THE ordinances of the sanctuary were given to Israel because transgression and the worship of idols had so perverted their concept of God that they no longer saw the sinfulness of sin. They had become like the idols they worshiped (Eze. 20:5-8; Ps. 135:18). Till the Seed should come (Gal. 3:19), who would fully reveal the Father (John 1:18), there was need of a new revelation of God. This God gave them in the sanctuary.
Up to this time, the time of Israel's deliverance from bondage, men had worshiped God by means of an altar only (Gen. 12:7, etc.). It was the blood on the altar that made atonement for the soul (Lev. 17:11) though the blood of animals could not take away sin (Heb. 10:4). But while atonement for sin committed is primary, and repentance basic, it is not all that is needed. Some means must be employed that would keep the forgiven sinner from falling back into sin. What is the point of forgiving the many and various sins of a repentant sinner if he is not also given the power to refrain from sinning? His last state would be worse than the first (2 Peter 2:20). The Redeemer does not of fer Himself often (Heb. 9:25), "For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God" (Rom. 6:10). He is "able to keep you from falling" (Jude 24), and "to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19).
Symbols of Victory
This was illustrated in the daily ministration in the holy place of the sanctuary. There the lamps were tended daily (Ex. 27:21) and the incense burned continually (chap. 30:7, 8), and the bread of the Presence was presented perpetually as an ever lasting covenant (Lev. 24:8).
The lamps typified the Holy Spirit (Rev. 4:5; Zech. 4:1-6), which illumines the believers' minds and guides them (John 16: 13); the incense is the merits of Christ added to the prayers of the saints (Luke 1:10; Rev. 4:4); and the bread is Jesus Himself, the Word of God (John 6:51, 63). By His ministration of these things to the pardoned sinner, He "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Heb. 7:25). Thus the repentant, forgiven sinner is kept from falling, is saved completely by the intercession of the High Priest.
But this was not the end of the illustration of how God deals with the sin of the sinner. The sin must be destroyed, not just removed from the sinner to God's dwelling place. So, on the tenth day of the seventh month, once in the year, the high priest entered the inner apartment with the blood, which he sprinkled on the mercy seat, under which was the law that had been transgressed. Then he came out and put the blood on the altar of incense, and then went out to the altar of burnt offering and sprinkled the blood upon it also. This done, the high priest placed all the pardoned sins upon Azazel (Lev. 16:8, margin), and sent him away into the uninhabited wilderness. He was not then destroyed, for that follows the wilderness experience (Rev. 20:7-9).
The Three Steps
Thus the sanctuary, God's dwelling place (Ex. 25:8), with its three apartments, illustrated the three steps taken by God to save the repentant sinner from his sin and its effects. At the altar of burnt offering, which was at the door of the sanctuary (Ex. 40:6), all sin, confessed sin, was atoned for and forgiven. This could not be done elsewhere (Lev. 17:11). Then in the first apartment of the tent of meeting there was ministered to the forgiven sinner the power to live the life victorious, a life of victory over temptation, free from sin (Gal. 2:20). This also was not ministered to the repentant sinner anywhere else. Finally, all sin was taken upon him by the high priest (Lev. 10:17; Num. 18:1), and placed upon the head of Azazel (Lev. 16:8, margin), and sent away with him into the wilderness.
Although the sinner was completely re leased from sin and guilt at the altar of burnt offering, and although the power to live without sin was ministered to him from the holy place, he must still anticipate with pleasure the final destruction of sin; for Jesus comes "the second time with out sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28), He having "tarried a moment in the outer apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and the sins . . . were placed upon Satan, the originator of sin."—Early Writings, pp. 280, 281.
God cannot tolerate sin; He must destroy it. But He wants to save the sinner. At the altar He freely forgives the sinner; in the first apartment of the tent of meeting He saves the sinner, makes him perfect; and finally He destroys sin. All this is accomplished by the blood of Jesus, by the will of God, and is ours by faith.
