“And he said to me, ‘For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed’” (Dan. 8:14)

The service in the earthly sanctuary shows that the sanctuary itself could not be cleansed until each of the worshipers had been cleansed. It could not be cleansed so long as there was pouring into it, by the confessions of the people and the intercession of the priests, a stream of iniquities, transgressions, and sins. The cleansing of the sanctuary was the taking away from the sanctuary all the transgressions of the people which had been taken into it during the service of the year. And this stream must be stopped at its fountain in the hearts and the lives of the worshipers, before the sanctuary itself could be cleansed.

Therefore the first work in the cleansing of the sanctuary was the cleansing of the people-bringing in everlasting righteousness in the heart and life of each one of the people themselves. When the stream that flowed into the sanctuary was thus stopped it its source, then alone could the sanctuary itself be cleansed from the sins that flowed into it.

By this we are taught that the service of our great High Priest in the cleansing of the true sanctuary must be preceded by the cleansing of
each one of the believers. Transgression must be finished, an end of sins and reconciliation for all iniquity must be made in the heart’s experience of every believer in Jesus, before the cleansing of the true sanctuary can be accomplished.

This is the object of the true priesthood [of Christ] in the true sanctuary. The sacrifices, the priesthood, in the sanctuary which was a figure for the time then present could not really take away sin. The priesthood of Christ in the true sanctuary does take away sins forever, does perfect “forever those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14)

Jones, The Consecrated Way, pps. 84-85