It is the believer's privilege to see and judge everything in view of Christ; for He has not only revealed what God is in His nature and character, but fully brought out what man is. He has moreover made good at the cross, in and by His death, both the claim and the glory of God as to sin, having vindicated His majesty infinitely beyond the power of evil. If the cross encountered man's darkness in the deep and varied and complete guilt of a Christ-hating world, it was blessedly and forever answered by the light of God's glory on the throne above. Yea, it may be said most truly that man in the person of Adam was turned out of the earthly paradise because of his sin; but Christ the Second Man has entered heaven in virtue of redemption accomplished. It is God's righteousness.
The fact of Christ entering heaven testifies to the Jew and the Greek, that He was rejected, being refused His every right and title. For those who should have hailed Him as their true King said, Away with him, we have no king but Caesar; and in place of His temple and throne, they nailed Him to the cross, thereby sealing judgment on Israel, man generally, and the world.
But what says heaven of Christ now hidden there? What says the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven? Let us learn God's testimony to the wondrous sacrifice Christ has offered up, and the present blessed privileges to be known and enjoyed by believers in Him. They are immensely beyond what ancient shadows and types pledged; as the Epistle to the Hebrews plainly teaches. There Christ is presented as the antitype to Aaron the high priest who, on the Day of Atonement, entered the “holy of holies” with the blood of the slain bullock and the goat, sprinkling it before and on the Mercy seat. This secured redemption to Israel, priests and people, though only of value for twelve months; hence its repetition year by year. Even so Aaron must retire, from the presence of Jehovah, without the veil and never enter at other times under the penalty of death. Such was Israel's representative, entering the earthly tabernacle by blood, for the yearly redemption, as the divinely appointed means of maintaining an earthly nation. Who on earth could boast its like? But how vast the difference for the believer to-day, founded on the infinite sacrifice of Christ the Son of God. He came at the consummation of the ages, at the close of man's trial, to settle the question of sin by becoming the sacrifice for it. On God's part this He did, as Heb. 9 & 10 solemnly declare, when “through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God.” By His shed blood atonement was made. By the same death of Him the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom; though the declaration of the truth (as in the varied aspects and application of His atoning death) was reserved for the timely moment to unfold, that Christ by His own blood entered in “once for all” into the holy of holies, having obtained eternal redemption.
It may truly be said, all other wonders sink into insignificance in the light of Christ's death; yet its results, in the antitypical Aaron entering heaven, associated with His precious blood, by which eternal redemption was secured, may truly fill us with praise. No more offering for sin; no more blood of atonement to be shed. The One Who became the only sacrifice for sins on the cross is declared to have forever (in perpetuity) sat down on God's right hand. Thus the counsel of peace is between them both. God the Judge of sin, and Jesus the sacrifice for it, Who met for judgment at Calvary, are now together in heaven for indissoluble peace, and this to all the redeemed, God's new creation. Already not alone the conscience, but the heart and ways of every believer are called in matchless grace to be in unison with it. By one offering He has perfected forever those sanctified or set apart to God in the value of His blood, which meets the majesty and the glory of God's throne. Not only has Christ by His blood provided eternal redemption for faith in present unbroken blessedness to know and enjoy, together with a conscience purged from sin; but heaven itself is open for the believer to follow his precious Savior into the true sanctuary. There assuredly, as a purged worshipper, he in spirit finds his liberty and home, before that same holy and blessed God he once dreaded.
Strange indeed, that consecrated places of worship should be set up on earth to imitate the Jewish worship in the temple. Has not Christ entered heaven? and while He is hidden there, has not the Holy Spirit come to witness to His finished work and present exaltation? Thereby is given corresponding effect to believers, so as to draw near to God in the holies through the rent veil, as worshippers in full liberty and known blessedness. Do we not possess Christ on high as the Great Priest over God's house, which house we, believers, are (Heb. 3:6; 10:216But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 3:6)
21And having an high priest over the house of God; (Hebrews 10:21))?
What now is the material temple? How contemptible its imitation, with its flowers, music, pictures and all other human aids to worship! How sad to accommodate or reduce the work and person of Christ to buildings, with a ritual earthly and sensational! Are we not now called to spiritual worship, in blessed association (for all true believers) with Himself on high? “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the [holy of] holies by a new and living way,” we are exhorted to draw near with a true heart.
The privilege was unknown and impossible in the typical days of Israel. Even Aaron himself had it not. Yet an assumed earthly ritual after his pattern (which ignores all believers as the only priests on earth, having free access to God in the heavenly sanctuary) is adopted growingly in Christendom, and sanctioned, alas! by those responsible to know better who act otherwise. Did they heed Christ, as having come, been nailed to the cross and gone into heaven, with the heavenly privileges ensuing to His own, true Christian worship in the Holy Spirit's power, they might learn; and they would refuse all which denies it, whilst awaiting the promised return of our hidden Lord and Savior.
If the truth of Christ the High Priest entering the holies is thus significant, and exceedingly precious in opening up the heavenly privileges for the believer of to-day; Christ coming out of heaven as King of kings is most solemn for the world, and has its voice for all pursuing its course. Since the departure of Christ to heaven, men have largely been dragged into the profession of His name, but with the heart and mind quite unchanged toward God. This really adds to the condemnation of Christendom. For there remains the standing fact, that God is at issue with the world about His beloved Son. The cross is its abiding witness; not this only, but the personal presence of God the Holy Ghost Who, as stated in John 16, gives demonstration in a threefold form of coming judgment. “Now is the judgment of this world” said He; and in view of His leaving the world, “The world seeth me no more” is solemn. The gospel moreover coming from heaven did not alter this. On the contrary the gospel supposes that man is lost and the world become a ruin. It does not propose to improve either, nor yet to rule the earth in power and righteousness, as the kingdom will ere long. The gospel saves men by faith, and calls them to heavenly glory with Christ.
(To be concluded, D.V.)