Wednesday: The Good News of the Most Holy Place
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 22nd of May 2024
Read Hebrews 4:14-16 and Hebrews 10:19-22. What assurance and divine invitation do these verses give to each one of us?
Paul’s point here in Hebrews is “hold fast,” “come boldly,” “never give up,” focus your faith on Jesus, our great High Priest. In Jesus, we have all we need. By faith we may enter the heavenly sanctuary through the “new and living way” that Jesus has opened for us.
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Looking into the court, we see blood on the horns of the brazen altar. In the Holy Place, we see blood on the golden horns of the altar of incense. We behold the sprinkled blood on the curtain before the mercy seat.
Jesus’ blood prepares the way at every step. This gives us hope since we can have reunion with God only if Jesus pardons us and blots out our sins. The mercy of God is infinite, but so is His justice. And justice cannot accept Christ’s sacrifice as atonement for our transgressions unless Jesus guarantees first to forgive our sins and second to blot them out.
Read Revelation 11:19. In the context of the great controversy, why is this vision significant? How does it show the inseparable link between the law and the gospel?
Here in the dazzling brightness and blazing glory of the presence of God, in the throne room of the universe, at the very base of God’s throne, we discover the law of God in the ark of the covenant. Here in the Most Holy Place, God’s justice and mercy are revealed. No earthly power can change God’s law because, among other reasons, it is enshrined in the ark of the covenant in heaven. Hebrews 8:10 says: “ ‘For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’ ” (NKJV). Entering by faith into heaven’s sanctuary, we find pardon for our past sins and power to live an obedient life through Christ, who died for us and writes the law in our hearts. Jesus saves us to the “uttermost” (Hebrews 7:25). Jesus saves us totally and completely—from the penalty of sin and from its power.
Why is Jesus’ intercession such incredibly good news? As we stand before the law as the standard of righteousness, what hope would we have without the gospel?
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For our evening worship, Carmel and I typically read or listen to a couple of chapters of the Bible. (Carmel reads and when it is my turn I use one of the audio Bibles because Carmel complains that I mumble!) We had been reading through Joshua and Judges and that is really hard reading. You don't get many sermons based on large sections of those books. This week we wanted something a bit different and so we switched to Hebrews. Of course the current lesson provided a good reason for this choice.
One of the benefits of reading the whole epistle in a relatively short time is you get a big picture sense of the theme the author is developing. If you want to understand more about Christ's ministry in the Most Holy place I suggest that reading Hebrews this week is one of the best places to start.
Here is a sampler taken from Eugene Peterson's paraphrase in contemporary English:
... and there is more where that came from!
"Why is Jesus' intercession such incredibly good news? As we stand before the law as the standard of righteousness, what hope would we have without the gospel?"
May Jesus be our judge because we all have fallen apart, we all have sinned, and thus, we all deserve to die. But let Him be our final judge, because with Him and through Him, ALL things are possible, including forgiveness and blotting out of our sins.
"Jesus’ blood prepares the way at every step. This gives us hope since we can have reunion with God only if Jesus pardons us* and blots out (read: cleanses) our sins. The mercy of God is infinite, but so is His justice. And justice cannot accept Christ’s sacrifice as atonement for our transgressions unless Jesus guarantees first to forgive our sins* and second to blot (again, read: cleanses) them out." *Comment: He guaranteed to pardon our sins at Calvary; he now is cleansing the individuals and the corporate body of his church "from all unrighteousness" 1John 1:9. In 1844 (and subsequently) Christ cleansed his church from breaking the commandments by restoring the Sabbath among them, removing idol worship, restoring knowledge of his character of love. And he promised to make us "without spot" “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
(Ephesians 5:26-27, AV) Good news for sinners, good news for the church!
Why is Jesus' intercession such good news? Well, I always remember in Luke 22 (vv.31-32) where Jesus tells Peter that satan has asked for permission to "...sift you as wheat:But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not..." I find that portion of scripture as comforting as it must have been for the Apostle back in the day. If this same Jesus is making intercession for me, I will make it...no matter how turbulent times get, my faith will hold. I believe that💯 because He is faithful that promised. I just pray for grace to appropriate this sure promise in my daily living.🙏🏾
This is so amazing to me as to how in Hebrews 10:19,20 the Apostle Paul is counseling believers of his day to "Enter the Holiest by the blood of Chris." Then goes on to be specific that it is "Through the veil" and that "The Veil" is "His Flesh." But how could Paul be counseling believers of his day to do this when according to our "Seventh Day Adventist Beliefs" Jesus was not there until close to 2,000 years down the line in 1844?
Perhaps the easiest way to understand it Pete is to consider that what Christ does for us has a timeless application, God has interacted with us it time and at places because that is our environment. But God is not dependent on time or location. We should remember that the plan of salvation was not a Plan B thought up quickly to get God out of an emergency situation but rather, Plan A, in there right from the beginning. The death of Jesus occurred about 2000 years ago but everyone who ever lived, past, present and future has the opportunity for salvation. Likewise Christ's role as our advocate, projected to us as starting relatively recently, has implications for everyone who has ever lived. We are the ones who must have times and locations. For God, those things are unimportant.
Pete, a more detailed answer to your question has to do with the Greek word that Paul uses to describe the Sanctuary and the two apartments. The word is hagion
(hag'-ee-on) Strong's G39 it means sanctuary or holy place. Paul is very careful to define how he will describe the sanctuary and its two apartments in Heb. 9:1-5. He uses hagion to refer to the sanctuary as a whole or the first apartment and hagia hagion to refer to the second apartment.
In Heb. 10:19 the greek word is just hagion, so the correct translation is 'sanctuary or holy place'.
With regard to veil note that there are two veils in the sanctuary and the most holy comes after the second veil (see Heb. 9:3). I hope this helps clear up the confusion that the mistranslation of hagion in the KJV of Heb. 10:19 caused.
Thanks for the question that's an area in which there seems to be a lot of confusion because it seems many Bible translators do not follow Paul's careful definitions and just translate what they think it should be.