such he lived and died. In all that he did, and in all that he refrained
belonged to others. The time had not yet come for his having to do with blood. Things that differ must not be confounded; the shadow must not be mixed up with the substance; the sacrifice must still be left in Levitical hands, and the altar must not be served by a son of Judah.
3. Typical.—He was himself the true sacrifice, the bearer of sin. As such he lived and died. In all that he did, and in all that he refrained from doing; in the places that he visited, and in the places that he abstained from visiting, he kept this in view. He was loaded with our sin, our curse, our condemnation, our leprosy; and, as such, he must keep at a distance from the holy and the clean. Not merely was he the rejected of men,—thrust outside their dwellings, their cities, their synagogues, having no place to lay his head, treated as a madman, a Samaritan, a devil; but he was the outcast, the condemned One; with the law's brand upon him; "made sin for us;" made "a curse for us." As such, his true place was outside the city of God; outside the dwelling of the Holy One. If permitted to resort to Jerusalem, he can only do so as a stranger or wayfaring man, who comes in with the crowd during the day, but retires at night. If allowed to frequent the temple, he can only come as far as the outer court, on the common footing of a sinner,—just as the publican might do. He might stand and see the daily sacrifice offered; he might watch the shedding of the blood and the consuming of the victim; but only as one of the crowd. He might stand, on the day of atonement, and see the two goats chosen by the high priest; he might listen to the confession of sin over the head of the one, and mark the pouring out of the other's blood; he might see the high priest take the basin, and carry the blood into the holiest, Himself standing on the outside, and, though the Blessed One, waiting amid the crowd to receive the priestly blessing of another. More than this he might not do. Were he to go beyond the circle thus marking off the limits within which he was to walk, he would not have been acting as the Sin-bearer, nor submitting to be dealt with as an outcast and a curse for us.
Sin had banished us from God, casting us out of his paradise, and hindering us from appearing in his presence. The Son of God came to take our place of banishment, that, by so doing, he might effect our restoration. He became, in all respects, a banished man. His birth in the stable of Bethlehem shewed us this. His flight into Egypt shewed it still more; as if, when he did come to earth, he was not to have a safe abode anywhere, save in a land of strangers. His abode at Nazareth, that ungodly city, shewed it again. His having to resort to the far mountain for prayer, instead of to his Father's house, which was the house of prayer, shewed this also. His never entering the holy parts of the temple, but always remaining outside, shewed this again. And, lastly, his death, "without the gate," finished the manifestation of his humbled, outcast condition here. He is so completely identified with the sinner, the outcast, the banished one, that he is not only deemed unworthy to live within Jerusalem, but even to die within its walls. As the great sin-offering, he goes without the camp, there to complete his sin-bearing work, and to sum up the testimony which his whole life had given, viz., that he was standing in the sinner's place, enduring the banishment of the banished one, bearing the curse of the cursed one, submitting to the condemnation of the condemned one; and never for one moment contradicting or modifying the testimony, intended to be given by his life, to his sinbearing character and work; never in anything, great or small, stepping beyond the limits that marked out his mysterious path on earth as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."
Christ's exclusion from the holy of holies would not have been a thing so noticeable, were it not that he had, of all others, a right to enter it,—nay, and to abide there. That inner shrine was his lawful and patrimonial dwelling, his true and proper home. No one, not even Aaron himself, could claim the right of entrance as he could. Not, indeed, as David's Son, but as David's Lord; not as the Son of Judah, but as the Son of God; not as possessed of ritual or legal warrant; but as the Holy One and the Just."
For that solemn chamber, where were the ark, and the mercy-seat, and the cherubim, and the glory, was the special emblem of Jehovah's highest habitation; the type of the presence-chamber in the very heaven of heavens; nay, may we not say, the symbol of that very "bosom of the Father" out of which the only-begotten Son came forth? That holy habitation above had been his abode from eternity; and what, then, more natural than that when he came to earth he should take up his dwelling in that lower sanctuary, which was the shadow and representation of his glorious palace above? Here we should have expected him to have been born and lived while here. And, just as worldly, carnal men would have supposed that the Son of the Highest, when coming to earth, would chose a noble metropolis and a splendid palace for his abode, so spiritual men would have assigned to him the holiest of all, in Jehovah's temple, as his birthplace and his habitation here.
