Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Ministration in the Holies

"It has been urged by some that the text, "this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12), forbids the idea of his ministering in the two holy places. 
 
---But we answer, that so far as the idea of sitting down is concerned, it would be equally proper to represent Him as standing on the Father's right hand. Acts 7:56
And if the Savior is at the "right hand of the power of God" when descending from heaven, as He testifies respecting Himself (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69), then He certainly can be at the Father's right hand, in both the holy places. 
 
*But we have direct testimony here. 
Paul says that Christ is a "minister of the sanctuary." Heb. 8:2. That the word "hagion," here rendered sanctuary, is plural, no one can deny. It is literally rendered by the Douay Bible, "the holies." 
As translated by Macknight, Heb. 8:1, 2, reads thus: "Now of the things spoken the chief is, we have such a High Priest as became us, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holy places, namely, of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." J.N. Andrews