The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

204 abe Doliest of 2111
appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, so Christ must have some
thing to offer too. Now
if He were on earth, He would not be a
priest at all, seeing there are priests according to the law. Christ
belongs to an entirely different sphere. With the body which He
offered on earth, and the blood He shed, He has passed away
out of the visible into the invisible realm of spiritual worship
and life. Heaven is the sphere of His ministry. When God
said to Moses, to make all
according to the pattern showed him
in the mount, to serve as a shadow of the heavenly things ;
in
the very appointment of the tabernacle, there was the indication
that it was but a copy and promise of the true tabernacle, with
its
heavenly sanctuary. The heavens where Jesus sits on the
throne, they are the true tabernacle; and the High Priest
the throne is at the same time the Minister of the sanctuary.
A Minister of the sanctuary. The King
is still a servant
All the ministry or service of the priests in
on
the tabernacle had
its fulfilment in Him. The priests served in the tabernacle day
by day, ordered everything for the service of God according to
His will ;
as representatives of the people they received the
assurance of God s favour, and brought them out God s blessing.
Jesus is the Minister of the heavenly sanctuary. He represents us
there. He has opened up the way, and brought us in, and sends
down into our hearts the life and spirit of the true sanctuary ;
without ceasing He maintains the cleansing of His precious
blood in our conscience, and, in the power of an endless life,
enables us to worship in spirit and in truth, and to live our
earthly life in the presence
and the favour of God. As the
exalted Priest-King He does it all in an infinite, a divine power.
As the Minister of the sanctuary, He does it with all the sympathy
and the gentle forbearance which we have seen to mark Him as
made like to His brethren in all things.