The aim of the Holy Spirit, in referring to the first covenant with its ordinances, and especially its sanctuary, becomes now apparent. It was not to speak in detail of the contents of the tabernacle exterior or interior, however symbolically instructive, but of its distinctive contrast as a whole with Christianity. For this, not the church, is the subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews, as it abides a primary truth for any soul, Gentile no less than Jewish, without which (held simply, clearly, and intelligently) the doctrine of the church is apt to be a danger rather than a blessing, as it surely is in itself instinct with the love and glory of Christ according to the counsels of God and made good by the indwelling Spirit Who baptized all into one body. But where there is repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, the soul under the gospel becomes the object of that grace, reigning through righteousness, which gives the access into this favor wherein we stand, as Rom. 5:2 puts it, or, as in our Epistle, the way into the sanctuary, not the holy place but the holiest also, made manifest.
So characteristic of the gospel is this privilege that we find it since the cross almost everywhere, and claimed for all that now believe as their assured portion, by none so much as by the Apostle Paul, set as he was for the defense of the gospel, and its minister in all the largeness of its scope. Rom. 5 we have heard. 2 Cor. 3:18 is no less explicit, contrasting the Christian with Israel who could not gaze even on the reflected glory which shone from Moses' face and required a veil to hide it; whereas we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed accordingly even as from the Lord the Spirit. Again, in Eph. 2:13-14, 18, “But in Christ Jesus, ye that once were far off are made nigh by (or in) the blood of Christ; for He is our peace...for through Him we both have the access through the Spirit with the Father.” No less plain and decisive is Col. 1:12-13: “Giving thanks to the Father, Who made us meet for a share of the inheritance of the saints in light, Who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” 1 Peter 2:9 declares that God called the Christian Jews “out of darkness into His marvelous light;” even as Christ did, Who suffered for sins once, that He might bring us to God. Nor is 1 John 1:7 less to the point, where he lays down that, as walking in darkness is the status of those who falsely profess Christ and do not practice the truth, we (Christians) walk in the light, as God is in the light, have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin. No doubt he says “if;” but this condition is simply if we are real, not nominal merely, in following Christ, and so not walking in darkness but having the light of life (John 8:12).
“Now these things having been thus formed, the priests enter continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services; but into the second the high-priest alone once in the year, not without blood, which He offereth for Himself and the errors of the people, the Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way of (or into) the holies hath not yet been made manifest, while the first tabernacle had yet a standing; the which [is] a parable for the present time according to which are offered both gifts and sacrifices, unable as to conscience to perfect the worshipper, [being] only with meats and drinks and divers washings, ordinances of flesh imposed till time of setting right” (Heb. 9:6-10).
It will be noticed that it is the present, which the Vulgate and the A. V. alike neglected, though Beza rendered it correctly; yet the present not historical, but ethic; for the tabernacle in the wilderness is before the writer, not the temple: so we saw in chapters 3-4, and so it is here and throughout. This is evident in the early verses of the chapter, summed up in “these things having been thus formed” or prepared, not only the tabernacle but its furniture; which differed in some essential respects from the temple, for it was the figure of the millennial kingdom and rest, as the tabernacle is of the resources of grace in Christ for the wilderness and its pilgrimage. Hence the ark when set in the temple had neither the golden pot with manna therein nor Aaron's rod that budded (2 Chron. 5:10), which we find carefully named in ver. 4. With such wisdom markedly, divine was the scripture inspired in the Ο.Τ. as in the New.
Nevertheless the law, whatever shadows of heavenly things it afforded, made nothing perfect. And this is demonstrated here by the fact that the priests in their continual entrance go no farther than the first tabernacle or holy place; into the holiest only the high priest once in the year, and then not apart from blood which he offers for himself and the errors of the people. How far from the gospel which goes out to the ungodly and lost, reconciling to God all that believe in virtue of the death of His Son!
When Christ came, God was in Him reconciling the world to Himself; but Him both Jew and Gentile rejected and crucified. Under the law God did not reveal Himself, but barred even His people absolutely from His presence; for how could God, if He were dealing with them on the ground of their conduct, make them free of His presence? He dwelt in the thick darkness, and allowed the priests to approach no nearer than the holy place, the high priest alone (type of Christ) entering the holiest but once a year, and then (for he was but a type, and in fact a sinful man) with blood to offer for himself and the people's sins of ignorance. The barrier was still maintained. But now, and only by the death of Christ, is the veil rent; and the Holy Spirit signifies thereby that the way into the holy places has been and is manifested. It was the death-knell of Judaism, but the foundation of better and heavenly blessing; and as man is put to shame in it, having no part but sins, God is glorified and can thereby work freely in sovereign grace to save alike Jew and Gentile. This is precisely what He is now carrying out in the gospel.
Thus the Incarnation was God come to man in Christ; but by the cross man who believes is brought to God, and the way into the holiest is now manifested. In the incarnate Word was divine love and absolute Obedience; but the work of atonement was solely in His death. For God was not before glorified as to evil, nor was sin judged to the full, nor consequently the righteous basis laid so that God could be just in justifying the believer: to say nothing of what was of the nearest interest to Himself, the Father, raising Christ from the dead and setting Him, the glorified Man, at His own right hand on high, Head over all things to the church which is His body. Hence the notion that the Incarnation was the reconstitution of humanity is a fable opposed to and destructive of the truth: hence no less available to the rationalist, than to the Ritualist. For it is the alleged ground of blessing without Christ's sacrifice, or God's righteousness, or sin's judgment, or the triumph of grace over evil and Satan in the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Savior. But it is His death which scripture reveals as the true ground-work of redemption, though no doubt the glory of His person, true God and perfect man, gave Him the needed competency, not only to redeem sinners, but to be the Head of the new creation and indeed over all things. Only as raised from the dead and exalted in the heavenly places, is He appointed Head of all things (Ephesians Phil. 2, Heb. 1:2.); and this, because, sin having ruined both the heirs and the inheritance, there could be no vindication of God, no adequate and everlasting deliverance for man, without the suffering of death (Heb. 2). It is only thus He became the efficacious center (John 12:24, 32). He is Son of God, and Son of Man; but all true faith stops not short of His death: else (whatever the motive) it would make light of sin and of the judgment of God. Compare John 6:35 with John 6:53-56, &c., 1 John 5:6.
So here we see (Heb. 9:8-9) that, under the law, as the way into the holiest was not manifested, so its gifts and sacrifices could not make the worshipper perfect as to conscience. Now the work, and nothing short of the work, of Christ meets both God and the worshipper, nay the darkest and most distant and defiled of sinners. “Such (these things) were some of you; but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by (4) the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6). The provisions of the law, however admirable as a witness of man's sinfulness and of a coming Redeemer, were but superficial and temporal, conditioned only by “meats and drinks and divers washings” of an external sort; and consistently they touched no deeper wants than “the errors of the people” (ver. 7). They were, as here styled, “ordinances of flesh imposed till time of rectifying."