THE TABERNACLE, WITH THE TWOFOLD DIVISION THEREOF.
(Verses 1-5.)
Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
For there was a TABERNACLE made;
THE FIRST, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary.
And after the SECOND VEIL, the tabernacle which is called the HOLIEST OF ALL; which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
PRIESTHOOD.
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, WITH ITS TYPICAL SACRIFICES.
(Verses 6-10.)
Notwithstanding the abolition of the Mosaic economy, those to whom this epistle was ad dressed were still carrying on the observances of the ancient Jewish ritual: hence the apostle here speaks in the present tense, not the past: "The priests," he says, “enter always into the first tabernacle," &c.
Now these things being thus ordered, the priests enter always into the FIRST TABERNACLE, accomplishing the service of God. But into the SECOND the high priest alone once every year. Not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the HOLIEST OF ALL was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: (i.e., kept its standing:) which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
PRIESTHOOD.
ANTITYPE OR SUBSTANCE OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.
(Verses 11-14.)
The object of the transposition at the foot of the page is not to alter this passage, but to bring out its meaning a little more clearly.
(1) But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, (4) entered in once (2) by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, (5) into the holy place, (6) having (3) neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, (7) obtained eternal redemption for us.)
(1) But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, (2) by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building; (3) neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood (4) he entered in once (5), into the holy place, (6), having (7) obtained eternal redemption for us.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
DIGRESSION, MEDIATOR SHIP, CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT.
(Verses 15-23.)
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
This change in the translation is explained and accounted for in the following pages.
For where a covenant is, there must be brought in the death of the covenanter (for the covenant is made valid, or confirmed, over, or in connection with, the dead, i.e. sacrifices), since it is of no strength at all while the covenanting one continues alive.
That which is briefly referred to in the foregoing parenthesis as to the Jewish scarifies is here more fully brought out. Whereupon neither the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood ; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these ; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
PRIESTHOOD RESUMED AFTER THE DIGRESSION.
THE ANTITYPE OR SUBSTANCE OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.
(Verses 24-28.)
For Christ is not entered into THE HOLY PLACES MADE WITH HANDS, which are 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. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; 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.
LEVITICAL SACRIFICES TYPICAL OF THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
(Chapter 10: 1-10.)
For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered ? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me : in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein ; which are offered by the law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.
THE JEWISH PRIESTS TYPICAL OF CHRIST, THE TRUE PRIEST.
(Verses 11-18.)
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God ; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; then he said, And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
EXHORTATION, OR ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE SAINTS TO DRAW NIGH.
(Verses 19-25.)
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
EXPLANATION OF THE FOREGOING ARRANGEMENT.
THE character of the whole Epistle to the Hebrews is to present to us the Lord Jesus Christ as the perfection of that of which the types and shadows of Judaism had been but the imperfection: but the chapters before us especially present Him to us as coming forth in respect to those two great questions so necessary to restore the relations of ruined man with God: even those of atonement and of priesthood: resolving these questions by presenting Himself as the substance of all that had been foreshadowed in the dim light of the Jewish economy. In chapter 9., His coming forth is for man; in chapter 10., for God. Both chapters treat of atonement: but in the former the aspect is that of Christ coming forth on man's behalf; in the latter it is objectively to fulfill and carry out God's will.
We begin with chapter 9: and we shall see in what varied aspects and offices our Lord is there foreshown. The object of the Holy Ghost is to lead our souls into the apprehension of this: and, in order to furnish them with the perfection and the reality as a substitute for the imperfection and the shadow, two subjects are prominently brought before us; viz., the tabernacle, and the covenants; and Christ himself as Priest and Mediator is shown as answering to each: in the former He is antitype of Aaron on the day of atonement; and in the latter of Moses as mediator of the covenant.
In order the better to understand the bearing of the chapter, let us examine its structure, and the order (for it is perfect) with which the Spirit of God presents these truths to us and instructs us in them.
We shall thus find that verses 1-14 treat of the first subject above named; even the tabernacle, to which belongs the priesthood: therefore Christ is seen in verse 11 as the true High Priest, the antitype of Aaron. As such He is found on the day of atonement satisfying the claims of God's righteousness once and forever. And the question of atonement then introduces that of mediator ship, which with the covenants is treated of from verse 15 to the close of verse 23; and at that point priesthood is again resumed.
