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Colonizing the Creation
Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.
Under the temple system, no one except the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and even then, only once a year. To the nation as a whole, the place where God’s glory was manifest was simply off limits. But this was not His ultimate purpose.
the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.
(Hebrews 9:8 NKJV)
Notice the word “yet” in the above verse. There would indeed be access to the glory of God for the people. But that way in, that door of entrance was not yet revealed as long as they thought it would only be found in going through a priesthood ministering in the first tent, the holy place.
which is a symbol for the present time.
The present time was the season when the temple was still standing. Indeed, as the writer penned these words to Hebrew believers prior to AD 70, most of Israel thought that there simply was no access for them into the manifest glory of God. And though animal sacrifices were deemed necessary, they were actually quite ineffective in healing the human conscience.
Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.
Cleansing was only external. The defiled conscience that bothered the worshiper because of prior sins and failures could not be healed. But the time of reformation had now come. And everything was in the process of change.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
The physical practice of temple worship was pointing toward a greater reality now operative in the heavens. And because Christ was now functioning as a high priest in Heaven’s perfect tabernacle, good things were coming from there into the earth. He had entered into that holy realm:
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
(Hebrews 9:12 NKJV)
Christ’s once for all entrance into heaven on our behalf could never be improved upon. At the cross, He could cry out, “it is finished”. Calvary was God’s irrevocable remedy to the sin question. The “good things to come” now included present access to the manifest glory of God for all who would believe.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Evil works are obvious; they are evil. Dead works, on the other hand, can often look quite respectable to everyone. But at their root, they are dead; they do not come from life and they cannot minister life either to us or to others. When a sinner receives God’s forgiveness for past evil, it is a time for great celebration and worship. But when he tries to then supplement Heaven’s solution by adding his own works to sustain him in God’s righteousness, he does so because of a corrupted conscience.
Notice in the above verse that the writer is addressing believers who needed their consciences cleansed from dead works. When one comes from a religious background, he comes from a past with many practices that in themselves may not have been evil, and maybe were even biblical. But if God gave those customs to point to a now–present greater reality, and worshipers still felt the need to keep observing them because it made them feel more acceptable to the Lord, then something needed to be healed in their consciences. We simply cannot add to God’s perfect solution to the sin–stained conscience of humanity. In fact, we must proclaim among men not only the freedom from sin but also the freedom from all human effort to maintain righteousness and acceptance before Him. Rather, we must simply receive and then rest in the gift of His righteousness.
All human works authored from Heaven’s initiative are living. Since their roots are eternal, their fruits will be as well. But dead works cannot well serve the living God; His presence is not made manifest in them. Attention is then drawn to the one/s doing them. And others will then see such people as good and upstanding. But God has not called us to posture ourselves as virtuous in the eyes of those around us but to know Him and to then make Him known. Since dead works draw attention in the wrong direction, we must repent for them (Hebrews 6:1). This is not to say that all customs and traditions are necessarily dead works. The only question is whether worshipers are enjoying the life of God in their worship knowing that their acceptance before Him is based solely on the shed blood of Christ – not by their keeping alive certain traditions from their past.
For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
The Hebrew believers knew what it was to have committed sins under the Old Testament system. But now established in the truth that Calvary had totally remedied their fallen past, they were enabled to fully receive all that was in God’s heart for them.
For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.
Covenant has the effect of joining two individuals in oneness. One reason why God established marriage was to present to mankind a parable illustrating His relationship with His people/His bride. But the only way that such a wedding bond could be established and then succeed long–term would be if both husband and wife died to their former lives so as to embrace a new one together. Death would establish covenant; the refusal to die would bring divorce.
So, to establish the New Covenant, God had to become a man so that He could taste death for everyone.
And Calvary has been the death of us all.
Under the Old Testament, the blood of animals was shed (Hebrews 9:18 - 22), and the effect was quite limited. Clearly, something more had to happen.
Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
The blood of animals had been sufficient for cleansing on earth the copies of what was now established in the heavens. But from those heavenly realms, something based on a far greater cleansing could now emerge on earth. And since we have been born again/from above, the Church of Christ that is emerging on earth from the heavens has indeed been cleansed from all sin by the blood of Christ. But why did the writer say sacrifices? Plural. It would seem that the small sacrifices of consistent self–denial in our lives serve to release in us in an ongoing way the power of His once–for–all sacrifice.
And on the basis of that perfect sacrifice, Christ has entered into heaven having fulfilled in our time–space world the holy requirements of a righteousness sufficient for eternity (Hebrews 9:24 - 26). As a result, time itself has come to the full/to its consummation.
…now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
It is not that time has ceased. It’s just that it now coexists with eternity. Once Jesus sat down in the heavens and began to pour out His own holy presence into the hearts of His people, eternity began to shred the fabric of time. And the birth–pangs of the coming ages invading the present continue in our generation. Every revival, every outpouring of the Holy Spirit not only brings a further disintegration of the natural creation, it also brings both in and through God’s people further clarity and advancement of Heaven’s glory, power, and purpose.
May He open our eyes to see both the perfection of His plan and the absolute necessity of Calvary for its achievement. Those who reject His solution for sin will face judgment when they die. But for those who eagerly await Him, He will appear a second time bringing into fullness the salvation that we have at this time only tasted (Hebrews 9:27 - 28).
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