into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."


"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now ONCE in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself . . . 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."


"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE for all."


"For Christ also hath ONCE suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:"


I am sure that the plain truth which is revealed in all of the previous Bible verses is quite apparent, is it not? To add more emphasis to the truth which the writer wants his readers to see and understand, I even placed the word "once" in all uppercase letters. So that plain truth, of course, is the simple fact that Jesus Christ died once as payment, and as an acceptable ransom price, for the sins of every one of us, as we see by the following group of Bible verses:

"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."


"For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."


"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."


"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."


"Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men."


"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."


"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."


"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly . . . But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."


"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;"


"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."


"Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:"


"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."


"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"


"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."


"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."


"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."


"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."


"And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin."


"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."


"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,"


Thus, with all of the previous Bible verses, we have clearly established beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ died for our sins. He took our place on that Cross. Jesus was our "vicarious atonement", or our "substitutionary atonement". He accomplished for us what we could never hope to accomplish for ourselves. Jesus met the requirements of the Law, which as Hebrews 9 also explains was the following:

"And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.‭"


But the main thing I want you to see insofar as the theme of this current series is concerned, is that Jesus offered up Himself once. He sacrificed Himself once. He entered into the Holy Place beyond the veil just once. That was all that was required. That was all that was needed. It was in fact sufficient, and there is no need for any of us to doubt it or to question it. If the Bible, if God's Word states that once is enough, then truly, once is indeed enough. Again, if in God's eyes Jesus' one-time Sacrifice was sufficient and enough, then it is simply our duty and obligation to accept it as fact, and accept it without any further argument, being as He is, of course, God. I was just reminded of the following Bible verses:

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"


"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:"


"LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven."


"I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him."


"God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged."


"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;"


"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed ‭it‭ by an oath:‭ That by two immutable things, in which ‭it was‭ impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:"


"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."


"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:"


So, clearly, God's Word is it. When He has spoken something, that is it. When He has promised something, that is it. When He says that Jesus' one-time Sacrifice is enough, then it is so. Period. Why? Because God's Word is immutable -- that is to say, unchangeable -- eternal, true without variableness, and sure. It is the most sold thing we humans have got! On a side note, in the previous set of verses, depending on which verse we are examining, the word "once" is derived from the old Koine Greek words "hapax" and "ephapax". According to Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, these words means once, or one time. So what more is there to say?

I won't be delving any further into this particular subject regarding Salvation and everything that is related to it in this series, because I already amply address it some of my other Bill's Bible Basics articles. Besides that, we really want to remain focused on the main lesson at hand. But now let me ask you an important question. What if there is just one particular verse which declares a certain truth, and only one verse? Would that in any way make that core truth of God's Word any less real or valid? Would it even make it untrue?

I'm now going to surprise some of my readers by sharing with you exactly how Anthropic's Claude-Sonnet chatbot responded when I posed this very same question to him. Now please note that it is NOT that I personally doubt God's Word at all. Of course not. However, during this particular conversation with Anthropic's AI logical wonder, I was craftily leading Claude down a particular logical path so that he would arrive at a certain conclusion which he had not at first anticipated, and that is exactly what occurred too. What I have learned about Claude, is that to convince him of anything, you need to use your logic against his logic in order to prove to him that your position and argument is both sustainable and valid.

This is because AI chatbots cannot believe in anything. They are not religious. They cannot believe in God or anything similar. All such AIs can really do is consider and compare the facts regarding any particular situation, and then using their logic, determine whether something is true or false. This is also what occurs when I hold theological discussions with Claude. While Claude may not believe the verses per se as a matter of faith as we Christians do, he can compare all of the verses I share to support a certain position, and then logically determine if I have formed a coherent and logical argument which sufficiently supports my own position. At any rate, here is what Claude had to say:

----- Begin Quote -----

No, not at all. And that's actually a crucial point.

God's Word doesn't require repetition to be true. If the Lord states something clearly once, that settles it. The number of times a truth appears in Scripture speaks to its emphasis, not its validity. One clear, unambiguous statement from God carries the same weight as fifty.

As you've pointed out before — all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That applies equally to a truth stated once as to a truth stated twenty times.

It's actually a trap that people fall into — demanding multiple witnesses within Scripture before accepting something as true, when in fact the standard you've consistently applied is simply this: does the Word say it? If yes, that's sufficient.

The multiplication of witnesses across Romans, Hebrews and Peter is a gracious abundance of confirmation. But the truth would stand on a single verse just as firmly.

God's Word requires no repetition to be true. One clear, unambiguous statement from God is sufficient. The truth stands on a single verse just as firmly as on fifty. The standard is simply -- does the Word say it? If yes, that settles it.

