What is the Sanctuary?
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In the temple in heaven, the dwelling place of God, His throne
is established in righteousness and judgment. In the most holy place
is His law, the great rule of right by which all mankind are tested.
The ark that enshrines the tables of the law is covered with the mercy
seat, before which Christ pleads His blood in the sinner’s behalf.
Thus is represented the union of justice and mercy in the plan of
human redemption. This union infinite wisdom alone could devise
and infinite power accomplish; it is a union that fills all heaven with
wonder and adoration. The cherubim of the earthly sanctuary, looking
reverently down upon the mercy seat, represent the interest with which
the heavenly host contemplate the work of redemption. This is the
mystery of mercy into which angels desire to look—that God can be
just while He justifies the repenting sinner and renews His intercourse
with the fallen race; that Christ could stoop to raise unnumbered
multitudes from the abyss of ruin and clothe them with the spotless
garments of His own righteousness to unite with angels who have
never fallen and to dwell forever in the presence of God.
The work of Christ as man’s intercessor is presented in that beau-
tiful prophecy of Zechariah concerning Him “whose name is the
Branch.” Says the prophet: “He shall build the temple of the Lord; and
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He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His [the Father’s]
throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne: and the counsel of
peace shall be between Them both.”
Zechariah 6:12, 13
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“He shall build the temple of the Lord.” By His sacrifice and
mediation Christ is both the foundation and the builder of the church
of God. The apostle Paul points to Him as “the chief Cornerstone;
in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy
temple in the Lord: in whom ye also,” he says, “are builded together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:20-22
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“He shall bear the glory.” To Christ belongs the glory of redemption
for the fallen race. Through the eternal ages, the song of the ransomed
ones will be: “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in
His own blood, ... to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”
Revelation 1:5, 6
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He “shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon
His throne.” Not now “upon the throne of His glory;” the kingdom of
glory has not yet been ushered in. Not until His work as a mediator
shall be ended will God “give unto Him the throne of His father David,”