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68 The T,bm,,clt Sometimes we hear men say, out of foolish, darkened hearts, such words as these, "A God of love will not send a man to hell." It is true that our God is the God of love; and it is also true that He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9) . Moreover, it is true that sinful man sends himself to hell if he refuses the only way of salvation. Heaven would not be heaven if sin could enter there. Nor could the sinner endure the blaze of glory that shines in that city of God! The Bible tells us plainly that, when Jesus comes back to earth, to purify the world of sin, the wicked will cry out in agony of soul, saying unto "the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. 6:15-17). Our holy God must require righteousness of all who live in His presence. In the opening chapters of Paul's Epistle to the Romans we see the whole world, Jew and Gentile, standing on trial, as it were, before the court of heaven; and the verdict is, "Guilty." "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. . . . There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3: 10, 23). In the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan God's people were encamped around the beautiful tabernacle. Inside, in the Holy of Holies, He stood, veritably "in the midst." But barring all access to His holy presence, except through the one gate, hung a white curtain of "fine twined linen." It was too high for one to pass over; there were no loopholes, no other openings. The penalty was death to all who might seek to enter by some other way than that of God's provision, through the gate. Christ is the Gate, the Way into "the holiest of all."
The Tabernacle "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 12). The self-right- eous may try to get to heaven by their own "good works," so-called, by their own moral lives or benevolent deeds. But God's Word can not be broken, and He has told us in a thousand ways, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowl- edge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). For a man to get to heaven by the deeds of the law, by his own good works, he would have to keep every jot and tittle of that holy standard of our holy God; and that is impossible; for "all have sinned." Christ Jesus is the only One who ever did or ever could keep that law perfectly. He did it because He was God. His sinless life met every requirement. And He kept His holy law for all who will accept the free gift He offers, "without money and without price.'' "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10). He has broken God's law; he is not guiltless. A man need not commit every crime in the calendar, in order to be placed behind prison bars. Let him break one law of the land, and he deserves punishment. But sinful man has broken all of God's law; even man's own self-righteousness, his own good works, are compared by the Lord to "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). The wonder of it is that, once the self-righteous sinner ,ees by faith a glimpse of Calvary's Cross, he no longer tries to make himself fit for the presence of a holy God. He asks the Lord Jesus to create in him a clean heart. He abhors himself, as Job did. He sees himself as "the chief of sinners," as did Paul. He cries out with Isaiah, "Wo~ is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for
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