The High Priest Stands Before the Ark with IncenseBible World
8:2Hebrews 8:2
A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
The true tabernacle is the real sanctuary in heaven pitched by the Lord and not by man, where Christ serves as High Priest at God's right hand. The tabernacle and temple built by men were only a figure, copy and shadow made after the heavenly pattern to teach about that sanctuary and His ministry. After His death, resurrection and victory, He became minister of that sanctuary and Mediator of the new covenant, continually presenting His own shed blood to make its benefits available. His work has two great divisions, first in the holy place and then, at the end of the prophetic periods in 1844, in the Most Holy Place before the ark, where He cleanses the sanctuary and carries out the closing atonement and investigative judgment. There He pleads His blood and merits for sinners, presents their imperfect prayers made acceptable by His perfection, and prepares a people to stand when His mediation ends and He returns in kingly glory.
Heavenly True Tabernacle Identified
The new covenant has its own sanctuary, the true tabernacle in heaven pitched by the Lord and not built by human hands, where Christ serves as great High Priest at God's right hand. In contrast the sanctuary built by Moses was made after the pattern shown in the mount as a figure and shadow and copy of the heavenly original, where earthly priests served while Christ appears before God on humanity's behalf. That heavenly sanctuary is to be kept in mind, for there Christ ministers and intercedes for His people while carrying forward the final work of judgment.
After His death and resurrection Jesus became minister of that true heavenly sanctuary and mediator of the new covenant, which the earthly tabernacle and temple only represented. Those human-built sanctuaries were copies of what the Lord established, and His continuing work carries on the saving ministry once pictured by the earthly priesthood.
That sanctuary is the great original, the abiding place of the King of kings filled with the glory of the eternal throne, with two holy places of gifts and sacrifices in its earthly figure meant to teach the great work carried forward there for man's redemption. It is the center of Christ's work for humanity, revealing the plan of redemption to its close and its final triumph of righteousness over sin, and therefore calls for careful study so believers can explain their hope. Its ministry is in the great day of atonement when judgment examines each person individually for retaining or removing the name from the book of life, so during probation there must be repentance, grief over sin, heart-searching, and understanding of the required duties.
The true tabernacle established by God and not by man is also the church on earth made up of those faithful and loyal to Him, which is Christ's body with Christ as its head, minister and High Priest. He gathers believers from every direction to form it, and as High Priest to those who trust Him as personal Saviour He by grace can keep them from transgression, so that those who receive Him are born again and fitted to represent Him as His ambassadors. From that headship He continually sends messages to His people and gives faithful workers sound doctrine, teaching them as they proclaim the truth.
That true sanctuary is the temple of the New Jerusalem prepared by God rather than by human hands for new-covenant worship, the antitype of the temple in Old Jerusalem built for old-covenant worship and the sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days. Believers are to look to where Jesus now ministers in behalf of believers in the New Jerusalem rather than to old Jerusalem where He once walked, giving Him devotion there and knowing Him by experimental knowledge as a personal Saviour. His ministry there ends when He has redeemed His people, and afterward the temple is no longer needed because the Holy City itself is the dwelling place of God and the Lamb. There the living Word prepares them to endure trials, sufferings and persecutions, the Holy Spirit meets them as His representative wherever they bow in worship, and they gather every ray of divine light, receiving from the tree of life leaves for healing and precious life-giving fruit as food to the soul.
In the temple in heaven Jehovah wrote His law and keeps its original in the ark of God beneath the mercy seat, where Jesus stands before the ark to mediate for man and where mercy and truth meet. The law in the earthly ark was an exact transcript of the law in the heavenly ark, but the earthly copy may be trampled upon while the heavenly original remains, so keeping God's commandments gives life, immortality, the crown of life, and heaven at last. The fourth commandment is therefore part of God's law in heaven, and accepting Christ's ministry in the most holy place involves recognizing the Sabbath obligation, for that ministry is the door God opened and no one can overthrow what God established.
Christ Himself is the true tabernacle of heavenly things and their witness. His life and work teach the lessons people need to prepare for judgment.
Christ's Heavenly Priestly Ministry
After death and resurrection and victory over the powers of evil, Christ became minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord established and not human hands, and mediator of the new covenant. The earthly priesthood and its sacrifices that pointed to Him ended with His death, for He is the true Sacrifice and continues priestly ministry in the sanctuary above. His death opened a new and living way to God for both Jews and Gentiles, and made animal blood valueless as an offering for sin because the Lamb of God had died for the sins of the world.
