John 1:14 - And the Word (undiminished deity) became flesh (true humanity), and dwelt among us (the Incarnation), and we (James, Peter, and John) beheld His glory (the visual manifestation of the Uniform of Glory), glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (Bible Doctrine).
In our previous lessons we reviewed the doctrines that relate to TLJC in his first advent when he was incarnated via the virgin birth.
We started our study with a discussion of the doctrine of the virgin birth that was necessary for there to be no transmission of the OSN and then took up the doctrine of the hypostatic union that explains the mechanics of how undiminished deity and true humanity reside in the person of TLJC and then discussed the doctrine of the kenosis that defines God the Father's protocol for the deity and humanity of TLJC in hypostatic union.
In the context of these doctrines, we have been looking at some of the names and titles for our Lord Jesus Christ in order to see more clearly what God has done for us through him, so we can more completely understand who TLJC is and what he has done for us, and from our knowledge of him have our confidence established in him by being occupied with him. Heb 12:2;
We are now discussing TLJC as the Royal High Priest and believers who are in union with him as members of the Royal Priesthood.
Previously in our study we noted that TLJC our Messiah is the Great High Priest Heb 4:14; and church age believers are believer priests 1Peter 2:5-9.
When we stopped last time we were discussing the fact that our priesthood is a better priesthood because it is based on virtue and values of perfect integrity and since it is based on second birth it is an eternal priesthood. We have a better priesthood because we have eternal life and a better spiritual life, and the church as the eternal priesthood must be completed before God's plan can advance.
Our spiritual life is the highest form of virtue and values that has ever existed or will exist in human history. Our spiritual life is completely different under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.
Our priesthood has greater escrow blessings for time and eternity.
Our impact as priests is better because it involves becoming invisible heroes in time and visible heroes in eternity. Rev 3:12;
Our priesthood is based on the once and for all sacrifice of TLJC not on ritual.
Heb 10:1-10; "For the Law, having a shadow of coming good things, but not the real image of those events, was never able with those sacrifices which they kept on offering year by year to bring to completion those who continued to approach the altar.
v2 Otherwise, they would not have ceased being offered. Why? Because the worshipers, having once been purified, would no longer be having a consciousness of sins.
v3 But in those same sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.
v4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
v5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He says, `You have not willed sacrifice and offering (as a solution to the problem of sin), but a body You have prepared for Me;
v6 You have not been propitiated by whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.'
v7 At that time (the virgin birth), I said, `Behold, I have arrived (in an Old Testament scroll of a book it stands written concerning Me) to accomplish Your will, O God.'
v8 After saying the above, `Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not willed as a solution, nor been propitiated by them' (that which is being offered according to the Law),
v9 then He said, `Behold, I have arrived to do Your will.' He has rescinded the first that He might establish the second (the new covenant to the Church).
v10 Through the agency of which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
These ritual shadow offerings included the burnt offering that corresponded to propitiation with emphasis on the salvation ministry of our Lord.
The food offering that corresponded propitiation with emphasis on the perfect humanity of Christ in hypostatic union.
The peace offering, corresponding to reconciliation.
The sin offering corresponding to acknowledgment of sins with emphasis on the unknown sins,
The trespass offering corresponding to acknowledgement of sins with emphasis on known sins.
These ritual offering were offered by the Levitical priesthood for 1511 years from 1441B.C. until 70 A.D.
These all pointed to the real sacrifice where God the Father prepared a human body for our Lord Jesus Christ so that our Lord would be able to carry our sins in His own body on the Cross.
The Cross was the end of these ritual offerings and the legitimate function of the Levitical priesthood, but they refused to quit offering the ritual sacrifices because they did not believe in TLJC having rejected him as their Messiah.
Jesus Christ had to have a human body to be true humanity in order to become the efficacious sacrifice for sin that is the basis for the New Covenant for the church. 1Cor 11:25;
This new covenant to the Church was completely unknown to the Old Testament believers.
This new covenant includes a new priesthood, a new spiritual life, the filling of the Spirit, and a completed canon of Scripture with mystery doctrine that has now been revealed.
This new covenant of the blood of Christ was announced by our Lord at the last supper and is a part of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age. We do not have a new will and testament, but a living covenant. Our new covenant could not even be mentioned during the age of Israel.
The new covenant to the Church is the best covenant because it gives the best spiritual life of all human history to church age believers.
The future new covenant for Israel is described in Jer 31:31-34; It was revealed in the Old Testament and is not a part of the mystery doctrine of the Church.
During the millennium the Levitical priesthood will offer animal sacrifices as their memorial of the Cross. The Levitical offerings of the old covenant to Israel will be integrated into the new covenant to Israel, which will be fulfilled in the millennial reign of Christ.
The new covenant to Israel takes the filling of the Holy Spirit from the new covenant to the Church because we have superior covenant. We take nothing from the new covenant to Israel.
The filling of the Holy Spirit that occurs in the millennium as part of the new covenant to Israel is different than the filling of the Holy Spirit during the Church Age. The filling of the Holy Spirit during the millennium is designed to appreciate the presence of Jesus Christ on earth.
Jesus Christ became true humanity to function as a royal high priest for the Church Age believers as the high priest of an eternal universal priesthood:
1Pet 2:5; "You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
1Pet 2:9; "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
Rev 1:5-6; "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, furthermore the ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who keeps on loving us and released us from our sins by His blood.
v6 And He made us a kingdom of priests to God and His father. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever."
