20. How was the Holy of the tent separated from the courtyard, and what copper object was there in that courtyard?

²⁰ We remember that the first compartment of the tent or tabernacle was called the Holy and that it was separated by a curtain or screen from the courtyard outside the temple sanctuary. In that courtyard and in front (or east) of the temple sanctuary there was a large copper altar.

21. From what altar do the Jewish priests have no right to eat, and with whose sacrifice does this altar have to do?

²¹ Like the temple sanctuary itself, this altar was typical. The apostle Paul shows this, when he speaks of the difference between the Jewish priests and the baptized disciples of Christ and says: “We have an altar from which those who do sacred service at the tent have no authority to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is taken into the holy place by the high priest for sin are burned up outside the camp. Hence Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate [that is to say, outside the gate of Jerusalem].” (Heb. 13:10-12) The Christian altar therefore has to do with Jesus’ human sacrifice. But what is this antitypical altar? Also, what is the antitype of the first compartment or Holy of the earthly tent or temple? Let us figure this out with Bible help.

22. (a) What was illustrated by the inner curtain of the temple, and how did Jesus pass it? (b) Hence, everything outside or east of that curtain had reference to what kind of things?

²² That inner curtain between the Most Holy and the Holy of the temple represents a dividing line. It illustrates the fleshly barrier that Jesus Christ had to pass by laying down his perfect human flesh in sacrifice, giving this up forever. Now, since the Most Holy compartment inside the inner curtain pictures “heaven itself,” where God dwells, not by spirit but in person, everything outside that curtain (or to the east of it) would stand for something not in the invisible heavens but down here on earth. It would have to do with the flesh of those worshiping and serving Jehovah God here on earth. This rule applied therefore to the copper altar. In the cases of the temples of Solomon and of Herod, the altar was located in the inner courtyard or priests’ courtyard, where the high priest and his underpriests carried out their sacrificial duties. What did this altar typify?

THE ANTITYPICAL ALTAR

23, 24. (a) When Jesus came “into the world,” what did he say regarding God’s attitude toward sacrifices, and why? (b) So, what was taken away, and by what are Christians sanctified through Christ’s sacrifice?

²³ This is made clear for us by the apostle Paul in Hebrews, chapter ten. After having described how Jesus Christ as God’s High Priest entered into heaven itself in order to appear with the value of his own blood before the person of God for us, Paul goes on to say:

²⁴ “For since the Law has a shadow of the good things to come, but not the very substance of the things, men can never with the same sacrifices from year to year which they offer continually make those who approach perfect. . . . for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take sins away. Hence when he comes into the world he says: ‘“Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but you prepared a body for me. You did not approve of whole burnt offerings and sin offering.” Then I said, “Look! I am come (in the roll of the book it is written about me) to do your will, O God.”’ After first saying: ‘You did not want nor did you approve of sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sin offering’​—sacrifices that are offered according to the Law—​then he actually says: ‘Look! I am come to do your will.’ He does away with what is first that he may establish what is second. By the said ‘will’ we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.”​—Heb. 10:1-10.

25. What, then, was the altar upon which Jesus came and presented himself to be offered up as a sacrifice?

²⁵ From this it is evident that the antitypical equivalent of the copper altar in the temple courtyard is God’s “will,” his willingness to accept a perfect human sacrifice for which he had made preparation, this “will” of God being foretold in what was written in the roll of the book. (Ps. 40:6-8) God had not been willing to accept the imperfect human sacrifice of Abraham’s son Isaac, but he was willing to accept the perfect human sacrifice of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. He did not want and did not approve of the animal sacrifices of the annual Day of Atonement endlessly, but, according to His will and purpose, he did want a perfect human sacrifice that would atone for human sins, really “take sins away.” Jesus Christ came to do God’s will, and it was on the basis of God’s will as upon an altar that the presentation of the perfect Jesus for human sacrifice was accepted and his prepared, perfect human body was offered up. This perfect human sacrifice on the altar of God’s “will” really brought sanctification to Christ’s disciples. That is why Paul added: “By the said ‘will’ we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.”​—Heb. 10:10.