Such is the general scope of the chapter. Let us now examine it more minutely, returning to verses 1-7 (inclusive). We find that the tabernacle is there spoken of as divided into two parts; the holy and most holy place; designated as the first and second tabernacle; meaning the first and second division of the sanctuary: but when in verse 8 the signification of these figures is given, the inspired writer in treating of "the first tabernacle" passes on to the tabernacle as a whole; the expression "first" there contrasting with the "greater and more perfect" that was to come, and not with the second part or inner division of the sanctuary, as in verse 7. Therefore, when he says "while the first tabernacle was yet standing," he means Moses’ tabernacle, comprising all its parts.
Now this tabernacle had a twofold signification. It set forth, on the one hand, the person of Christ; and on the other the heavens; the second or inner division representing the place of God's throne of majesty; and the first or outer one the way of approach thereto. Both are spoken of as "patterns of things in the heavens" (ver. 23); and as the "holy places made with hands, figures of the true," i.e. heaven itself (ver. 24). The great point of prominence was the ark and mercy seat in the holiest, the seat of God's presence. To this all the rest led, and stood in relation; though the high priest alone had access to it, and that but once a year: but it was all God's dwelling, and represented morally and locally the heavens, through which Christ our great High Priest passed up by His own blood to the throne of the Majesty on high. The tabernacle itself, i.e. the tent with its two divisions, is the only part of it treated of in this chapter: but in Exodus we have, not the tent only, but also the outer court, which contained the brazen altar and the laver; and around which the tribes pitched. This is as it were the base of that figurative structure of which the summit only is given in Heb. 9, and represents in type the earth, the region in which God meets man as a sinner; as the tent itself represents the heavens, the region to which He brings man as reconciled: so that, taking the two together, we have in figure the whole circle of heaven and earth viewed morally in its relation to God.
The outer court was where man as a sinner drew nigh to God; and there was the altar of burnt offering, and the laver, the vessel at which the priests must wash ere they approached the tabernacle. Inside the tent, in the first division of the sanctuary, was where man in his priestly character drew nigh to God; and thither the priests went always, accomplishing the service of God. Further still; in the second division, within the veil, was where God dwelt on His throne of judgment, from which man was excluded, save in the person of the high priest. Thus the whole is a complete picture of the universe as God's house; which signification it bears in Heb. 3:3,43For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. 4For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. (Hebrews 3:3‑4); the typical house of Him who created all things, who is God.
Now the two significations of these symbols, viz. the person of Christ, and the heavens, as to the tabernacle itself—or, including the outer court, the universal system of heaven and earth—are closely allied; for everything in heaven and earth is but a delineation of the mind of Christ. If we enter the room of one who has furnished and laid it out according to his own purpose and taste, do we not discern in all we see the mind of him who has thus fashioned it? How much more truly may this be said of the workmanship of the Divine Architect, whose ways and works have all some special and eternal object! His order and means for bringing man near unto Himself, set forth to us in type in the tabernacle and its courts, is but the reflection of that far more glorious manifestation in Christ; so that one signification is but the counterpart of the other; just as a photograph is a counterpart of the original, though so far less perfect. The blessed original, Christ himself, was typically represented in every part of "this building," as the apostle calls it, while going on to declare that He, the Antitype—the greater and more perfect tabernacle," " not of this building," though typified in it—was now come. His wondrous person embodied all and a great deal more than the tabernacle had prefigured; and this, even Himself, He offered up without spot to God; the work being sustained by the value of the Person. In virtue of that work He becomes, instead of the first tabernacle, the means of man's approach to God: in other words, He takes the place of that system of gifts and sacrifices, rites and ordinances, through which alone man could draw near in the old dispensation.
