The priest's office of old culminated in his entrance into the Holy of Holies, to present the blood of sacrifice. Christ's priesthood is completed by His ascension and heavenly intercession. We necessarily attach local ideas to this, but the reality is deeper than all notions of place. The passage speaks of Jesus as entering into the holy place,' and again as entering heaven itself for us.' It also speaks of His having entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle,' the meaning of which phrase depends on the force attached to' through.' If it is taken locally, the meaning is as in Heb. 4:14, that He has passed through the [lower] heavens to heaven itself'; if it is taken instrumentally (as in following clause), the meaning is that Jesus used the greater tabernacle' in the discharge of His office of priest. The great truth underlying both the ascension and the representations of this context is, as Heb. 9:24 puts it, that He appears before the face of God,' and there carries on His work, preparing a place for us. Further, we note that Jesus, as priest representing humanity, and being Himself man, can stand before the face of God, by virtue of His sacrifice, in which man is reconciled to God. His sinless manhood needed no such sacrifice, but, as our representative, He could not appear there without the blood of sacrifice. That blood, as shed on earth, avails to put away sin'; as presented in heaven, it avails for us,' being ever present before the divine eye, and influencing the divine dealings. That entrance is the climax of the process by which He obtained' eternal redemption' for us. Initial redemption is obtained through His death, but the full, perfect unending deliverance from all sin and evil is obtained, indeed, by His passing into the Holy Place above, but possessed in fact only when we follow Him thither. We need Him who became dead' for pardon and cleansing; we need Him who is alive for evermore' for present participation in His life and present sitting with Him in the heavenly places, and for the ultimate and eternal entrance there, whence we shall go no more out.
