Our Continually Sacrificing SAVIOUR
The quotes in this compilation show how real sacrifices take place in heaven, with the crimson evidence still being displayed to speak to hearts both of how cruel and serious sin is as well as how much our Saviour loves us to go through so much for us, even to still shed His life as the Law requires.
To understand these quotes, it must be realized that the sacrifice made at Calvary was not for cleansing us from our sins but for corporate mankind, answering to the daily sacrifices made for all Israel. Just as in the type, it is also required of us to voluntarily bring sacrifices for our own sins and peace offerings; Jehoshua is our Lamb and we present ourselves in Him. As will be seen in the Hebrews quotes, the Law requires blood to be shed to make a covering for sin, for every sacrifice must not be without blood, for the blood has infinite meaning in what it speaks to the hearts of the onlooking universe.
True, all of our sins were covered at the cross, corporately, but that was only to pay the death, or offering, for our sins, so that we all receive temporal probationary life. This is justification by grace, which all unconditionally receive, as it is written, “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in the Messiah Jehoshua” (Romans 3:23, 24). That is the covering at the cross. The covering in the sanctuary is conditional—justification by faith (5:1); we must choose to believe.
Before continuing this study, if you are not familiar with the biblical doctrine of justification by grace—that we all have been justified unto life, so that we live and move and have our being after Adam’s sin—then please go through the studies below. This truth is transformative and fundamental to having proper faith in the love of God and the covering work of His Son in the sanctuary, and it may be good to have a refresher even if you’ve studied it some time ago.
The Cross Justifies the Existence of All Life (Paul Penno)
Christ and Him Crucified (Peter C. Cay-ohen, Reformation Herald, Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement)
But we also need eternal life—personally, in us, not just in the Messiah—after each time we sin. And thus He serves us by still shedding His life for us in the heavenly sanctuary, from the fountain that was opened at Calvary. Is this for real? Is this what in fact happens? May the words of Inspiration deeply move you as you read the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy quotes. May your life be forever changed by reading them. May you experience a new awe for God like you never have before as you behold what He has given in giving His Son to humanity, to suffer so long for our sins. This awe is a fearful one, seeing what sin hath wrought.
The Word of God Speaks
Sin Causes God to Suffer
Those who think of the result of hastening or hindering the gospel think of it in relation to themselves and to the world. Few think of its relation to God. Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ‘s agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him.
— E.G. White, Education, p. 263
All Sins Must Be Covered by Blood
Verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary … Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and [for] the errors of the people … But the Messiah 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 Places, having obtained eternal redemption for us … And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For the Messiah is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
— Hebrews 9:1-24
The Blood Speaks
Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jehoshua the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.
— Hebrews 12:22-29
We Enter the Sanctuary by the Blood of Jehoshua
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” saith the Lord, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holy Places by the blood of Jehoshua, by a freshly slain and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a High Priest over the House of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised).
— Hebrews 10:16-23
Sacrifice Ends on the Day of Covering
He [the Messiah] has taken the blood of the atonement, sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat and His own garments, and blessed the people. Soon He will appear the second time to declare that there is no more sacrifice for sin.
— E.G. White, Review and Herald, 11/13/1913
Sins Are Transferred in Fact to the Heavenly Sanctuary
As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded.
— E.G. White, Great Controversy, p. 421
Jehoshua Still Sheds His Blood
Children of the Lord, how precious is the promise! How full the atonement of the Saviour for our guilt! The Redeemer, with a heart of unalterable love, still sheds His sacred blood in the sinner’s behalf.
— E.G. White, Review and Herald, 1/9/1883
Jehoshua‘s Sacrifice Is Continual
Jesus stands before the Father, continually offering a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is the minister of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. The typical offerings of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A daily and yearly atonement is no longer necessary. But because of the continual commission of sin, the atoning sacrifice of a heavenly Mediator is essential.
— E.G. White, Youth’s Instructor, 4/16/1903
Our Guilt Is Still Placed upon the Messiah
As you confess your sins, as you repent of your iniquity, Christ takes your guilt upon Himself, and imputes to you His own righteousness and power.
— E.G. White, Youth’s Instructor, 1/16/1896
The cup of suffering was placed in His hand, as if He were the guilty one, and He drained it to the dregs. He bore the sin of the world to the bitter end. And yet men continue to sin, and Christ continues to feel the consequences of their sin as if He Himself were the guilty one.
— E.G. White, Letter 100, 1911
In Gethsemane
The sins of men weighed heavily upon Christ, and the sense of God‘s wrath against sin was crushing out His life.
Behold Him contemplating the price to be paid for the human soul. In His agony He clings to the cold ground, as if to prevent Himself from being drawn farther from God. The chilling dew of night falls upon His prostrate form, but He heeds it not. From His pale lips comes the bitter cry, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Yet even now He adds, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”
The human heart longs for sympathy in suffering. This longing Christ felt to the very depths of His being. In the supreme agony of His soul He came to His disciples with a yearning desire to hear some words of comfort from those whom He had so often blessed and comforted, and shielded in sorrow and distress. The One who had always had words of sympathy for them was now suffering superhuman agony, and He longed to know that they were praying for Him and for themselves. How dark seemed the malignity of sin! Terrible was the temptation to let the human race bear the consequences of its own guilt, while He stood innocent before God. If He could only know that His disciples understood and appreciated this, He would be strengthened.
— E.G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 687
The Messiah Presents His Blood Each Moment
The work of Christ in the sanctuary above, presenting His own blood each moment before the mercy seat, as He makes intercession for us, should have its full impression upon the heart, that we may realize the worth of each moment. Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us; but one moment carelessly spent can never be recovered … Consider this great fact that Christ ceases not to engage in His solemn work in the heavenly sanctuary, and if you wear Christ‘s yoke, if you lift Christ‘s burden, you will be engaged in a work of like character with that of your Living Head.
— E.G. White, Testimonies on Sabbath School Work, pp. 85, 86
The Messiah Dies Continually
Christ as high priest within the veil so immortalizes Calvary that though He liveth unto God, He dies continually to sin, and thus if any man sin, he has an Advocate with the Father.
— E.G. White, Manuscript 50, 1900
The Symbol of the Smitten Rock
The smitten rock was a figure of Christ, and through this symbol the most precious spiritual truths are taught. As the life-giving waters flowed from the smitten rock, so from Christ, “smitten of God,” “wounded for our transgressions,” “bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:4, 5), the stream of salvation flows for a lost race. As the rock had been once smitten, so Christ was to be “once offered to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28). Our Saviour was not to be sacrificed a second time; and it is only necessary for those who seek the blessings of His grace to ask in the name of Jesus, pouring forth the heart’s desire in penitential prayer. Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the wounds of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood, symbolized by the flowing of the living water for Israel.
— E.G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 411
