When God called Israel to be His chosen people, it was not His purpose to qualify them alone as worthy of salvation. He wanted Israel to be His witness to the nations of the excellence of His character and His government. The purpose of Israel's existence was to enlighten the world so that all would welcome Jesus when He came to earth. Did Israel succeed or fail in its mission? We know that they did not prepare the world for the first coming of Christ. Please notice the approach of Christ in light of their failure. Have you noticed that Jesus spent very little time in outreach to the Gentiles--the world? Most of Jesus' time and energy was spent on efforts to restore Israel by bringing them to repentance. They were the people through whom God wanted to enlighten the world. So Jesus spent most of His time doing the most difficult work of all--breaking down the walls of apathy and prejudice to bring them back to obedience to God.

From the Reformation to Today

When the common people were able to obtain and read Bibles in their own language, they could see that the Word of God does not teach anything about indulgences, instead they read that our sins are forgiven by grace alone through faith. That is righteousness by faith. It comes to you through the grace of Christ, but it comes to you, not when you pay money (indulgences) to the church, but when you exercise faith in the Lord.

When that happens, the sinner is outside of the Sanctuary, in the court, the sacrifice was made outside of the Sanctuary on the altar of burnt offerings. The sacrifice was made in this world and when the sinner has faith in Jesus and puts his trust in Jesus, his guilt is taken away. Where does his guilt go? The guilt is transferred to the sacrifice. That is why the lamb had to die. [In the Hebrew language the word sin offering and the word sin is the very same word (`chattath'). You have to look at the context to tell which way to translate it.]
The Apostle Paul says, concerning Jesus, that God "... made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2.Cor. 5:21). -- What does that mean? When you come to Jesus as your Saviour from sin, you confess your sins and you put your trust in Him. Your sin, your guilt, is taken away from you and transferred to Him and His righteousness is taken and transferred to you. -- When you come to Jesus, your sin is transferred to Him. How is it transferred to Him? It is transferred through His blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, Hebr. 9:22; Lev. 17:11. -- The guilt of the sin comes into the Sanctuary where the priest would touch the horns of- the altar of incense with the blood every morning, Ex. 29:12. This sacrifice takes place by the altar of burnt offerings in the court of the sanctuary and points forward to what Jesus would accomplish on calvary. It was the gospel, the present truth for Israel up to the time when Jesus died on the cross.

Christ's work was finished when He expired on the cross, crying with a loud voice, "It is finished." The way was laid open; the veil was rent in twain. Sinners could approach God without sacrificial offerings, without the service of a priest. Christ Himself was a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Heaven was His home. He came to this world to reveal the Father. His work on the field of His humiliation and conflict was now done. He ascended up into the heavens, and is forever set down on the right hand of God.

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." Psalm 24:9. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

In God's providence Jesus death on the cross was the fulfillment of the slaying of the paschal lamb on the altar of burnt offerings in the court of the temple in Jerusalem in 31 A.D.. But in the days of the Patriarchs, when Abraham ". . . stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son ... the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham ... lay not thine hand upon the lad ..." (Gen 22:10-12). God had tested the faith of Abraham, but Isaac, the at first intended victim in a small way forshadowing the sacrifice of Christ, `escaped' and in his place God provided "... a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." (Gen. 22:13). Similarly, we are told, when Christ called out, "It is finished", the heavy veil between the holy and most holy was rent from top to bottom and both apartments of the sanctuary were revealed through the open doors and the rent curtain to the gaze of the priest performing the annual paschal sacrifice in the court. The priest was so startled by the noise of the rending of the veil that he lost his grip on the lamb and it escaped like Isaac did as a type of Christ, for on that hill by the city the real sacrifice had died as the fulfillment of the centuries of offerings in the temple services. This rending of the second veil took place on crucifixion day at just the right moment spoken of in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 3:7,8) which was later to be opened to teach what Christ, as our high priest, would do in heaven. In the book of Hebrews and Revelation the symbolism of the veil and doors is retold with the purpose in mind to show the stages of the real priestly ministry of Christ first in the holy and then in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary of which the earthly, Jewish services were merely a shadow to teach in picture lessons about how God would save us from sin. But God's ancient people made these services into forms and customs they did not understand and cared not to inquire about to learn their true meaning from God, Ezekiel 20:3-8; Jer. 29:19; Isa. 30:9; Gal. 4:21.

