Sanctuary Connections Part 2

Dr. Tim Jennings offers Part 2 of a look at how and by what the heavenly and soul sanctuaries are cleansed. This second installment is part of an adaptation of a presentation given in the Collegedale Church December 2004...

Part II

What cleanses the sanctuary? What cleanses the sanctuary in heaven and the sanctuary of the human soul? “The blood of Jesus” cleanses. But what does that mean? How does the blood of Jesus cleanse? Jesus said, “"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” (John 6:53-55). We know that Jesus was not promoting cannibalism, so His words must mean something else, what does it mean to drink His blood and eat His flesh?

In the study of the Bible the converted soul eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of God, which He himself interprets as the receiving and doing of His words, that are spirit and life.” (Fundamentals of Christian Education 378).

Could the flesh and blood of Christ have something to do with truth? Could truth have something to do with cleansing the sanctuary? “The leaven of truth works a change in the whole man, making the coarse refined, the rough gentle, the selfish generous. By it [the truth] the impure are cleansed, washed in the blood of the Lamb.” (Christ’s Object Lessons 102).

Is it the truth that cleanses? The truth about what? The truth about God Himself as revealed in the life of Christ. As Christ Himself said, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

In the book The Great Controversy Ellen White states, “The coming of Christ as our high priest to the most holy place, for the cleansing of the sanctuary, brought to view in Daniel 8:14; the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of Days, as presented in Daniel 7:13; and the coming of the Lord to His temple, foretold by Malachi[3:1-3], are descriptions of the same event;”(p. 426). Each of the three add insight into this cleansing process.

Daniel 8:14 “Unto 2300 days and then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” If you look in your SDA Bible commentary you will discover that the Hebrew word translated cleansed is more accurately translated justified. Unto 2300 days and then shall the sanctuary be justified.

But what does justified mean? To set right, to put in order, to put what is out of line back in line. For those of you who have a word processor on your computer there is a command at the top which allows you to justify your margins. If you justify the margins what happens? Everything that is out of line is put in line, everything that is out of order is put in order, everything that is out of harmony is put in harmony, everything that is wrong is set right. Now the question is: what needs justifying? What is wrong that needs to be set right? What is out of line that needs to be put in line? What is out of order that needs reordering? What is out of harmony that needs to be brought back into harmony? The mind, heart and character of mankind! Let’s see if the evidence supports this.

Remember in the quote above four texts are all referring to the same event. We have just examined Daniel 8:14, but look at the Malachi 3:1-3 which is describing the same event, “…The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple…behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.”

What does a refiner’s fire and launderer’s soap do? They cleanse! Remember Daniel 8:14 unto 2300 days and then the sanctuary will be cleansed or justified or set right. And what does Malachi say He cleanses when He comes to His temple? The Levites!

Well who are the Levites? “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1Pet 2:4) What is another name for a “spiritual house”? A sanctuary! “You also, like living stones, are being built into a sanctuary…” And just a few verses down Peter repeats this reality for emphasis, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood…” (1Pet 2:9).

2300 days then shall the sanctuary be justified or set right, 2300 days and He shall come to His temple and He shall purify or cleanse the Levites – the priesthood of believers, the sanctuary of the human soul. How does the cleansing of the Spirit Temple, the sanctuary of the human soul affect the sanctuary in heaven? How are the two sanctuaries related in this cleansing? Well there was another text referring to the same event, the Daniel 7 text. “The Ancient of Days took his seat…The court was seated, and the books were opened.” (Daniel 7:9,10).

But whose books were opened? In the investigative judgment, when the books are opened and the investigation is going on, whose books are opened? Enron had tens of thousands of customers and accounts. They received millions of dollars and when their books were opened for examination who was being examined, Enron or the customers, the customers or Enron?

In heaven, when God opens the books, who is being examined, God or us? Whose books are these? Have we kept these books or has God kept these books? These books are God’s books. Why would God need to open His books and why would God need to open His books about us?

