In the sovereign goodness of God, through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, the believer is justified in Christ, has been brought to God, is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, is accepted in the Beloved, is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and forms part of the body of Christ, the bride of Christ and the house of God. Much more could be said regarding all the blessings that belong to the believer in Christ, blessings that are bestowed on him in God’s grace, and are independent of anything that he is in himself. There are also privileges to be enjoyed, and these do depend on the state of the believer. If a believer is living in sin he cannot enjoy commune with God, nor has he any right to be in communion with the saints of God until his sin is renounced, repented of and confessed. The nearer we are living to Christ, the more shall be our enjoyment of the privileges that God has given us with Himself and with His saints.
The Holiest
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, and set them up in relation to Himself, He dwelt among them in the tabernacle. The mercy seat, in the holiest, was where God communed with Moses (Ex. 25:22; 30:6, 36), and none but Moses could normally enter the holiest, the immediate presence of God. Aaron went into the holiest on the day of atonement to sprinkle the blood of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons removed the covering veil to wrap the holy vessels when the camp of Israel moved forward. Only Moses, the mediator, who represented God before the people could enter the holiest for communion with God. Israel as a people had no approach to God for communion, not even the priestly family.
For Christians today the holiest represents the place where we can be before God in communion and worship, that is the immediate presence of God. We can be before God at any time, whether in confession of our failures, to pray for our needs, or to intercede for others, but this is not what is presented to us as entering the holiest. The throne of grace is open to the Christian at all times, and there we are to come with boldness “to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). It is one thing to be a suppliant in God’s presence, either for ourselves or others, and another to be before God in communion and worship.
Boldness to Enter
There was no boldness for the children of Israel in their relations with God, there was both distance and dread (Ex. 20:18-19). It is altogether different in Christianity. As we have seen, we can approach the throne of grace with boldness, for the death of Christ has made God’s throne for us a throne of grace. In Ephesians 2:18 we read of our access by one Spirit to the Father through Christ, and “in Christ Jesus our Lord…we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him” (Eph. 3:11-12). Whether it be to have communion with the Father in relation to His purpose of love in Christ, or to worship in the presence of God in the light of His glory that shines unveiled in the face of Jesus, the believer of His glory that shines unveiled in the face of Jesus, the believer has boldness, he is before God without the least dread upon his spirit.
By the Blood of Jesus
It is the precious blood of Jesus that gives us the boldness to enter the immediate presence of God as worshippers. The blood speaks of the efficacy of the work done by the Lord Jesus on the cross but also of the great love that was manifested by God in giving His Son to die for us. On the great day of atonement, the blood of the sin offerings was sprinkled on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat. This typified the work (and its application) of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The blood on the mercy seat speaks of the claims of God’s throne being entirely met in Christ’s death, and the blood sprinkled seven times before the mercy seat speaks of our standing in redemption before the presence of God.
The blood of Jesus is infinitely precious to God, and God would have His saints enter into something of its infinite value. As we enter into the value of Christ’s death all dread of God and His judgment are taken away, and instead there comes the holy boldness that God desires in His people. It is not the boldness of the flesh, but a reverent boldness that glorifies God, for we accept His own thoughts of His Son, though it be in feeble measure, and of the value of the great work that has brought infinite glory to Him.
A New and Living Way
There is no way into God’s presence under the old covenant, but a new way has been inaugurated for God’s people through the blood of the new covenant. An entirely new order has been introduced for God’s people in Christianity, where all things are new, and this includes a way of approach to God so that we can worship in His presence. Twice in Leviticus 16 the words are found “that he die not” (Lev. 16:2, 13), so that under the old covenant the way into the holiest was a way of death, or the fear of death, for the threat of death was pronounced. There is neither threat, nor fear, of death in the new system of approach to God. A living Christ is in God’s presence, and He has communicated to us His own life, so that we enter into God’s presence, a scene pulsating with divine life, as having been associated with Him whose priesthood is “after the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16).
Which He has Consecrated for Us
We have not found this new and living way into God’s presence for ourselves. What could poor sinners do to obtain access to the holy presence of Him whom the great seraphim proclaim as “Holy, holy, holy”? In the greatness of His love and wisdom God has obtained a way whereby we can approach Him as worshippers, and He has consecrated it for us. Men might speak of some other way to God, but there is no other way than that which God has dedicated, this new and living way, the foundation of which is in the blood of Jesus, but which is connected with a living Christ in His presence.
Through the Veil . . . His Flesh
This veil of Hebrews 10:20 is evidently the veil of Hebrews 9:3, the veil of Exodus 26:31, which was made of “blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work.” This veil our Scripture interprets for us as signifying the flesh, or humanity of Christ. The lovely colours of the veil surely speak to us of the beautiful traits of Christ’s humanity, and of the varied glories of Him who is the Second Man out of heaven, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the King of Israel.
Within the veil, hidden from the eyes of men, was the divine glory, just as the divine glory of the Son, the Word become flesh, was hidden from men by the veil of His flesh. Yet there were those who had eyes to discern the divine glory shining through the veil of the humanity of the Son of God, even as John wrote, “and we behold His glory, the glory as of an only begotten with a Father” (John 1:14). While the divine glory was hidden within the veil of Christ’s flesh, “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). There was the full revelation of God, and the manifestation of the Father’s Name, in One who was perfect Man with the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him.