But not only was the blessed Lord foreshown in the tabernacle and its furniture, which, as we have seen, set forth His person as the way of access to God; but He was also typified in the one who transacted the business of the sanctuary, so to speak, the high priest: therefore verse 6 brings forward the question of priesthood, showing us that as Aaron passed through the tabernacle up to the mercy 'seat on the day of atonement, he only dimly prefigured the great High Priest who has now passed into the heavens by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
In that day of wondrous signification, that day of atonement recurring year after year, when the high priest entered into the holiest with the blood of the sin offering, how manifold were the Foreshadowings of the Lord Jesus in the whole scene and action The sin offering prefigured Him as made sin and offered without the camp; the tabernacle through which the high priest passed into the holiest prefigured Him in His personal perfection. The high priest bearing the blood within the veil prefigured Him as passing through the heavens up to the throne of the Majesty on high by His own blood; entering as the righteous One; presenting to God the tokens of His death, and thereby becoming the new and living way for us to follow Him into the henceforth unveiled and unclouded presence of God. Each and all found their answer in Him. He came as the victim instead of bulls and goats. He came as the greater and more perfect tabernacle, instead of the earthly sanctuary with its rites and ordinances, within which God was in concealed majesty. He came as the High Priest, entering with full title into the presence of God, and there presenting the tokens of a work accomplished once and forever. Rending the veil by the breaking of His body, the yielding up of His life without the camp, He, having risen out of judgment, passed from the earthly court through the heavenlies up to the throne of God, throwing open door after door, as it were, and filling up in Himself as He passed onward everything, every place, every person, from the bullock of the sin offering to the high priest himself, and entering into the very presence chamber by the shed blood —pledge of our title to that region, as the excellency of His person was of His own.
And here, as in each case, He presents a contrast as well as an antitype to the Aaronic type. Like Aaron, He entered by blood; but, unlike him, it was by His own blood, and that once and forever. Like him He approached God's hitherto concealed majesty through a tabernacle; but, unlike him, it was by the greater and more perfect tabernacle of His own flesh; and into, not the holy places made with hands, but heaven itself. And moreover, instead of the portal into that region closing after Him, as with Aaron, whom none could follow, it was not only opened, but could find its place no more. He, the great Forerunner, by passing through it as the risen One, became its end and substitute; He Himself being henceforth the new and living way into the presence of God, which is now to be entered in full assurance of faith, as the home of the purged conscience.
We now come to the second subject of our chapter, the second aspect in which the Lord is presented to us; and of this verses 15-24 treat. “For this cause he is the MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT:" For what cause? For the purging of the conscience. Antitype of Moses, as He has already been shown to be of Aaron, it is of the new covenant that He is Mediator: not of, the Sinai covenant, as was Moses, and where man was a contracting party, and which could only, bring man to nothing, and prove the impossibility of any, such covenant standing; but of the covenant which, as we read in Gal. 3, Was confirmed beforehand by God to Christ, and which the law could not disannul.
Now in passing on to consider this digressive passage, let us note well that in the nature of things there cannot be by any possibility a real covenant between God and man as man. A covenanting one must have full power to maintain, to carry out, that which he undertakes. This we need hardly say, no man has: he has no more power' to keep, than he, has power to make a promise; therefore a covenant between, God and man was nothing more than a promise, a disposition on God's part. It was wholly one sided; its security depending on God, and in no wise on man. Thus the bow in the cloud is called a token of God's covenant with the earth; which means that it was a token of promise that God would not again smite the earth. This too was the order of His covenant with Abraham. God gave him a promise: Abraham entered into no engagement with God, but simply believed thug' promise. True, at Sinai man did presume to enter into covenant with God; but what was the result? Only the proved insufficiency of man, and the impossibility of any attempt on his part to keep treaty with God. But, was there then no covenant in the real sense of the word? Not with man, though there was promise and disposition from God towards him: but there was a covenant' between God and Christ, the only one which stood or could stand. And this we find brought out in Gal. 3:1717And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. (Galatians 3:17): "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in (or to) Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." The promise was made to Abraham, but it was confirmed to Christ; and this is the argument for its immutability, for a covenant once confirmed no man disannulleth. God in making promise to Abraham had His eye on the one Seed, even Christ. He was the ground of the ratification of the promise. Four hundred and thirty years afterward the Sinai covenant, which gendereth to bondage, and of which Hagar the bondwoman was a type, was entered on; but that was destined to decay, wax old, and vanish away. The true covenant, called the "new," though in reality it preceded the old, was that confirmed of God to Christ, which Christ, the one Seed, is not only party to, but mediator of; and we, as Isaac, are children of promise.
Of this (the two covenants) we believe verses 15-23 treat. It is a sort of digression between verses 14 and 24, which would seem naturally to follow one another; but what comes between is brought forward in order to show that mediation as well as priesthood must be founded on death. To prove this point, both covenants, the old and the new, are presented as bearing analogy one to the other, in the fact of death being necessary to both. Other covenants; human ones, might be confirmed without death; but one of this nature, in which sin was in question between God and man, could not be valid apart from death; so that the argument is, that as death was necessary to the inauguration of the old covenant, even so was it necessary to that of the new.