The Judgment

Daniel 7:9,10 talks about the Judgment, and it is a Judgment which takes place in the Sanctuary - that is where the books are opened - and those books contain a record. -- However, the reformers taught that our sins were transferred to Jesus, that He was our High Priest; that you did not need to go to a human priest, because Jesus was your priest and you could confess your sins directly to Him.-- The reformers would quote to the people the text where it said that there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, 1.Tim. 2:5. They taught, when that happens, my guilt is transferred from me (the sinner) to my Saviour. He bears my guilt through His blood (Lev. 16:15; Rom. 3:25; 5:9; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). My guilt is in the Most Holy Place.

We read in Leviticus 16 about the cleansing of the Sanctuary. If you look at verses 16 and 19, you will see that it was because of the sins and the uncleanness of God's people that the Sanctuary had to be cleansed of the blood sprinkeled every day by the altar of incence before the veil, Lev. 4:2-6. -- Therefore, let us remember, if there is guilt, if there is sin in the Sanctuary, sin and guilt defiles and makes something unclean. Therefore, it needs to be cleansed. --- In this Sanctuary in heaven, we are told, there are some kind of `books' (Mal. 3:16; 1.Tim. 5:24) which contain exact records - until our sins are blotted out just like the prophet Abraham's and Isaac's (Gen. 22:4,5; Ps. 69:28; 109:13,14; Isa. 44:22; Acts 3:19) - those books contain exact records of every sin that we have ever committed. The record of our whole life is in those books. --- In order for the Sanctuary to be cleansed, the guilt has to come out - the sin has to come out - and how is that going to happen?

This second step of the cleansing of the Sanctuary, please notice it, is the opposite of what happened in the first part of the service. In other words, what happens in the yearly service is the opposite of what happens in the daily service. At the end of the year, the forshaddowed cycles of sacred functions, as they represent the end of the ages, the Day of Atonement takes place, Rev. 15.

How is the Sanctuary going to be cleansed? Notice, this is the exact opposite of what happens in the first part of the service, and both of these are taught in the New Testament as righteousness by faith. Let us use common language to explain this. In the daily service, the Sanctuary becomes dirtier and dirtier. As more people come and confess their sins and their guilt is transferred into the Sanctuary, it just keeps getting dirtier and dirtier, more and more defiled, Eze. 44:7. -- That is what happens in the daily service - the longer it goes on, the more defiled it becomes. But in the yearly service, something different is going to happen. That which has become dirtier and dirtier is going to be cleansed. How much is it going to be cleansed? It is going to be cleansed to the point where there will not be a single sin, or guilt, or anything defiling left in there.

Now let us try to present this subject in very simple, concrete terms so that it is easy to understand. In Hebrews, the Apostle Paul teaches very clearly that we are to come boldly, he says, unto the throne of grace, Hebr. 4:16.

We worship in churches today, but the church on earth and the church in heaven is all one and the same. The Bible teaches, while we are down here in the body, we are in heaven in spirit. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church, `I am absent but in the spirit I am with you." 1.Cor. 5:3.-- Although we are down here in the world, our faith reaches clear up to the Sanctuary in heaven. In fact, our faith reaches clear into the Most Holy Place. -- When we think this through we should see that God's Church, as we can read in Hebrews 12, is all registered in heaven. God's Church is registered in the Sanctuary. -- If you have professed faith in Jesus, and you are a Christian, your name is in a book. Underneath your name is every single detail, or record, of your life history. Every good deed that you have ever done; every kind and affectionate word you have ever spoken; every tender thought you have ever thought; every act of sympathy and courtesy that you have ever done, is all recorded in that book.

The Bible, therefore teaches that there is a record, not only of the good things that men and women have done and thought, but also of the evil, (1. Tim. 5:24; Ex. 32:31,32). -- We remember sin always defiles, therefore there is only one way that this heavenly Sanctuary can be cleansed from the blood that was sprinkled there, but it was sprinkled there only once on the basis of the perfect sacrifice of Christ. In the old covenant the blood was sprinkled every year, but Paul makes it very clear in Hebrews 10 that in the new covenant, the blood is only sprinkled one time at the end of the ages to blot out sin.

"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Hebr. 10:10-14.

But this man (Christ Jesus), after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. . . . Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." Hebr. 10:12,18.

Once our sins are blotted out, they will not be blotted out twice. They will only be blotted out once.

"And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the Lord." Exodus 30:10.

"And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded Moses." Lev. 16:34.

"For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebr. 9:26.

Let us think this through in concrete terms.