His heavenly ministry followed His once-for-all sacrifice for sin and rests upon it, and it is the reality foreshadowed by the Jewish sanctuary and priesthood that makes their service understandable as types pointing to Christ. After the sacrifice was offered and accepted He entered the heavenly sanctuary by His own blood to make the benefits of His atonement available to disciples, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit directed minds from the earthly sanctuary to this heavenly ministry whose sacrifices and ordinances were no longer accepted. He continually stands at the altar offering sacrifice for the sins of the world, officiating in the presence of God and offering up His shed blood as of a lamb slain, presenting the oblation for every offense and shortcoming, while the typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess virtue and its daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made. Because sin is constantly committed, atoning sacrifice through a mediator remains essential, and His intercession pleads the efficacy of His blood through which sinners may be forgiven and reconciled; the sinner who by faith grasps the sacrifice sees himself condemned by the broken law, repents, comes with humble heart, and finds pardon.
His ministration has two great divisions, each occupying a period of time and having a distinctive place in the heavenly sanctuary, just as the typical ministration consisted of the daily and the yearly service with a department of the tabernacle devoted to each. After rising and ascending He served first in the holy place, appearing in the presence of God to plead His blood in behalf of penitent believers and presenting their prayers, repentance, and faith through the merits of His sacrifice and interceding for them, His work at ascension corresponding to the priest sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice in the holy place in the sinner's behalf. He then entered the Most Holy Place to make atonement for sin and cleanse the sanctuary, and His high-priestly work completes the plan of redemption through the final atonement for sin. The services and symbols of the earthly sanctuary reveal the meaning of this heavenly ministry.
He serves as mediator and officiating high priest in the Father's presence, ministering in the heavenly sanctuary as the Lamb slain who poured out His blood on behalf of sinners. As Advocate He pleads on behalf of His people, and through His merits they receive pardon and peace, are cleansed from sin, are clothed with His righteousness, and are prepared for life in heaven. When God's law reveals sin, the sinner must be pointed to Christ who takes away the sin of the world, and taught repentance toward God and faith in Jesus, and this ministry supports the work Christ does in the heavenly sanctuary. He ministers for His people in the sanctuary and offers His merits on their behalf.
Sincere prayer, even when not fluently spoken or when words are awkward and imperfect, reaches that sanctuary, for Jesus presents it to the Father as His own request for the person praying. He presents believers' prayers, confessions, and thanks mingled with His own merit and spotless righteousness like fragrant incense, and His perfection and righteousness refine them and make the offering acceptable to God so that pardon covers transgression. His offering is complete, and this heavenly ministry gives worshipers reason to approach God humbly yet with holy boldness.
Like Aaron who symbolized Him, He bears the names of His people upon His heart in the holy place, remembers the words that encouraged them to trust, and remains mindful of His covenant.
His ministry continues while the work of salvation is closing, before the seven last plagues are poured out, and while He remains there He receives prayers, confessions, and sacrifices and intercedes before the Father so sins may be pardoned and blotted out. When He leaves the Most Holy Place this ministry of intercession and offering prayers and confessions before the Father ends, the righteous remain righteous and the unjust remain unjust, the final state is settled, and the opportunity to seek rescue before the coming judgment has passed. His mediatorial ministry will end when He rises from that work and comes in judgment, catching the unprepared by surprise, and its close frames the time of trouble when people must stand before God without a high priest ministering in the sanctuary, so those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected then must fully reflect the image of Jesus.
His ministry there is mediatorial, and when it is complete He will return in power and glory and establish His kingdom on earth. After completing His work in the Most Holy Place He will come to earth in kingly power and gather those who have patiently waited for Him.
While He ministers in the real sanctuary above He remains present with His people through the Holy Spirit. He also carries on His work in the church on earth through chosen, ordained ministers, being present with them, supervising their work as the true Shepherd and chief Shepherd, and speaking through them as they call people to be reconciled to God, and undershepherds depend on Him for authority. He fills His chosen ministers with His Spirit as they go out to preach, works through them by His Holy Spirit and personal presence through human messengers who preach the truth, and His heavenly ministry and the preaching of living messengers work together so that their living word arouses and wins many souls to Christ and to the truth.
