WHAT blessed words are these! And what infinite depths of soul-establishing truth they contain. God would have every true believer to rejoice in the fact that as far as the conscience is concerned there is nothing to hinder his drawing near to Him.
Under the Mosaic economy this could not be, for the gifts and sacrifices that then were offered could not make him that did the service “perfect, as pertaining to the conscience.” The law had a shadow of good things to come, but it could never with those sacrifices which were offered year by year continually make the corners there unto perfect.
Once every year (see Lev. 16) a solemn day came round in Israel’s history. The great question of the people’s right and title to stand before God in relationship with Him was raised on the tenth day of the seventh month. This occurred every year. On that day the priest made an atonement for the Jewish people, “to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord” (Lev. 16:3030For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. (Leviticus 16:30)).
All this was typical. As a shadow it pointed forward to what was to be fulfilled in perfection in the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of bulls and goats could not really take away sins. But God was pleased in ages past to give a type of that great sacrifice which forever has cleared away the believer’s sins.
But though the Jewish day of atonement was a type and shadow of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross, nevertheless there is a mighty contrast between the two. Every year in Israel the sacrifice had to be repeated— “those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually” (Heb. 10:11For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. (Hebrews 10:1)). The work was never completed— “once every year” (Heb. 9:77But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: (Hebrews 9:7)), we are told, the high priest entered into the holiest with the blood, and sprinkled it there seven times before and on the mercy-seat. Beautiful type this was of the perfect and all-sufficient atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ. But there was no perfection under the Levitical priesthood, for “the law made nothing perfect” (Heb. 7:11, 1911If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? (Hebrews 7:11)
19For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. (Hebrews 7:19)). The sacrifice offered one year had to be repeated the next, and so on every year, and that continually.
And what was this but a remembrance of sins? Constantly every year the Jewish people were reminded that they were sinners and at a distance from God. The veil barred their way. It would have been death to any one of them to have entered there, where the cloud of Jehovah’s glory rested on the golden mercy-seat (Lev. 16:22And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. (Leviticus 16:2)). Even the high priest himself dared not to enter except on that one day when, alone, he passed within that veil— “into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.”
“Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our guilt away;
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.”
His one sacrifice on the cross is infinitely perfect, divinely sufficient, and eternally efficacious. The veil has been removed that once stood as a barrier between the sinner and God. When Christ died it was rent in the midst, from the top to the bottom. Yes, “from the top to the bottom,” for it was God’s own hand that did it. The way, then, is open to the believer in Christ to draw near as a worshipper once purged, who has no more conscience of sins.
“I wish,” said a lady in whose house I was recently visiting, “that Mr.―was at home, for I should so like you to have some conversation with him.” Mr.―was a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, who happened to be away on his holiday, but from his friend I heard that he had very strong leanings towards the Church of Rome. Another member of his family, also a minister, had already gone over to Rome, and this lady feared that this one might himself do likewise.
It was such a pity, she went on to say, for he was such a nice and earnest man—so sincere, so anxious to be right and to do right; and yet she was sure that this step would be wrong. But how could she help him? She had had long arguments with him, but she had made no headway, and he kept quoting the Fathers of the Church to prove that the Mass as practiced by the Church of Rome was right; and she did not know how to answer him. Did I know of any simple little book on the subject that she could put into his hands?
“Yes,” I replied, “I know of just the very thing. It is very short, very clear, and absolutely unanswerable.”
“Where could she get it?”
“You have it in your own house,” I replied. “Read the tenth chapter of Hebrews; it demolishes the whole theory of the Mass. In one short verse it answers conclusively the very questions you have raised. Read it carefully tonight before you go to bed, and tell me in the morning what you think of the fourteenth verse.”
Here let us quote the verse: —
“By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”
When once the truth contained in these words takes possession of our souls, it shatters and crumbles into dust the so-called doctrine of the Mass. For what is the Mass? Is it not a continual offering, a daily sacrifice? Is it not the cherished belief of millions today that the priest has power to turn the wafer into Christ, and to offer Him up every day as a sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead?
Why, Judaism was better than this! “Once every year” was sufficient then; but Christendom today, blind to the glorious truth so simply declared in Hebrews 9 and 10, persists in the vain attempt to renew and repeat every day what the Holy Ghost declares was completed at the cross.
“Perfected Forever”— let the words sink into our souls. Who are perfected? Believers are. Who has perfected them? Christ has. How has He perfected them? By His one offering? For how long has He perfected them? Forever.
With boldness, then, we enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
“The holiest we enter,
At perfect peace with God.”
Every barrier is removed, every hindrance has been taken out of the way. The precious blood of Christ in all its infinite value, and all its eternal efficacy, is under the eye of God. No more conscience of sins, is, then, the portion of every believing soul. The worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sins (Heb. 10:22For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. (Hebrews 10:2)). Mark, it does not say that they have no consciousness of sin in them, but they have no conscience of sins on them. The believer in Christ has sin in him, but he has no sins on him. The morning after the conversation we have just related took place, the lady expressed her sincere thanks for the verse to which we had referred her, adding that she had never noticed it before. How little, alas! do even Christians read their Bibles.
A. H. B.