My name and your name is in the Most Holy Place. Below your name there is the record of every sin you have ever committed. Now, if this Sanctuary is going to be cleansed, there are only two ways that this can happen.

1) Here is the way that you do not want it to happen. There is the record of my name and all my sins, and as long as the record of all my sins is in the Sanctuary, it is defiled. So one way that the Sanctuary can be cleansed is by just tearing out my page. God can just take it out, tear out my page, take my name out. My name is not in the book any more. That is one way the Sanctuary can be cleansed. You see, the Sanctuary is going to be cleansed of all sin. Whether you overcome or not, the Sanctuary is going to be cleansed of sin. (Neh. 4:4,5; Ps. 69:26,28; 109:13,14)
2) The other way, the way that you want it to happen, is that your name is retained in the book, but your sins are blotted out, Acts 3:19; Isa. 44:22; Rev. 3:5. So now your name is in the book (of life Phil. 4:3) and there is no sin there (Mt. 10:32; Lk. 11:8), and your name does not pollute or defile God's Sanctuary any more. -- Of course, it would not do any good to blot out your sins if you sinned again the next day. Does that make sense? Would it do any good to blot out my sins if I sin the next day? It would not do any good at all. The plan of salvation would have failed. So, before your sins can be blotted out, you must have an experience in living without sin, or overcoming sin, Jh. 8:11.

". . . And Jesus said unto her, . . . Go, and sin no more." John 8:11.

One of two things is going to happen - either your sins are going to be blotted out (of the books of record), or your name is going to be blotted out (of the book of life).
Here is another place where this is taught in your Bible - see Revelation 3:5. It says the one who conquers, the one who overcomes, this one will be clothed in white garments and I will most certainly not blot his name out of the Book of Life and "I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."

Let us remember this, Jesus says, If you overcome; if you overcome the world, the flesh and the devil; if you overcome, then your name will not be blotted out, your sins will be blotted out, John 16:33; Rom. 12:21; 1.Jh. 2:13,14; Rev. 17:14; Isa. 44:22; Acts 3:19.

This is exactly what was not yet clear to the reformers in their time. The doctrine of righteousness by faith relates to what Christ does in the Most Holy of the sanctuary in heaven. The reformers only taught that which had to do with the daily service. There was nothing wrong with that, but that is just a part of the plan. After the daily service, eventually there has to be a yearly service to cleanse the Sanctuary and to remove the sins and to remove all defilement. So we are happy to be able to present this more clearly today.

We remember now that it is true that the yearly service does something that is just the opposite from the daily service, because in the daily service, the defilement is constantly getting greater, but in the yearly service the defilement is going to be totally removed.

Could it be that the devil hates the truth of the Sanctuary that God is going to deliver His people totally and completely from sin? The devil has persuaded many people that pardon is all there is. The devil has persuaded people that they can be saved in sin and that they will just go on sinning and confessing their sins all of their lives and they lose totally sight of the Bible teaching that we are to overcome sin, 2.Peter 3:10-14. Now the doctrine of overcoming sin, my friends, is not something that was to be confined to the last generation.

We ought to understand this message more clearly today than it was understood in past ages, but if you read what Paul wrote to the Romans, or what he wrote to the Galatians - when the apostle Paul writes about righteousness by faith, he always writes also about the necessity of overcoming sin. Read Romans 6, Romans 8, Romans 12, Romans 9 and 10, Galatians 5 or 6, and you cannot miss it, Jh. 5:4, 5; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:12, 21; 21:7.
Today we have no argument with the reformers, but our salvation involves more than they understood. It involves not only obtaining a pardon, it involves a transformation of life where the Holy Spirit gives you the power to overcome. As the Holy Spirit gives you the power to overcome, you can come to the place where the Lord can look down upon you, and He can say, This person is now, through the power of the Holy Spirit, living without sin and I am going to be able to blot out his sins. - - The whole record is going to be blotted out. The whole record of sin is going to be blotted out.

And, dear believers, when you get to heaven - this ought to be for us one of the most marvelous and amazing things about the character of God - throughout eternity, God is never going to hold up my sins before everyone! He is not going to do it! - - He is not going to parade my sins out for other people to look at; He is not going to embarrass us by all the sinful things that we have done; He is going to have them blotted out. It is all taken care of, it is all finished.

Sometimes it can happen, when we talk about this subject, and we show that righteousness by faith involves not only the first part (the cross and the holy), but the second part (the most holy), people cannot believe it.