Imagine I present myself to your community and claim I have a cure for cancer and have cured 50 people of cancer. I tell you they are all cancer free. I even present 50 people and ask your medical experts to examine them to see if they can find any cancer and sure enough, not one has cancer. Would you now believe I have a cure for cancer if all were cancer free? How would you know if they ever had cancer to start with? Conversely, if instead I bring out some medical records that document the presence of cancer, and then, as you review the records you see where a treatment was given and the record indicates the cancer is cured. But, I won’t let you examine any patients, would you believe I have a cure for cancer?

Why is this analogy relevant? Because after Satan’s original lies about God, which led others into sin, he had some new lies that needed to be dealt with as well.

“Many [angels] were disposed to heed this counsel, to repent of their disaffection, and seek to be again received into favor with the Father and His Son. But Lucifer had another deception ready. The mighty revolter now declared that the angels who had united with him had gone too far to return; that he was acquainted with the divine law, and knew that God would not forgive… "PP 41

"So far as Satan himself was concerned, it was true that he had now gone too far to return. But not so with those who had been blinded by his deceptions. To them the counsel and entreaties of the loyal angels opened a door of hope; and had they heeded the warning, they might have broken away from the snare of Satan.” PP 41

So, not only was there the original lies about God, but when some of the angels who sided with Satan were warned and were considering returning to loyalty to God, Satan hit them with a new set of lies. Satan says, “Oh, no! God won’t forgive. You can’t return once you’ve chosen to rebel against God.” Satan wouldn’t try to hit humans with this same lie would he? He wouldn’t lie about God’s ability to heal, about God’s ability to restore would he?

“In the opening of the great controversy, Satan had declared that the law of God could not be obeyed, that justice was inconsistent with mercy, and that, should the law be broken, it would be impossible for the sinner to be pardoned. Every sin must meet its punishment, urged Satan; and if God should remit the punishment of sin, He would not be a God of truth and justice. When men broke the law of God, and defied His will, Satan exulted. It was proved, he declared, that the law could not be obeyed; man could not be forgiven. Because he, after his rebellion, had been banished from heaven, Satan claimed that the human race must be forever shut out from God's favor. God could not be just, he urged, and yet show mercy to the sinner. Have you ever heard some well meaning Christian teachers or preachers telling you that every sin must be punished? That if God were to remit the punishment that He would not be just? That justice requires God to punish sin? These are Satan’s arguments! These are Satan’s lies! How can God cleanse the Spirit Temple if we don’t get rid of the lies about Him that are in our minds? If we still have these ideas operating in our mind then we still have work to do to cleanse the Spirit Temple from the lies of Satan.

What were the new lies? Once a sinner always a sinner; God would not forgive; It is impossible to be healed and restored; Sin must be punished; God is unjust if He forgives and heals; Humans are no better in character than Satan and deserve the same fate. These are the new lies of Satan that came along after we fell into sin. So, how does God handle these lies? Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ is the answer to all of these lies, the initial lies were answered by His life and death and resurrection and the second set of lies are answered by His work in the sanctuary. And to help us understand the work of Christ, God gave a little mini-theater, a little drama set, in which this was all acted out for us to see and understand. It is called the sanctuary service. And in Zechariah we are privileged to have the Day of Atonement highlighted to help us understand how God handles Satan’s lies.

The High Priest Joshua is symbolic of God’s people and Christ takes away his sinful character, symbolized by the filthy garments and recreates Christlike character within symbolized by the clean clothes. In this time, this special period of history, this Day of Atonement time, when Satan is standing and accusing, God is saying, “I want to take away your defective and damaged character and restore in you my character!” Right now, today, God wants to heal you and me! In this post 1844 period it is a time for cleansing from sin, for the restoration of the image of God within, to have new garments of Christlike character.

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.” After what time? Could it be the longest time prophecy in the Bible, the longest time prophecy in the Bible that has to do with the cleansing of the sanctuary? “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.” The law is a transcript of God’s character. I will put my character in their hearts and minds. I will clothe them with rich clothing. It all means the same thing, the recreation of Christlike character within. The Spirit Temple being cleansed! “I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,'  because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Hebrews 8:10,11). “This is life eternal that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3). The lies of Satan have been blown away. They are no longer operating in the mind. We are back in unity with God. We are back in unity with Christ. We are back in oneness – at-one-ment! The day of at-one-ment, the day of recreation of Christlike character within!