He is also the mediator between God and mankind, Job 9:2, 32-33. He is the mediator of the old covenant and of two new covenants.
Sanctification has integrated church age believers into a new covenant with God as priests. Church Age believers are confirmed as priests by positional sanctification at the moment of salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Post-salvation experiential sanctification is the result of the function of the unique spiritual life of human history.
Ultimate sanctification transfers and extends the eternal universal, royal priesthood into the eternal state.
There are three agents of this sanctification: God the Holy Spirit, 1Cor 6:11; 2Thes 2:13; 1Pet 1:2; God the Son, Heb 10:10; 1Cor 1:2,30; and Bible doctrine, John 17:17;
There are two new covenants, the new covenant to the Church that is presently in operation, and one that will not be operational until the millennial reign of our Lord.
A priesthood demands a covenant. We have a new covenant to go with our priesthood. Our new covenant is based on the finished work of TLJC on the cross as represented in the only ritual in the church age, the Eucharist or Lord's Table.
God's covenants define His gracious promises and provision. A covenant is a contract that extends favor and special privilege. For the church this is our salvation, our unique spiritual life, our resurrection and all of the other assets related to election and predestination.
There are two parties in this covenant to the Church and one mediator. God the Father is one party. All Church believers are the other party. Jesus Christ is the mediator.
1Tim 2:5-6; "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom substitute for all, the statement brought out in testimony of its own time."
Heb 9:15, "And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place resulting in the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, those who are being called may receive the promise of an eternal inheritance (a priesthood in a resurrection body in the eternal state)."
Our Lord is an intermediary between two parties to effect reconciliation and to provide special benefits (the portfolio of invisible assets) to those who are being reconciled.
Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God the Father by removing the barrier between God and man.
Our spiritual life is based on what God the Father has provided through the mediator, God the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
The new covenant to Israel is used to challenge us to live our spiritual life according to the protocol of the new covenant to the Church. God's covenants with Israel are used to illustrate God's covenant with the Church.
Heb 10:15-17; and Heb 8:8-12; quote Jer 31:33-34; that describes part of the new covenant to Israel.
Heb 10:15-17; "And the Holy Spirit bearing witness to us; for after He said (Heb 8:8-12;), `This is the covenant that I will make with them (Israel in the millennium) after those days (Tribulation),' says the Lord. `I will put My laws upon their hearts and upon their minds I will write them( Spirit taught doctrine), Both their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'"
Heb 10:18, "Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer an offering for sin." Jesus Christ was the offering for sin, and we are forgiven all past sins the moment we believe in Christ.
There is a offering for sin in the millennium, described in Ezek 43:19; but not in our spiritual life under the royal priesthood of the new covenant to the Church.
There is no ritual sin offering during the Church Age. We operate under aegis of the once and for all offering of TLJC on the cross.
Heb 10:19-23; "Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus,
v20 by a new and living way (the unique spiritual life of the Church Age) which He opened for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
v21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
v22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of doctrine, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water (acknowledgement of sin).
v23 Let us hold fast the acknowledgement of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful who promised."
Only the Levitical high priest could enter the Holy of Holies during the old covenant once a year on the day of Atonement. But now that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law we can enter the Holy of Holies at any time.
Today, as members of the universal royal priesthood, We, can freely enter the Holy of Holies by a new and living way.
The "new and living way" is the protocol of the new covenant to the Church.
There must be metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness and consistent acknowledgment of known sins in this "new and living way". The quote from Jeremiah is used to illustrate this.
Our Lord has permanently opened the veil into the Holy of Holies for us. Matt 27:51; Mark 15:37-38; records that the veil was torn opened at the moment of His physical death.
Ever since Nebuchanezzer destroyed Solomon's temple the Holy of Holies was empty. There was no ark of the covenant and no mercy seat. Jesus Christ opened the veil to let people into the empty room.
The high priest kept going into an empty room and sprinkling blood from the time of Zerubbabel's temple.
The veil was at least thirty feet high and eighteen inches thick, but the room behind it was empty because the Holy of Holies was no longer the Holy of Holies. It was empty to represent the resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ to the true Holy of Holies in heaven. It was empty because our High Priest is in heaven and there is a new covenant to the Church.
When the Jews came back to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel they had to operate on Bible doctrine in the soul. The empty room meant they did not need the furniture any longer; they had a soul full of metabolized doctrine that became the anchor in their soul.
We have an absolute confidence based on the empty room, a reminder of the importance of the word of God that is the metabolized doctrine in the soul.
Heb 6:18-20; "in order that by two immutable things (the sacred oath of God and God Himself), by which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge might have strong motivation to seize the hope (absolute confidence in the word of God) that is set before us,
v19 This hope (absolute confidence) we have as an anchor of the soul both secure and reliable, and one which enters (the Holy of Holies) behind the veil,
v20 where Jesus, our advanced guard, has entered for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."
We take refuge in the word of God that is doctrine in our stream of consciousness. The Bible doctrine that fills the believer's soul provides them a full room.
Church Age believer priests fill the empty room behind the veil. The anchor inside the veil is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our High Priest does not dwell between the cherubs but is seated at the right hand of the Father in the true Holy of Holies. The empty room is a reminder that we will enter the true Holy of Holies in heaven after the exit resurrection.
The "house of God", the true Holy of Holies, is at the right hand of God in heaven.
Our hope is brought to completion by the eternal security that is guaranteed to us at our salvation, by the unique spiritual life of history, and by that day when we will take our place in heaven in our resurrection body, that is represented on this earth by an empty room.