IV. Annual Round of Tabernacle Services Typified Gospel Realities

The whole Old Testament principle of sacrifice was further amplified under the ministrations in the sanctuary of old, first in the tabernacle service in the wilderness and then in the Temple that later took its place in the Jewish economy. By the rounds of typical offerings and priestly services the people were taught day by day the central truths relative to the coming death and ministration for the sins of the people of Christ the Messiah.CFF1 95.3

And once each year, at the close of the round of typical services, their minds were carried forward to the closing events in the great controversy between Christ and Satan and to the final purification of the universe from all sin and sinners. Since Satan was the originator of sin, and man’s archtempter—and thus the direct instigator of all the sins that caused the death of the Son of God—justice demands that Satan shall suffer the final, fateful punishment for the instigation and perpetuation of sin. That, too, was prefigured in symbol on the Day of Atonement. Christ died vicariously for my part. Satan must also die for his part in all sin.CFF1 95.4

Picture 7: Cross in the Sacrificial Offering:
Both in the Patriarchal Age and in the Later Period of the Tabernacle, the Sacrificial Offering Pointed Forward to Christ Who Would Die in Man’s Stead.
Page 96CFF1 96

Picture 8: Slaying of Lamb:
The Slaying of the Lamb of Old Symbolized the Coming Lamb of God Who in Actuality Takes Away the Sins of the Repentant and Forgiven Sinner.
Page 96CFF1 96

1. YEARLY ENACTMENT OF PLAN OF REDEMPTION

The sanctuary service was, in fact, a yearly enacted portrayal and graphic prophecy in type of the whole plan of redemption. All the offerings, of the several kinds, were portrayals foreshadowing in type various aspects of the one all-sufficient and all-embracing and complete and perfect atoning sacrifice for sin by Christ the Lamb of God on Calvary. And all the functions of all the priests, both common and high priest, in the multiple yearly round were but symbolic of the one all-comprehensive and all-efficacious priesthood and judicial ministry of Christ.CFF1 96.1

But in the antitypical fulfillment Christ was both offering and offerer, both victim and priest. The multiple services of the sanctuary were simply a foreshadowing of the sublime gospel realities, centering in the atoning death, triumphant resurrection and ascension, and priestly mediation in Heaven before the Father, of Christ our Saviour and Priest, our judge and coming King. And the meaning of all these sanctuary types of old is to be understood and interpreted in the light of the great antitypical realities in Christ. He is both the grand center and the vast circumference of salvation for man.CFF1 97.1

2. JUSTICE AND MERCY MET IN TYPE AT THE ARK

The blood of the sin offerings represented the principle of the Substitute accepted in the sinner’s stead. The repentant sinner brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle. Placing his hand on the victim’s head and confessing his sins, he in figure transferred them to the innocent sacrifice. Then the animal was slain by the sinner’s own hand, and the blood was placed by the priest on the horns of the altar of burnt offering.CFF1 97.2

The law of God, enshrined in the ark, was the great rule of righteousness and judgment. And the vindication of that law involved the death of the transgressor. But above the law was the mercy seat, over which the presence of God was manifested in glory, and from which, by virtue of the atoning sacrifice, pardon was granted to the repentant sinner. Thus the work of Christ for our redemption was symbolized by the sanctuary service, where “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10).CFF1 97.3

3. SIN AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, DEATH AND LIFE, PORTRAYED

The Levitical rites were only symbols, their efficacy depending solely upon the effectual sacrifice of Christ, which they prefigured. But this basic truth Israel, alas, came to forget. The shed blood of the animal victims was only the emblem of redemption to be effected actually through the blood of Christ shed on Calvary. This truth Israel as a nation failed to grasp when Messiah came. The slaying of the innocent animal, through the shedding of its blood by the sinner, was a symbolic enactment of the offering of a substitute, the blood of which had been shed instead of his own, and the life of which had been extinguished instead of his own life. It was God’s plan.CFF1 97.4

Thus the principle was continually emphasized that sin is an offense against God. And the essential righteousness of God requires that sin be punished, and that death, which is the “wages of sin,” is the divinely designated punishment. The sinner is unable of his own power to escape the punishment due to his offenses. But God in His grace and mercy pardons the guilty offender by way of the substitution and offering of an expiatory victim.CFF1 98.1

But, be it noted, the sinner was not to subject the animal to unending torture, but was to put it to death by taking away its life. This was the true representation of death, the requisite punishment for sin—the death threatened to Adam, the one involved in the original transgression, and stressed in every book in the Old Testament.CFF1 98.2

4. PENAL PUNISHMENT DEATH NOT LIFE IMPRISONMENT

In the penal economy of the Mosaic law there was no such punishment as imprisonment for life, much less imprisonment for life under continuous torture. The penalty for the gravest offenses was always and only death. And it is to be remembered that this law of retribution, under the theocracy, was instituted by God Himself. We can draw no other conclusion than that for ancient Israel, capital punishment by death, under the divine as well as human administration, was the supreme penalty set forth in the law.CFF1 98.3