This great fact and truth is set forth in verses 16, 17. We here give the passage in Greek, with its translation according to our authorized version: Οπου γὰρ διαθήκη, θαάντον ἀνάγκη ἀνάγκη τοῦ διαθεμένου, (διαθήκη γὰρ ἐπὶ νεκροῖς βεβαλα, ἐπεὶ μή ποτε ἰσχύει ὄτε ζῇ ὁ διαθέμενος
"For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth." Now this passage, we venture to say, is wrongly rendered; the translators not having apprehended the apostle's object therein, nor seen that there is a parenthesis here of the utmost importance; and, lastly, having altered the rendering of the word διαθήκη from "covenant" to "testament," thereby making the passage refer to the act of a testator whose will does not become valid till after his death. Now why, we ask, give this 'word a different signification from that which it bears in the early part of the chapter? If it be the one term, διαθήκν), all through, we ask, why not allow it to mean a covenant made between two parties, and not a will left for execution after death? That the former and not the latter is here meant we fully believe; and not only so, but that it refers to the new covenant, even the covenant of grace; the chief object herein being to show this to be in strict analogy with the old covenant; both of them being founded on and confirmed by death.
And now as to the parenthesis referred to above. This occurs in the first clause of verse 17, the Greek of which, Διαθήκη γὰρ ἐπὶ νεκροῖς βεβαία, in our version is rendered, "For a testament is of force after men are dead;" but which we believe should be, 44 FOR THE COVENANT IS CONFIRMED OVER THE DEAD;" the object therein, as we here seek to show, being to prove how the dead victims over which the old covenant was enjoined testified to the necessity of death in the confirmation of the new.
The whole passage we believe may be rendered as follows: "FOR WHERE A COVENANT IS, 'THERE MUST BE BROUGHT IN THE DEATH OF THE COVENANTING ONE, (FOR THE COVENANT IS VALID OVER THE DEAD,) SINCE IT IS OF NO FORCE WHILE THE COVENANTING ONE LIVES." And "the covenanting one," that is, one of the contracting parties, we believe to be CHRIST, the one to whom it was confirmed, according to Gal. 3; who, in order to fulfill, to carry out this covenant, must die.
Thus the consistency of God's ways throughout is clearly proved. Every covenant of His man-ward, be it one of grace—as the Noachic and Abrahamic, in which, as we have seen, it was virtually a promise on God's part—or one of law, as at Sinai, where man took on himself the responsibility of keeping it; in every case it was 44 confirmed over the dead." It was, over the sacrifices, offered by Noah that God confirmed the covenant or promise to him as the head of the new earth. (Gen. 8:99But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. (Genesis 8:9).) It was over the sacrifices offered by Abraham (Gen. 15) that Jehovah confirmed the covenant to him and to his seed, ensuring it by death; and here too we learn that, in the confirmation of the Sinai covenant, " Moses took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you." “It was not dedicated without blood." Thus we are taught that to every covenant death has been the grand necessity; and the passage before us is to show that the new covenant, confirmed by God to Christ (which is really the confirmation of the Abrahamic) is no exception; nay, that the blood of bulls and of goats, the dead victims of inferior value on all previous occasions, only pointed to the one great Victim who was by death to purge away sin and become the mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises. He who offered Himself through the eternal. Spirit without spot to God thus sealing the new covenant with His death, a death enhanced by all the value and glory of. His parson.
Verses 24 27 resume the subject of priesthood, transferring our gaze from the Mediator sealing the covenant, to the great High Priest, entering into the heavens, there to appear in the presence of God' for us: Nor is this the only "appealing." Mediation, priest, hood, and "salvation," are each announced by the three distinct appearings here brought forward. Once as the Mediator He "hath appeared." in the consummation of ages to put away Ain by the sacrifice Of Himself. Now as the great High, Priest He doth appear" in that presence into which He has; entered, and where. He ever liveth to Make intercession for us. And once more He shall appear, "the question of atonement and mediation being eternally settled," apart from sin unto salvation."Then He will appear fully in His Melchisedec character, for His earthly as well as His heavenly people, the" high priest of good things to come," things which can only have their full range and development then; when the 'whole circle of blessing in heaven and earth is filled up in and through Him.
