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The
Sanctuary A teaching Institution
The sanctuary that God
had the ancient Israelites build portrayed the
plan of salvation in its furnishings and
services.
God used symbolic
ritualism to teach essential truths to the
illiterate Israelites, lately liberated from
Egyptian bondage. Nehemiah, when recounting
Gods mercies to Israel at Sinai, said,
Thou gavest also thy good spirit to
instruct the people. Nehemiah 9:20.
God loved Israel. He
longed for a closer, more intimate relationship
with them. So he charged Moses, saying, Let
them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among
them. (Exodus 25:8) not only in their
midst, but also within each one of
thembecause all who experienced by faith
what the sanctuary services portrayed were to be
indwelt by God (2 Corinthians 6:16).
Concerning the sanctuary
and its furnishings God admonished Moses,
Look that thou make them after their
pattern, which was shewed thee in the
mount. Exodus 25:40. God desired the
children of Israel to understand that the
sanctuary they were to build was but a miniature
likeness of a much greater sanctuary. As the
writer of the Book of Hebrews later pointed out,
the ceremonies of the earthly tabernacle were to
serve unto the example and shadow of
heavenly things. (Hebrews 8:1-5.)
Even in the building of
the sanctuary the Holy Spirit held general
superintendency. The Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel
and I have filled him with the spirit of
God
And in the hearts of all that are wise
hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all
that I have commanded thee. Exodus 31:1-6.
The sanctuary and later
its expanded counterpart, the Temple, portrayed
the gospel in figures, types, and symbols. David
wrote, Thy way, O God, is in the
sanctuary. Psalm 77:13. They have
seen thy goings, O God; even the goings of my
God, my King, in the sanctuary. Psalm
68:24.
The Holy Spirit has
interpreted to Israel and the Christian church
the meaning of the sanctuary ceremonies. The
expression the Holy Ghost this
signifying, used in Hebrews 9:1-8 to show
that the old covenant sanctuary is a type of a
new covenant sanctuary in heaven, makes this
point clear. Most of the worship in the sanctuary
consisted of prayers performed and sermons
enacted. The Holy Spirit worked through the
priests to teach and interpret the spiritual
significance of the various ceremonies-to show
how they served as aids to faith and helped to
explain such basic truths as the love of God, the
holiness of Gods law, the awfulness of sin,
Christs atonement, justification,
sanctification, the judgment, and the blended
justice and mercy of God.
The sanctuary services
held three mysteries or truths that could be
known only by revelation: (1) the mystery of the
altar, (2) the mystery of the holy place, and (3)
the mystery of the most holy place.
The Altar: Every animal
sacrifice offered upon the brazen altar
prefigured Christs death and the
forgiveness which it made possible. Man estranged
by sin could be reconciled to God only at this
altar. First, the Holy Spirit aroused the sinner
to see something of the sacredness of Gods
holy law and the awfulness of his transgression.
As a moral culprit, the sinner realized that he
could never find peace within except as God came
into his heart and imparted His peace to him.
Then the Spirit prompted the penitent sinner to
take the sacrifice required to the altar, place
his hands upon its head, and confess his sins
over it in effect transferring his guilt
to the animal. With the innocent substitute now
bearing the guilt, the sinner slew the animal.
Thus, the Holy Spirit taught the sinner that
forgivingness of sin could be obtained only
through confession of guilt and acceptance of the
death of a substitute. (Hebrews 9:22.)
However, no animal could
possibly bear sin. Paul emphatically declared,
It is not possible that the blood of bulls
and of goats should take away sins. Hebrews
10:4. The animal served only as a symbol or
representative of a far better Substitute, even
the Lamb of God. (John 1:29.) By looking forward
in faith to the death of Christ, the worshiper
realized forgiveness of sin. At the altar the
penitent obtained justification by faith, he was
free, not to keep on sinning, but free from
guilt. He had the inner assurance of the Holy
Spirit that God would provide a complete
atonement for his sin. Thus, the brazen altar
pointed clearly to Christs substitutionary
death.