Earthly Copy Points Heavenward
The earthly sanctuary built by Moses with its two holy places, gifts and sacrifices was made after the pattern shown in the mount as a figure, copy and shadow to teach truths about the heavenly sanctuary. Christ serves as High Priest in that heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle established by the Lord rather than by human hands. The earthly sanctuary and temple with their sacrifices and services were types and shadows pointing to this better heavenly ministry and to Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and King. The rooms and furnishings of the earthly sanctuary correspond to realities in heaven. This applies to Christ's ministry in the heavenly Most Holy Place, where He entered in 1844 at the end of the 2,300 days to perform the closing work of atonement. God's people are to keep that heavenly sanctuary and its ministry before their minds and become familiar with them.
The earthly high priest in Israel was Christ's visible representative. The earthly priest offering incense before the unseen mercy seat represented God's people directing their prayers by faith to Christ before the mercy seat in heaven. Though they cannot see their Mediator, they may trust that He is there and confidently claim the benefits of His mediation.
Jesus is the true High Priest who enters His office when the sanctuary's types and shadows meet their reality. The timing of Caiaphas's office coincides with that transition. People may act from their own chosen characters while unknowingly fulfilling God's purpose in that change from type to antitype.
Jesus serves as the great High Priest in the heavenly holy place before the Father. He has gone from the throne to the holiest, where believers direct their faith and prayers to Him and receive the Holy Spirit, bringing light, power, love, joy, and peace. Yet as an infant in the earthly temple He was unrecognized, for the priest who held Him did not recognize that he was holding the Saviour of the world and the High Priest of that heavenly temple.
Prophecy Cleansing and Judgment
The sanctuary spoken of in Daniel 8:14 is the heavenly sanctuary of the new covenant, the true tabernacle pitched by the Lord and not by man, of which the tabernacle built by Moses was only a pattern. The typical service of the earthly sanctuary ended at Christ's death, and because the 2300-day prophecy reaches to 1844, when no earthly sanctuary had existed for centuries, the sanctuary to be cleansed can only be the heavenly one. At the end of the prophetic periods in 1844 He finished His ministry in the first apartment, passed through the second veil into the Most Holy Place before the ark containing God's commandments, and began another phase of ministry. There divine glory rested upon the mercy seat and filled the temple while He offered the prayers of the saints to the Father with incense. The event following the disappointment was not the end of the world but the High Priest's entrance to finish the atonement for human sin.
There He cleanses the sanctuary and performs the closing, special and final atonement, the finishing work of the High Priest. That work prepares a people to stand through the day of His coming and to be ready for Him. The cleansing is of heaven, not the earth purified by fire at the Second Advent, for Jesus did not return to earth in 1844 to cleanse the sanctuary by fire but entered the Most Holy Place to cleanse it. The prophetic reckoning was correct, and the mistake was misunderstanding what the sanctuary was and what its cleansing meant.
This closing work is the investigative judgment, which began with the dead, and its mediation as great High Priest is central to the atoning sacrifice. The heavenly sanctuary's work concerns every person and is connected with the solemn work of judgment and the great day of atonement. In that great antitypical day of atonement judgment examines each person individually, and those who would have their names retained in the book of life rather than removed must repent, grieve over sin, search their hearts, and understand the position and work of the High Priest and the faith and duty required at this time.
The third angel's message directs faith to the Most Holy Place, and those who understood the earlier messages guide others to follow Jesus by faith into the heavenly sanctuary. After 1844 those who followed Him by faith understood that He had entered upon another work of ministration, which led them to recognize the church's closing work and to prepare to proclaim the third angel's warning. Understanding and accepting the messages in their order anchors and shields against Satan's delusions. His sacred work for God's people is taking place now as the antitype of the earthly high priest's service on the Day of Atonement, sharing the typical day's character of humiliation and confession of sins before God. In this antitypical day people must understand their High Priest's work and the duties required of them.
Foundational Truth to Uphold
Christ ministers in the heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle established by God and not by human hands, and His ministration there with its holy place is the sanctuary question to be understood. That ministry is a fundamental teaching of Scripture and the center of His work extending to the close of time, yet few who claim to know the truth have gained even a glimpse of the work being done there which God's people must understand. It must be studied, kept before the mind in study and prayer, and used to explain hope, for it concerns Christ's relation to the truths of the sanctuary.
