FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND THE GOSPEL OF GLORY

^[p. 243] FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND THE GOSPEL OF GLORY

Leviticus 16:6-12;Leviticus 16:27; Hebrews 13:10-13

It is evident from this scripture that there are two companies, both saved by the blood of Christ; one company for the earth, and the other company for heaven - inside the veil. Two goats were taken for the congregation and a bullock for Aaron’s house. Christ’s work for the one company is represented by the two goats. The blood of one goat was carried into the holiest, and sprinkled on the mercy-seat, while the live goat, as representing the effectual sacrifice of the first goat, bore away the sins of the congregation into the land of forgetfulness - “their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”. This is always and for ever the beginning of divine grace for us all, but while this is the measure vouchsafed to God’s earthly people, there is more given to those who are Christ’s own in the day of His rejection. They are represented by Aaron’s house. Every believer now is of Christ’s house - “whose house are we”. Christ’s work, of course, embraced what is set forth in the two goats; it was all one work, and the greater includes the lesser. But Christ’s house is represented by the bullock, which Aaron offered for himself and for his house.

Now while the work of Christ represented by the two goats sets the believer on the earth in the full forgiveness of sins, in peace with God, the work of Christ represented by the bullock gives every one of His own a new place - a place with Himself in the holiest of all.

This is the day of His rejection, and blessing for man on the earth has not yet come, though in christendom, as a rule, there is no apprehension of grace beyond the two goats, or full forgiveness of your sins. They ^[p. 244] overlook the fact that Christ has been rejected here; hence that all His own must be blessed with Him where He is, exalted to God’s right hand, a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. It is because His rejection is not seen that the gospel is limited to the two goats; but when His exaltation consequent on His rejection is seen, then the gospel of His glory is the rest and delight of the believer’s heart. The gospel of glory is that He has not only cleared us of everything that was against us, but that we have boldness, through His blood, to share with Him in His own blessedness in the presence of God - we share in the blessedness of what Christ is to God. Every one who has seen His glory inside the veil will be so transformed in taste into moral correspondence to Him, that he could not be found here in any place but going forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. Even good feeling (as we say) would make him shrink from any other place here.

In the type everything was effected before the carcase was burned. We must begin with God and then we can truly bear Christ’s reproach here. We can have no sense of the blessedness of Christ but as we are in the holiest. When we are defective in the lower circle it is because we are not fully in the highest. We have no power in the lower but as we are furnished in the highest. No one rises higher than his altar. that is, he cannot be for Christ here where all is adverse to Him, if he does not know Him where all the glory of God rests on Him. This is the gospel of the glory. When you know Him thus, you will be inside the veil with Him, and outside the camp, bearing His reproach.