One of the things that happens in our generation is that we are living in a pessimistic age. Since the development of the atomic bomb, the world has become very pessimistic. The world was optimistic until about World War I. People used to say, `We are getting better and better.' They are not saying that any more. We have just the opposite problem in our day. We have people who, just as soon as you teach that you can overcome sin and they are in bondage to some sinful habit that they have tried a thousand times to overcome and they cannot, they say, in effect, `I guess I will have to be lost.' Sometimes people are still worried about all the sins committed even after they prayed for forgiveness. After we pray for forgiveness we must believe by faith that we are cleansed and out of thankfulness to God and appreciation of so great a salvation, live that `clean' life and abstain from sin.

Romans 4:6-20 teaches that trusting in God can save you and me. `Just trust and obey, there is no other way to be happy in Jesus.' Develop this trust and he can save you from all dependencies you now have, from eating unhealthily, alcohol, tobacco and all these habits one can have. Jesus can make you clean. He rather have a invigorated, balanced people represent Him as He had Daniel's three friends in Babylon testify to healthy living. But remember, it says, `Trust and obey,' Psalm 31. For those who trust and obey, God's Word in many places and also through the Most Holy, the crown of gold surrounding the Ark of the Covenant represents the fulfillment of God's reward for the faithful flock - they shall receive a crown of gold for every overcomer, Rev. 2:10; 3:11; Rom. 8:30; Mt. 25:34. This is the path to the throne of God.

So we realize that we live today in the grandest era of world history, the time when the plan of salvation is to be concluded with victory for Christ for we read, "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come . . . For if the blood of bulls . . . sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator . . . that by means of . . . the redemption of the transgressions . . . (we) . . . might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. - 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. For Christ is ... entered into . . . heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for . . . them that look for him . . . unto salvation." Hebr. 9:11-15, 23-28. This great salvation is ours as God brings up sins to us we never thought of before, because that shows He is going down to the depths and He will reach bottom at last and when He finds the last thing that is unclean or impure, out of harmony with His will, He brings that up and shows it to us and we say, "I would rather have the Lord than that." When that happens the work is complete and the seal of the living God can be fixed upon that character. Because we cannot understand our own hearts, God digs deep to remove all stains of sin from us. He tries our conscience and brings up the last vestiges of wickedness so we can surrender all to Him and His sanctuary can be cleansed forever. - We may understand now that the erasing of sin is the blotting of it from our natures, so that we shall know it no more as God's worshipping people are purged just once, Hebr. 10:2,3. Sin will be gone. It is removed from consciousness. Even though we may remember certain sins, we have forgotten the sin itself - we do not think of doing it any more. This is the work of Christ in the Most Holy of the Sanctuary in Heaven immediately before the Second Coming of Christ - it coincides with the complete cleansing of the people of God on this earth to prepare them for translation when the Lord comes so His great, exceeding glory will not destroy them but be a benevolent light to His people.

A Recapitulation

When studying the Word of God it helps to always keep the sacrificial system in mind for it started in Genesis 3:15 and from there to Cain and Abel, bringing offerings to the divinely ordained tabernacle services instituted at Sinai, and all the way to 31 A.D. It helps to recognize these threefold services (expanding a bit more) represented in the Jewish Temple and how they would picture what Christ would do in the heavenly.

1. The services pertaining to the altar of burnt offerings in the forecourt,
2. The services pertaining to the services in the Holy apartment of the Temple, and
3. the services pertaining to the Most Holy apartment in the temple.

The important message to remember is that each of these three aspects of the temple complex teach important lessons. The first point made shows how God taught his representative people how the blood of Christ would cleanse from sins. For the people, their eyes were to be fastened on how priests performed the services and what they meant - it was the present truth for their time. The second point is meant for us to follow Jesus from the cross to His service in the holy apartment - this was the present truth for the time from the cross to the reformation and beyond to the next point close to the end time. The third point is meant to direct the eyes of people to Christ and how he closes the door to the holy, opens the door to the most holy in order to reveal truths revealed in there to ready His people for His Second Coming. This is present truth (2.Pet. 1:12) for our time. - Therefore, the important message for us is, to keep our eyes on Jesus and follow Him to where He goes. Remaining behind prevents us from learning the truths He is trying to teach in each of these three stages. Not keeping our eyes on where Jesus is, means, our understanding of His work becomes unclear and darkness prevails as to understanding Bible truths, thus opening us up for Satan's devices. While we are not trying to minimize any of the stages, and their is a degree of back and forth between them, our mind must be directed to present truth which is intended to get a people ready for the climax of all history.

