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PAGE 89
(iv) JEWS AND GENTILES IN RELATION TO
THE NEW COVENANT
We come now to the
consideration of the difficulty seemingly involved in
Paul's doctrine when regarded in the light of Ezekiel's
testimony, Jesus is now the High Priest of God, and the
only one that exists, or will ever exist in relation
to man. He has had no rival since the Mosaic Covenant "vanished
away". (Heb. 8:13) He is God's high priest for those,
both Jews and Gentiles who have been reconciled to God
through his name -- that is, who believe God's promises
concerning the kingdom, and the things concerning Jesus,
and have been united to his name by baptism. This is
equivalent to saying, who have been reconciled through
the belief and obedience of the gospel of the kingdom
-- through the obedience of faith. Of the things concerning
Jesus are the things pertaining to his divine sonship,
his spotless and unblemished character, his sacrificial
death and resurrection, etc., constituting him God's
Lamb, holy and without blemish, having neither spot,
nor wrinkle, or any such thing, of his own free will
once offered to bear the sins of many. Thus he was at
once the sacrifice and the priest; for "he offered
up himself"; as he said, "I lay down my life
for the sheep. Therefore doth my Father love me, because
I lay down my life, that I might take it up again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I
have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
up again. This commandment have I received of my Father" (Heb.
7:27; John 10:15,17,18). Being thus the Lamb slain, he
resumed his life, and entered into the presence of God
before whom he stands as the blood-sprinkled Ark of the
Covenant (Rev. 11:19), in whom is deposited the Law hereafter
to go forth from Zion, and the life of his sheep, whose
sins he bears away (Col. 3:3; Heb. 9:28); and thus they
are sanctified by the dedicated covenant through the
once offering of his body: so that "by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Heb.
10:10,14).
Now these sanctified ones are a purified people, whose "hearts" or
minds and dispositions, have been "purified by faith" (Acts
15:9) -- faith in the promises of God, and in "the blood
of sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of
Abel". (Heb. 12:24) The blood of Jesus is the blood of
sprinkling which gushed forth from his side as "an offering" or
purification "for sin". The poor in spirit and the
meek, the honest and good hearts, that by faith appreciate
the virtue of this sprinkled blood, and have become the subjects
of repentance and remission in his name, are said to be "sprinkled
from an evil conscience" and to have "washed the
body with pure water" (Heb. 10:22). They are "the
children of the promise",(Gal. 4:28) or covenant; because
in becoming Christ's they have believed the promises, and
have been purified by "the blood of the covenant".
(Zec. 9:11; Heb. 10:29) As yet they walk by faith in the things
believed, and not by sight. Faith, which is "the substance
of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen",
(Heb. 11:1) is the mirror which reflects the things of the
approaching future, and presents them to the believer's mind
as though he were beholding, and personally in the presence
of, the very things themselves. Hence, it is said to such, "Ye
are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the City of the living
God, to Jerusalem the heavenly, and to the myriads of angels,
to a general convocation, even to an assembly of first-borns
enrolled for the heavens (en ouranols), and to God the judge
of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to
Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of
the sprinkling which speaks better things than that of Abel" (Heb.
12:22-24). Ye are come by faith to these things, which at
present ye do dimly contemplate; but which ye shall see no
longer as through a glass darkly, but face to face in the
presence of the Lord.
Now these, whose hearts are sprinkled and their bodies washed,
are the only people on the earth since the entrance of Jesus
into the presence of God, for whom he officiates as "High
Priest over the House of God" (Heb. 10:2I;3:6). They
are "God's temple" "the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8:2). For forty
years this temple coexisted with that in Jerusalem; but since
the destruction of the latter it is the only temple of God
upon the earth, where gifts and offerings, called "spiritual
sacrifices", are offered acceptably to His name (1 Peter
2:5, 9). They become acceptable in being presented through
Jesus Christ. They who do the worship (and they are all the
faithful) enter into this holy place, or heavenly, which as
a whole they constitute, with the sprinkled blood of the covenant
upon their hearts. Purified once through faith in the blood-sprinkled
covenant of promise, hereafter to become the law of the kingdom,
there is in their case no more sacrifice for sin; "for
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified".
(Heb. 10:14) Yet, though thus sanctified, they continue to
offer spiritual sacrifices. All this is worshipping the Father
in spirit and in truth; which is the only service acceptable
to Him while His kingdom is in ruins, and prostrate at the
feet of the Gentiles.
