IN the great question of sinful man's approach to the holy God, the first consideration is God's righteousness. What man's ideas may be on the question are not to be taken into account, for if God be not satisfied as to the ground on which man would approach Him, it is evident man can never draw near to God at all. Our knowledge as to God's thoughts we gain from God Himself through His word; every other source being merely the imagination of the human heart; unless, indeed, as in paganism, there be also the thoughts of demons mingled with the imaginations of men.
Before the cross of Christ, God had not fully made known His righteousness; in a sense He looked lightly at the ignorance of the heathen (Acts 17:3030And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: (Acts 17:30)), and He did but shadow, through the sacrifices He ordained from Abel downwards, His righteous requirements concerning sin; but now
GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS IS REVEALED.
Through the sacrifice of Christ, God has manifested His unqualified and absolute judgment on sin. On the cross, God made His Son to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21).) and He forsook Him while so made sin (Matt. 27:4646And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)).
In the light of Christ, the Sin-Bearer, being thus forsaken of God, every pretension of man to ability to satisfy God as to sin perishes. Neither in this life nor in the next can man atone for his own sins, purge them away, or glorify God about them.
But while God has thus revealed His righteousness, He has also shown that He is perfectly and eternally magnified in the question of sin by the death of His Son, that thereby He, the Just, can be the Justifier of sinful man (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)), and that He makes those for whom His Son was made sin, the righteousness of God in Christ.
Thus by the death of Christ, God's own absolute unyielding righteousness as to sin is revealed; and also the absolute righteousness before Him of the sinner, whose sins Christ bore, is established. To be without the benefits of the cross of Christ is to be in the darkness, to be within them is to be in the light as God is in the light.
But not only is the righteousness of God revealed, it is revealed also that
THE WAY TO GOD IS OPEN.
Before the sacrifice of Jesus, God signified by means of the veil of Temple and Tabernacle, that the way into the Holiest was not yet made manifest (Heb. 9:88The 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: (Hebrews 9:8)), but when Jesus died God rent the veil from heaven to earth (Matt. 27:5151And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; (Matthew 27:51)), signifying that the way was open. Open because God's righteousness had been magnified, because sin, which had barred the way, was atoned for, because the majesty of God was honored by the satisfaction made for sin by the death of God's Son.
Human efforts could not open that way, it was opened by God Himself when His Son died for sin upon the cross and magnified Him upon the question of sin. Before the cross God dwelt in the thick darkness (2 Chron. 6:11Then said Solomon, The Lord hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. (2 Chronicles 6:1)) ; in the day of the highest glory of the Temple He abode in His unapproachable holiness (ch. 5:11) ; but now when He has declared that He is Light, He has also bidden the feeblest draw near to Himself (Heb. 10:19-2119Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; (Hebrews 10:19‑21)).
The priests of the Temple, in their sin, restored the veil Jehovah had rent, they set up again the barrier He had removed, they denied thereby that there was access to God by Christ. But of what value was the ritual of the Temple, or of what meaning the service of its priesthood without a veil. The solemn service of the great Day of Atonement without a veil was futile; for the distinction between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place was gone, and priests and sacrifices under the law were un necessary. Only let us remember that, since God in His holiness came forth, as it were, from the place where He had been hidden for ages, He came forth in His holiness, so that now no veil hides Him, who is Light, from sinful man, and that while the way to God is open, there is no hope for any who approach God save in His own way.
In natural things men accept a fact. The sun shines; who controverts the fact? In spiritual things divine facts should be reverently respected. In natural things we smile at the notion of a law being affected by ignorance of its existence. Be it so, that the millions of China believe the world to be flat, does their ignorance affect its rotundity? The way to God is open; if millions in Christendom, by reredos, rood-screen, re-erect a veil, a barrier, like the priests of the Temple, does their unbelief affect the fact of the way being open? The believer in the truth will not less believe the truth because millions disbelieve it, any more than the European in China will believe the world to be flat in deference to the popular opinion of the Chinese.
