Jesus is not only the Lamb that dies for us, but He is also the High Priest who lives for us. What does a priest do? He “is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices” (Hebrews 8:3).
Cannot I present my own gifts? No, a sinner cannot approach God directly. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). Sin can be atoned for and man brought back to God only by shedding the blood of an innocent substitute. But shed blood is not enough. It must be presented in the sanctuary. Yet the sinner cannot do this. Someone must act for him. “Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Hebrews 5:1).
The prophet speaks to men for God. The priest speaks to God for men. Jesus came from heaven to represent God to men. He returned to heaven “to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24).
The priest who ministered in the earthly tabernacle served “unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). As we observe their movements we discern in shadowy outline the ministry of our great High Priest above.
Leviticus 4 relates several important details concerning a priest’s work in the ancient sanctuary. Notice the sequence outlined in verses 13-20. In case of transgression by the whole congregation, the elders brought a young bullock to the altar in the court. As they laid their hands upon the bullock’s head, the sin was transferred in type from the people to the substitute. Now the bullock must be slain, but was this the end of the service? No! The work has just begun. Notice carefully the next step. “The priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock’s blood to the tabernacle of the congregation: and the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, even before the veil. And he shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar which is before the Lord, that is in the tabernacle of the congregation” (Leviticus 4:16-18).
Verse 20 makes the purpose of it all plain: “The priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them.” The shedding of the substitute’s blood and the sprinkling of that blood before the inner veil and on the horns of the golden altar provided forgiveness. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” (Romans 4:7).
When God forgives sin, He covers it with blood, and “the blood of it is for the life thereof ” (Leviticus 17:14). Jesus’ blood represents His perfect life, and the shed blood shows the life poured out in sacrifice. In the sprinkled blood at the sanctuary we can see the forgiveness of sin provided by a Saviour who laid down His life for us. Thus when the Father looks at you and me, He does not see the filthy garments of our own righteousness but, instead, the life of Jesus.
So Wesley sings:
“Arise, my soul, arise; Shake o thy guilty fears: The bleeding Sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my Surety stands, My name is written on His hands.
“He ever lives above, for me to intercede; His all-redeeming love, His precious blood to plead;
His blood was shed for all our race, And sprinkles now the throne of grace.”
This service not only shows that the sin is forgiven and covered by the sprinkled blood, but also represents the transfer of sin from the sinner through the substitute into the sanctuary. Think carefully as we study it together.
When the sinner approached the sanctuary, he came bearing his own sin. As he placed his hand on the animal, his confessed sin was transferred to the substitute, and this transferred sin required the death of the substitute. The victim bore sin when it died. Then the priest carried that sin-bearing blood into the sanctuary and sprinkled it before the veil, thus transferring sin to the sanctuary.
In the great antitypical service, Jesus our Substitute died for us, bearing our sins. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). He “bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). But Jesus is not only our Lamb, He is also our High Priest.
On the cross He died for us. In the sanctuary He lives for us. “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:11, 12).
We see Jesus on Calvary dying for us with our sins on Him. Then we see Him rising from the dead and going to heaven as our High Priest. By His own blood He enters the temple of God there to cover our iniquities with His blood. us He transfers our sins from us to the sanctuary, from earth to heaven. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
Where are your sins just now? It is your privilege to know. For this the Saviour died. For this He lives. Either they remain with you (here on the earth), or through Jesus’ blood God has transferred them to the heavenly sanctuary.
Guilt, fear, worry, concern over sin, are driving people sick. Millions suffer from ulcers, heart attacks, and nervous breakdowns. If the burden of guilt presses down on your soul, bring your sin to the sanctuary and put it on the Lamb of God. Confess it. Give it to Him. Let Him be your Sin Bearer. Let His death take the place of your death.
The only way sin can get into the sanctuary is for the priest to take it there, but Jesus will never take your sin unless you give it to Him. He will not grab it from you. If He ever puts it into the sanctuary and covers it with His blood, it will be because of your own free choice to confess that sin to Him. Then you will know personally that your sin has been “transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary” (GC 421). “Blessed,” indeed, “is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1).
Another wonderful lesson concerning the transfer of sin appears in Leviticus 4:27-35. Here God made provision for bringing a goat or a lamb when “one of the common people” had transgressed. After the sin had been transferred to the animal by confession, the substitute was slain, and the priest dipped his finger in the blood and dabbed it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering. The promise of forgiveness applied in this case just as when the priest sprinkled the blood in the holy place: “The priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him” (Leviticus 4:35).
How did this sin get into the sanctuary? When the priest did not sprinkle the blood in the holy place, he ate a portion of the sacrifice (see Leviticus 6:25, 26). Concerning this, Moses told the priests, “God hath given it [to] you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:17, 18).
Similarly, Christ bears our sins in His own body—not only on Calvary but in the heavenly sanctuary. He was “offered in sacrifice in order that He might bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28, Weymouth). On the cross He bore our sins as the Dying Lamb. In the sanctuary He bears them as the Living Priest. How long must He carry them? We will answer this question as we study further. R&R WDF
