One Altar

We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. - Hebrews 13:10

    "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." Hebrews 13:10

    There is but one Altar by which sinful men may approach the Holy God. In the Old Testament there was but one altar of sacrifice by which men could ceremonially approach God; and that one altar finds its fulfillment in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only altar, which can sanctify us and make us acceptable to God, is Christ.

    Today all physical, carnal, ceremonial altars are instruments of idolatry. Use anything as an altar for acceptance with God other than Christ and you have no right to the merits of Christ. If you have another altar, your altar will drag your soul down to hell.

    Not the Cross

    There are many who think of the cross upon which our Lord died as an altar. I have heard it said that the cross was the altar upon which our Lord offered himself as a sacrifice for sin. But it is not so. That cross upon which our Lord was crucified was nothing more than the instrument of his torture. It is no more to be reverenced as an altar than the whips of Pilate’s soldiers, or the spit of those Jews, which defiled his holy face. I would no more wear a cross around my neck than I would take the dagger a murderer used to kill my wife and wear it on my belt.

    Not Your Heart

    Sometimes men talk of the heart as an altar to God. I know what they mean. They mean that sincerity makes our service to God acceptable. It is true that there must be sincerity in our service to God, or it will never be acceptable. But sincerity itself will never make our most solemn devotion acceptable to God. Nothing but blood will ever make a man acceptable to God. Only the blood of Christ, shed for the atonement of our sin, can make us accepted with God.

    Not a Family Altar

    It is common for men to talk of having a family altar. It is good to worship God in your home, with your family. But your family devotions will never make you acceptable to God. The church of God is a family, and we have a family altar. His name is Jesus Christ our Substitute.

    Not a Church Altar

    In many churches the table used for serving the Lord’s Supper is looked upon as an altar. But the scriptures never speak in such a way. The table spread before you is a table of communion; but it is not a table of sacrifice. It is a place of remembrance, but not a place of atonement. It is a solemn feast, but not a sanctifying feast.

    Perhaps the most deceptive of all idolatrous notions is the idea that there is an altar of salvation at the front of the church. You can no more obtain salvation by walking down the aisle of a Baptist church to an altar, than the papists can by going to a confessional booth, making a pilgrimage to Rome, and climbing the stairs to the pope’s seat of infamy.

    Christ Our Altar

    There is but one Altar. There is but one place of salvation. That Altar is Christ. He is God’s salvation. God only meets with men in his Son. We read in Exodus 20:23-26…

    "Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon."

    Christ is our Altar of earth. He is our Altar of stone. He is the Altar of God’s making. — “If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.” That is to say, if you add anything to his work for acceptance with God, you pollute the Altar and the Sacrifice. Christ is the Altar with no stairs for men to climb. We do not come to God by degrees of holiness and sanctification, but by faith in Christ alone.

    All forms of carnal worship, all forms of physical things that men call “holy,” all attempts to place any merit of any kind or any reverence of any kind in material things is base idolatry (Ex. 20:23; John 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3).

    Let us once and for all put away every form of idolatry from our midst (2 Kings 18:4), and worship God in spirit and in truth. We must worship God spiritually, from within, by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. And we must worship God truthfully, in truth and sincerity and according to the revealed truth of Holy Scripture. And we must worship God in Christ who is the Truth.