“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eeternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14
In the Old Testament, at the time when Israel was being led by Moses towards the promised land, the Lord gave to Moses instructions concerning the construction, or building, of a tabernacle, or “tent of meeting.” The purpose of this structure with regard to the details that God gave to Moses was to give to the people of Israel a picture, and thus an understanding of God’s ways in His dealings with men. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews calls these details, and truths, to be “patterns of things in heaven,” adding that they are “figures of the true.” (Heb. 9:23,24) The great parallel in Scripture with regard to God giving patterns, and figures, of that which is eternally true, in order to explain to men His ways, is the Lord Jesus Himself. In John’s gospel, he writes of the Lord Jesus “declaring” the Father. (1:18) In Hebrews, we find God, “…hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.” (1:2) He goes on to write: “….who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.” (v.3) Even Christ, though clothed with a body of flesh, would declare to the disciples: “…he who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Christ, in His humility, and humanity, declared, revealed, and unveiled the glory of the Father by what He was, and what could be seen. God the Father would use the picture, the image, of His Son, to declare the “figures of the true” which was the reflection of that which was of heaven. How then, with this knowledge of God in Christ, are we to understand God’s holy, and singular way for a sinful man to come into His presence, accepted wholly, and received as a Father would His child? We begin to understand the answer when we go back to the tabernacle, or tent of meeting, and then on to the temple. These physcial structures reveal to us the path into the holiest of all, that place of nearness to God, that place of true and enduring fellowship with God.
We begin our consideration of this matter with Christ Himself, for He is the key, the path to God the Father. We first see Him presented to us as “…the Son, whom He (the Father) hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” (Heb. 1:2) There is here in this revelation of Christ, the unparalleled picture of the truth that Christ is God the Son, heir of all things, even the creator of the worlds. This One who is to enter this earthly tabernacle, a picture of that which is heavenly true, is not just an ordinary person. He is God in all of His perfection and holiness, His uniqueness and unchanging and unwavering faithfulness.
The design set before men of the tabernacle reveals to us first of all that there is only one path, one point of entrance into this structure, that place of communion with God. The second thing is that there is only one Person who has the right, and worth, to enter by that point of entrance, eventually appearing before God for us…Christ, the Son of God, the Spotless Lamb of God. The third thing we need to see is the precious blood of Christ, which He brings before the Father. This blood is the only thing in the universe that can deal with cleansing of sin, and the rendering of an unrighteous sinner, into one that is perfectly righteous in the sight of the Father, and thus, can be accepted before Him. Scripture declares: “…by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (9:12) Here is the path, the singular path to fellowship with God. It is Christ Himself, by His blood, preceding the sinner into the presence of the Father making intercession for him.
Dear Father, Accept us by Jesus’ blood. In Jesus’ name, Amen.