A) THE SANCTUARY OF OUR HEARTS.

B) RECONCILIATION AND JUSTIFICATION.

C) STEPS IN RECONCILIATION.

D) PERPETUAL ATONEMENT.

 

 

A) THE SANCTUARY OF OUR HEARTS

 

 

Exodus 25:8 states:  “that I may dwell among them.”  The actual thought in this text is that God “may dwell in them.”  “As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in them, that they also may be one in Us.”  John 17:21.  “Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”  First Corinthians 3:16.  “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?”  First Corinthians 6:19.

 

It will soon be fulfilled that “Behold, the Tabernacle [or dwelling place] of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.”  Revelation 21:3.  The Holy Spirit teaches us that “without” “holiness,” “no man shall see the Lord,” Hebrews 12:14.  Although the Sanctuary was a separating wall, and man could not approach God directly, God demonstrated to us that He will still come as close to His people as sin will permit Him through the ministration of the Sanctuary services.

 

The illustration of salvation, according to GC:414, is stated as:  “Yet important truths concerning the Heavenly Sanctuary and the great work There carried forward for man’s redemption were taught by the earthly Sanctuary and Its services.”  Notice carefully that this Bible Commentator stresses that “important truths. . . were taught” by the example of/in the “earthly Sanctuary.”  Therefore, by studying the “earthly Sanctuary” we can learn these “important truths” and better understand how “man’s redemption” is accomplished in the Heavenly Sanctuary.

 

 

B) RECONCILIATION AND JUSTIFICATION

 

 

Reconciliation and Justification are illustrated in the court.  Because the justice of God’s Law stood in man’s way, Christ volunteered, through the power of His blood, to reconcile man to God.  The righteousness of Christ is “imputed,” which means, “to attribute to,” us.  Jesus imputes His righteousness to the repentant sinner, covering all his past sins.  “And almost all things are by the Law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”  Hebrews 9:22.  The “almost all things” that are lacking are those unrepentant souls; which the blood of Christ cannot help, for they do not want It for whatever reason.

 

The bestowal of this work is but the work of a moment -- How?  We accept the sacrifice of Christ and God imputesChrist’s righteous life to ours as if we lived It ourselves.  We are then prepared to begin the journey into the Holy Places, by the power of Christ’s sanctifying blood, and to actually live a sanctified life.

 

Although “Sanctification is the work of a lifetime,” during which we are to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” Philippians 2:12, the righteousness of Christ is “imparted;” which means Jesus gives us of His power, that the Christian may enter into these Holy Places.  Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, becomes a part of the believer, in order that we may become a partaker of the Divine nature.  The believer has learned, by having a living relationship with God, that because of the cleansing power of God, the Christian has power to obey.

 

We learn from RH, June 4, 1895 & FLB:116:  “The righteousness by which we are justified is imputed; the righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted.  The first is our title to Heaven, the second is our fitness for Heaven.”  While Reconciliation and Justification are the first step in “Righteousness by Faith,” Sanctification is its completion.  All come through faith in Christ.

 

From the time we enter the gate, or the Court, until mortal life ends in the Holy Places, the entire Christian experience is Righteousness by Faith.  While imputed righteousness, which is established in the Sanctuary court, frees us from the penalty of sin, the imparted righteousness frees us from the power of sin.  Because Jude 1:24 teaches us:  “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory.”  And “thepresence of His glory” is none other than above the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place.  Therefore, Sanctification is our passport into the Most Holy Place.

 

 

C) STEPS IN RECONCILIATION

 

 

The Court is where Christ died for all and where the transgressor takes his first steps in reconciliation to God, by repenting and bringing a sacrifice.  He then goes into the Holy Place where his sins, which have been transferred to Christ, are forgiven.  However, forgiveness operates after transgression, when the damage has already been done.  To forgive the transgression after it has been committed is wonderful; but it is not enough.  When God places the robe of Christ’s righteousness upon us, He will look upon us as if we had never sinned, just as if He were looking at Christ.  Therefore, there must be a power that will keep us from sinning; we must be Christ-like.  This is where the sanctified life comes in.

 

When the High Priest entered into the Most Holy Place, clad only in his white linen garments (which is the righteousness of Christ), he was to have no un-confessed or un-transferred sin upon him.  He was to be free from sin.  The extensive preparation for this event -- the entering into the Most Holy Place but once in the year -- shows the value of all of those events, which prepare us to live the Sanctified life.  Sin must not be allowed to enter into the Most Holy Place, which is also the throne of God.  And Revelation 14:5 teaches us that this will be the case, for it is said of men:  “They are without fault before the throne of God.”

 

 

D) PERPETUAL ATONEMENT

 

 

We all know about the “Day of Atonement.”  By contrast, what about the “Perpetual Atonement,” as given in Numbers, Chapters 28 and 29?  A lamb was slain and prepared by the priest, and it was offered for the entire nation of Israel.  It was then placed on the Brazen Altar, where it was slowly consumed by the fire.  It was not permitted to burn quickly, for it was to last until evening, when another lamb was offered which was to burn until the morning offering was ready.  Thus, there was always a sacrifice upon the Brazen Altar, day and night, a symbol of the perpetual atonement provided in Christ.

 

There was no time at which Israel was not covered by the cleansing blood of Christ.  At whatever time they sinned, they knew that a lamb was on the Brazen Altar and that forgiveness was theirs upon repentance.  This morning and evening oblation was offered every day of the year, and was never to be omitted.  On the Sabbath day, this offering was doubled -- two lambs were offered in the morning and two in the evening.  Even on the Day of Atonement this ritual was carried over; and was deemed a “High Sabbath” if the Day of Atonement fell upon the Seventh-Day Sabbath.

 

Sixteen times (16), in Chapters 28 and 29 of Numbers, God emphasizes that no other offering is to take the place of “the continual burnt offering.”  Each time another sacrifice is mentioned, it is stated that this offering is “beside the continual burnt offering.”  Though it was offered to the nation as a whole, it nevertheless served a definite purpose for the individual.  That Christ stands before His Father and is ever ready at all times to plead the cases of the repentant sinner, this fact should not be missed in the shining example of our Lord’s service in the Heavenly Sanctuary.

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