There is a real heavenly sanctuary where Christ now lives and makes intercession, and He will save everyone who comes to Him in faith and obeys His directions. To teach that there is no sanctuary is a false theory and deception of the enemy and a departing from the faith. Safety is found only in standing on solid ground and holding firmly to the established truth about the sanctuary, with not one pin removed.
His ministry there is intercession for humanity and is essential to salvation, completing the work begun by His death on the cross after His resurrection and ascension. Through faith people may enter within the veil where Christ has gone ahead, for His mediation opens the way to the Father. The light of the cross clarifies the mysteries of redemption.
While He ministers as intercessor in the true sanctuary, the Holy Spirit restrains evil among rulers and people, influencing laws and holding back opposition so the third angel's message can do its work and the final warning can be given. This restraint comes to some extent through laws and through leaders who oppose measures against God's work. When the loud cry comes, some of those leaders influenced by God will accept the message and stand with His people through the time of trouble.
From the Holy of Holies a work of instruction goes on as Christ officiates and angels communicate with people, uniting the church above and the church below in spiritual warfare. Divine light attends the precious truths sent forth from the heavenly sanctuary to refresh and strengthen readers and to convict those who oppose the truth. People on earth must be purified in harmony with Christ's cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven.
His mediatorial work for the present time is the subject ministers must ponder, study and teach. By teaching it they help believers receive Christ by faith as personal Saviour and follow His example.
Living Response Required Today
The verse shows Christ ministering in the heavenly sanctuary where the work of atonement and cleansing from the people's sins is being carried out, and that work above belongs to the closing events of the plan of redemption. Believers are to follow Him by faith into the sanctuary, study His work there, and examine their lives against God's standard of righteousness. They need the Spirit's help to become ready for their work and for the day of God. That work is going on now, and God's people must be awake to it rather than waiting for some compelling power to stir the church. They must be converted to God and seek personal revival by earnest prayer instead of waiting passively for a compelling power to come upon the church or for the whole church to be revived.
By faith true Christians enter into that sanctuary above; though on earth, their sympathies are in harmony with the work Christ is doing in heaven, and that work engages their thoughts and is the burden of their conversation. Laborers together with God cooperate with His heavenly ministry by cleansing the sanctuary of the soul from everything offensive to God. Everything like evil surmising, envy, jealousy, enmity, hatred, love of self, and being puffed up is put away, because such things grieve the Holy Spirit and put Christ to open shame. Godliness, sobriety, consistency, the example of Christ's life and character, and a far-reaching influence as a living epistle known and read of all men mark those united with His work. Keeping that true tabernacle and service which the Lord pitched and not man in view with humble hearts while remembering the humiliation of Christ in feet washing keeps the ordinances from becoming mere form. It brings benefit from every discourse and spiritual strength from every communion, for the ordinances were established to keep Christ's example of humility before His followers, to encourage humility without degrading humanity, and to make hearts tender toward one another.
Jesus is a Minister in heaven who understands every human need and has perfect wisdom and understanding. While He ministers there, people can trust in Him and repent, because provision has been made for their moral and spiritual needs and care and love are revealed through Him. While He is there is the time to see a past wrong course, confess it, and exert a decided contrary influence to wrench others from Satan's snare. Those who accept responsibility and tremble under the cross can turn to Him for strength, grace, and power, learning to rely on Him rather than depend on human ministers. Those He bought with His blood pleading for them in the sanctuary above are not their own, and their time, talents, and energies belong to Him. The church is weak without consecrated members who live this, and reaching this consecration and moral excellence requires earnest, persevering effort aided by the grace of God, including subduing self and overcoming evil tempers.
Ministers on earth represent Him as minister of the true sanctuary before the world, and loveless or untrue conduct misrepresents His ministry. In the light of His ministry as great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, God's ministers see their own unworthiness and are led to seek the cleansing and help they need for their work. The word spoken by a preacher is a message entrusted by God, and listeners must look beyond the human messenger to Christ as the great Worker within the heavenly sanctuary and receive the message as God's word to them. When the truth is not taken as the word of God to the hearer and brought into the life, it has no deeper effect than pleasant feeling, tears, excitement, or head knowledge, makes little lasting change, and souls go home unnourished and empty. True hearing listens for the voice of God, not only the voice of man.
