01.17. Christ - The Altar

Chapter 17 CHRIST THE ALTAR. The book of Hebrews is a commentary on Leviticus. It reveals the gospel in the Old Testament, and shows Christ where many had not seen Him.

It was also written to answer and end the boasting of the Jews over the early Christians. The former pointed to their stately Temple, and gorgeously attired priests, and multitudes of lambs and bleeding victims, and said in their pride, "See what we have, while you have nothing." The book of Hebrews is an overwhelming answer to that false claim and statement. The apostle shows that the Levitical economy, the mode of teaching truth then, was a kind of kindergarten way of instructing spiritual infants or children. That priests, lambs, altars, garments, ceremonies, cleansings, and so forth were but pictures and shadows of truths and experiences which now are known, possessed and enjoyed in a solid, substantial and abiding way. The antitype takes the place of the type. The shadow gives way to the substance, and the Christian with his living, glowing realities, is infinitely better off than the Jew in the midst of his symbols, no matter how grand, colossal and numerous these types may have been. So the argument of the apostle, and the Christian through him to the Jew, is this: "Have you a temple? So have we, for God has said we are His Temple! Your temple but symbolizes us. Did He not say to you what house will you build me, will I dwell in a house made of wood and stone? What house can confine me, when I inhabit the heavens? No! In that man will I dwell he that humbleth himself and trembleth at my word. For ye are God’s building. Ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost."

Again he argues, Have you a priest? So have we! What if yours is taken from one of the tribes and clothed with glittering vestments. Our priest is one forever after the order of Melchisedek, without father or mother, or beginning or ending of days; Jesus Christ the righteous.

Still again. Have you a lamb? So have we, one without blemish and without spot, Jesus, the Holy One of God. Your lamb was but a type of ours, and ours sent from Heaven sweeps infinitely ahead of yours taken from the flock and fold. And yet still another argument: "Have you an altar? So have we. "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle."

Some preachers have asked us what right we had to claim Christ as our altar, and to say that as an altar He sanctifies us. Our reply has been that we say so for two reasons: First, it is stated by Scripture that "The altar sanctifies the gift," and, "Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy."

Truly it is seen at a glance that whatever sanctifies and makes holy cannot be an ordinary or earthly thing or person. It takes the divine being to make one holy.

Now the altar in the Jewish economy was as prominent an object as the lamb or priest.

What could it stand for? Surely not a Communion Table. This altar sanctifies everything or person upon it. Surely a Communion Table cannot do that. Are all people sanctified by touching a communion table? Paul says, "We have an altar," and then after a sentence which reads as a parenthesis he says, "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing his reproach."

Truly we are finding today that, while we are made to see the Lamb and the Priest in the Temple, yet to come to the Altar which sanctifies we have to go outside the camp, and find reproach in doing so. Hear the word, "We have an altar; whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of these beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach."

Let the reader remember that the Old Testament says the Jew had an altar, and that Paul in the New Testament says the Christian has one. Let him also bear in mind that the Bible says that the Jewish altar sanctified and made holy. Will the Christian altar do less? But who can sanctify but God! So that the altar in both dispensations must refer to a divine being or work.

Christ said that the altar sanctified the gift. Who can be that altar but Himself. Certainly the altar and the gift are different, for one sanctifies, and the other is sanctified, and the latter by the former. "For He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all one, wherefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Christ is evidently the altar according to Scripture. The second proof of this fact is seen in the demand of Redemption itself.

There are three things which are imperative for our salvation. They must be. One is a priest, the second a victim, and the third an altar. Somebody has got to undertake our case and plead for us; some one must take our place and die for us to satisfy the law; and some one must sanctify us to get us fit for heaven. We need a priest to pray, a lamb to die, and an altar to sanctify. Who furnished these three things? Did Christ do a part, and some one else another? Did some great angel assist Him in this work of Redemption? If so, then we have more than one Saviour, or Christ is only a partial Saviour.

There is no need to speculate here, for the Bible says, "He trod the wine press alone." He stood in the breach alone. There was no one with Him. Deliverance was laid on His shoulder. He was the Daysman, the only name given under heaven, the all in all we needed in salvation.

Well, if Christ is all, and has done all, then He must be Priest, Lamb and Altar.

There is no escape from this. Whether we make His human nature the lamb or victim that died, and the divine nature on which it was offered the altar of infinite merit; or whether we say the whole Christ was priest, lamb or altar according to the need of the soul approaching Him, still it remains that we can see Him as the Altar.

There is no dispute today among the great body of God’s people about the Priesthood of Christ. Nor is there any question among Evangelical Christians that Christ is the Lamb of God who died for our sins. The remaining lesson to be learned is that Jesus is our sanctifying Altar. That if He is our Lamb, and Priest, then He ought to be our Altar. That if as our Priest He prays for us, and as our Lamb dies for us to meet the demands of the law, then as our Altar He should sanctify us. This blessed fact many thousands have learned, and many thousands more are learning, as full salvation is preached, and Holiness campmeetings multiply.

Somehow God witnesses to the statements made that Christ is our Altar. We do not believe that if we said to a man, "The Communion Table sanctifies you wholly," that any one in his senses would believe it, or that the Holy Ghost would fall upon such a speech. But we have seen the Spirit fall, in marvelous and transforming power, upon many hundreds who have looked up and said, "I believe that Christ my Altar sanctifies me wholly now."

One argument made by the opponent of the Altar truth is that the Jew brought his gift to the priest and he (the priest) laid the gift on the altar. This reasoning was made to overturn the thought that we laid ourselves on the altar. This is a mere quibbling over words. Why not object to the thought that we bring ourselves to the priest? In one sense it is absurd, and yet in another it is true.

True it is that the priest laid the gift on the altar, but the gift had first been brought to him. So we bring ourselves to Christ, but Christ is the Altar as well as the Priest. We commit ourselves to Him, and through His grace and power we obtain what we seek. Without Him we can be nothing and do nothing.

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