The sanctuary is a Biblical representation of the gospel in the Old Testament. It was given specifically to show us the “way” of salvation through Jesus Christ (Psalm 77:13; John 14:6). So, the sanctuary is a symbol of Salvation. The purpose of salvation is restored relationship with God, our Creator. This restored relationship comes to us through the perfect life and penalty, satisfying the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. The sanctuary was a model of this salvation plan and restoration of relationship with God.
From the beginning, the sanctuary on earth was set up as a way for God to dwell with His people: “And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).
The sanctuary was made up of three parts: the courtyard, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place, where the glory of God dwelt above the mercy seat, on the ark of the covenant. Only the high priest, on the Day of Atonement, could enter the Most Holy Place, to be in the very presence of God. And only the priests could enter into the Holy Place. The courtyard was where people came with their animal sacrifices for sin.
Every day, the priests ministered in the courtyard and Holy Place, making sacrifices of animals, and sprinkling the blood in the Holy Place on behalf of the people. Then, once a year, on the day of atonement, or judgment, the high priest would enter into the Most Holy Place to make a final atonement for the sin of all the faithful, penitent people of God. This work of atonement, both daily, and the final atonement, are briefly summarized in the New Testament book of Hebrews:
“Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. 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” (Hebrews 9:1-7).
This second phase of cleansing, known as the Day of Atonement, pointed forward to the final work of our High Priest, Jesus Christ, and the blotting out of sin, just prior to His Second Coming (Leviticus 16). Hebrews explains that the entire sanctuary service was really just a shadow of the heavenly reality: “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:1, 2).
In fact, the book of Hebrews lays out the very work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary as our faithful High Priest today: “For Christ 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: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:24-28).
The sanctuary that New Testament believers are to focus on is in heaven. The priest is Jesus Christ. He has made a one-time sacrifice of all sin. He is mediating in the presence of God for us. Christ’s mediation is for the purpose of putting away sin in our lives, so that we can appear before the judgment without sin, and be ready for His Second Coming. Therefore, the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven has a direct connection with the cleansing of the temple of believers from sin.
The Bible says: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
God wants to cleanse the body temple from all unrighteousness. This is the work of the cleansing of the sanctuary pointed out in Daniel 8:14: “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:14).
The 2,300-day time prophecy is the longest time prophecy in the Bible when it is understood as a prophetic day-for-a-literal-year (Ezekiel 4:6; Numbers 14:34). Its beginning date stretches back to 457 B.C. and the going forth of the degree to restore and build Jerusalem (Ezra 7:21). This date is further confirmed by the baptism of Jesus in A.D. 27, an exact fulfillment of the first 483 prophetic days/literal years of this same prophecy explained by the angel Gabriel in Daniel 9:24, 25.
The life and death of Jesus fulfilled the courtyard type of the earthly sanctuary that called for a perfect lamb without blemish, to have its blood spilled for sin on the altar, and then taken into the Holy Place. Accordingly, Jesus was the Lamb who shed His blood to atone for our sins: “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
“We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those 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” (Hebrews 13:10-12).
Then at His ascension, after rising from the dead, Jesus entered into the second phase of our salvation, becoming our high priest in the Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary: “But Christ 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 place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:11, 12).
Then, in 1844, exactly 2300 prophetic days/literal years from the date 457 B.C, Jesus entered into the third and final phase of salvation and the final cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary from the record of sin, the day of final atonement/judgment and cleansing of sin: “It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us” (Hebrews 9:23, 24 ASV).
For hundreds of years, the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary was concealed by a counterfeit mediation set up on earth by man. The Day of Atonement and judgment for God’s professed people, through Christ’s mediation, was obscured by the little horn power of Daniel 8. God foresaw the work of this man-made religious system that brokered a counterfeit forgiveness and cast down the truth of Christ’s mediation. With prophetic accuracy, He warned Daniel and His faithful people that the heavenly sanctuary truth would be obscured for hundreds of years, but eventually, it would be rediscovered and the “cleansing” work for God’s professed people could move to its final stage.
“Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:11-14).
As noted by the prophecy, the sanctuary truth would be cast to the earth until the end of the 2300 prophetic days/literal years which pointed to 1844. This truth was so obscured that even those who studied the time element of this prophecy, concluded that the sanctuary was the earth, and its cleansing would happen at the Second Coming of Jesus. Not until a bitter disappointment (predicted in Revelation 10), did a faithful group of Advent believers rediscover the truth of a heavenly sanctuary and the work of Christ in His final phase of ministry in the Most Holy Place. After correcting the error, these believers realized the pinpoint accuracy of the prophetic declaration, “then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” And they soon found themselves proclaiming with renewed Holy Spirit power the message of the judgment hour to all the world (Revelation 10:11; 11:1).
Summary
From the very inception of sin and rebellion, God has been pursuing mankind, seeking to reconcile our relationship. His loving heart has willingly made the sacrifice needed to atone for our rebellion. God gave His people a symbol of His great work of salvation and reconciled relationship with Him in the model of the sanctuary on earth. The sanctuary had three phases, all pointing to His work of making atonement for sin. Phase one was accomplished by Christ’s perfect life and penalty, satisfying death. Christ’s death is a complete sacrificial atonement for sin and the only way that we can be forgiven and cleansed. Phase two pointed to Christ’s mediation of that completed sacrificial atonement for sin in the Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle in heaven. Phase three points to Christ’s final mediation of that completed atoning sacrifice for sin, in the final atonement phase, or day of judgment in the Most Holy Place. In every phase, Christ is set forth as the way of salvation and reconciliation for mankind. In this final day of atonement, it is His heart’s desire that everyone who hears the call of the Holy Spirit would respond to His great sacrifice and mediation, by accepting Jesus as a personal Savior and Friend. Amen.