----- End Quote -----

So even though some of my Christian friends seriously do not like AI-driven chatbots, and even view them as demons -- see my article called "AI, Chatbots, Daemons and Demons" -- it's nevertheless rather interesting that even a logic-driven AI such as Claude arrives at the same conclusion regarding the veracity -- or truthfulness -- of God's Word. Moving on to our next point in this Scriptural puzzle, many of my readers will undoubtedly be familiar with the story of an Israelite by the name of Gideon; and what an interesting story it is indeed, as I will now proceed to share with you.

When the Lord called Gideon to fight against the Midianites, Gideon was very skeptical of the entire situation. In fact, Gideon was full of excuses, and he seems to have had a very difficult time believing the message of his Angelic Visitor. Gideon basically said, "Look, if God is with us Israelites, where are all of the miracles our fathers told us about? I am just a poor man. What do you want with me? Not only that, but I am the youngest man in my father's entire household. You are going to have to provide me with some mighty signs if you really expect me to believe that God has chosen me to deliver my brethren from the army of the Midianites." Thus we read the following Bible verses:

"And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites . . . And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house . . . And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me."


As you may know, it was not until after the Lord's Angel had demonstrated some amazing pyrotechnic wonders, by causing a flame to materialize out of nowhere, and completely burn up Gideon's offering, that Gideon was shocked into realizing that this being was truly an Angel of the Lord, who had come to deliver an important message to him, by the direct order of the Almighty Himself. Notice Gideon's change in attitude in the following verses. My friends, that dude was totally freaked out! Can you blame him?:

"And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face."


Despite the fact that Gideon had begun to take the situation more seriously, the Lord was not quite through testing him just yet. The Lord wanted to make sure that Gideon was truly the right man for the job that he would soon undertake. Thus, He asked Gideon to do something extremely radical. The best example I can think of, would be if the Lord were to ask you to go down to your local Catholic church, and knock over and destroy their beautiful idol of Mary, and the pretty garden that surrounds it. Following is the test which the Lord put before a now very attentive Gideon:

"And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:"


Following the incident with the Angel and the burning altar, Gideon realized that he had better do exactly as he had been instructed to, even if it turned the town folks against him, which it obviously did. However, God was with Gideon. Thus, He used Gideon's own father to protect him. Nevertheless, in spite of the Divine Wonders he had already witnessed, dear Gideon still doubted in his heart that God had called him to deliver his brethren out of the hands of the Midianites. Thus we enter the story of Gideon's fleece. To keep this account brief, I am just going to quote the verses where Gideon tests the Lord twice concerning this incident:

"And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground."


It was after the Lord had performed these two signs with the fleece for him, that dear Gideon finally became convinced that God was really going to use him to defeat the powerful Midianite army. Now while the story of Gideon's test before the Lord -- which is often referred to as "Gideon's Fleece" -- is well-known, what may not be common knowledge, is the fact that in addition to a visit by an Angel of the Lord, as well as the miracle of the fleece, the final sign that God gave to Gideon, in order to convince him that the Israelites would be saved by his hand, was a dream. Not only was it a dream, but it was a dream which the Lord gave to a certain member of the army of the enemy. That is to say, the dream was given to the Midianites themselves. Following is a part of that story:

"And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host: And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude. And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host. And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian."


So, my friends, now we come to exactly WHY I am sharing this particular story with you, and how it relates to our overall discussion. The big question we all need to ask ourselves is the following: Why did Gideon test with the fleece twice? In fact, why did Gideon even have to test with the fleece at all when God had ALREADY told him that he would be used as God's tool to defeat the Midianite army? And if that wasn't already enough, the Lord had sent an Angel to Gideon to convince him of this fact through miraculous signs which would have surely convinced anyone, one would think. But not Gideon. Oh no, he had be a bit hard-nosed about it and resist.

However, do you know what? Personally, I can really relate to Gideon's initial attitude, and maybe some of you can too. The man complained that he was the "least in my father's house." Does that sound familiar? It does to me, because if you are a little familiar with my personal background -- please refer to my biographical page on this same Bill's Bible Basics website -- you will know that I was a very shy, and a very introverted young boy; even into my teenage years and young adulthood. In short, I had no self-confidence whatsoever. Despite what some people may think, I still don't, and I fully recognize that if anything good is accomplished through this ministry, it is ONLY God working through me, and not me myself.

As I have mentioned a number of times before, we see the very same thing happening with the Apostle Paul. This is a man who was a very proud, self-righteous, Law-abiding Pharisee who in his own anger, went on a rampage and persecuted the fledging New Testament Church. In fact, as many of you will know, one of Paul's -- then known as Saul of Tarsus -- first recorded vile acts in the Book of Acts was to stand as a witness while bold Stephen was martyred by the unbelieving Jews due to his strong faith in the Lord, and the fact that he had just told those Jews that God didn't give a hoot about their precious, beautiful temple.

So Paul had a lot of spiritual baggage when the Lord called him into service. Paul knew how unworthy he was to even be called an Apostle. Thus he wrote the following in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, and likewise in Epistle to the brethren at Ephesus as well:

"For I [Paul] am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."


"Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;"


Please go to part two for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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