Catechesis, December 1866, John Thomas

“When and Where Did Christ Make the One Great Offering?”

1.   By what phrase is this offering scripturally expressed?

Ans. By the words “the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once” (Heb. 10:10).

2.   In what did the offering of his body consist?

Ans. In the condemnation of sin in the nature that sinned in the Garden of Eden (Rom. 8:3).

3.   What were some of the typical relations of that Body prepared for Christ in the process of crucifixion unto death?

Ans. It was an altar of sacrifice, the antitype of the brazen altar (Heb. 13:10); it was a rent veil (Heb. 10:20); it was a hilasteerion, or Mercy Seat (Rom. 3:25); and it was ta hagia hagioon, the Holy of Holies (Dan. 9:24), the antitype of the two holy places.

4.   Who was the High Priestly Offerer in the crucifixion?

Ans. The Eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14), upon the principle that what one doth by his instruments, he doth himself; thus Herod, Pilate, the Rulers, Romans and Jews, did whatsoever God’s hand and counsel determined before to be done (Acts 2:23).

5.   What is the Melchizedek High Priest?

Ans. The Eternal Spirit “manifested in flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).

6.   What was this manifested Priest’s sin offering?

Ans. “His own body” (1Peter 2:24).

7.   Where did this Eternal Offerer offer his sacrifice?

Ans. Upon the cross “without the gate,” or “without the camp” (Hebrews 13:12–13).

8.   When was the Jesus-altar purified; the Jesus Mercy-seat sprinkled with sacrificial blood, and the Jesus-Holy of Holies lustrated?

Ans. After the Veil of his flesh was rent, and before he awoke at the early dawn of the third day (Mark 15:37–38; John 19:34).*

9.   Why was the sprinkled, purified, and lustrated body awakened in life again?

Ans. That it might not see corruption (Acts. 2:27, 31)—which had it so happened, would have rendered all that had been transacted, vain and unprofitable (Psalm 30:9; 1Cor. 15:14, 18).

10. Why was the body “revived” or quickened After it “rose” (Rom. 14:9)?

Ans. To show “the path of life” and that it might “ascend to the Father,” from the nature which is “a little lower than” the angels, to consubstantiality with Him; and thus become (Gr. charakteer tees hypostaseos autou) an exact likeness of His substance (Heb 1:3) —“a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands.” In ascending from the human to the divine nature, he was “clothed upon” with “the house which is from heaven”; that the mortal (to thneeton) born of the earth, might become the immortal born of the Spirit; and so perfected to enter the Divine Presence.

11. Did the resurrected and quickened body enter the Divine Presence with its blood, or through its blood?

Ans. “Through his own blood” (dia tou idiou aimatos). The body is nowhere said to enter heaven with its blood. Aaron entered the Holies with blood, representative of Jesus entering the true, through his own blood. In this the shadow and the substance approximate as nearly as the parable demands.

12. What are the Jesus-“Holy of Holies,”or hagia hagioon?

Ans. The Eternal Spirit, tabernacling in Jesus before and until He forsook him on the cross; and the same spirit tabernacling in him when the risen body, by quickening, became Spirit. Thus the body born of Mary was the tabernacle for the Spirit in two states—the former imperfect, the latter perfect. In the imperfect† state, the corporeal tabernacle was “greater and more perfect,” and it, with its occupant, “the Holy of Holies,” “the True Tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man.” The rent veil divides these two states. To pass from the imperfect state, or holy, into the perfect or Most Holy, flesh has to be transformed into Spirit. We are passing through the veil, in dying, rising and being quickened. The imperfect, lesser, holy tabernacle, is flesh and blood; but “the greater and more perfect,” Most Holy, admits no flesh and blood into its constitution of state or of nature, both state and nature being Most Holy. This arrangement is therefore fatal to the speculation of Jesus going into heaven mortal, and with his blood circulating in his veins.

13. If Jesus, because of the tribe of Judah, could not be a priest on earth, how could “the one great offering” be made on Calvary?

Ans. Jesus could not be a priest according to the Mosaic law, to offer sacrifices on the brazen altar, and to carry the blood thereof into the holy and most holy places. But he could be a victim to be offered upon Calvary by the Father who tabernacled in him, and said: “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18). These words came out of the mouth of the body prepared for sacrifice; but they were the living words of the Spirit (John 6:63; 7:28, 38; 10:38; 12:49–50). A man cannot breathe his last, or die by the mere force of his will, nor can a corpse of itself resume its life. Both results ensued in relation to Jesus; but, in both cases, it was by the power of the Father, who, after the example of Abraham, offered His own Son on the same platform: the Mount of Yahweh, in the land of Moriah (Gen. 22:2, 14).

14. What direct testimony is there to show that the Eternal Father was with Jesus on the cross?

Ans. In John 16:32, Jesus tells his companions that the hour was coming when they would all desert him, and leave him alone: “and yet,” says he, “I am not alone, for the Father is with me”; and from the account of the crucifixion, we learn that the Father did not forsake him till all things predetermined were satisfactorily finished. He was then left to the death which resulted from the Father’s withdrawal (John 19:30). “He yielded up the spirit”—to pneuma.

15. How long was it from the quickening of the risen body on the third day, to its glorification in the heavens where the Father dwells.

Ans. Forty days. Jesus sojourned with his disciples during forty days, in which he was discoursing with them on the affairs of the kingdom (Acts 1:3). At the end of this period he was taken up and received into the glory he had with the Father before the world was (Acts 1:11; 1Tim. 3:16; John 17:5).

16. What proof is there of this exaltation of Jesus to this glory?

Ans. The outpouring of Holy Spirit, and the testimony of that same Spirit in the mouth of Peter, seven days after (Acts 2:33, 36).

* The Lord rose “at the end of the sabbath” (Mat. 28:1), approximately 6pm on the Saturday, which was the commencement of the “first day” according to Jewish reckoning.

† This appears to be incorrect, and should be: “perfect state”—GEM.