THE HOLIEST
The holiest is a divine, holy, spiritual sphere. It is not a material place. It is the place where God dwells and is approached. It is the place into which Christ has entered as man. “Within the veil, where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us”, Heb 6: 20. “Christ ... by his own blood has entered in once for all into the holy of holies”, Heb 9: 12. Christ is entered into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us, v 24. It is where He exercises His function as the great Priest over the house of God. It is a scene filled with the glory of God as displayed in Christ. There is no natural light in the holiest, the glory of God is the light of it. Nothing of the natural man enters there, only the priestly family; those who are of Christ, the sanctified company. “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”, Heb 2: 11. Christ having entered in as man, in the power of His own blood, has opened the new and living way for those who are of His order to enter in.
What is now hidden there, within the veil, will shine out publicly in the world to come; it now shines out in testimony.
Everything in the holiest spoke of Christ, the ark, and what was in it, the mercy-seat, and the golden censer.
’Tis Jesus fills that holy place.
That is Christ in what He is for God, the beginning and centre of God’s world. What is now formed of that divine system is the church, ultimately it will embrace all things. Nothing was seen there but gold which sets forth what is divine; divine righteousness finding its satisfaction in Christ. The shekinah glory between the cherubim speaks of God’s satisfaction and rest in Christ. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy-seat.
What a privilege it is to enter such a scene, what delight and rest to contemplate what we find there, and to contemplate now what will be displaced publicly in the coming day of glory. It is the only spot in which we can touch the rest of God now.
If I am occupied with my need, or with myself in any form, I am not in the holiest. When I enter I am outside all that is visible and material, outside of myself to God, in spirit outside my bodily condition of flesh and blood, and in thought for the moment apart from wilderness conditions. That is, for the moment I am in mind and affections wholly engaged with God and Christ; God as revealed in Christ, and Christ in what He is to God, and the divine system which is to be set up in Him. “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face”, 2 Cor 3: 18.
That supposes that I am already in the good of what Christ is to me, as set forth in what took place outside the brazen altar. I must know what it is to have my heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and my body washed with pure water. I must be made suitable to the place. It is this which is lacking in many Christians, and hinders their approach. Cleansing is by death. The water is the word of the cross. When this is accepted, I see what is God’s judgment of man in the flesh, and I judge myself in the light of the cross, and I am clear of all that belonged to me in the flesh, I am in the life of the Sanctifier, and am clean every whit.
But this washing has to be maintained continually in self-judgment, we must use the water of the brazen laver. “Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord”, Heb 12: 14. If practical holiness is not maintained we shall not be able to take up our privileges as priests.
I will add that it is only priests who enter the holiest, and those in priestly condition, that is, they must be clean and without blemish. A priest is a spiritual man. A Christian is normally a spiritual man, but all Christians are not spiritual; they may be carnal, like the Corinthians, or the Galatians, yet in both cases had received the Spirit. A spiritual man is one who is formed, characterised, and controlled by the Spirit; he has a spiritual mind. One of the greatest privileges afforded us while down here is that of approach to God in the holiest, for contemplation, communion and worship. “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”, 2 Cor 3: 18.
From Mutual Comfort vol 15 (1922)