If the veil speaks of Christ’s flesh, the rending of the veil of the temple tells us of the death of Christ. The veil of the tabernacle however was never rent, and it is an unrent veil we read of in Hebrews 10, but the truth of Christ’s death is brought forcibly before us in the blood of Jesus through which we have boldness to enter God’s presence. Matthew 27 and Mark 15 speak of the veil of the temple being rent in twain from top to bottom, no doubt indicating that God has come forth as a Saviour God for the blessing of men. In Luke 23:45 we read of the veil being rent “in the midst,” signifying that the legal system of Judaism, in which there was no approach to God, has been set aside in Christ’s death, making way for a new system, what is found in Christianity, where there is approach to God.
A Great Priest Over the House of God
Not only have we the Manhood of Christ in the veil, and the death of Christ in the blood of Jesus, but we have the resurrection and glory of Christ presented to us in the great Priest, who is over God’s house. What a blessed privilege it is to be within the veil in the company of the great Priest. In Hebrews 6:19-20 we learn that Jesus has gone within the veil, and there as our forerunner, for soon we shall be with Him where He is gone. While waiting for that blissful moment when He shall come to take us to be for ever with Him, how blessed is the privilege of entering God’s presence to be with Him in spirit now.
Jesus is Son over God’s house (Heb. 3:6), and the great Priest over God’s house, ordering everything for the pleasure of God, and maintaining the people of God, both in relation to the trials and sorrows of the wilderness way, and as enabling them to enter the holiest for communion and worship. How blessed it is to see the glory in the unveiled face of Jesus, to know something of the wonderful fragrance that fills that holy place, and to gaze on the colours that bring out the moral perfections of Jesus and His varied glories, and to contemplate what is set forth in the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, the cherubim, the tables of the covenant, the golden pot that had the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded.
Let Us Draw Near
The writer of this epistle evidently knew something of the joy of being in the holiest, else he could not exhort his brethren to draw near with him. Nearness to God is something the flesh cannot tolerate. When Jacob wakened from his sleep he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not” (Gen. 28:16). Such nearness to God made him afraid, and he said, “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” With a guilty conscience, the nearness of God’s presence was dreadful to Jacob, but after God had dealt with Jacob, the patriarch was able to say, “Let us arise, and go up to Bethel” (Gen. 35:1–3).
God has dealt with us in wondrous grace. He has removed from us our guilty conscience, so that we have “no more conscience of sins.” We have the knowledge of God through the coming of the Lord Jesus, and through His death upon the cross, and His love has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Surely then it ought to be our desire to live in nearness to God, and to answer to the exhortation, “Let us draw near.”
With a True Heart
Jacob had not a true heart when the Lord spoke to him as he fled from his brother: indeed, he had a guilty conscience after deceiving his father. If we have a guilty conscience we cannot enter God’s presence for communion with Him. We can go to God to confess our failure, and He will forgive and cleanse us, but this is not entering the holiest. Even if we go to God to ask for something, our heart must be true (1 John 3:18–22). Faith has purified our hearts, but constant exercise is necessary to keep the heart true, so that we may be in a moral state in conformity to God’s presence.
In Full Assurance of Faith
Many true saints of God know what it is to seek the help of God, but have little idea as to entering the holiest. So often this is because of lack of knowledge as to God’s desire for His own to be worshippers before Him. Occupation with our own things, faulty teaching, and lack of growth in the things of God, hinder our having the full assurance which faith in the word of God gives. God has shown us clearly in His word that He not only desires to save us, but also to have us near to Himself as worshippers, and faith lays hold of what God has said and brings this full assurance into the heart.
Sprinkled . . . and Washed
On the day the priests were consecrated, they were first washed with water, then sprinkled with oil and blood. Believers in the Lord Jesus, like the disciples of the Lord at the beginning, have been washed (John 13:10), a work of God in our souls having separated us from the pollution that belongs to man after the flesh. This work of God is spoken of by the Lord in John 3:5 as “born of water and of the Spirit,” and no man can enter the presence of God as a worshipper unless he is born of God.
The sprinkling of the oil and the blood surely tell of the work of Christ applied to us, and to our habits, and also of our having come under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Unless a man is one of God’s priests, being separated to God by the precious blood of Christ, and by the Spirit of God, he cannot possibly be a worshipper of God in His presence. Many in Christendom profess to be worshippers of God, but they have not come under the efficacy of Christ’s blood, or been sealed and anointed by the Spirit. Such worship is not the kind that God seeks, for He seeks the worship of those who have been made meet for His presence by the work of His Son and Spirit.
Of old the priests had to wash their hands and feet on entering the presence of God (Ex. 30:20) to minister. We too must have our hands and feet clean to enter God’s presence in the holiest. If we are occupied with present things, things that may be right in themselves, or engaged with the things of the earth or of the world, we need to be cleansed before coming to God to worship Him. Our hands get defiled with touching the things of the world, and our feet get defiled as we walk through this defiling world, but God has made provision for our cleansing, as shown in John 13:1–10 and 1 John 2:1.
May the Lord enable us to answer to His desires for us in walking here for His pleasure, and as entering into His presence to commune with Him, as engaged with Christ, and in worshipping Him in the light of the revelation of Himself in His own Son.
R. 11.1.71