Forword

This book is principally about the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ, the one sacrifice for sin and the one mediator between God and man. Most of the discussion concerns His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.

The sanctuary truth is one of the most important in the Bible. This book is not engrossed with details of the earthly sanctuary, but aims at seeing truth in its larger perspectives. Other writers have dealt thoroughly with the earthly sanctuary and its numerous symbols and rituals. This book was written with an earnest desire to give an eternal perspective and vital meaning to the central doctrine of the Christian faith, the atoning and reconciling work of our Lord Jesus Christ, which involves the vindication of God and His people.

The heavenly sanctuary provides the remnant church with God’s last message to men prior to Christ’s return. The sublime moral and spiritual heights to which Christ calls His followers underline the supreme importance of this judgment-hour message. The Christian church has not outgrown the mediatorial ministry of Christ, which is more important today than ever before.

The present widespread departure from, and resulting ignorance of, the reconciling work of Christ as our High Priest renders a true understanding of God’s work in and from the heavenly sanctuary imperative. The divine plan of salvation has been valid in all ages, both in type and antitype. But the closing phase of Christ’s mediatorial work has taken on transcendent importance since 1844, when Christ began the last phase of His ministry of reconciliation and judgment.

Every addition to our understanding of Christ and His priestly ministry builds on the foundation laid by those who have gone before. The renewed study of this great theme will bear fruit by exalting Christ and leading us into a closer fellowship with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the light of the judgment hour and the imminent return of Christ it should lead the church to a greater sense of mission.

The mission of the remnant church is enshrined in her understanding of the complete atoning work of Jesus Christ. That is her rallying point. Mission and message for the last days can only be realized in the light of eternal truths. Only the living Christ can give meaning to the sanctuary and its services. No literalizing can transform the hearts of men.

The divine truths that issue from Christ’s complete ministry in the heavenly sanctuary will never die, but grip men’s hearts forever. The world today needs a living Saviour, a sovereign King, a righteous Judge. The remnant church offers the sanctuary truth to the world. Men will toil in vain unless their hearts burn with life and power from Heaven. That life and power are present in the written Word as they were in the living Word when He came to dwell among men and demonstrate, in His own perfect life, the eternal principles of Heaven.

Aside from Biblical citations and quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White, other documentation has been kept to a minimum. It cannot be hoped that all the basic truths of the atoning work of Christ have been adequately dealt with in one short volume. God grant that through the reading of this book men may find access to the living God, “an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Heb. 6:19).