The true tabernacle is the real sanctuary in heaven pitched by the Lord and not by man, where Christ serves as High Priest at God's right hand. The tabernacle and temple built by men were only a figure, copy and shadow made after the heavenly pattern to teach about that sanctuary and His ministry. After His death, resurrection and victory, He became minister of that sanctuary and Mediator of the new covenant, continually presenting His own shed blood to make its benefits available. His work has two great divisions, first in the holy place and then, at the end of the prophetic periods in 1844, in the Most Holy Place before the ark, where He cleanses the sanctuary and carries out the closing atonement and investigative judgment. There He pleads His blood and merits for sinners, presents their imperfect prayers made acceptable by His perfection, and prepares a people to stand when His mediation ends and He returns in kingly glory.
Heavenly True Tabernacle Identified
The new covenant has its own sanctuary, the true tabernacle in heaven pitched by the Lord and not built by human hands, where Christ serves as great High Priest at God's right hand. In contrast the sanctuary built by Moses was made after the pattern shown in the mount as a figure and shadow and copy of the heavenly original, where earthly priests served while Christ appears before God on humanity's behalf. That heavenly sanctuary is to be kept in mind, for there Christ ministers and intercedes for His people while carrying forward the final work of judgment.
After His death and resurrection Jesus became minister of that true heavenly sanctuary and mediator of the new covenant, which the earthly tabernacle and temple only represented. Those human-built sanctuaries were copies of what the Lord established, and His continuing work carries on the saving ministry once pictured by the earthly priesthood.
That sanctuary is the great original, the abiding place of the King of kings filled with the glory of the eternal throne, with two holy places of gifts and sacrifices in its earthly figure meant to teach the great work carried forward there for man's redemption. It is the center of Christ's work for humanity, revealing the plan of redemption to its close and its final triumph of righteousness over sin, and therefore calls for careful study so believers can explain their hope. Its ministry is in the great day of atonement when judgment examines each person individually for retaining or removing the name from the book of life, so during probation there must be repentance, grief over sin, heart-searching, and understanding of the required duties.
The true tabernacle established by God and not by man is also the church on earth made up of those faithful and loyal to Him, which is Christ's body with Christ as its head, minister and High Priest. He gathers believers from every direction to form it, and as High Priest to those who trust Him as personal Saviour He by grace can keep them from transgression, so that those who receive Him are born again and fitted to represent Him as His ambassadors. From that headship He continually sends messages to His people and gives faithful workers sound doctrine, teaching them as they proclaim the truth.
That true sanctuary is the temple of the New Jerusalem prepared by God rather than by human hands for new-covenant worship, the antitype of the temple in Old Jerusalem built for old-covenant worship and the sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days. Believers are to look to where Jesus now ministers in behalf of believers in the New Jerusalem rather than to old Jerusalem where He once walked, giving Him devotion there and knowing Him by experimental knowledge as a personal Saviour. His ministry there ends when He has redeemed His people, and afterward the temple is no longer needed because the Holy City itself is the dwelling place of God and the Lamb. There the living Word prepares them to endure trials, sufferings and persecutions, the Holy Spirit meets them as His representative wherever they bow in worship, and they gather every ray of divine light, receiving from the tree of life leaves for healing and precious life-giving fruit as food to the soul.
In the temple in heaven Jehovah wrote His law and keeps its original in the ark of God beneath the mercy seat, where Jesus stands before the ark to mediate for man and where mercy and truth meet. The law in the earthly ark was an exact transcript of the law in the heavenly ark, but the earthly copy may be trampled upon while the heavenly original remains, so keeping God's commandments gives life, immortality, the crown of life, and heaven at last. The fourth commandment is therefore part of God's law in heaven, and accepting Christ's ministry in the most holy place involves recognizing the Sabbath obligation, for that ministry is the door God opened and no one can overthrow what God established.
Christ Himself is the true tabernacle of heavenly things and their witness. His life and work teach the lessons people need to prepare for judgment.
Christ's Heavenly Priestly Ministry
After death and resurrection and victory over the powers of evil, Christ became minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord established and not human hands, and mediator of the new covenant. The earthly priesthood and its sacrifices that pointed to Him ended with His death, for He is the true Sacrifice and continues priestly ministry in the sanctuary above. His death opened a new and living way to God for both Jews and Gentiles, and made animal blood valueless as an offering for sin because the Lamb of God had died for the sins of the world.
