34 The Taber114cle selected passages from these chapters, as we scan the pages, will show us something of the wonder and beauty of our Heavenly Priest, and thus prepare our hearts for a fuller appreciation of His ministry for us even now before "the throne of grace," in "the true tabernacle" on high. Christ Is "Better Than" Aaron in His Ministry Without any attempt to outline this portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews, let us glance down the pages to note some of the striking points of contrast between the ministry of Aaron and that of Christ. Aaron served the Lord in an earthly sanctuary, made of perishable materials; whereas our Great High Priest ministers in "the true taber- nacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man," eternal in the heavens. The Levitical priests served "unto the ex- ample and shadow of heavenly things." "But now hath he (Christ) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises" (Heb. 8: 6). The first covenant; that is, the Law of Moses, was not faultless; and it was written on tables of stone. But the new covenant in Christ Jesus, is faultless; and it is written in the hearts of men who love Him. Under the old cov- enant of the Law there was a continual remembrance of sins, kept constantly before God's people by the centuries- old sacrifices which pointed on to Jesus, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). But under the new covenant, ushered in by Christ's death on the cross, God promised to remember our sins and iniquities no more forever. And now that the new cov- enant has been made, the old has fulfilled its purpose, and
The Tabernacle H has vanished away. (See Heb. 8:7-13.) The new covenant is eternal! In Heb. 9: 1-1O the Holy Spirit describes the "earthly sanctuary," of which we tried to get a bird's-eye-view in our last lesson, and which we hope to study more fully in the lessons before us. With all the many details of Exodus, the Hebrew Christians were very familiar. They needed only to be reminded here in this epistle of the two rooms of that sanctuary, with their furniture; even the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies; with the veil that separated the two, and closed "the way into the holiest of all' ( verse 8). These things, God tells us plainly, were only "a figure for the time then present" (verse 9). In other words, they were figures, or shadows, or types of "good things to come" in our Lord Jesus. In His death on Calvary He opened the way into the Holy of Holies, even heaven itself -forever opened the only way to heaven and eternal life and His glorious Presence! Heb. 9: 11 continues the contrast further, showing that Christ ministers in a more per£ect tabernacle, not made with hands; that He offered, not the blood of goats and calves, but His own precious blood; that His sacrifice was far more efficacious than even the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement, the best that Judaism could offer; His sacri- fice obtained eternal redemption for us. The animal sacri- fices sanctified "to the purifying of the flesh"; His blood cleanses the guilty conscience. "And without shedding of blood is no remission" of sin. (See Heb. 9:11-22.) As a Priest, Christ "hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." As a Priest, He has entered into the Holy Place not made with hands, "now to appear in the presence of God for us." And as our coming King, He "shall appear the second time" not to die, but to usher in
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