Under the first covenant God established the means whereby guilty sinners could be purified. A tent was constructed. A Holy Place within the tent was set apart. The ark, containing sacred elements and constructed with the mercy seat, was placed inside the Holy Place. A High Priest, once a year, would enter and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. In this way, every sinner of the nation, from the High Priest on down, were purified from their sins. A death had taken place on behalf of the sinners, in the stead of the sinners. Now this took place every year because every component of this first covenant was merely a shadow, merely a copy, merely a pointer to the second, complete covenant.
Christ was the mediator of the new covenant. He was the final, complete tent. The tabernacle was a tent in which the presence of God dwelt among the people. Christ was God who clothed Himself in flesh, a tent, and “tabernacled” among us (John 1:14). Christ was the final, complete High Priest. Hebrews 7 and 8 demonstrate this reality. As mediator, Christ was able to enter the final, complete Holy Place, the heavens where God dwells. The blood of Christ would be the final, complete sacrificial offering. It was on the cross when the true High Priest, in the true tent, in the true Holy Place, offered the true blood in his death, it was then and there that final, complete redemption was made for the people of God.
“He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (9:12). That’s it. It is Finished! Done. Complete. Once for all. God’s people have been eternally redeemed. Christ, through His sacrificial, perfect death on the cross, secured all the blessings of the New Covenant!
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