God made forgiveness
conditional upon future obedience. When I
shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely
live: if he trust to his own righteousness and
commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not
be remembered; but for the iniquity that he hath
committed, he shall die for it. Ezekiel
33:13. The heart of God calls after the erring,
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the
Lord; for I am married unto you.
Return, ye backsliding children, and I will
heal your backslidings. Jeremiah 3:14,22.
As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked;
turn
ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye
die, O house of Israel? Ezekiel 33:11. At
the altar, God offers forgiveness for every
repentant sinner. However, God will not be
imposed upon. He offers mercy only to those who
confess and forsake their sins. (Proverbs 28:13.)
Here at the altar the
Holy Spirit revealed the mystery of the amazing
love that reconciles repentant sinners. For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son to be mans substitute,
to carry his guilt to the cross, and to die there
in his place, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but be entirely
reconciled to God and receive eternal life. (John
3:16.)
The Holy Place: The two
apartments of the sanctuary explain how God
handles confessed sin and opens the way to His
throne.
Morning and evening
throughout the year the priests offered
sacrifices at the brazen altar. This was called
the daily (also called continual or
perpetual) sacrifice. Individual worshipers
could not go beyond the altar. However, the
priest as their go-between, or advocate,
ministered the spilled blood in their behalf by
taking it into the holy place and sprinkling it
there. Though the worshipers could not go into
the holy place in person, they were to enter by
faith and to expect help to come from there. The
psalmist prayed, Send thee help from the
sanctuary. Psalm 20:2. What the Old
Testament worshiper had in symbol the New
Testament believer has in reality. Every type or
prophetic representation has an antitype or
prophetic fulfillment.
After the crucifixion,
the Jerusalem Temple became desolate. (Matthew
23:38.) After His ascension, Jesus began His High
Priestly ministry in the holy place of the
heavenly sanctuary. He ministered in this
apartment until the antitypical Day of Atonement,
the time of the judgment. As Mediator, Christ
sends the Holy Spirit to impart the divine nature
to those who will become new creatures. Not
merely does the divine nature influence the
human, but it unites with it. (2
Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:11.)
This new birth produces
an infant, not an adult. Just as an infant grows,
the Christian is to grow up into him in all
things. (Ephesians 4:15.) That we no
longer should live the rest of his time in the
flesh,
but to the will of God, and
that means to live according to God in the
spirit. (1 Peter 4:2,6.) For if ye
live after the flesh, ye hall die: but if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the
body, ye shall live. Romans 8:13. God
expects the experience of His sons and daughters
to be continuous and progressive: Till we
all come
unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ. Ephesians 4:13. The holy place and
the activities associated with it portray the new
creature in Christ Jesus as he develops a fitness
for heaven and advances in sanctification.
Many begin their
Christian warfare very bravely but fail to reckon
with their natural tendencies to evil, and in a
moment of weakness, they stumble. However, even
though they have done wrong, they should not be
discouraged. The beloved apostle wrote, My
little children, these things I write unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. 1 John 2:1. The apostle
Paul observes, We have a great high priest,
that is passed into the heavens. Let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14,16.
Whom God forgives He
places on probation to develop a Christ like
character. He may make mistakes, yet in answer to
his prayer, Jesus his Mediator, will intercede
for him, obtain forgivingness for him, and send
the Holy Spirit to help him overcome. The plan of
salvation would be incomplete without the
services of the divine Mediator.
In the first apartment
where the daily ministration takes place, God
treats each case sympathetically. All may have
the experience of Paul in dying to self-daily and
in receiving the daily benefits of Christs
mediation. (1 Corinthians 15:31; Galatians 2:20.)
All who would grow in the Holy Spirit must obtain
help each day. The services in the holy place do
not teach that once forgiven will never sin again
or that once saved means always saved. (1 John
1:8,9.)
