FIRST QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #10
MARCH 5, 2022
“JESUS OPENS THE WAY THROUGH THE VEIL”

 

(The following is an adaptation of A.T. Jones; Consecrated Way, pp 76-85)

 

This week we are looking at “The Way” through the veil. That “Way” being Jesus Who Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:3.

 

God’s great purpose of the true sanctuary, its priesthood and ministry is that He may dwell with and in the hearts of His people. (Exodus 25:8) Sin is an obscuring and separating force (Isaiah 59:2) and it is sin that the gospel and the true sanctuary removes so that separation can be banished and His dwelling and communion with and in us can be restored. This is the “Way” that Jesus opened for us all, the “Way” to God that is to be found in the sanctuary. (Psalms 77:13).

 

It is the way that Jesus consecrated for us. It is the way to completeness and the utter limit of the Christian life. It is the way back to oneness with God and removal of all that keeps Him from dwelling with us. This is the true purpose of the gospel and the true sanctuary.

 

Paul introduces a term in Hebrews chapter 5 that he will use 9 times in the remainder of this book. This word has everything to do with the “Way” that Jesus has opened and is essential to understanding Paul’s point in Hebrews. In speaking of Jesus Paul says, “in the days of His flesh, … He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Hebrews 5:7-9

 

Now when we speak about Jesus none of us get uncomfortable speaking about Him perfected. But check out what follows this passage. It is because of this completeness of Jesus “having been perfected” and the “eternal salvation” that He authored that Paul continues with the therefore in Hebrews 6:1 - “therefore let us leave the elementary…and let us go on to perfection. There it is again. OK, now we can start to get uncomfortable because now we are talking about us. Usually about this time we want to start to change the definition of perfection in some way to mean, well, not really perfect. The word in this case simply means complete or ultimate limit. So, if you feel uncomfortable when the word perfect comes up feel free to substitute with complete or ultimate limit.

 

In the rest of the book, Paul then qualifies how completion or Christian perfection can never be obtained. It cannot be obtained through the Levitical priesthood, the law, or the sacrificial system.

 

“Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood … what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?” Hebrews 7:11.

 

“for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.” Hebrews 7:19.

 

“It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience” Hebrews 9:9

 

And while the earthly service could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to conscience there was a way that could: “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Holy Places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:11-14

 

The wages and results of sin are death (Romans 6:23). So dead works are simply any works that have sin in them, works polluted with self, works not centered in or motivated by love. “Then the purging the conscience from dead works would be the entire cleansing of the soul from sin, by the blood of Christ, through the eternal Spirit, that in the life the works of the believer in Jesus sin shall have no place; the works shall be only works of faith, and the life shall be only the life of faith, and so be only the true and pure service of the living God.” A.T. Jones; CWCP 78

 

Paul repeats the shortcoming of the Levitical system: “The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Hebrews 10:1-4

 

Why is there a remembrance of sin year by year? One major reason would be that without a clear understanding of Who the offering represented and that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” and “He made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21) the offerings would simply be a round of ceremony with little concept of the cost of our salvation, and a dim view of the forgiveness, mercy and love of God. Without an understanding of the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world there would be obscurity of how God really felt toward them and lingering doubts would flood their conscience. This would result in a constant striving to self-motivated works (like offering sacrifices) to earn His favor.

 

In addition, there was no power to change a heart and hence the continual cycle of sin and slay, sin and slay, sin and slay. Year after year, generation after generation, they would bring the offerings. And while completion and perfection was always the aim in all the ministry that was performed under the law, it was not obtained by any of those services. It would only be achieved by the One the services pointed to. Thus, “the true sacrifice and the true ministry in “the sanctuary and the true tabernacle” do make the comers thereunto perfect, and this perfection consists in the worshipers having “no more conscience, of sins.”” A. T. Jones, CWCP 79

 

“Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come — In the volume of the book it is written of Me — To do Your will, O God.’ “Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” Hebrews 10:5-9

 

Notice two things are mentioned here. Two things are brought into contrast. One of those things is taken away and the second thing replaces it. The first thing is the burnt offering and sacrifices for sin. The perpetual sin, sacrifice, sin, sacrifice way of living was not what God ever desired. And this Jesus came to take away. He comes to take it away by establishing the second thing. That second thing is “To do Your will, O God”. The endless round of sacrifices will only come to an end when it is replaced by “doing the will of God”. But this could never be accomplished by those sacrifices, burnt offerings, and offering for sin which were offered by the Levitical priesthood—they could not make the comers thereunto perfect. They could not so purge the worshipers that they should have no more conscience of sin.

 

“The sacrifices and the service in the earthly sanctuary could not take away the sins of men and so could not bring them to this perfection. But the sacrifice and the ministry of the true High Priest in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle do accomplish this. This does take away utterly every sin. And the worshiper is so truly purged that he has no more conscience of sins. By the sacrifice, the offering, and the service of Himself, Christ took away the sacrifices and the offerings and the service which could never take away sins, and by His perfect doing of the perfect will of God He established the will of God. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10. A. T. Jones; CWCP 81

 

“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:11-14

 

Perfection in every aspect comes only through the sacrifice, priesthood, and service of Jesus in the true tabernacle which was erected by God and not man. “But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Now where there is remission (removal, release from. liberty) of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” Hebrews 10:15-19 (emphasis supplied)

 

“And this is the “new and living way” which Christ, through the flesh, “hath consecrated for us”—for all mankind—and by which every soul may enter into the holiest of all—the holiest of all places, the holiest of all experiences, the holiest of all relationships the holiest of all living. This new and living way He “hath consecrated for us through the flesh;” that is, He, coming in the flesh, identifying Himself with mankind in the flesh, has, for us who are in this flesh, consecrated a way from where we are to where He now is, at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens in the holiest of all.

 

In His coming in the flesh—having been made in all things like unto us and having been tempted in all points like as we are—He has identified Himself with every human soul just where that soul is. And from the place where every human soul is, He has consecrated for that soul a new and living way through all the vicissitudes and experiences of a whole lifetime, and even through death and the tomb, into the holiest of all at the right hand of God for evermore.

 

O that consecrated way! Consecrated by His temptations and sufferings, by His prayers and tears, by His holy living and sacrificial dying, by His triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension, and by His triumphal entry into the holiest of all, at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens!

 

And this “way” He has consecrated for us. He, having become one of us, has made this way our way; it belongs to us. He has endowed every soul with divine right to walk in this consecrated way, and by His having done it Himself in the flesh—in our flesh—He has made it possible, yea, He has given actual assurance, that every human soul can walk in that way, in all that that way is and by it enter fully and freely into the holiest of all.

 

He, as one of us, in our human nature, weak as we, laden with the sins of the world, in our sinful flesh, in this world, a whole lifetime, lived a life “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” and “was made” and ascended “higher than the heavens.” And by this He has made and consecrated a way by which, in Him, every believer can in this world and for a whole lifetime, live a life holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and as a consequence be made with Him higher than the heavens.”  A. T. Jones; CWCP 82, 83

 

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” And “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised.” Hebrews 10:20

 

May we all embrace and never let go of this promise and may the realities of the gospel find home in our hearts and expression in our lives by the “New and Living Way”. And when this is complete “in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God will be finished…” Revelation 10:7

 

Even so come Lord Jesus.

 

-Kelly Kinsley