THE ONE SACRIFICE.
(Chaps 9-10.)
IT is important to see that the character of the sacrifices governs the whole form and order of God’s ways and dealings with men until final judgment. The blood of bulls and goats was brought to Him in a worldly tabernacle, by earthly priests in obedience to carnal ordinances, for men in the flesh who were excluded from the divine presence, and from whom the glory was veiled, since their consciences were unpurged. It purified the flesh only.
Christ’s blood characterizes His coming in connection with a spiritual tabernacle in heaven, and a high priest there; the new and living way opened into the holiest, sins forgiven, conscience purged, and the worshippers perfected in perpetuity. Moreover, instead of an old covenant, impotent for blessing, the blood of the new is shed, and an eternal inheritance is in view instead of a polluted one that passed into other hands.
The old covenant was one under which God’s people transgressed and incurred judgment; and as the covenant was a legal one which bound their sins and judgment upon them, so the sanctuary was a worldly one consisting of two tabernacles. Into the first the priests had access at all times, despite the curtain which forbade entrance to others. But God was not there. Another tabernacle lay beyond; this was the holy of holies, into which the high priest alone could enter, but once a year, not without blood. Here was the presence of God and the glory manifested as in His dwelling-place, but the way into it was not made clear so long as the first tabernacle remained, with its ordinances of service for man in the flesh. Into the first tabernacle indeed the priest could bring both gifts and sacrifices; but these were unable to perfect the conscience, and were but temporary until the time of setting things right. It was therefore death to pass beyond the veil into the presence of the Holy One; for a fleshly purification, which was all the law in itself was designed or able to produce, could not fit a sinner to approach in worship the living God.
But Christ being come, His high priesthood, established specially in view of the coming day of millennial glory when He will dispense on God’s part blessing to all His creatures, and in return minister to Him their blessing in thanksgiving and universal praise, is now exercised in grace as Aaron’s was, but in a heavenly tabernacle formed by no creature-hand or agency.
His coming, as revealed in the gospel, is marked by another fact of infinite importance — a divine sacrifice for sin, in which the creature has no share except in the benefit of the eternal redemption which He has found. For having offered Himself by the eternal Spirit spotless to God, He has entered once for all into heaven itself.
Of what precious and divine efficacy is this work? It purifies the conscience from the vain legal efforts of the flesh to please a living God with dead works. By it man’s transgressions, measured by his responsibility under law, have been redeemed, so that he may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. But not only is there forgiveness, the heavenly things themselves are purified by the blood of the Christ. Then all that God is, displayed in His own heavenly dwelling-place, is vindicated and glorified as to the whole question of sin that compromised His nature. So perfectly is this done that Christ is there for us, as occupying our own place; and the basis is laid for the absolute putting away of sin from the universe for the glory of God. This shall yet be accomplished in power in a new heaven and a new earth, but already by it believers’ sins are borne; and when He appears a second time it shall be for salvation to those who look for Him.
One more detail may be noticed. The Jew might urge: Why all this talk of blood and death beyond the sacrifices of the law? In connection with this it was that we received the promise of the inheritance, as a divine and inalienable bequest. A bequest, “a testament,” answers the Holy Ghost, “is of force after men are dead,” not while the testator is alive. But Jehovah Himself bequeathed it; and the divine Son in manhood has died. Then, if so, the whole ground of the Christian and spiritual system is established in a Christ who died on earth but lives in heaven. Judaism is annulled and the legal system rejected. Indeed, the latter with its inefficacious sacrifices could only bring sins to remembrance — never put them away.
Every other means to this end having been tried and failed, Christ has been manifested once in the consummation of the ages for the putting away of sin by His sacrifice. In the value of this shall God’s universe of blessing be cleared of every trace or memory of sin, and not merely by an act of power and judgment, but in a way by which already His nature of love and light has been, and shall forever be, gloriously displayed. Meanwhile the sins of many have been borne by Christ once offered; and to them who look for Him He will appear the second time for salvation, since for them the whole question of sin was settled forever at His first coming. Sin brought in death and judgment by God’s appointment; and death and judgment alone can put it away, either by grace in the sacrifice of Christ or at the great white throne in righteousness and power.
