THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST.
Now put by the side of this text another on this point from his discourse at the ninth hour of the same day, [Acts iii, 19.] "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Here he exhorts to repentance and conversion. (Turning away from sins.) For what purpose? "That your sins may be (future) blotted out." Every one can see that the blotting out of sins does not take place at repentance and conversion; but follows, and must of necessity be preceded by them. Repentance, conversion and baptism had then become imperative duties in the present tense; and when performed, those doing them "washed away," [Acts xxii, 16] remitted, or sent away from them their sins; [Acts ii, 28;] and of course are forgiven and have received the atonement; but they had not received it entire at that time, because their sins were not yet blotted out. How far then had they advanced in the reconciling process? Just so far as the individual under the law had, when he had confessed his sin, brought his victim to the door of the tabernacle, laid his hand upon it and slain it, and the priest had with its blood entered the Holy, and sprinkled it before the vail and upon the altar, and thus made an atonement for him, and he was forgiven. Only that was the type, and this the reality. That was prepared for the cleansing of the great day of atonement, this for the blotting out of sins when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus. Hence, "by whom we have now received the atonement" is the same as "by whom we have received forgiveness of sin." At this point the man is made free from sin. The Lamb on Calvary's cross is our victim slain. "Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant" "in the heavens" is our interceding High Priest, making atonement with his own blood, by, and with which he entered there. The essence of the process is the same as in the "shadow." 1. Convinced of sin. 2. Repentance and confession. 3. Present the Divine sacrifice, bleeding. This done in faith and sincerity we can do no more, no more is required. Then in the heavenly Sanctuary our High Priest, with his own blood, makes the atonement and we are forgiven. 1 Pet. ii, 24. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." See, also, Matt. viii, 17; Isa. liii, 4—12. His body is the "one sacrifice"91for repenting mortals, to which their sins are imputed, and through whose blood in the hands of the living active Priest they are conveyed to the heavenly Sanctuary. That was offered "once for all," "on the tree;" and all who would avail themselves of its merits, must, through faith, there receive it as theirs, bleeding at the hands of sinful mortals like themselves. After thus obtaining the atonement of forgiveness we must maintain good works, not the deeds of the law; but being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. This work we all understand to be peculiar to the Gospel Dispensation. An inferential objection arises, which in many minds overwhelms any amount of Bible argument on this point. It is, New Jerusalem cannot be defiled, hence needs no cleansing; therefore New Jerusalem is not the Sanctuary. A very summary process of inferential deduction truly, especially for those who have said so much on the insufficiency of mere inferential testimony. We would advise them to review the grounds of their faith, and see how many and strong arguments they have for the earth or Palestine being the Sanctuary, and how many objections to the Sanctuary of the new covenant being where its Priest is, that are not entirely inferential; and then in place of their inferences, take the plain testimony of the Word and teach it. But how was the Sanctuary defiled? The Sanctuary of the Old Testament, being on earth, could be, and was, defiled in various ways—by an unclean person entering it. "She shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the Sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled."—Lev. xii, 4. It could be profaned by the high priest going out of it, while the anointing oil was upon him, for the dead; [Lev. xxi, 12;] by a man's negotiating to purify himself. Num. xvii, 20. All the chief of the priests and of the people polluted it by transgressing very much after all the abominations of the heathen. Chap. xxxvi, 14. "Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, [idolatry,] therefore will I diminish thee." Eze. v, 11. "Moreover, this they have done unto me; they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths: for when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it." Eze. xxiii, 38, 39. "Her priests have polluted the sanctuary; they have done violence to the law." Zeph. iii, 4. Antiochus polluted it by offering swine flesh upon its altar. Mac. From these texts we can clearly see, that it was moral rather than, physical uncleanness that defiled the sanctuary in the sight of the Lord. True, it did become physically unclean, but that uncleanness had to be removed before the atonement was made by which it was reconciled or cleansed. See Chap. ii, 29. And that, we have seen was the law of cleansing; [Lev. xii—xv;] the object must be made visibly clean, so to speak, so that we would call it clean, to prepare it for its real cleansing with blood. Now no one supposes that New Jerusalem is unclean, or ever has been, as its type was, when overrun, desecrated and desolated by Syrian, Chaldean or Roman soldiery, or trod by wicked priests. Even if it were, the removing of such defilement would not be the cleansing it was to undergo at the end of the 2300 days. The Sanctuary was unclean in some sense, or else it would not need to be cleansed; and it must in some way have received its uncleanness from man. Removed, as the heavenly Sanctuary is from the midst of mortals, and entered only by our Forerunner, Jesus, made an High Priest, it can only be defiled by mortals through his agency, and for them cleansed by the same agency. The legal, typical process of defiling and cleansing the sanctuary, through the agency of the priest, has been examined. With that in our minds, let us go to the New Testament. Paul says, [Col. i, 19, 20,] "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, and having made [margin, making] peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven." When things on earth are spoken of in connection or contrast with things in heaven, no one can understand them all to be in the same place. Things in heaven are to be reconciled as well as things on earth. If they needed reconciling they were unreconciled; if unreconciled, then unclean in some sense in his sight. The blood of Christ is the means, and Christ himself the agent of reconciling to the Father both the things in heaven and the things on earth. People have an idea that in heaven, where our Saviour has gone, every thing is, and always was perfect beyond change or improvement. But he said, "in my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." He went into heaven, and Paul says that the building of God, an house not made with hands, is in the heavens. 2 Cor. v, 1. For what did he go to his Father's house? "To prepare a place for you." Then it was unprepared and when he has prepared it, he will come again and take us to himself. Again, [Heb. ix, 23] "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." What were the patterns? "The tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry," [verse 21,] which constituted the worldly sanctuary. Verse 1. What were the heavenly things themselves?—The greater and more perfect tabernacle [verse 11] and the good things and the holy things. [Verses 11, 12.] These are all in heaven itself. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself." Verse 24. Paul here shows that it was as necessary to purify the heavenly things, as it was to purify their patterns, the worldly.