Hebrews 9:8-10
By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

Most of us would be appalled at the sight of someone ripping pages from a Bible, and rightly so. There is a certain reverence that Scripture deserves and while we do not worship a book, the nature of what it reveals to us about God makes it worthy of respect. The thought of it being defaced should give us pause.

But is it any worse for a person to deny the truth of Scripture by living in a way that dishonors God? Which is worse: tearing out pages from the Bible or deliberately choosing to violate its teachings? Are we so concerned with maintaining our outer appearance that we neglect the necessity of inner obedience? We focus so much on actions that we forget they stem from attitudes. When our hearts are clean, our hands will be too.

During the old covenant, God’s people made sacrifices in the temple as a sign of their faith in God. But the sacrifices themselves could never cleanse their sin. They dealt with outward cleanliness but they could not “perfect the conscience of the worshiper.” The inner problem of sin can never be cleansed by external sacrifices.

Our sin remains an obstacle between us and God, symbolized in the old covenant by the sections of the temple, only accessible by the priests, who served as mediators between God and the people. But these priests were themselves sinful humans, and unable to offer us access to God. For that, a different mediator would be needed, one that God himself would send on our behalf: “For there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” [1Timothy 2:5]

This is the beauty of what God has done. He has dealt with the inner problem of sin. We are not simply washed off, but we are cleansed, made holy and pure by the righteousness of Christ. Because of this, God’s glory can now dwell in the hearts of those He has cleansed and the temple no longer stands. The old covenant has been fulfilled completely in Christ and the new covenant promised by God through the prophet Jeremiah: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”