He " shall sit and rule upon His throne ; and He shall be a priest upon His throne ." Not now " upon the throne of His glory ;" the kingdom of glory has not yet been ushered in . Not until His work as a mediator shall be ended will God " give unto Him the throne of His father David ," a kingdom of which " there shall be no end ." Luke 1:32 , 33 . As a priest , Christ is now set down with the Father in His throne . Revelation 3:21 . Upon the throne with the eternal , selfexistent One is He who " hath borne our griefs , and carried our sorrows ," who " was in all points tempted like as we are , yet without sin ," that He might be " able to succor them that are tempted ." " If any man sin , we have an advocate with the Father ." Isaiah 53:4 ; Hebrews 4:15 ; 2:18 ; 1 John 2:1 . His intercession is that of a pierced and broken body , of a spotless life . The wounded hands , the pierced side , the marred feet , plead for fallen man , whose redemption was purchased at such infinite cost .
" And the counsel of peace shall be between Them both ." The love of the Father , no less than of the Son , is the fountain of salvation for the lost race . Said Jesus to His disciples before He went away : " I say not unto you , that I will pray the Father for you : for the Father Himself loveth you ." John 16:26 , 27 . God was " in Christ , reconciling the world unto Himself ." 2 Corinthians 5:19 . And in the ministration in the sanctuary above , " the counsel of peace shall be between Them both ." " God so loved the world , that He gave His only-begotten Son , that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish , but have everlasting life ." John 3:16 .
The question , What is the sanctuary ? is clearly answered in the Scriptures . The term " sanctuary ," as used in the Bible , refers , first , to the tabernacle built by Moses , as a pattern of heavenly things ; and , secondly , to the " true tabernacle " in heaven , to which the earthly sanctuary pointed . At the death of Christ the typical service ended . The " true tabernacle " in heaven is the sanctuary of the new covenant . And as the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 is fulfilled in this dispensation , the sanctuary to which it refers must be the sanctuary of the new covenant . At the termination of the 2300 days , in 1844 , there had been no sanctuary on earth for many centuries . Thus the prophecy , " Unto two thousand and three hundred days ; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed ," unquestionably points to the sanctuary in heaven .
But the most important question remains to be answered : What is the cleansing of the sanctuary ? That there was such a service in connection with the earthly sanctuary is stated in the Old Testament Scriptures . But can there be anything in heaven to be cleansed ? In Hebrews 9 the cleansing of both the earthly and the heavenly sanctuary is plainly taught . " Almost all things are by the law purged with blood ; and without shedding of blood is no remission . It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [ the
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