Imagine you have a child who has metastatic cancer, cancer all over their body. The doctors have told you the case is terminal; there is nothing that can be done. But you have heard of a doctor out west that no matter what disease the person has that goes to him, they always leave with a clean bill of health. So you pack up your child. You gather all the medical records, the bone scans, biopsy reports, CT Scans, MRI’s, everything that documents the extent of the disease and you go to this doctor. Finally, you get your day with the doctor. You hand him the medical records documenting in great detail the extent of the cancer which is ravaging your child’s body. Then the doctor takes the records and begins to remove all the pages documenting any record of disease and inserts clean blank sheets of paper. And when he has replaced the entire record with blank paper he hands it back and says, “There, no more record of disease. You go on home.” Are you satisfied? If you have a doctrine that teaches Christ is in heaven cleansing record books without doing something in you, you are in trouble!

But what if you go to this doctor and he looks at the records documenting the cancer in your child, and then he goes and examines and begins to intervene in your child, what do you want to happen? You want the cancer to go into remission! “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). When cancer goes into remission the cancerous cells remit to their original, normal, healthy non-cancerous state. The cancer is gone. Without the shedding of blood we could not be remitted to our original sin-free state, to our original Christlikeness of character! Without the shedding of blood, without the truth being internalized, we cannot be restored, we cannot be healed!

And so, the doctor treats your child and the medical records shows the disease, shows the damage caused by the disease, but also shows the treatment applied and the record now shows your child is cancer free! God has records in heaven showing our sickness of heart and mind and the damage sin has caused in us. And hopefully, His records are also showing that we are partaking of His remedy, His treatment, and the records are showing that the sickness of sin is being removed, the rich garments are being put on, the cancer of sin is going into remission, the character of Christ is being reproduced within, the law of God is being written on the heart!

“The cases of all are pending in the heavenly sanctuary. Day by day angels of God are watching the development of character… All defects must be remedied. The character must be assimilated to the character of Christ... At an infinite cost a fountain has been prepared for our cleansing. In the blood of the Son of God we may wash our garments of character, and make them white.” (ST, April 17, 1901).

In summary, what cleanses the two sanctuaries? The two sanctuaries need to be cleansed from Satan’s lies about God. What cleanses us from the lies about God? The “blood of Christ” “the life of Christ” the significance of truth about God revealed by Jesus. Every one of the specific lies that Satan made about God was answered in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

But after the sanctuaries are cleansed from the lies about God they also need to be cleansed from the sins of the people, the Spirit Temple from the damage that sin has caused and the Heavenly Temple from the record of sin. What cleanses us from this? God actually, literally, genuinely heals the damage, recreates us in character, rewrites His laws on the heart and mind, restores His image within! When the lies of God have been removed so that we again trust God and open the heart to Him, then the Holy Spirit is poured out and actually dwells in us, dwells in the Spirit Temple healing, transforming, recreating us into Godlikeness! And thus we are cleansed and the records in heaven document this healing and transformation!

And what about the final new lies of Satan, that God is unjust if He should forgive and heal and restore sinners? That it’s not fair for God to save sinners? That God’s not allowed to forgive and pardon us? That sin requires God to exact punishment? How do these false allegations get resolved? How are the sanctuaries cleansed from these lies? God opens His books and allows Himself to be investigated! God allows his conduct in handling the sin problem to be investigated! And He is glorified in His methods and principles as they are demonstrated to bring life, to bring health, to bring healing, to bring restoration, to bring unity – at-one-ment. And He is glorified in the life of the saints who bear witness that even though we were branches burning in the fire, branches damaged and marred by the fire, that He can put out the fire of sin in us and actually cleanse and restore and recreated us to be just like Jesus!

Christ is coming soon! He wants a people prepared to meet Him. He wants to cleanse His sanctuary. Will you cooperate with Him in helping Him accomplish this mission?