Hebrews. 9:13 and Numbers 19.
In the last article on this topic
we had progressed through verse three of Numbers chapter nineteen. This article will begin at verse four; where
we read “And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and
sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven
times.” This sprinkling of the blood of the heifer directly before the
tabernacle of the congregation of Israel was to intimate that the one
held accountable for the sin of the congregation of the Lord had been slain,
for the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23.
This is the essence of a sacrifice, the sinner in offering his sacrifice
is declaring; I am guilty of offence against the God of heaven and earth, and
therefore am worthy of death, let this sacrifice stand in my place as the
guilty one and that I may go free when God has punished this sacrifice in my
room and stead. The sprinkling of the blood of the heifer directly before the
tabernacle of the congregation intimated that the congregation of the Lord was
ceremonially absolved of sin by the blood of the sacrifice and so could partake
in the privilege of the solemn worship of God. This is a typical representation
of the fact that the entire Israel of God, (Gal. 6:16) the true congregation of
the Lord, (Romans. 2:28, 29) both Old Testament and New Testament saints are
justified from their sins by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 4:9).
The blood of the heifer was to be
sprinkled seven times by the finger of Eleazar. This sprinkling the blood seven
times (the number of completion or perfection) illustrates or types the
complete perfection of the means having attained the end which the Lord did
propose in the blood shedding and death of his Son. The Holy Ghost is called
the finger of God in Luke 11:20. It is the work of the Holy Ghost (the finger
of God) to sprinkle the conscience of believers with the blood of Christ, Hebrews
10:22, and Isaiah 52:15, to purge them from dead works to serve the living God,
Hebrews 9:14. Those, and, all of those, and none else but those, for whom the
Lord Christ stood surety, must be sprinkled with the blood of the savior. The
sprinkling of the blood seven times is a testimony that the blood has
accomplished all that was intended by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that
in the succession of time the blood will be sprinkled on the consciences of the
congregation of the Lord, the precious blood of sprinkling having been shed for
none but the spouse; beloved from the days of eternity.
“And one shall burn the heifer in
his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he
burn:” Numbers 19:5. This burning of the whole heifer speaks of the better
sacrifice that was to come, (Hebrews 9:23) it is a figure of Christ the one
true sacrifice that was to propitiate, to reconcile, God, 1 John 2:2 and 2
Corinthians 5:18. As the whole heifer was to be burned, just so the whole human
nature of Christ was offered for a sacrifice for sin. The entire person of the
God man was active in the offering of the human nature of Jesus Christ, for it
was the human nature alone that was offered. The equity of this offering of
Christ for the elect is according to the edict of God, the head of the body
suffering in the law place of his members.
Wherefore when he cometh into the
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast
prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5). The body spoken of in this verse apprehends the
whole human nature of Christ, a true human body and a rational human soul, for “Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities, Isa.53:10, 11. It was the whole human nature that
was offered through the Word (the eternal Spirit) and thus made satisfaction to
the truth, holiness, law, and justice of God. The entire person of the God man was
employed in this sacrifice, both natures in the one person of Christ, both his
Deity, and his humanity. Whatsoever Jesus Christ undertook in his person, that
he undertook in both natures of that one person. In that incomprehensible
operation of the Word being made flesh (John 1:14) the eternal Son of God was
made flesh, that is He became a man. God the Son took into union with his
divine person that human nature that was prepared for his habitation, the union
is an indissoluble union, though the human nature was to be separated, the soul
from the body in death, yet neither were separated from the Son at any time;
for it is written, I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up
again, John 10:18. Therefore doeth my Father love me, because I lay down my
life, that I might take it again, John 10:17. His human body was and is the
true tabernacle that the Lord pitched and not man, Hebrews 8:2. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Col.2:9. The Word laid down
his human body and soul, (yet the union with the Word was not dissolved) it is
the person of Christ; the God man that is vested with priesthood, in this God
the Son standing in office in Jesus Christ as the great high priest yielded
obedience and honored the law and justice of God. Upon the glorious exaltation
of the person of Christ, (both God and man in one person) depends the efficacy
of his undertakings in his offices, it is the dignity of his person that exalts
the office, with men it is the dignity of the office that exalts the person.