As we have seen, chap. 9. sets forth the general efficacy of Christ’s offering — entrance once for all into the holiest, eternal redemption, conscience purged, transgressions redeemed, the eternal inheritance promised, the heavenly things purified, Christ appearing before the face of God for us, the putting away of sin, the sins of many borne and salvation for them when He returns. Here salvation is viewed in its full and final accomplishment.
Chap. 10. speaks of the particular application of the sacrifice. It is to do the will of God He comes; and that will was that we should be sanctified to approach Him in the holiest, suitably to His nature and glory. The law indeed foreshadowed good things, but its sacrifices could not perfect the worshippers nor purge the conscience of guilt. These sacrifices therefore, and the whole legal system connected with them, He in coming takes away that He may establish the will of God regarding us. But this is, and can only be, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. As to sins the priests on earth are ever on duty, their work is never finished, for the sacrifices they offer cannot in the nature of things take away sins. But He, hang offered one sacrifice for sins, has, in contrast with them, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God.
Thus the absolutely divine glory of the place where He has taken His seat, not alone shows that the work is done never to be added to or repeated, but testifies to the divine and glorious perfection of that work done in darkness and death, and when forsaken of God. But it was to do the will of God respecting us; and inasmuch as He, having finished the work, is seated uninterruptedly at the Right Hand, so we, who are sanctified according to His will, are by that one offering perfected uninterruptedly, i.e., in perpetuity, without the possibility of a break; for He sits there until His enemies are set for the footstool of His feet.
Remark that we are not only sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, so as to be fit for God’s presence; but also, by that one sacrifice upon the cross, we are perfected in perpetuity, and express before God, as the fruit of that glorious offering, all that which is divinely His delight — a delight which can never be increased. For nothing can be added to the sacrifice which can never be more perfect, and never less perfect. Never therefore can the divine delight be diminished, for eternal is the preciousness of that offering, of which preciousness we are the first and most magnificent proofs, as once we were the most defiled and guilty of His creatures.
The incomparable and perpetual perfection in which we are before God was shadowed forth in the consecration of the Aaronic priests, to which this undoubtedly refers. Not only were they sanctified, but anointed with the blood of the ram of consecration, as well as with oil, and the breast and shoulder were put in their hands and waved before the Lord — an offering that made them gloriously welcome in their garments of glory and beauty before the Lord. Thus were they consecrated and their hands filled.
It is all important to observe the virtue of the sacrifice and its part in the Christian blessing. If we are in Christ by the new life and the Holy Spirit in us, it is not this that makes us to be there the righteousness of God, but solely and elusively that Christ, who knew no sin, was made 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)). We have our place indeed according to the nature and counsel of God as those who are livingly identified with Christ; but it is because He has passed through and out of judgment that as He is in respect of it so are we in this world. So also in Hebrews 10:19-2219Having 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; 22Let 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. (Hebrews 10:19‑22), we are sprinkled as to our hearts from our wicked conscience and washed as to our body with pure water, but what gives us boldness for entering the holiest is the blood of Jesus only, though the way through the veil is a new and ling one. Our qualification to be in the heavenly place — the character according to which we are there, is quite distinct from our title for it, the great fundamental righteous cause. The latter is solely the work of Christ upon the cross; the former is Christ in us our life.
Having now fully developed the value and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, adducing the will of God, the work of Christ, and the witness of the Holy Spirit, which declares that their sins and their lawlessness’s God will never remember any more, and drawing divinely the consequence that there is need no longer to offer a sacrifice for sin (10:18), the Spirit connects with it the priesthood (10:21), resorting once more thereto to show that in Jesus we have a “great” priest unequaled in His dignity, position, and service — so divine and glorious is He. Yet no lesser and none other priest would become us, since no other could occupy the place to which we belong. But hang Him in it, and supreme there, we are to approach God boldly in the holiest itself with a true heart and in full assurance of faith.