His heavenly ministry followed His once-for-all sacrifice for sin and rests upon it, and it is the reality foreshadowed by the Jewish sanctuary and priesthood that makes their service understandable as types pointing to Christ. After the sacrifice was offered and accepted He entered the heavenly sanctuary by His own blood to make the benefits of His atonement available to disciples, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit directed minds from the earthly sanctuary to this heavenly ministry whose sacrifices and ordinances were no longer accepted. He continually stands at the altar offering sacrifice for the sins of the world, officiating in the presence of God and offering up His shed blood as of a lamb slain, presenting the oblation for every offense and shortcoming, while the typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess virtue and its daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made. Because sin is constantly committed, atoning sacrifice through a mediator remains essential, and His intercession pleads the efficacy of His blood through which sinners may be forgiven and reconciled; the sinner who by faith grasps the sacrifice sees himself condemned by the broken law, repents, comes with humble heart, and finds pardon.
His ministration has two great divisions, each occupying a period of time and having a distinctive place in the heavenly sanctuary, just as the typical ministration consisted of the daily and the yearly service with a department of the tabernacle devoted to each. After rising and ascending He served first in the holy place, appearing in the presence of God to plead His blood in behalf of penitent believers and presenting their prayers, repentance, and faith through the merits of His sacrifice and interceding for them, His work at ascension corresponding to the priest sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice in the holy place in the sinner's behalf. He then entered the Most Holy Place to make atonement for sin and cleanse the sanctuary, and His high-priestly work completes the plan of redemption through the final atonement for sin. The services and symbols of the earthly sanctuary reveal the meaning of this heavenly ministry.
He serves as mediator and officiating high priest in the Father's presence, ministering in the heavenly sanctuary as the Lamb slain who poured out His blood on behalf of sinners. As Advocate He pleads on behalf of His people, and through His merits they receive pardon and peace, are cleansed from sin, are clothed with His righteousness, and are prepared for life in heaven. When God's law reveals sin, the sinner must be pointed to Christ who takes away the sin of the world, and taught repentance toward God and faith in Jesus, and this ministry supports the work Christ does in the heavenly sanctuary. He ministers for His people in the sanctuary and offers His merits on their behalf.
Sincere prayer, even when not fluently spoken or when words are awkward and imperfect, reaches that sanctuary, for Jesus presents it to the Father as His own request for the person praying. He presents believers' prayers, confessions, and thanks mingled with His own merit and spotless righteousness like fragrant incense, and His perfection and righteousness refine them and make the offering acceptable to God so that pardon covers transgression. His offering is complete, and this heavenly ministry gives worshipers reason to approach God humbly yet with holy boldness.
Like Aaron who symbolized Him, He bears the names of His people upon His heart in the holy place, remembers the words that encouraged them to trust, and remains mindful of His covenant.
His ministry continues while the work of salvation is closing, before the seven last plagues are poured out, and while He remains there He receives prayers, confessions, and sacrifices and intercedes before the Father so sins may be pardoned and blotted out. When He leaves the Most Holy Place this ministry of intercession and offering prayers and confessions before the Father ends, the righteous remain righteous and the unjust remain unjust, the final state is settled, and the opportunity to seek rescue before the coming judgment has passed. His mediatorial ministry will end when He rises from that work and comes in judgment, catching the unprepared by surprise, and its close frames the time of trouble when people must stand before God without a high priest ministering in the sanctuary, so those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected then must fully reflect the image of Jesus.
His ministry there is mediatorial, and when it is complete He will return in power and glory and establish His kingdom on earth. After completing His work in the Most Holy Place He will come to earth in kingly power and gather those who have patiently waited for Him.
While He ministers in the real sanctuary above He remains present with His people through the Holy Spirit. He also carries on His work in the church on earth through chosen, ordained ministers, being present with them, supervising their work as the true Shepherd and chief Shepherd, and speaking through them as they call people to be reconciled to God, and undershepherds depend on Him for authority. He fills His chosen ministers with His Spirit as they go out to preach, works through them by His Holy Spirit and personal presence through human messengers who preach the truth, and His heavenly ministry and the preaching of living messengers work together so that their living word arouses and wins many souls to Christ and to the truth.