But this worship in spirit and in truth (expressed in confession
of the hope (Heb. 10:23), praise, and prayer; in baptism;
and in eating and drinking of the symbols on the table of
the Lord) is the unburdensome privilege of those only who
through faith in the Covenant and its blood have become "heirs
of the kingdom". (James 2:5) When this is set up in Palestine,
the service is changed in form, but not in principle; and
from social becomes national. In the national service, the
higher priesthood, which consists of Jesus and the "children
God has given him", (Heb. 2:13)_ all immortal by resurrection,
or transformation, though they offer "the fat and the
blood"; (Ezek. 44:7,15) it is for the people and not
for themselves. They need no more sacrifice for sin; but being "priests
unto God" (Rev. 5:10), there needs must be something
for them to offer on account of the worshippers for whom they
officiate. The New Covenant, which we now accept as a matter
of faith and hope, has not yet been made with the House of
Judah and Israel. If it had, they would now be a united nation
in Palestine. It will be made with them when they are grafted
into their own olive and not before. At the engrafting, there
will be a great national celebration, called "a delivering
of the Covenant" (Ezek. 20:37): a delivering of the New
Covenant from Zion (Micah 4: 2), with a glorious, but not
such a terrible display of power as when the Covenant was
delivered from Sinai. The nation, or Twelve Tribes, having
been brought at length to acknowledge Jesus as High Priest
and King, are received unto favour; and being under the New
Covenant, as in former years they were under the Old, Jehovah
(Yahweh) becomes merciful to their unrighteousness, and proclaims
everlasting oblivion of all their past individual and national
offences by virtue of the royal blood of the Covenant, the
preciousness of which they then perceive and appreciate. This
amnesty, however, benefits that generation only to which the
Covenant is delivered and by which it is accepted. It affects
not the generations of Israel's rebellious dead; they are
the "cut off from the people".
Now, the question remains, when thus reconciled to God through
the blood of his Son, is the nation to have a religious service
or worship; and if they are, what is to be its principle,
and what its form? No one who understands the Bible would
affirm that the Twelve Tribes of Israel were to live in their
own land under the New Covenant for 1,000 years without any
national religious worship. To affirm this would be to say
in effect that God had prepared a Royal Priesthood for His
kingdom, but had provided no service for them to perform.
This is not admissible for a moment. There will be a service
under the New Covenant as there was under the Old. Its principle
will be memorial, not typical; even the extension of the principle
upon which is now celebrated the death and resurrection of
Jesus. Hence, the "reconciliation" will be a
memorial reconciliation made perfect by the blood of the Covenant
which institutes it. The reconciliation of the Old
Covenant was typical and imperfect; because the dedication
blood, being merely that of bulls and goats, could not perfect
the conscience in taking away of sins. When the Prince under
the New Covenant "prepares for himself and for all the
people of the land a bullock for a sin-offering" (Ezek.
45:22), it is memorial of his own sacrifice of himself, and
memorial of the reconciliation which the people enjoy through
the blood of the Covenant with which, through faith in it,
their hearts will be sprinkled then, as the true believers
are at present.
Such is the principle of the amended "service which pertains
to the Israelites" (Rom. 9:4). The form thereof is detailed
in Ezekiel more at large than we can present it here. It is
a service not of spiritual sacrifices, but of bloody sacrifices
of spiritual significance. The lower order of the priesthood,
mortal Levites, slay them for the people, and pass the fat
and blood from the tables at the north gate to the Altar,
where they are burned and sprinkled by the higher or immortal
priests, "the seed of Zadok", (Ezek. 43:19) before
the Lord. The past sins of the nation having been amnestied
at the delivering of the Covenant, there is henceforth no
more remembrance of sins once a year. The old Mosaic annual
atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month, at which
the tribes were to "afflict their souls", (Lev.
16:29,31; 23:27,32; Num.29:7) is not revived under the New
Covenant. It will form no part of the service then. It was
one of those things made, or appointed, that was removed when
the Lord shook the Mosaic heaven by the Roman power. There
will be no laver of water between the Temple and the Altar
for the seed of Zadok to wash themselves before they enter
the temple. These washings and carnal ordinances are also
abolished; for those who approach the altar and enter in are
like their Prince, holy and undefiled, being devoid of evil
in the flesh.
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