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no covenants, no supernatural and miraculous gifts, and a hope that is lifted from that of
I Thess. 4: to the manifestation of Col. 3:
One of the evidences of difference that we find in the period of the Acts is that of
`access'. Peter and Cornelius may be saved by the same Saviour, redeemed by the same
precious blood, and look up to God as the same Father in Christ; nevertheless Peter can
pass the middle wall of partition, but if Cornelius attempted to do so he would imperil his
life. Peter and Cornelius may be saved by the same grace, may believe with the same
faith, yet Peter will withdraw himself from the table of the Gentile, Peter will even say
`not so Lord' to the vision of Acts 10:; he will even tell Cornelius to his face that he
would not have hesitated to class him with the `common and unclean'! The church at
Jerusalem was so surprised to hear that a Gentile had been saved, that they actually called
the Apostle to account saying in shocked tones:
"Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them" (Acts 11: 3),
and while the door at length swings open to the Gentile (Acts 14: 27), the epistle to the
Romans makes it clear in the eleventh chapter that dispensationally the Gentile believer
was a wild olive grafted contrary to nature into the true olive tree. Such conditions,
though palliated by the decrees of Acts 15:, are inimical to true unity, and they were
`abolished' at the introduction of the Mystery. Those who were reconciled in one Body
to God, have access in one Spirit to the Father; the former position `to God' being that of
the church of the one Body, the latter `to the Father' that of the family (Eph. 3: 15).
Chapter 2: 18 commenced with the particle hoti "seeing that through Him, etc." as
though the experimental fact that could not be denied, proved the dispensational fact that
was being explained. What they had was `access' ten prosagogen. This word in the
LXX answers in the majority of cases to the Hebrew corban, a word we have already
considered when dealing with salvation as `the gift' of God. There, in Eph. 2: 8, it is
God Who in infinite grace comes forward and brings His unspeakable gift to us; here, in
virtue of that gift, we are entitled to draw near to Him. There are thirty-six occurrences
of prosagoge in the LXX of Leviticus, of which the following are examples:
"And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water."
"And Moses brought Aaron's sons, and put coats on them."
"And he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right
ear" (Lev. 8: 6, 13, 24).
We learn from Eph. 1: 4 that this church of the one Body was chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world that it should be `holy and without blame before him'. We
find in Eph. 5: 25-27 that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it; that He
washes it by the water of the word that it may be presented `holy and without blemish',
and here in Eph. 2: 16-18 we see the work in process. What this church was in electing
choice `holy and without blemish', so will they be when presented at the last, and in the
reconciliation with its accompanying `access' we see that they are in Christ what Aaron
and his sons were only in type. Aaron had access but once a year into the holiest of all,
of a tabernacle made with hands. We have access at all times into the holiest of all (see
the meaning of the word `saints' in article No.34) of the true tabernacle which the Lord
pitched and not man, namely into heaven itself. Aaron never `sat down' as a priest, for