The holy place reveals a
peculiar type of love-an affectionate love born
of pity-long-suffering, wooing, yearning
courtship love that refuses to be offended by the
mistakes of the one loved but willingly provides
for every struggler toward the kingdom a Mediator
who is able to save them to the uttermost
that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25.)
The Most Holy Place: At
the end of each year the high priest went alone
into the holy of holies to make a special
atonement for Israel and to cleanse the sanctuary
of the sins that had been transferred there by
prayer. (Leviticus 16:29-34.) The ceremonies on
the Day of Atonement typified and pointed forward
to the day-of-judgment services that would be
held in heavens most holy place. (Daniel
7:9,10.)
Paul standing before
Felix pointed forward to judgment to
come (Acts 24:25), and to the Athenians he
declared, He [God] hath appointed a day, in
which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained. Acts 17:31.
That man, of course, is Jesus. In the
judgment, everything depends upon what Jesus
means to each Christian personally. Daniel said
that he saw, following the judgment, the
Son of man
given
a kingdom, that
all people, nations, and languages, should serve
him. (Daniel 7:13,14.) Prophecy
fulfilled and fulfilling tells us that we live
near the close of the antitypical Day of
Atonement, the time that just precedes
Christs coming as King of kings and Lord of
lords. Thus, the message The hour of his
judgment is come (Revelation 14:6,7) has a
special application now.
Every case is now being
reviewed in the most holy place of the heavenly
sanctuary. The life history of every soul who has
professed Christ as some time in his life will be
investigated. The mind of every heavenly
intelligence must be satisfied with the fitness
of each person for heaven. God will apportion
rewards not only on the basis of what has been
done during the brief span of the life lived in
this world but also upon the influence or
fruitage of that life as it has affected others
for the good or evil to the very close of time.
(Revelation 14:13.)
Now is the time to heed
Peters admonition, Repent ye,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the times of refreshing [the latter
rain] shall come from the presence of the
Lord. Acts 3:19. Those who fail to have
their sins blotted out will have their names
blotted out of the book of life. (Revelation
3:5.) When every case is settled, Christ will
pronounce the irrevocable verdict, He that
is unjust, let him be unjust still:
and he
that is righteous, let him be righteous
still. Revelation 22:11.
As the early rain fell
upon the disciples as a result of Christs
mediation in the holy place, so we may expect the
later rain to fall upon Gods commandment
keeping remnant through His mediation in the holy
place.
God required the children
of Israel to afflict their souls on the Day of
Atonement. (Leviticus 16:29.) Every sin was to be
searched out and confessed, for only the record
of confessed sins, those transferred to the
sanctuary, could be cleansed, or removed, from
the holy place. Sin that had not been transferred
to the sanctuary stayed with their perpetrator.
God will have a clean universe. For
whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted
in that same day, he shall be cut off from among
his people. Leviticus 23:29. The
self-examination called for anciently will be
repeated under the searching influence of
the spirit of judgment and the
spirit of burning. (Isaiah 4:4.)
Where we spend eternity depends upon our dealing
truly with our souls-there will be no future
probation. Sin must be overcome while Jesus still
mediates. Urgency calls for an immediate heart
response.
In the most holy place,
God reveals His marvelous love, a love that
unites justice and mercy, the law and the gospel.
This love is abundant in goodness and
truth,
forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, but it will by
no means clear the guilty. (Exodus 34:
6,7.) No one will be lost who wanted to be
saved-no one saved who chose to be lost.
For he shall have judgment without mercy,
that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth
against judgment. James 2:13. The
words of the wise man apply here: He that
sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all
that hate me love death. Proverbs 8:36.
Only
the Hoy Spirit can help us to appreciate the
inner secrets of the sanctuary. By the Holy
Spirit we grasp the central truth that
justice and judgment are the habitation of
thy throne, that there, in the most holy
place, where God sits on His throne, all the
problems of mans salvation are solved and
resolved. Mercy and truth are met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed each
other. (Psalms 89:14; 85:10.)
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