Many believe that God, in His infinite wisdom, already had a plan to save humanity even before He created humanity. Someone said, “before there was sin there was a Savior!” What a blessed reality! Our salvation was not secondhand guesswork of God, but a well laid-out plan in place before our creation!
Moses made the sanctuary an exact representation of what he had been shown. The services that Moses prescribed in the Old Testament tied to the sanctuary service pointed to Jesus Christ and some aspects of His ministry for humanity.
The sanctuary service was particular in teaching sinners how to deal with their personal sins. They came with a young male lamb, preferably. That lamb had no spot or blemish. This individual coming to the sanctuary to confess their sins would sever the jugular vein of the lamb. A priest would then sprinkle some of the blood inside of the sanctuary.
Why the blood, and why the sprinkling of the blood? The blood represented the life of the being; it was a symbolic representation of the person’s life who was confessing their sins. Their sin was symbolically transferred, passed onto, or placed onto the lamb. The lamb represented the Savior who was prophesied to come in Genesis 3:15.
This symbolic representation of sin passing into the sanctuary placed the sin into the sanctuary, therefore the sanctuary had to be cleansed.
Note here, again, the symbolic nature of the sanctuary and its rituals. The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Hebrews 10:4, “for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” He very clearly says that the shedding of the blood of those animals could not purge our sins, but those animals and sacrifices represented the “lamb,” Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed to take away our sins.
Jesus was the lamb slayed on Calvary; His blood is the propitiation for all our sins (1 John 2.2). This cleansing of the sanctuary represents then that once in eternity, God would dispose of the sins removed from the repentant sinner and placed on “the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1.29, KJV).
But if the earthly sanctuary follows the the model God gave Moses, and is representative of what happens in the holy heavenly sanctuary, when, where, and how is that “cleansed”?
The cleansing of the sanctuary represents the final eradication of all remnants of sin, iniquity and transgression. If we explore part of the when of the Cleansing of the Sanctuary, we can study what the Prophet Daniel was told in Daniel 8.14: “And he said to me, For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.’”
The Bible guides us to deciphering this critical part of the prophecy:
- A day in prophecy represents a year (see Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6).
- Many Bible scholars believe that the prophecy started with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, or about 456 B.C. Therefore, calculating the number of years, starting then, and counting a year for each day, we end up in A.D. 1844.
- The cleansing of the sanctuary began when Jesus entered the final phase of His ministry in heaven.
With respect to the how, it is helpful to note sin started in heaven. Satan was known as Lucifer, the covering cherub, in heaven until iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 28:11-15).
“And war broke out in heaven Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought but they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer so the great dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him,” (Revelation 12.7-9, KJV).
What we are sure of, is that one day, at the Second Coming, our sins will have been removed, our characters refined, and we will stand before the entire universe justified, sanctified and glorified by the Blood of the Lamb.
One might ask, “so what?” What difference does this make in the “here and now?”
Reflecting on the cleansing of the sanctuary creates a sense of urgent self-reflection, a sense of self-denial and sober living. We are to live in an acute sense of personal examination until Jesus comes; asking Him to remind us of our sins that we may confess and forsake them, by His Holy Spirit power.
In conclusion, here are two points to reflect upon. First, it reminds us that God not only cares about us, but also honors us enough to tell us what He is doing to one day end our suffering in sin.
Second, we are assured of salvation as God keeps his promise to Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3.17:) that Jesus would come, live a holy life and die and be resurrected for our sins.
Third, it encourages us to remain faithful and it ensures every blood-bought, sinner-saved-by-grace, and the universe will be one day be sinless.
While we don’t know every minute detail of the implications of the cleansing of the sanctuary, God has given enough information to continue a faith journey. Truly, we “walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), trusting Him where we don’t see Him because of what He has shown us thus far.
It has been said, “God is good, all the time; all the time God is good.” He is better than good; He is majestic in his holiness, and He will one day bring an end to all sin and restore all righteousness in the earth. Praise His holy name.