In our discussion of the Book of Hebrew, this truth from the pen of the prophet Daniel (Da. 8:14) sees a successful conclusion to the problem of sin in the universe.

Just as there is the cross, the altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, so God sends three angels at the time of the end to draw attention to these messages. The messages of these three angels are designed to let people know that salvation comes by grace through faith alone. Realizing this good news our response is to tell this to those around us. We discover that we can overcome our self-centeredness by beholding what Christ did on the cross. How He died that awful second death, so this free gift of eternal life is available for all people on earth. Realizing that the whole world has been drawn through Christ's sacrifice, His righteous act (Jh. 12:32), we respond to make this truth of such a great redemption known to all.

The gospel is that God takes the initiative and seeks us, everyone, to draw us unto Himself if we just behold what Christ did and the great salvation He brought about, and in response and because of our `agape' love burning now inside of us, we choose to say, `Yes.' This love of God is the "width and length and depth and height" of gospel truth.

The thus changed believer in this gospel exercises his faith inwardly and outwardly by reading the Word of God and obeying all that God requires. Those who follow God this way freely and gladly, are prepared for the Second coming of Christ. - Yet, not all will be saved. Not because they were not clever enough or quick enough to seize the initiative and say `yes', but because they actively resisted and rejected such a great salvation and choose not to want to be with God.

Christ's work in the Holy apartment prepared believers (those living before 1844) for death with the hope of resurrection. His work in the Most Holy apartment, prepares (end time) believers today for translation without seeing death. They will be sealed. Once depraved people are freed from the fetters of sin by the grace of God, when appeals to self-centered religion cannot truly motivate people in the right direction to bring about a lasting change of heart, they are aided by the Holy Spirit to remain free.

As the gospel of the soon coming of Christ is brought before all nations, thousands respond today in many places around the world. They accepted God's free offer and want to be heirs to the kingdom. They realize that time is running out and Christ will have finished His High Priestly ministry and His people will be sealed and the winds of strife are held in check for just a little longer. But there are still billions (hopefully less now) who have not heard the message of salvation. Only the outpouring of the Holy Spirit can bring about conditions where all can decide whom they want to be master over their life.

The cleansing of the sanctuary (the `books of record') in the final atonement, is a picture and experience of the cleansing of our hearts from all sins because enough comprehend and believe this gospel truth and unreservedly give their all to God. They saw that Christ had the same nature as we do, yet He never sinned. Being born as we were, Christ knows what we need, and He gave it for us as a free gift if we just accept it. Therefore, the battle is whether our alienation from God can be resolved in "sinful flesh." It is evident that there is no problem with sin being conquered in sinless nature different from ours. That battle was won in heaven long ago (Rev. 12:7-9). Since then Satan took up residence in our fallen human nature. He claims that sin can only be tolerated and lightly "pardoned", or God must continue to overlook sin or tackle the problem after death in purgatory (the Catholic view). Most Christians agree with Satan in one or the other of these views. They say, as long as we have a sinful nature, it is inevitable that we must continue sinning - which is Satan's argument.

What does Christ say?

Christ proved that human sin is willful and therefore unnecessary. So He created a new abhorrence of sin that leads to its final eradication, Dt. 7:25,26; Ps. 119:163; Rom. 12:9. Thus He set the captives free to say "no" to sin (Lk. 4:18), and through the faith of Jesus to become pure and holy, (Ex. 30:30,31,35; Eph. 5:27). We can become thus because Christ built a bridge over the abyss of human alienation from God caused by sin. His sacrifice is called the "atonement" - the making `at-one' those who were separated from God.

This alienation is the reason for the reign of sin, their illicit desires, in the lives of so many young and older people. They hunger and thirst for acceptance by something they know not what. Only Christ can fill the abyss, the vacuum they feel inside, and make them whole. Our desire for God is perhaps a little like the homing instinct of some of God's creatures. Inside we know that God is the loving sovereign of the universe and that is why we pray to Him. Abounding sin needs abounding grace and we know that God's grace knows no limits. It is there for all.

People wonder, how close they can come to God, that must depend on how close you believe He has come to you. Exercising that faith then helps us to identify with Him. That is what the Bible means with being "crucified with Christ", Gal. 2:20. It is God's way of enhancing our self-respect. To be "crucified with Christ" means also that such are resurrected with Him, or as the Bible puts it, "it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me."