Boldly Enter
19Therefore dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Don’t Negate Christ’s Sacrifice
26Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. For we know the one who said, “I will take revenge. I will pay them back.” He also said, “The LORD will judge his own people.” It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Think Back On Those Early Days
32Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.
Don’t Throw Away Your Trust in Jesus
35So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.
Hebrews 10:19-39
A careful examination of what I have done above will show you I have divided this segment into four subsections but have called the whole section Don’t Throw Away This Remarkable Opportunity. As I told you in the last Gem, this section divides naturally into four segments, made plain above. There are some remarkable statements made by the author in this portion but there are equally several warnings. This fits with the author’s overall approach. I have made the overall block user-friendly for you by putting in the indicator verse number at the beginning of each segment.
We will investigate this wider passage together from the vantage point of the bridge, which enables us to look at the segments while keeping in the mind the big picture, beginning with the first segment.
Boldly Enter
Heb 10:19-25
19Therefore dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
In the last Gem I drew your attention to the fact that the author has become personal in his approach to his readers by using the word [adelphoi], meaning ‘brothers and sisters’. He cares about them and wants them to realise the value of what is now theirs by virtue of what Jesus has done. We can enter into the Most Holy Place as a result of His sacrifice and blood. We have access rights to the Most Holy Place or put another way: access to the very throne room of God. The author has taken four chapters to explain to us the huge significance of what Jesus has done. (See Gem 2127) Rather than having to shield our faces from the glory of God or having to enter like the high priest shrouded in smoke and incense, we can go right into the very Presence of God. When the LORD is present so too is His Glory. Yet we now have access to that Presence as a result of what Jesus has done! How? By fully trusting Him! Who is meant by Him? Jesus! We are told in 1 Peter 2:9 that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood”. The way to God in the heavenly tabernacle has now been opened to us. It is not that we take Jesus blood into the tabernacle on behalf of others. We are not substitutes of the High Priest. Rather, in the same way Jesus is in the sanctuary interceding for us; we too can enter in and intercede for others and share our personal concerns with Him.
Remember what happened when Jesus was on the cross. The veil was torn from top to bottom a symbol of the abolition of the Old System. He opened up a new life-giving-way for us through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. A way which is not related to the Old but to the New Covenant. The curtain was a symbol of the fact that the access was blocked. There was a barrier to our access to God caused by the fact that our sin was ever before us. We no longer have to wait for the High Priest to go into the Most Holy Place one day in the year and hope that his sacrifice to cover himself will be accepted so that the sacrifice for all the people will be acceptable. Remember it is called the Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur; the day for the covering of sin. That old way is now obsolete. You are made holy as a child of God because you fully trust Jesus’ actions on your behalf. Our guilty consciences have been cleansed because Jesus has removed sin not just covered it.
This brings us to the author’s subsequent comments:-
For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
Hebrews 10:22-23
There is a considerable variety of opinion on the meaning of these two verses. Many read into this passage religious terms and practices. In other words they focus on the sprinkling with blood, the washing with water and the confession of faith. They read into these verses parallels to the blood, the water and the confession, and turn them into the liturgical or ceremonial practices of the priesthood. Thus the blood becomes linked with communion, the water and sprinkling with baptism and the confession being that of the confession of our faith at baptism. I personally think that is taking it too far in an endeavour to link it all with the trappings of religion. Rather I see the link being to the practice of the High Priest under the Old Covenant, the sprinkling of the blood and the washing of water analogous of the altar of incense and the bronze laver found in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. When that is considered under the New Covenant surely the link is to Jesus’ blood, the washing of the Word and our confession of Jesus as the Redeemer of the World and our ongoing allegiance to Him as LORD. Yes it could be interpreted as having something to do with the sacraments of Communion, Baptism and Confession. But surely it is far deeper than that in our lives.
Surely the writer was meaning it in terms of:
- Our ongoing recognition of our indebtedness to Jesus’-once-for-all-sacrifice.
- Our willingness to be washed and submitted to His Word.
- Our willingness to keep to our confession of holding fast to our promise under the covenant. (This do to me and more so . . . )
After all as the writer reminds us, “God can be trusted to keep His promise”. What about us?
That’s enough for one Gem. There is more to come in the next Gem to gather together the gold in this first subsection.
God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we’ll be in trouble if He doesn’t come through!
Ian
Inside every person is a boldness wanting to get out and make an impact. Yield to your bold self.
Ian
You haven’t really trusted God until you’ve attempted something that you cannot do in your own strength.
Rick Warren
Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
Corrie Ten Boom