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Christ Died for the Individual, July 11
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1
Timothy 1:15
.
The most important part of the daily ministration was the service
performed in behalf of individuals. The repentant sinner brought his
offering to the door of the tabernacle, and placing his hand upon the
victim’s head, confessed his sins, thus in figure transferring them from
himself to the innocent sacrifice. By his own hand the animal was then
slain, and the blood was carried by the priest into the holy place and
sprinkled before the veil, behind which was the ark containing the law
that the sinner had transgressed. By this ceremony the sin was, through
the blood, transferred in figure to the sanctuary. In some cases the blood
was not taken into the holy place; but the flesh was then to be eaten by
the priest.... Both ceremonies alike symbolized the transfer of the sin
from the penitent to the sanctuary.
Such was the work that went on day by day throughout the year.
The sins of Israel being thus transferred to the sanctuary, the holy places
were defiled, and a special work became necessary for the removal of
the sins. God commanded that an atonement be made for each of the
sacred apartments, as for the altar, to “cleanse it, and hallow it from the
uncleanness of the children of Israel.”
Leviticus 16:19
.
Once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, the priest entered the
most holy place for the cleansing of the sanctuary. The work there
performed, completed the yearly round of ministration....
The earthly sanctuary was built ... according to the pattern shown ...
in the mount. It was “a figure for the time then present, in which were
offered both gifts and sacrifices”; its two holy places were “patterns of
things in the heavens”; Christ, our great high priest, is “a minister of the
sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not
man.”
Hebrews 9:9, 23
;
8:2
.
He appears in the presence of God, ... ready to accept the repentance
and to answer the prayers of His people.
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