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Patriarchs and Prophets
so the typical ministration consisted of two divisions, the daily and the
yearly service, and to each a department of the tabernacle was devoted.
As Christ at His ascension appeared in the presence of God to
plead His blood in behalf of penitent believers, so the priest in the
daily ministration sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice in the holy place
in the sinner’s behalf.
The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner
from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would
stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement; so in the
type the blood of the sin offering removed the sin from the penitent,
but it rested in the sanctuary until the Day of Atonement.
In the great day of final award, the dead are to be “judged out
of those things which were written in the books, according to their
works.”
Revelation 20:12
. Then by virtue of the atoning blood of
Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books
of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the
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record of sin. In the type, this great work of atonement, or blotting out
of sins, was represented by the services of the Day of Atonement—the
cleansing of the earthly sanctuary, which was accomplished by the
removal, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, of the sins by which
it had been polluted.
As in the final atonement the sins of the truly penitent are to be
blotted from the records of heaven, no more to be remembered or come
into mind, so in the type they were borne away into the wilderness,
forever separated from the congregation.
Since Satan is the originator of sin, the direct instigator of all the
sins that caused the death of the Son of God, justice demands that Satan
shall suffer the final punishment. Christ’s work for the redemption
of men and the purification of the universe from sin will be closed
by the removal of sin from the heavenly sanctuary and the placing of
these sins upon Satan, who will bear the final penalty. So in the typical
service, the yearly round of ministration closed with the purification
of the sanctuary, and the confessing of the sins on the head of the
scapegoat.
Thus in the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the temple that
afterward took its place, the people were taught each day the great
truths relative to Christ’s death and ministration, and once each year
their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great