We have now only to notice briefly the first eighteen verses of chapter 10, which properly belong to what we have been considering, being but another aspect of the subject of atonement. Here it is not the mediator nor the priest which we have brought before us, but the sacrifice, and that as demanded by the will of God. Great and wonderful as atonement appears as presented in chapter 9, in all that it has wrought for man, such is not the only or the greatest aspect of it. There was a still deeper thing, even that from which it sprung, even the mind and heart of God and Christ: and in order to bring this out, the apostle, when in chapter 9:28 he comes to the point of Christ having once offered Himself to bear the sins of many, goes back in chapter 10 to show how imperfect the sacrifices under the law were, making a remembrance of sins every year. Therefore " sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by law. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." ... ." A body hast thou prepared me." This was the transaction between God and Christ. God's will was the taking away of sins (ver. 4); and to do so demanded a greater sacrifice than those offered by law. Christ was the ready instrument for carrying out that will; and a body was prepared Him of God. The first, the imperfect, "he taketh away, that he may establish the second." Here then, as in the preceding chapter, the type is lost in the anti-type. The offering of the body of Jesus once for all takes the place of the yearly sacrifices; and it is through this offering that we are sanctified by the will of God, which was the spring of action all through. Here too atonement and priesthood find their answer in Him: for, instead of the priest who standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, " this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God," in the victorious sense of the full perfection with which He had carried out and completed God's will. And of this perfection the Holy Ghost witnesses to us; for "where remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sin.”
What a summary of glories do these chapters present to us What great and momentous questions are therein settled between God and His Christ I The Spirit, conducting us first through the tabernacle, and furnishing us as we move onward with the substance instead of the shadow, introduces us to our great High Priest entering by His own blood within the veil; there pauses, in order to show Him to us as the Mediator sealing the covenant, and to prove that death is the basis of both atonement and priesthood. This point being settled, we again follow. Him (verse 24) as the great High Priest passing into the heavens— into the presence of God, there to appear for us now, and again to appear for them that look for Film. Nor this alone. We are then (chap. 10.) admitted into the secret; —shown the source of all this. The veil is lifted as it were, and the heart of heaven laid bare, to show how deep are the springs of that fountain from whence we draw all our, trust and assurance. Not only does all that we have in these chapters of figure, type, and antitype, evidence the mind and interest of God and of Christ about us, redeeming us, and maintaining us in that high position in which redemption places, us; but we are allowed to overhear, as it were, that mind and heart expressed in the deep fellowship between the Father and the Son. The will of God determined what sin demanded, and what His purpose for the sinner was and the Son as the perfect Servant comes forth from God to do His, will; and returns to Him bearing the pledges of the complete and all-satisfying execution of His work and mission. The interior of heaven, its springs of action, its moral furniture, so to speak, is laid before us, in order that our consciences may find a home in the full light of God's presence.
Therefore is it that all this grand history of atone-merit and priesthood is summed up with the admonition to us to enter on our rights with "full assurance." For it is to no sealed or guarded precincts that we are introduced; but to one, the doors of which thrown open by the re-entrance of the Conqueror, present a clear and unobstructed entrance for us. Everything we see therein tells us how at home we may be, and how fully we may appropriate it; for everything tells of a finished redemption founded on death, the evidence of which is the blood, If it be a question of mediation, the covenant is ratified once and forever; and the heavenly things purged with blood proclaim it. If it be priesthood, the great High Priest, "the Son consecrated for evermore," is there, having entered by His own blood through the rent veil.
Faint shadows of these wonders were given in the Jewish ritual. We have seen how The tabernacle and its service, the priest and his office, the altar and its victims, set forth the person and work of Christ; for, in the light of these chapters, all that which otherwise would have appeared but dead form and ceremony wakes up into life and beauty in the reflection cast back on it by the glorious reality which has superseded it, and in which all its value consists.
Well may we exclaim to our God, "Great and marvelous are thy works; just and true are thy ways!”
And what is man, that God should be, thus mindful of him? should not only entitle him to such a region as His own presence, but should take such pains to make him feel at home there, by presenting to Min everything that could contribute to his consolation and assurance?
The only answer is, that God finds His highest glory in the triumphs of His grace toward the sinner; and that all the ruin and degradation of man has been made to redound to His glory through His Son the perfect Man, the joy of His heart,—the Savior, the great High Priest, the Lord of glory, who has brought us into the unclouded light of His presence for evermore.