26. Why is it that the Jewish priests have no authority to eat of the “altar” from which the Christians underpriests eat?

²⁶ That is why, also, Paul said later on: “We have an altar from which those who do sacred service at the tent have no authority to eat. . . . Hence Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.” (Heb. 13:10-12) That is, we Christians who are spiritual underpriests have a sin-atoning sacrifice on the altar of God’s “will” from which the priests who serve at Herod’s temple in Jerusalem have no authority to eat the sacrifice because of their lack of faith in Jehovah’s true High Priest, Jesus Christ, the Mediator of Jehovah’s new covenant.

27. When did Jesus present himself for sacrifice, and what basis for sacrifice then came into existence, and what antitypical “day” then began?

²⁷ When did Jesus as a perfect human being come to present himself for sacrifice on the altar of God’s “will” as prescribed in the roll of the book? This was at the time that he presented himself to John the Baptist in the year 29 C.E. in order to be immersed in the Jordan River. That Jehovah God accepted Jesus’ self-sacrifice is manifest, for after Jesus’ water baptism Jehovah poured out his holy spirit upon Jesus and made him the Christ or Anointed One and audibly said from heaven: “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.” (Matt. 3:13-17; John 1:29-34) Consequently it was at that time that God’s antitypical “altar” came into existence and there was an acceptable sin offering upon it. From then on Jesus Christ was walking in the antitypical priestly courtyard superintending his human sacrifice to the death. The great antitypical Day of Atonement had begun, and Jesus Christ as God’s High Priest was serving at God’s true spiritual “altar” in a way similar to that of the Aaronic high priest in Jerusalem’s temple on the annual Day of Atonement, Tishri 10.​—Heb. 8:1-6.

4. (a) When did Jehovah bring Jesus Christ beyond the “curtain” into the real Most Holy, and how? (b) When did the antitypical Day of Atonement end, and how?

⁴ Now, the only thing that separated Jesus Christ as High Priest from Jehovah’s true Most Holy was that symbolic “curtain,” that barrier of the fleshly organism. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom.” (1 Cor. 15:50) For this reason Jesus Christ completed his perfect human sacrifice on God’s “altar” by dying as an innocent victim on Passover Day, Nisan 14, of the year 33 C.E.

7. As spiritual underpriests, into what antitypical area are they brought and into what compartment of the spiritual temple also, in order to do what in those locations?

⁷ This “spiritual house” is made up of “living stones” that are underpriests of Jesus Christ. They are told: “Consequently, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest whom we confess​—Jesus.” (Heb. 3:1) As a house of such underpriests they are “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 2:5) This means that they have been brought into the antitypical courtyard where God’s antitypical “altar” is located, there to offer up their “spiritual sacrifices,” on the basis of God’s “will.” This means also that, in their spirit-begotten condition as spiritual sons of God, they have been brought into the antitypical first compartment or “Holy” of God’s spiritual temple. There they enjoy spiritual enlightenment as from a golden seven-branched lampstand, and eat spiritual food as from the golden table of shewbread and offer up prayer, praise and service to Jehovah God as if standing at the stationary golden incense altar that stood before the inner curtain.

8. (a) So, then, what did the Holy of the tent or temple picture? (b) What did the courtyard of the priests picture?

⁸ From this standpoint, the Holy of the temple pictured or typified the spirit-begotten condition of God’s spiritual priesthood even while the members of this are still in the earthly body, in the flesh. It is a special spiritual relationship to God that is screened off from outsiders as if by a curtain so that these cannot discern it or appreciate it. The priestly court where the copper altar was located pictures their special human standing with God. He looks upon them, not as imperfect, condemned sinners unfit to serve at his spiritual “altar,” but as repentant, converted, baptized disciples of Jesus Christ whom he counts righteous, sinless, because of their faith in God and through the atoning blood of the High Priest Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:1, 9; 8:1; 3:24-26) So the temple courtyard with its copper altar pictured or typified the righteous standing of God’s spiritual underpriests as to their fleshly bodies.