Chapter 146—Christ the Mediator
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us.
Hebrews 9:24
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The sin of Adam and Eve caused a fearful separation between God and
man. And Christ steps in between fallen man and God, and says to man:
“You may yet come to the Father; there is a plan devised through which
God can be reconciled to man, and man to God; through a mediator you can
approach God.” And now He stands to mediate for you. He is the great High
Priest who is pleading in your behalf; and you are to come and present your
case to the Father through Jesus Christ. Thus you can find access to God.
Christ Jesus is represented as continually standing at the altar,
momentarily offering up the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is a
minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The
typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A
daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made, but the atoning
sacrifice through a mediator is essential because of the constant commission
of sin. Jesus is officiating in the presence of God, offering up His shed blood,
as it had been a lamb slain....
The religious services, the prayers, the praise, the penitent confession
of sin, ascend from true believers as incense to the heavenly sanctuary:
but passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled
that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God.... All
incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of
the blood of Christ. He holds before the Father the censer of His own merits,
in which there is no taint of earthly corruption. He gathers into this censer
the prayers, the praise, and the confessions of His people, and with these
He puts His own spotless righteousness. Then, perfumed with the merits of
Christ’s propitiation, the incense comes up before God wholly and entirely
acceptable....
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