"We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." Hebrews 13:10
Since the fall of our father Adam, God has never allowed man to approach him without an altar and a sacrifice of blood. In the old days of the patriarchs, from Adam to Moses, God’s saints built altars of hewn stone, upon which they offered sacrifices to God. Whenever men drew near to God, whether to offer praise or to seek mercy, they built an altar and offered a sacrifice of blood. Even in those days, men of faith knew that God’s justice could only be satisfied for sin by blood, even the blood of God’s own Son, the Redeemer who must come into the world to put away sin.
Then, when God called Moses up into the mount and spoke to him face to face he appointed one altar of sacrifice to be built, and appointed a place for that one altar in Israel alone. One spot was selected, and only one. All the rest of the world was left without an altar and without a sacrifice.
At first the altar was placed in the tabernacle. Later it was placed in the temple at Jerusalem. This was the only altar of sacrifice by which men might approach the holy Lord God. From time to time, the prophets of God, by God’s special command, raised up other altars. But for all others the rule was unbending – One altar! All other altars erected by men were erected in defiance of God’s command; and their pretended sacrifices to God were an abomination to him.
As in the typical, legal dispensation, so it is now. There is but one altar upon which the holy Lord God meets sinners in mercy, only one altar upon which God can and will be worshipped; and that Altar is Christ. The altar of sacrifice, in the tabernacle and in the temple, was typical of our Lord Jesus Christ (his Person, his work, and his merit) as our Substitute before God. This is what Paul teaches us in Hebrews 13:10. — "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." The only access which sinners have to God, and the only acceptance we have with God is Christ our Altar.
Our Altar is in heaven. We recognize no altar upon the earth. He who has an Altar in heaven needs no altar upon the earth. He who has an altar upon the earth has no altar in heaven. The Holy Spirit tells us this plainly. — "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle."
We cannot approach God without a Mediator, without an Altar, and without a Sacrifice. We are all guilty men and women, our best and holiest acts are but the sinful deeds of sinful men, and our purest worship is but the worship of depraved hearts. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Before we can ever be accepted with God, before we can ever bring an acceptable offering or service to God, there must be a shedding of blood for the removal of our sin and guilt. We must come to God by way of the Altar and Sacrifice he has appointed, the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no door of acceptance for us except through the merit of our great Surety, who laid down his life for us. There is but one way by which we who are washed in the blood of Christ can offer unto God our prayers, our gifts, our praises, or our service, and that is by the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is our Altar. We must give ourselves to him as living sacrifices to God, because only in him will God accept our reasonable service (1 Pet. 2:5).