The Tabernacle
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The Tabernacle Calvary was but a hollow mockery, an empty ritual, which Christ-rejecting Jews continued but for a tune. . . The Levitical priests were never through with their ministry; there was no chair in the tabernacle; they could never sit down, and rest in a finished work. "But this man (Jesus), after he had offered one sacri- fice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10: 12). When He cried on Calvary, saying, "It is finished," He triumphantly proclaimed a finished rede°:p- tion. We can add nothing to the finished work of Chnst. Our poor, paltry works can not save us; they can not. help save us. Only the finished work of Christ, our Substitute, can avail to wash away our sins. Only once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, did the high pr iest dare enter into the Holy of Holies, wh_ere God dwelt in the pillar of cloud and fire. No other pnest dared enter there, lest he die. And Aaron dared not enter without blood, which he sprinkled on and before the mercy seat. In all this "the Holy Ghost" signified .that "the way into the holiest of all was not yet made mamfest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing" (Heb. 9: 8) . But when Christ died, "the veil of the temple was rent in twain." "The way into the holiest" was forever opened! We go directly into God's presence now through prayer; one day faith shall become sight! "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith ..." (Heb. 10:19- 22). Do you see, my Christian friend, why we must let the Holy Spirit teach us the deep and wonderful message of
everlasting righteousness! (See Heh. 9:24-28.) My friend, do you "love his appearing"? Do you know Hirn as your Saviour? Accept Hirn as your Great High Priest ; or you will meet Him as your Judge and righteous King, who must judge sin because H e is holy. The Day of Atonement was in the mind of the writer to the Hebrews when he spoke of " a remembrance again made of sins every year" ( 10: 3) . That was the greatest day in the year to a godly H ebrew. The very best that man could do to show his faith in the promised Redeemer, was done on that day. It was a time of mourning for sin, a day of putting away sin for the whole nation. But God did not want the sacrifices and offerings of a people whose hearts were far from Hirn. They had sinned, "and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3 :23). A spotless Lamb was required; therefore, the Son said to the Father: "A body hast thou prepared for me"-a human body that might be offered as the sinless Substitute for sinning man. "Lo, I come . . . to do thy will, 0 God" (Heb. 10:5-7) . The unbelieving priests of the family of Aaron still continued to stand, " daily ministering and offering often- times the same sacrifices," which could never take away sins--even after Christ, the Passover Lamb, had offered Himself "once for all"! At the brazen altar in the temple court the godless Jews of apostolic days still shed the blood of goats and calves and lambs and turtle doves and young pigeons. This they did, in their blindness and sin, until the Roman Caesar, T itus, in 70 A. D., destroyed their tem- ple and scattered their nation. But not one drop of blood should have been shed for sin after the Lamb of God had offered H imself without spot to God! All that followed
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