The Life of Faith.

CHAPTER XII

PERFECTION

The great thought and purpose of the true sanctuary, its priesthood, and ministry, is that God shall dwell in the hearts of the people.

What now is the great thought and purpose of His dwelling in the hearts of the people? The answer is, Perfection.

The moral and spiritual perfection of the worshiper.

Let us consider this:

At the close of the fifth chapter of Hebrews, immediately following the statement that Christ, “being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him; called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek,” it is written: “Therefore,” that is, because of this, for this reason, “leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” Hebrews 6:1.

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God

Next it is shown that perfection is attained only through the Melchizedek priesthood. And it is shown that this was always so and that the Levitical priesthood was only temporary and typical of the Melchizedek priesthood.

Following this, in discussing the Levitical priesthood, it is written: “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, … what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron?” Heb. 7:11.

And again, in the same connection, “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did [or “but it was the bringing in of a better hope,” margin]; by the which we draw nigh unto God.” Verse 19.

By these scriptures it is perfectly plain that the perfection of the worshiper is that which is offered and which is attained in the priesthood and ministry of Christ. Nor yet are these all the words on this thought. For, as already quoted in the description of the sanctuary and its service, it is said that it “was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience.”

That none of this could make him that did the service perfect is its great lack. Therefore that the priesthood and ministry of Christ in the true sanctuary can and does make perfect him who enters by faith into the service is the great thought and the goal of all.

That earthly service “could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience.” “But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 9:11, 12.

This sanctuary, priesthood, sacrifice, and ministry of Christ’s does make perfect in eternal redemption every one who by faith enters into the service and so receives that which that service is established to give.

Further, “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

The blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean in the Levitical service and the worldly sanctuary did sanctify to the purifying of the flesh: for so the word concerning it continually declares. And that being so, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,” sanctify to the purifying of the spirit and “purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

What are dead works? Death itself is the consequence of sin.

Dead works therefore are works that have sin in them.

Then the purging of the conscience from dead works is the so entirely cleansing of the soul from sin, by the blood of Christ, through the eternal Spirit, that in the life and works of the believer in Jesus sin shall have no place; the works shall be only works of faith, and the life shall be only the life of faith, and so be only the true and pure “service of the living God.”

To be continued…

The Consecrated Way — Alonzo Jones