The phrase, once for all...
The phrase, "once for all" in verse 26 comforted Dietrich Bonhoeffer. During the Second
World War he organized an underground seminary at Finkenwalde to train confessing
church pastors. There, in a period of increasing ugliness, he resisted the Nazis by
teaching theology. At Finkenwalde, on the altar table where they worshiped daily, was a
cross with a single word engraved on it. The word on the cross was "once." "Once for all"
Jesus died for your sins and my sins and for the sins of the whole world: yes, even for the
sins of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
