18, 19. (a) How does God dwell in that real Most Holy into which Jesus Christ entered? (b) What barrier did Jesus Christ have to pass in order to enter, and how was this pictured according to Hebrews 6:18-20?

¹⁸ Thank you, Paul, for we are glad to learn that the holy place into which the resurrected Jesus Christ entered with the value of his own sacrificial blood was not a holy place on earth where his few disciples then were, but was “heaven itself,” where the “person of God” is, where God himself dwells personally rather than dwelling there by spirit. However, that real “holy place,” namely, “heaven itself,” was not all that there was to the real temple. Why not? Because the Most Holy of the earthly tent and temples made with hands and where God dwelt by his spirit was not all that there was to those sacred structures. The Most Holy was only the innermost room of those earthly structures, and was separated from a first compartment by a curtain. (Matt. 27:50, 51) This inner curtain illustrated the fleshly barrier that Jesus had to pass in order to get into the heavenly Most Holy, namely, his fleshly body, his humanity. Talking of his hope, Paul says:

¹⁹ “We who have fled to the refuge may have strong encouragement to lay hold on the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor for the soul, both sure and firm, and it enters in within the curtain, where a forerunner has entered in our behalf, Jesus who has become a high priest according to the manner of Melchizedek forever.”​—Heb. 6:18-20.

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?