The New and Living Way by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 11, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 44.

The New and Living Way

By Editor

No. 657. The New and Living Way. Heb. 10:20.

PLEASE explain Heb. 10:20, last clause. I want to know if the vail before the most holy place was a figure of Christ's body. Does Matt. 27:50, 51 teach this?

Heb. 10:19, 20 reads as follows: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness ["liberty," margin] to enter into the holiest [literally, "holy places"] by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh." In the earthly sanctuary the presence and glory of God were especially manifest. He who passed through the vail, entered into the presence of God in the holy place, passing through the second vail, he entered the holy of holies, in the presence of the glorious Shekinah upon the mercy-seat. So he who enters God's presence spiritually must do so "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ." Verse 10. The priest anciently, and the people in the priest, entered the holies through the vail, but we enter through Christ Jesus, our Advocate. Matt. 27:50, 51 teaches that the typical system then ended, for then took place in fact what before had been done only in type,—the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. In these respects the vail was a figure of Christ. But it is not wise to press any earthly figure of the heavenly in every particular.