Indeed, in the entire system of sacrifices, patriarchal and Mosaic, both of which were ordained by God, the substitute victim was never subject to prolonged torture, or imprisoned for life, but was put to death. By this the offerer acknowledged that he had forfeited not merely his liberty or his well-being but his life—his very being. The sacrifice was not merely an offering, but the offering of a life in the place of the offerer.CFF1 98.4

Under the theocracy of Israel the legislative, executive, and judicial powers and processes were all united, and death was the penalty for the major violations. But there is not a word about endlessly prolonged suffering of body and soul. We repeat: The penalty of the law was never even life imprisonment, but only and always DEATH—capital punishment, loss of life, cutting off, utter destruction, perishing, being blotted out. That is the testimony of Israel’s theocracy.CFF1 99.1

5. SINNER INCURRED DOOM OF DEATH

The taking away of the life, dramatically portrayed all through the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, attested that man, refusing to live the intended life of holy obedience to the living God, had justly incurred the doom of death, and that it was divine goodness alone that withheld the stroke of final death from man. Man could hope for a restoration to unending life only through the sacrifice of One who, by His atoning death and resurrection, should thereby abolish death and bring immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10).CFF1 99.2

Above all, Christ’s death showed that a final rejection of the remedy offered still left men liable to the penalty—but now with the added guilt of trampling underfoot the divine provision in the plan of redemption.CFF1 99.3

Thus understood, those typical sacrifices take on tremendous significance. As one ponders the numberless effusions of blood, it is easy to understand the ancient testimony to the just deserts of sin—“the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). It was a continuing dramatic representation to Israel of sin and punishment, remedy and redemption. It portrayed the results following from the fall of man. But with it comes the wondrous corollary, “If the wicked will turn from all his sins ..., he shall surely live, he shall not die” (Ezekiel 18:21).CFF1 99.4

6. ENTIRE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM FULFILLED IN CHRIST

The Christ-centered character and emphasis of the Mosaic sanctuary service cannot be overstressed. Before leaving this aspect, note six points revealing the gospel in prototype and in essence:CFF1 100.1

(1) The Passover lamb was a type of Christ (Exodus 12:3-14; 1 Corinthians 5:7).CFF1 100.2

(2) The daily, or continual, burnt offering was a type of Christ (Exodus 29:39-42; Hebrews 9:25, 26).CFF1 100.3

(3) The sin offering was a type of Christ (Leviticus 4:32, 33; Isaiah 53:6, 7; John 1:29).CFF1 100.4

(4) The tabernacle itself and its services all constituted a type of the incarnate Christ and His redemptive work (Exodus 25:8; Exodus 29:43-45; John 1:14; John 2:19-21).CFF1 100.5

(5) All other ceremonial observances were but shadows of the reality, which is Christ and His saving work (Colossians 2:16, 17; Hebrews 10:1).CFF1 100.6

(6) Finally, the typical system of sacrifices was abolished by the incarnation and death of Christ (Matthew 27:50, 51; Ephesians 2:14-16; Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 10:4-9). The types had served their prefatory purpose.CFF1 100.7

7. CHRIST ACTUALLY AND TRULY DIED IN ATONEMENT

These sacrifices all pointed specifically to Christ, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). If the punishment due to our sins is not actual death, then Christ could not have made an atonement for us by His death. Of the fact that He actually died there can be no valid question. And that He died an ignominious and painful death is undeniable. But His agony on the cross was brief compared with the prolonged agony that many others suffered—even the thief on the other cross (John 19:32, 33). It was therefore Christ’s death, not simply His suffering, that was efficacious unto atonement.CFF1 100.8

Death is definitely, then, the forfeiture of life. In the light of revelation, in this amazing, substitutionary, atoning transaction, the one and only God-man, becoming such through the incarnation, paid the exact and full Penalty designated by law that was due to us. He died, actually and truly died, just as any other man dies, and as we must all die—but we without any hope of resurrection, save through Him.CFF1 100.9

Then, by the almighty power of the Divine Spirit—“being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18)—Christ Jesus rose victorious over the power of the grave, and so became “able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:25). That is our sole hope.CFF1 101.1

8. DEATH PENALTY UNDER THE DIVINE LAW

Since the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), the nature and essence of the death penalty under the divine law is of vital importance in this Old Testament survey. “The law entered, that the offence might abound” (Romans 5:20), and that “sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13). This was brought out as a fundamental principle in the Pauline theology. The law of God was not merely a human institution, applying only to Israel. The Jewish organization was a theocracy, a divine economy—the Ruler and moral Governor of the universe becoming the Ruler over Israel.CFF1 101.2

In attestation of His righteousness He gave them a law “holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12)—a spiritual law (Romans 7:14), requiring not only outward obedience but inward purity of motive, and an obedience springing from loyalty to God. It was designed to exhibit the exceeding sinfulness of man and its disastrous penalty upon the sinner. It was indeed the Praeparatio Evangelica, or preparation for the gospel.CFF1 101.3