Chapter 25—God’s Law Immutable
The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in
His temple the ark of His testament.”
Revelation 11:19
. The ark of
God’s testament is in the holy of holies, the second apartment of the
sanctuary. In the ministration of the earthly tabernacle, which served
“unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,” this apartment was
opened only upon the great Day of Atonement for the cleansing of
the sanctuary. Therefore the announcement that the temple of God
was opened in heaven and the ark of His testament was seen points to
the opening of the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844
as Christ entered there to perform the closing work of the atonement.
Those who by faith followed their great High Priest as He entered upon
His ministry in the most holy place, beheld the ark of His testament.
As they had studied the subject of the sanctuary they had come to
understand the Saviour’s change of ministration, and they saw that
He was now officiating before the ark of God, pleading His blood in
behalf of sinners.
The ark in the tabernacle on earth contained the two tables of stone,
upon which were inscribed the precepts of the law of God. The ark
was merely a receptacle for the tables of the law, and the presence of
these divine precepts gave to it its value and sacredness. When the
temple of God was opened in heaven, the ark of His testament was
seen. Within the holy of holies, in the sanctuary in heaven, the divine
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law is sacredly enshrined—the law that was spoken by God Himself
amid the thunders of Sinai and written with His own finger on the
tables of stone.
The law of God in the sanctuary in heaven is the great original,
of which the precepts inscribed upon the tables of stone and recorded
by Moses in the Pentateuch were an unerring transcript. Those who
arrived at an understanding of this important point were thus led to
see the sacred, unchanging character of the divine law. They saw, as
never before, the force of the Saviour’s words: “Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.”
Matthew
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