Earthly Copy Points Heavenward
The earthly sanctuary built by Moses with its two holy places, gifts and sacrifices was made after the pattern shown in the mount as a figure, copy and shadow to teach truths about the heavenly sanctuary. Christ serves as High Priest in that heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle established by the Lord rather than by human hands. The earthly sanctuary and temple with their sacrifices and services were types and shadows pointing to this better heavenly ministry and to Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and King. The rooms and furnishings of the earthly sanctuary correspond to realities in heaven. This applies to Christ's ministry in the heavenly Most Holy Place, where He entered in 1844 at the end of the 2,300 days to perform the closing work of atonement. God's people are to keep that heavenly sanctuary and its ministry before their minds and become familiar with them.
The earthly high priest in Israel was Christ's visible representative. The earthly priest offering incense before the unseen mercy seat represented God's people directing their prayers by faith to Christ before the mercy seat in heaven. Though they cannot see their Mediator, they may trust that He is there and confidently claim the benefits of His mediation.
Jesus is the true High Priest who enters His office when the sanctuary's types and shadows meet their reality. The timing of Caiaphas's office coincides with that transition. People may act from their own chosen characters while unknowingly fulfilling God's purpose in that change from type to antitype.
Jesus serves as the great High Priest in the heavenly holy place before the Father. He has gone from the throne to the holiest, where believers direct their faith and prayers to Him and receive the Holy Spirit, bringing light, power, love, joy, and peace. Yet as an infant in the earthly temple He was unrecognized, for the priest who held Him did not recognize that he was holding the Saviour of the world and the High Priest of that heavenly temple.
Prophecy Cleansing and Judgment
The sanctuary spoken of in Daniel 8:14 is the heavenly sanctuary of the new covenant, the true tabernacle pitched by the Lord and not by man, of which the tabernacle built by Moses was only a pattern. The typical service of the earthly sanctuary ended at Christ's death, and because the 2300-day prophecy reaches to 1844, when no earthly sanctuary had existed for centuries, the sanctuary to be cleansed can only be the heavenly one. At the end of the prophetic periods in 1844 He finished His ministry in the first apartment, passed through the second veil into the Most Holy Place before the ark containing God's commandments, and began another phase of ministry. There divine glory rested upon the mercy seat and filled the temple while He offered the prayers of the saints to the Father with incense. The event following the disappointment was not the end of the world but the High Priest's entrance to finish the atonement for human sin.
There He cleanses the sanctuary and performs the closing, special and final atonement, the finishing work of the High Priest. That work prepares a people to stand through the day of His coming and to be ready for Him. The cleansing is of heaven, not the earth purified by fire at the Second Advent, for Jesus did not return to earth in 1844 to cleanse the sanctuary by fire but entered the Most Holy Place to cleanse it. The prophetic reckoning was correct, and the mistake was misunderstanding what the sanctuary was and what its cleansing meant.
This closing work is the investigative judgment, which began with the dead, and its mediation as great High Priest is central to the atoning sacrifice. The heavenly sanctuary's work concerns every person and is connected with the solemn work of judgment and the great day of atonement. In that great antitypical day of atonement judgment examines each person individually, and those who would have their names retained in the book of life rather than removed must repent, grieve over sin, search their hearts, and understand the position and work of the High Priest and the faith and duty required at this time.
The third angel's message directs faith to the Most Holy Place, and those who understood the earlier messages guide others to follow Jesus by faith into the heavenly sanctuary. After 1844 those who followed Him by faith understood that He had entered upon another work of ministration, which led them to recognize the church's closing work and to prepare to proclaim the third angel's warning. Understanding and accepting the messages in their order anchors and shields against Satan's delusions. His sacred work for God's people is taking place now as the antitype of the earthly high priest's service on the Day of Atonement, sharing the typical day's character of humiliation and confession of sins before God. In this antitypical day people must understand their High Priest's work and the duties required of them.
Foundational Truth to Uphold
Christ ministers in the heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle established by God and not by human hands, and His ministration there with its holy place is the sanctuary question to be understood. That ministry is a fundamental teaching of Scripture and the center of His work extending to the close of time, yet few who claim to know the truth have gained even a glimpse of the work being done there which God's people must understand. It must be studied, kept before the mind in study and prayer, and used to explain hope, for it concerns Christ's relation to the truths of the sanctuary.
