Grace, mercy, and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Our
reading from the book of Hebrews takes us back to the books of Moses, to
Leviticus in particular. We are briefly returned to the sacrifices of old. Then
we are whisked to Christ’s day, and then we fly away to His soon return. The
picture is cosmic, really big. Let’s time travel and go to Moses for a moment.
Let me ask, what sticks in your memory about his day? Is it Baby Moses in a basket and the faith of
his mother? Is it the Passover and Christ
foreshadowed? Is it the crossing of the Red Sea
and Pharaoh’s army drowned? Is it Mt.
Sinai
That’s where the folks who broke those
10 commandments were cleansed and consecrated. That’s where what was common was
made holy. And the tabernacle was built to picture Christ and His work,
including the explicit instructions about materials, sizes, shapes, colors, and
patterns. There’s detail after detail about candle snuffers to the high
priest’s jeweled breastplate, spattered with sacrificial blood. What a picture. And that is what it is, a
picture, a representation, a foreshadowing. The book of Hebrews tells us who
and what it foreshadows – our Saviour. In other words, the Tabernacle is like a
travel brochure to paradise, especially the holy place. Everything is there
that sinners need, and if we truly love God, want.
But since we want so little of it, in
bold print we’re warned what could keep us from receiving paradise. In bold
print we’re also bid, “Enter paradise now,” by faith. So the ancients who
trusted the promise entered, and looked through the door of that foreshadowing
to the real thing. So too we enter in by faith, both receiving yet awaiting all
that is promised. Without faith, the travel brochure is not pretty pictures,
but pretty confusing pictures. You can’t even imagine swimming in a pool,
walking amid flowers, eating delicious food, soaking in a spa, because that’s
not what’s pictured. Worse, there’s an impediment to getting there, to those
who want to enter the holy place, to enter heaven itself. You know what it is.
Scripture calls it sin, and sin’s heart is unbelief. That’s what dwells in us
that flees paradise, for we run from a holy God.
Truth is most folks toss the travel
brochure of the Tabernacle aside quickly. Sin in us imagines a trip to Hawaii
The Sinless One became sin on our
behalf to die as The Sinner. And this
sacrifice, unlike those of the pattern, the type, the Tabernacle, was enough,
sufficient and complete. As Jesus Christ said on the cross, “It is finished.”
The Christ opened paradise for you, that you not be judged by the law, but are
pardoned by His blood, promised to enter into His holy joy. The travel brochure
has a first class ticket inside. For
Christ entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our
behalf. The Christ, the anointed one, our prophet, high priest and king,
entered paradise. He did it for you; He did it to bring you with Him. He walked through the door of death to enter
the presence of the Living God, literally, to enter before God’s face. He, true
man and true God, entered the real Holy
Place
It is vital you know this: that He
does not suffer over and over; as some wrongly teach. When He said “It is
finished” it was; otherwise, you could not be sure that you can at any time
flee to God as your Father, your beloved “Abba”? Since it is finished, you may
confidently enter before the face of the Living God as your Father, to enter by
faith into the holy place. So we as those baptized into Christ’s death, who eat
and drink His holy, risen body and blood in a cleansing and eternal feast,
taste paradise. You feast by faith,
confident that your Saviour will bring you to the feast to come. Isn’t that what the divinely inspired author
of Hebrews tells us? But as it is, he has appeared once for all
at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He sacrificed
Himself. He fulfilled the picture of the Passover lamb, the atonement lamb and
goat, and every beast bound for sacrifice.
Second, His blood was shed for our
blood and our life was spared. So He
annulled the penalty of sin to overturn the judgment against the sinner, He
abolished the judgment against sin and so he abolished death. By putting His
robe of righteousness on us, He put sin out of sight. And in His resurrection,
promises sin itself will be put out of all believers. Third,
he has appeared. He has appeared… to cleanse sinners even before the days
of the Tabernacle, to the day of Adam and Eve’s fall. He has appeared, from a time in the past
until the present. The completed sacrifice, of sin put away, is in effect for
believers in the past, now and shall be. Fourth, he has appeared once for
all. “He has appeared once for all…” and for all means all.
Further, “once for all” continues until the day you are called home and to the
day the world ends. In Christ, sinners
were justified from the beginning of time and to time’s end; for fifth, he has
appeared once for all at the end of the ages.
In His appearing we enter the end of
the ages, the last days. More then that, by dying for sinners, Christ entered
heaven itself on our behalf. For us, He entered where the Father dwells,
eternity, showing the finished sacrifice…so it is the end of the ages. It is
mind bending… the end of the ages, of temporal existence, when in Christ we
enter the eternality of paradise. We need travel brochure pictures to almost
see it; i.e., to see how John’s vision in Revelation pictures the Lamb as slain
from before the foundation of the world.
Although our time-stuck minds get blurry-eyed looking at the picture of
eternity, we hear how it applies: Our Lord completed the sacrifice so that the
blessings of that act in time apply from the beginning of time to time’s end.
He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages.
That means you, believing sinner; you
who are appointed to die because of your sins, shall not be judged. Christ
already took care of it. He bore your judgment, He who appeared at the end of
the ages. He appeared at the end of the ages in the holy place to present you
faultless before His Father’s throne.
You sinner, are a saint. He holds you securely until that Great Day when we
rejoice before our Father’s throne,
filled with Christ’s life. So Christ,
having been offered once to bear (to put upon the altar) the
sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those
who are eagerly waiting for him. He who put upon the altar the sins of many
is appointed to appear a second time. He will appear not to deal with sin. He
already dealt with sin. He will appear to save those who eagerly await him.
A travel brochure to Hawaii
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Amen)