Not only is God's righteousness revealed, not only is the Way to God open, a further fact exists,
CHRIST APPEARS IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US.
As the high priest of Israel passed through the curtain doors forming the entrance into the court of the Tabernacle, the Holy of the Tabernacle, and the Holy of Holies, on the great day of atonement, so did Christ pass through the heavens into the presence of God for us, and in Him, in heaven, we have " an High Priest over the house of God."
The great fact of Christ's glorious position in heaven allows not the occupation of priests on earth, busy with their veil, their rood-screen! Or, we may say, priests on earth, busy with their rood-screen and its equivalents, deny thereby the fact of Christ being in the presence of God for us. How entered He God's presence? In the power of His own blood. “By His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:1212Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12)). We may almost stand amazed that such a truth is recorded in the Bible; or shall we say, we stand amazed since such a truth is in the Bible, that men bearing Christ's name dare by their acts to deny it. For to what purpose then the “altar," the “sacrifice of the mass,” the “offering priests”? To this—to teach men that the way to God is not open; that Christ has not entered in; that His blood needs to be flowing constantly; that His sacrifice needs to be offered perpetually; in a word that the truth of the Christian profession is false.
But all the thousands of offering priests of Christendom vary not the truth of God a hair's breadth—
Christ appears now in heaven itself in the presence of God for us (ver. 24);
Christ will appear again at His coming the second time, apart from the great settled question of sin, to the great result of His work—to salvation (ver. 28).
Christ has finished the sacrificial work 'given Him to do on earth; He is continuing the intercessory work for which He is called of God a High Priest in heaven. He was the Offerer—no man ever offered Christ to God—and He offered Himself. He is the Intercessor, and no man can trench upon this His work. His past sacrifice is the foundation of His present work. His sacrifice in death was ONCE; His intercession is CONTINUOUS. He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
God's righteousness is magnified; the way to God is open; Christ is in God's presence for us-these truths are part of the Christian profession.
Let us add a word respecting
THE HOLY PLACE IN HEAVEN
where Christ is. His dignity and glory, risen from the dead, ascended on high, demand a holy place in heaven worthy of Himself. Gold, jewels, and other of earth's products; purple, fine linen, and such tokens of human skill, did but represent to man God's thoughts about Christ. Take these things out of their representative place, and presently there will be idolatry. These things were earthly "patterns of things in the heavens," object lessons to the children of men of the truths of God they signified. Do we think that the ascended Christ of God needs a chamber of gold and jewels for His presence, or purple and fine linen for His adornment? What did God with the temple of old, fitted and appointed with the holy things of His own ordaining? He razed it to the ground by the armies of the heathen, for its veil and its costly stones were used for purposes of rebellion against His Son.
Christian reader, it is not in materialistic or symbolic erections the Son of God, our High Priest, carries on His loving service, but in "a true tabernacle," in that which "Jehovah has pitched; not man." The “shadow of heavenly things” is no more; Christ is in heaven in the true, which the things of old shadowed. “The worldly sanctuary " made of jewels and gold, " of this building" of earth's things is exchanged for heaven. And our High Priest is in that fitting dignity and glory in the presence of God for us.
When the eye becomes centered on gold and jewels, robes and buildings, it is occupied with earthly things and cannot look up into heaven where Jesus is, and wherever such visions prevail, little of Christ is seen. Have we not observed how small Jesus is represented in the Virgin's arms? Ever a very small infant! He is the Man in Glory! The crucifix presents Him dying in His weakness; but " though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God " (2 Con 13:4), being raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. The idea of the altar is a still dying suffering Jesus ; God shows us Him seated at the right hand of the throne of His Majesty, resplendent in glory, all angels serving Him, all spirits of the just honoring Him. Christ grows less and less as ornate ritual prevails, and by it man grows greater and greater; Christ is ever viewed through the wrong end of the telescope, He is seen, as it were, afar off, and man's view of himself becomes more and more important; till at length, like the believers of their own fable in China, the people of Christendom reject the word of God to believe in the folly of what they call Christianity.