THE BEST IS YET TO COME

Introduction

This week's devotion is essentially an expansion of 1 Corinthians 13:10, which says, “when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” Although this verse deals specifically with a future time when spiritual gifts will become obsolete, it can also be used to describe other times when God—according to His will—brought about something new and better to replace a previous, imperfect system. Although the theme of this week's devotion is things that have or will become obsolete, our main topic for this week—summed up in Hebrews 9 and 10—is the transition from the old to the new “covenant” (or “testament”). In a sense, we will be investigating the way in which God has interacted with His people through time—first at the temple by way of imperfect animal sacrifices, and then through the coming of the Holy Spirit by way of Jesus' perfect sacrifice. Although as Christians we do not adhere to the rituals of the old covenant, I hope you will appreciate the beauty of their symbolism.

The Problem and the Solution

Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden. But when they rebelled against Him, mankind's ability to relate to God (and really our ability to relate to all other living creatures) was damaged. The problem is that our sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). As the Bible says “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth” (1 John 1:5-6). Isn't John saying that if we walk in the darkness (in sin) that we can't have fellowship with God? Therefore, in order to draw closer to God and have a relationship with Him, atonement for our sins must be made.

ccc Forgiveness and atonement for sin is not something we can accomplish for ourselves. As Psalm 49:8 says, “the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough...” But God—in spite of the fact that we rebelled against Him—loved us so much that He chose not to leave us dead in our sins. According to the Bible, the key to forgiveness is blood. God says, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life” (Leviticus 17:11). Ever since the fall, when sin came into the world through Adam and Eve's rebellion against God, our sins have separated us from God so that it was impossible for us to have a right relationship with Him. But, through blood, payment for our sins can be made.

Whose Blood?

If blood is the way to salvation, it is worth considering the following question: “Whose blood?” Hebrews 10:1-4 (NLT) says that “The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” This passage of Scripture says that the old testament sacrifices were only a “shadow” and a “preview” of the perfect sacrifice that Jesus would one day make. These sacrifices pointed forward to the day when the people's sins would be paid in full by Jesus.

ccc The Passover (Exodus 12:1-13), in particular, is a beautiful picture of what God had planned for the salvation of His people from the very beginning. During the Passover, each Jewish family was instructed by God to take a year-old, male lamb “without defect” and slaughter it at twilight. Then they were to “take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses.” On that same night, God was going to “pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn.” (This was the final plague that God inflicted on Egypt to motivate Pharaoh to let the Jewish people—who were enslaved by the Egyptians—go free.) As God passed over Egypt, He looked for one thing—blood. “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

ccc In the same way that God struck down the firstborn males of Egypt, He allowed His only Son—His firstborn—to be struck down. The perfect year-old, male lamb that the Israelites sacrificed during the Passover was a preview of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. And, on the Day of Judgment, God will be looking for one thing—blood. He will look for the mark of Jesus' blood in our hearts and in our lives to see who it is that we have been living for—whether for Jesus or for ourselves (2 Corinthians 5:15).

ccc To the Jewish people, the Passover was a time to remember what God had done for the Israelites long ago (Exodus 12:25-26). But Jesus revealed the truth to His disciples when He celebrated the Passover feast with them on the night of His arrest (Luke 22:19-20 / Matthew 26:28): “[Jesus] took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'” This new covenant—or new testament—was something God had promised long ago (e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-34). Shortly thereafter, Jesus fulfilled these words through His death on the cross. The timing of Jesus' death was no coincidence. He died on the eve of the Passover because He was the true Passover lamb: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

All about the Timing

If animal sacrifices are not the way to salvation, our next question is: “Why did God use them?” I have heard some say that God exists outside of time. Regardless of whether or not this is true, the Universe certainly exists within time. And everything God does in our realm is accomplished within the frame of time. As the Bible says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). We may not know why God used the timing that He did, but we do know that, within our earthly frame of reference, there was a time before Christ (B.C.). Not a time before Jesus existed (see John 1), but—at least from our point of view (see Revelation 13:8)—a time before He came to the earth to pay for our sins. In the time before Christ, the Jewish people relied on the old covenant, with its system of sacrifices, to enable them to draw near to God. But because that system was imperfect, it was never meant to last forever: “For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established” (Hebrews 9:10, NLT).