There is a real heavenly sanctuary where Christ now lives and makes intercession, and He will save everyone who comes to Him in faith and obeys His directions. To teach that there is no sanctuary is a false theory and deception of the enemy and a departing from the faith. Safety is found only in standing on solid ground and holding firmly to the established truth about the sanctuary, with not one pin removed.
His ministry there is intercession for humanity and is essential to salvation, completing the work begun by His death on the cross after His resurrection and ascension. Through faith people may enter within the veil where Christ has gone ahead, for His mediation opens the way to the Father. The light of the cross clarifies the mysteries of redemption.
While He ministers as intercessor in the true sanctuary, the Holy Spirit restrains evil among rulers and people, influencing laws and holding back opposition so the third angel's message can do its work and the final warning can be given. This restraint comes to some extent through laws and through leaders who oppose measures against God's work. When the loud cry comes, some of those leaders influenced by God will accept the message and stand with His people through the time of trouble.
From the Holy of Holies a work of instruction goes on as Christ officiates and angels communicate with people, uniting the church above and the church below in spiritual warfare. Divine light attends the precious truths sent forth from the heavenly sanctuary to refresh and strengthen readers and to convict those who oppose the truth. People on earth must be purified in harmony with Christ's cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven.
His mediatorial work for the present time is the subject ministers must ponder, study and teach. By teaching it they help believers receive Christ by faith as personal Saviour and follow His example.
Living Response Required Today
The verse shows Christ ministering in the heavenly sanctuary where the work of atonement and cleansing from the people's sins is being carried out, and that work above belongs to the closing events of the plan of redemption. Believers are to follow Him by faith into the sanctuary, study His work there, and examine their lives against God's standard of righteousness. They need the Spirit's help to become ready for their work and for the day of God. That work is going on now, and God's people must be awake to it rather than waiting for some compelling power to stir the church. They must be converted to God and seek personal revival by earnest prayer instead of waiting passively for a compelling power to come upon the church or for the whole church to be revived.
By faith true Christians enter into that sanctuary above; though on earth, their sympathies are in harmony with the work Christ is doing in heaven, and that work engages their thoughts and is the burden of their conversation. Laborers together with God cooperate with His heavenly ministry by cleansing the sanctuary of the soul from everything offensive to God. Everything like evil surmising, envy, jealousy, enmity, hatred, love of self, and being puffed up is put away, because such things grieve the Holy Spirit and put Christ to open shame. Godliness, sobriety, consistency, the example of Christ's life and character, and a far-reaching influence as a living epistle known and read of all men mark those united with His work. Keeping that true tabernacle and service which the Lord pitched and not man in view with humble hearts while remembering the humiliation of Christ in feet washing keeps the ordinances from becoming mere form. It brings benefit from every discourse and spiritual strength from every communion, for the ordinances were established to keep Christ's example of humility before His followers, to encourage humility without degrading humanity, and to make hearts tender toward one another.
Jesus is a Minister in heaven who understands every human need and has perfect wisdom and understanding. While He ministers there, people can trust in Him and repent, because provision has been made for their moral and spiritual needs and care and love are revealed through Him. While He is there is the time to see a past wrong course, confess it, and exert a decided contrary influence to wrench others from Satan's snare. Those who accept responsibility and tremble under the cross can turn to Him for strength, grace, and power, learning to rely on Him rather than depend on human ministers. Those He bought with His blood pleading for them in the sanctuary above are not their own, and their time, talents, and energies belong to Him. The church is weak without consecrated members who live this, and reaching this consecration and moral excellence requires earnest, persevering effort aided by the grace of God, including subduing self and overcoming evil tempers.
Ministers on earth represent Him as minister of the true sanctuary before the world, and loveless or untrue conduct misrepresents His ministry. In the light of His ministry as great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, God's ministers see their own unworthiness and are led to seek the cleansing and help they need for their work. The word spoken by a preacher is a message entrusted by God, and listeners must look beyond the human messenger to Christ as the great Worker within the heavenly sanctuary and receive the message as God's word to them. When the truth is not taken as the word of God to the hearer and brought into the life, it has no deeper effect than pleasant feeling, tears, excitement, or head knowledge, makes little lasting change, and souls go home unnourished and empty. True hearing listens for the voice of God, not only the voice of man.