It was both natures in the one
Christ yielding perfect obedience, (his perfect sinless human nature standing
in spotless moral rectitude, and the infinitely glorious eternal Spirit) that
offered himself unto death, even the death of the cross. So that in that action
he has over balanced the scales of justice so that the sin debt of his elect,
that was to be paid, is paid, the curse of the law for sin has been endured, God’s
law and justice have been so satisfied and honored that God cannot according to
justice remember the sins of his people anymore. Though Jesus Christ in himself
stood in perfect moral rectitude, yet in union with his elect, he was made to
be sin 2 Corinthian 5:21, and cursed Galatians 3:13, our sins were imputed to
Christ and he called them my sins Psalms 69:5, yet not by commission but by
imputation, Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,… 1
Peter.2:24; Hebrews 9:14. When Jesus Christ was made sin for us, he yielded
perfect obedience to his Father’s will, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and Isaiah 53:10,
he was the sin bearer, and he endured the curse of God’s law and the fury of
God’s wrath, he separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the west,
he cast them into the sea of forgetfulness never to be remembered against us
again, For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, Hebrews
10:14, and he saved his people from their sins, Matthew 1:21, and he took away
the sin of the world, John 1:29, that is the world of his people. See, 1 John
5:19 the little children standing in opposition to the whole world of the
wicked; Rev. 12:9 in this verse the whole world is deceived, but Christ said of
his elect ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free; James 4:4
whosoever is the friend of this world is the enemy of God; 2 Peter 2:5 in this
verse God brought in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 1 John 2:15 “Love
not he world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Reader do you suppose this world which God manifestly does not love is
the same world that is under consideration in John 3:16, surely not, then why
would anyone think that John 3:16 refers to all and every man in the world, in
these verses is manifested the distinguishing love of God.
Jesus Christ’s was a true death, it
was a most shameful death, a tormenting death, a death full of punishment, not
only in body, but in his holy soul, the punishing lash of vengeance, the billows
of furious wrath, the sorrows of death upon death; from these his Father did
not spare him, but He (Christ) paid the last farthing, Romans 8:32, He that spared
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things? Because of the now prevalent persuasion of
universalism [that a general ransom was made for all and every man without
distinction or exception, and that each and every sinner’s sin debt was paid;
if the sinner will by an act of his own {an act of his mythical free will} do
something to make the blood of Christ effectual to himself, then on that ground
the sinner shall be saved] we must be careful to define the “us all” in the
verse just referred to. The “us all” is every one whose sin debt is paid, and
you may ask, well who is that? It is everyone who has no sin debt, you may
reply well according to the scriptures all are sinners and so owe the debt on
account of their sins to God, in themselves that is true, but those who were
chosen in Christ from eternity are not in themselves, but they are in Christ,
and so they are justified by his blood, Romans 4:9, and in that they stand
justified by his blood they of the election of grace owe no debt on account of
their sins to God’s law and justice. For “Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” Romans 8:33 (it is God who justifieth
the elect in Jesus Christ through union in death, Galatians 2:20, and Romans
6:3. Now those who were crucified with Christ, and raised up together in him,
and made to sit together in heavenly places in him, (that is, in Christ, [the
head of the body and the members of his body joined with him by spiritual,
eternal, and indissoluble union by election of the Father] the head and the
body were crucified together, they were raised up together, they ascended to
heaven together and sat down together Ephesians 2:5, 6; Jesus Christ actually,
with his members representatively) these are they who have a saving interest in
Christ they are his body, his church and spouse, the “us all”, of Romans
8:28-39. This is Christ mystical, He the head, and the church his body,
divinely considered one with him and one in him in all he did and suffered.
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ” note, it does not say so
also are the members of the body of Christ, but so also is Christ, 2
Corinthians 12:12, that is Christ in union with all his members, Psalm 139:16.
And one shall burn the heifer in
his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he
burn: Numbers 19:5, with her dung, this may allude to the awful shame of the
curse that our Lord endured, when his tormenters spat in his face, plucked his
beard, crowned him with thorns, mocked him with a purple robe, beat him without
mercy, flayed his flesh with whips, nailed him naked to his cross, derided him
while hanging naked on the tree. No finite intellect can know, and no tongue
can tell, the depths of misery, the untold agonies, the privation of comfort,
the darkness the Lord past through when he by himself purged our sins, Hebrews
1:3. To be continued.
A.J.Ison
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