The Tabernacle: God's Dwelling Place

“Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary” (Hebrews 9:1), which was referred to first as the “tabernacle” or “tent of meeting” (a movable building) and later as the “temple” (Exodus 40:6, 1 Chronicles 6:32). This sanctuary was not only a place for the Jewish people to come to make sacrifices for their sins, but also it was a place for God to dwell among His people (Exodus 25:8)—a place where they could come near to worship.

ccc In old testament times, the ark of the covenant (or the ark of the testimony) was the most holy and perhaps the most cherished thing in the tabernacle. The reason the ark was considered so sacred was because that is where God promised to meet with the high priest (Exodus 25:22): “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.” Once the Israelites had finished building the tabernacle, just as God had instructed, the Bible says that “the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). Why the God of the Universe should want to constrain Himself to a tent built by human hands in order to dwell among insignificant, sinful human beings is beyond me. But the beauty of it is that this is exactly what God did, and He did it all for the sake of His people!

ccc Acts 17:25 tells us that God “is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything” but rather that “he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” On the surface of things, it might appear as though the Israelites did a lot for God by following all of those tedious instructions as they built the tabernacle (Exodus 25:1-31:18 and 35:4-40:33) and repeatedly offered sacrifices to Him, but God didn't need the tabernacle or the sacrifices for Himself. All of these things were for the sake of the Israelites. For without the sacrifices, the Israelites would've been completely cut off from God because of their sins.

The Curtain: Limited Access to God

As great as the ark of the covenant and the temple were, access to God was still quite limited under the old covenant. The ark of the covenant was housed in an inner room of the temple known as the “Most Holy Place” which was separated from the outer room by a curtain. As described in Hebrews (9:6-8, NLT), “the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious duties. But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.”

ccc The Bible records that when Jesus died, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:37-38). Therefore, it was not until Jesus' perfect sacrifice on the cross that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was freely opened to us. Jesus' blood made atonement for our lives. He paid the price for our sins in full. Through Jesus, we can now come into the presence of God. As Hebrews 10:19-22 says, “since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...”

The Temple of the Holy Spirit

Under the old covenant, the earthly sanctuary—and the ark of the covenant in particular—was the dwelling place of God's Spirit. The Jewish people treasured the ark of the covenant, and the fact that it would one day become obsolete was beyond their ability to comprehend. But God alluded to something better when he said “In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land... men will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made” (Jeremiah 3:16). The ark of the covenant was good, but the best was yet to come.

ccc Interestingly, in John 1:14, we hear that Jesus—described as “the Word”—“became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In that same chapter, we can read John the baptist's account of Jesus' baptism (John 1:32-34): “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” In the next chapter, we hear how Jesus drove the money changers and the people selling animals from the temple in Jerusalem. Afterward, “the Jews demanded of him, 'What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?'' Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?' But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (John 2:18-22). In these Scriptures we see that Jesus' body was the temple of the Holy Spirit. But being with Jesus was not the closest fellowship with God that the disciples would experience. The best was yet to come.

ccc In His conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus alluded to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (John 4:19-24): “'Sir,' the woman said, 'I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.' Jesus declared, 'Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.'”

ccc Before Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, He spoke to His disciples, telling them about the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 16:5-14): “Now I am going to him who sent me... It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment... when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” Then, after Jesus was raised from the dead, before His ascension into heaven, “he appeared to [the apostles] over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: 'Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit... you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth'” (Acts 1:3-8). Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. He was the one who would baptize, not just with water, but with the Holy Spirit as well.

ccc “When the day of Pentecost came, [the disciples] were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them...” (Acts 2:1-4). When Jesus told the disciples He was going away, it was hard for them to imagine anything better than having Jesus by their side. But when the Holy Spirit came upon them, their bodies became temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and they received spiritual gifts, just as it was promised long ago by the prophet Joel (2:28-29).

ccc And this is God's will for all followers of Christ (Acts 2:38): “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This is the season we now live in. Animal sacrifices are no longer necessary because Jesus has paid for our sins in full. And, because of His ascension into heaven, He has sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and to gift us for the building up of the church—the “body of Christ.” But Jesus is not gone forever. He has promised to return (John 14:2-3): “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

ccc Just as the old covenant became obsolete, so also the gifts of the Holy Spirit will one day become obsolete. When we see Jesus face-to-face, we will no longer need the gift of faith because all of our hopes will be confirmed. We will no longer need prophets to tell us God's will or tongues to help us pray to Him because we will be able to speak to Him directly and to clearly hear His reply. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Surely the best is yet to come.

ccc This week I hope you will join me in meditating on the beauty of God's symbolism in the old covenant. And also, “since we [now] have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,” I encourage you to “draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...” (Hebrews 10:19-22).

(Next week we will focus on 1 Corinthians 13:12—“Then we shall see face-to-face”—by discussing how the certainty of Jesus' Return should affect the way we live our lives.)