We will keep before our minds the tribes surrounding the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and present to ourselves an Israelite, whose conscience, instructed by the law of God, condemns him as guilty of a particular offense. He desires to be at rest according to God's Word concerning his transgression.
There is no rest for him who does not believe God's Word. He may seek to lull his conscience to sleep by worldly enjoyments, or by religious opiates endeavor to dull its bitings; but rest, save by the way set out in the divine book, is impossible. And when we speak of believing God's Word, we intend real, and therefore practical, belief. No doubt, in our land, thousands, in an educational manner, believe that there is a hell, and, in a way, accept the fact that the Son of God came to earth in order to save sinners; but they neither flee from the wrath to come, nor seek the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
The Israelite before us acted out his faith. He feared the God whose holy law condemned him, while he availed himself of the sacrifice for his sin which the mercy of God provided.
The Tabernacle in the wilderness was in the center of the camp, and within the Tabernacle was Jehovah's Throne. That Throne, with its overshadowing cherubim, stood within the mysterious inner tent, lined with gold, wherein none dared enter, save the High Priest once a year, and then not without sacrificial blood. Over this, the cloudy pillar hung, and this dwelling-place of Jehovah had for its very name the Holy of Holies. Holiness is the first demand of the divine Throne. It is the unyielding requirement of God, the everlasting claim of His being; and its quality must be divine, because God is God.
Approaching God, then, we have the transgressing Israelite; and the question which we ask for him,we ask of ourselves, How shall sinful man draw near to the holy God – by what way enter His presence? for “Our God is a consuming fire?'
Ah! reader, no murder-charged criminal, pale and trembling at the bar of earthly tribunal, has like cause for cold sweat-drops of fear's agony upon his brow as has the sinner in the presence of the Eternal Judge! And, sinner, meet God you must, and meet Him in His justice.
What, then, is the way to God? As we study the Tabernacle in the wilderness, a straight line opens before us which makes the answer plain. Let our reader ponder the diagram opposite, which is a rough ground plan of that erection, and may it assist him in grasping God's purpose.
The transgressor occupies the extreme end of the line; the Throne of God the other. Between the transgressor and the throne lie fire and water. First fire, then water.
There was no way whatever for the Israelite into the Tabernacle save by the appointed entrance, and the commandment of God placed him outside the outer Court of the Tabernacle. There he stood; and as his eye ran up the straight line his vision was barred by Fire – the fire of the brazen altar. Behind the altar was Water – in the brazen laver; afterward came the Tabernacle itself, with its two tents, in the hindermost of which, and concluding the straight line, was the Mercy-seat, or the Throne.
Now every system which looks to man for goodness, improvement, cleansing, denies the divine order – denies that the first demand of God from the sinner is the due of his sins, and that the fire of His judgment can only consume the guilty man who dares approach Him in his own person. He who offers to God of his own soul offers abomination, for he offers sin. Fire is that which tests. It tried Jesus and brought out sweetness, nothing save sweetness, from His sacrifice: but let the fire test fallen man, and it brings out what man's nature is – sin, nothing but sin.
The heart instructed by the Spirit of God concerning holiness rightly feels the need of cleansing, but it cannot reach the water save by the fire. This is the Divine order: God puts the Sacrifice of His Son and the burning of the Victim upon the Brazen Altar, before the daily cleansing of the water by the Word, before the washing of hands and of feet in the Brazen Laver.
There never can be rest of conscience until the excellence of Christ in the altar be seen. We would ask our reader to fix himself in spirit upon that end of the straight line where we have marked “transgressor,” and to ask himself, Is the fire of the altar between me and God? Have I ever stood before the cross of Christ and learned that that cross bars all entrance to God's presence for me as I am in my natural state, while it is, on the other hand, complete deliverance for all who, believing in Christ, have judicially died with Him upon the tree.
God has narrowed the way to Himself, and has so placed the altar that if man will approach Him it must be by fire. Either learn the cross of Christ magnifying God's justice, or turn your back upon God forever. To go to good deeds or to self-improvement is to slight, if not to reject, the cross of Christ; nor can there be any wonder that souls so acting have not peace with God, since their conduct is saying, practically, “Christ's death is not the way to God.”
Look at the diagram, and read the words “No entrance save at the gate.” Upon the three sides of the outer Court of the Tabernacle there was no doorway of any kind. At the eastern end alone – the furthest from the Throne – was the gate. To have attempted entrance by either of the three sides would have been to throw down the wall which God had put up about His throne – an outrage and a sin against His majesty resulting in immediate destruction. But in Christian circles this crime – the penalty for the continuance in which is death everlasting – is of daily occurrence; persons preaching and practicing all kinds of ways to God making, as it were, gateways as they list.
There is no access to God save by the Cross. The first message of God to the sinner is respecting the Cross; upon the very threshold of His Court the Brazen Altar proclaims, “Our God is a consuming fire.” And when Christ's glories in the Altar are seen, what joy, what peace flow into the soul through the truth of God's righteousness! The believer learns that not only his guilt, his transgressions, have been borne, but also that he himself has been judicially dealt with in the person of the Sacrifice. Sin is not passed over; it is judged. Iniquity is not made light of; it is atoned for. In the fire of the Altar of Calvary is the consuming of the believer's sins, absolute and eternal forgiveness; and we ourselves, as children of the first Adam, are judged and put out of sight.
“No I hope to be saved some day”; no “I shall know at the judgment,” but “I am saved now, because Christ has borne the judgment of God against sin on my behalf.” No fear of hell fire, because the fire of divine wrath has been endured by Jesus, the Lamb of God. No looking on to purgatorial flames and their purifying torture, but looking back to the fire of judgment which consumed the Sin offering, and which brought out the sweet savor of the Burnt offering. Such as labor at ordinances and call faith presumption have not yet cast the eye up the way to God, nor have yet stood at the gate and seen the fire of the Brazen Altar.
The cross of Christ, on the one hand, forbids the thought of an unforgiven sinner entering God's presence save to be judged; while on the other it proclaims forgiveness to every sinner who believes.
Reader! as you look by faith to Jesus as He was once upon the cross, does your heart confess, “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me?” Do you believe that He took the place of death in your stead? If you do believe, yours is peace with God. If you are still devoid of peace, then, without delay or hesitation, prostrate yourself in faith before the fire upon the Brazen Altar; own yourself to be the sinner, deserving wrath which God says you are – own Christ the Perfect Sacrifice for Sinners which God says He is.