“Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Ps 24:3-5 AV)
So, a puzzle entered the mind here. If one approaching the holy place has clean hands and a pure heart, why would he need righteousness from the LORD? It was quite interesting reading the different commentaries on this issue. Almost all danced around this apparent contradiction. Some spiritualized it. Only one actually pointed out the problem but didn’t offer a concrete and clear answer. When we read the Bible, we have to be aware of the dispensational view of the passage which we are reading. This is an old testament passage. The holy place would have been the inner room of the tabernacle. The only one permitted would have been the high priest and that, once a year. He would first offer a sacrifice for himself and the nation as a whole. Upon entering the holy place, he would apply the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat above the ark of the covenant. If he had any sin in his heart, upon entering the holy place, he would be struck dead by the power of God. He had to enter the holy place with clean hands and a pure heart. This was accomplished by the blood of the sacrifice. Not by his own efforts. This granted him temporary righteousness. Applying the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat is what granted more permanent righteousness. Or, it sealed for a time, the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice offered earlier. This was all a picture of what Christ would do hundreds of years later.
A clue to this passage is the question of verse
three. Who can approach the hill of God? Who can enter the holy place? The obvious answer is no one. At least not in our own power. Not even the high priest could simply walk up
the tabernacle hill and walk into the holy place. He would have been struck dead at the first
step into it. Confession of sin alone was
not sufficient. The high priest could not
place his hands on the beast, confess his sin, and then walk into the holy
place. He would have lost his life. The high priest could not have killed the ox,
entered the tabernacle and shared the shewbread, then tried to enter the holy
place. He would have died. There must be an atoning sacrifice. There must be blood spilled. There is no way the high priest could enter
the holy place under the credentials of his own character. Psalm five, verses four and five teach us
that God cannot dwell with unrighteousness.
As long as there was any hint of sin on the hands or in the heart of the
high priest, God would not entertain his presence. The priest would have been slain.
When Paul tells us to approach the throne of God
with boldness, he does so in the context of the blood of Christ. What is seen here is the great doctrine of the
atoning work of Christ’s offering. The
old testament system of sacrifice and atonement was temporary. Old Testament saints had to trust Christ just
as we do today. Their faith was proven
as they participated in the law, foreshadowing the object of their faith. That being, their redeemer and Messiah. The whole point of our passage is simple and
liberating. You and I cannot come into
the tabernacle. We cannot enter the
presence of the LORD. We do not have
clean hands and a pure heart. Not in our
selves we do not. But the sacrifice of
Christ does make this possible. The
result is the God of our salvation bestows the righteousness of Christ upon us because
He has made our hands clean and our hearts pure. What was accomplished at Calvary is in force
today. We still have no merit of our
own. The only access to the presence of
God we have is through the shed blood of Christ. As we do enter, having been cleansed from our
wickedness, the Father bestowed His righteousness in us. What a wonderful picture of the atoning and
intercessory work of our Lord and Savior!
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