It would have been most suitable; and surely he had a right to it. The temple itself was his Father's house, and the best room in that house would be at his service. Others might be shut out; he would not. The veil that was drawn against others would open to admit him. Who could resist his claim, if he had asked admission? His right was indisputable, as the very Son of God. Judea was his, for it was Immanuel's land. Jerusalem was his, for it was the city of the great King. The temple was his, for it was his Father's house. The holy of holies was his, for it was the express representative on earth of that very heaven which he had left, when coming to do the Father's will.
Yet He entered not that inner sanctuary, nor ever went beyond the altar and the laver without,—the court in which the publican stood and cried, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." He saw daily the priests entering the second court, the holy place, yet went he not in. He saw the high priest, once a year, take the blood of the goat, and enter into the holiest of all, yet went he not in. Though conscious of an innate and inalienable right to enter, He yet remained without, as one who, from some mysterious cause, was excluded from his lawful and patrimonial abode.
SERMON VIII
THE BANISHED ONE BEARING OUR BANISHMENT
"Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch."—JOHN 10:23.
THE one hindrance to His exercise of this his divine right of entrance into the holiest of all, was our iniquity, which was lying on him. That kept him out. Until that was fully borne, he could not enter either the sanctuary below or the presence-chamber above. In taking our sin upon him, as he did from the moment of his incarnation, he had consented to forego for a time his right of entrance into the Father's presence, and into that place where the glorious symbol of that presence dwelt. He had consented to be an outcast, to stand only in the place where sin is borne, not in the place where iniquity is remembered no more. It was as the banished One that he passed through earth, having no place to lay his head. It was as the outcast that he never went beyond the outer court of the temple. It was as such that we find him walking in Solomon's porch, thus proclaiming to all who truly understood his character and work, that he was acting as the sinner's substitute,—taking the sinner's place of exile, not merely outside the blessed heaven, where he had dwelt from everlasting, but outside even his Father's house below.
Some speak much of his not having been born in a palace, and dwell on the humiliation of his being without any vestige of human royalty. But these were, after all, but common, and, we may say, carnal
things. It was a light thing to be kept out of David's house or Herod's palace; but it was no light thing to be excluded from his Father's house, his own proper home. More than ever David did, would he desire the tabernacles of Jehovah; his flesh and heart would cry out for God; and how peculiar must have been his feelings, in being thus made to stand outside the sanctuary, the very place to which he had so undoubted a right, and in which it would have been his delight to dwell! Instead of communing with his Father in his own holy dwelling-place, he had to resort to the Mount of Olives, and such unsheltered solitudes, as if he had not only no place to lay his head, but no sanctuary to betake himself to, no closet into which he might enter. So strangely shut out was he from all places to which, either as Son of Man, or as Son of God, he would desire to visit or to dwell in!
When he died on the cross, the veil was rent in twain, and he might then have entered. The reasons for his exclusion were at an end; and his banished life was over. Judaic ritualism was exhausted and cancelled. Blood had been shed, to enable any one to enter in, priest or no priest, whether belonging to Judah or to Levi; whether on the day of atonement or not. And, in testimony of all this, he might have entered the holiest of all, at his resurrection. But this would have been a small thing, and one which might have raised misconceptions as to the meaning and importance of the very rites that were now to be done away. Instead, then, of entering the earthly sanctuary, he passed upward into the heavenly; instead of claiming his right to enter the typical holy of holies, he did that which was of far deeper signification and higher moment, he entered in and took possession of the true holy of holies above, in token of his having fulfilled his time of banishment, finished his work, and removed every hindrance which stood in the way of those, for whom he was the substitute below, and of whom he was to be the representative above.
See him, then, in these two different conditions,—(1.) walking in Solomon's porch; (2.) seated at the right hand of God.