NOTES for Lev 16:1-34

It might seem that the ordinance concerning the high priest’s entrance into the sanctuary behind the veil has nothing to do with us. Not only are most of us not descendants of Aaron, or even Levites, but the sanctuary itself has long ceased to exist, so there is nowhere to enter. Yet in the minds of the first Christians this institution did not lose its meaning. We see an example of how they understood the connection between themselves and the Old Testament high priest in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 9). Clearly, God dwells not only, and not so much, in the tabernacle of the covenant as in the sanctuary after whose pattern the tabernacle was made. Therefore, the true High Priest who genuinely fulfils this commandment can only be a man who has entered heavenly glory, clothed himself in garments of glory, and offered a sacrifice for the cleansing of the whole people. Naturally, Christians knew that the only man who fully meets the requirements of the Law, rather than merely doing so as a prefiguration, is the one Man Jesus Christ. If we now reread this passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we will see that such an interpretation is not merely an allegory or a typology of images, but a direct consequence of the new faith by which the words of the Law are clarified and become a testimony to Grace.