Good Morning. After a week away with my brother Dan on a fishing trip to Canada, I am back with some fresh thoughts for the day. God belss!
In Hebrews 10:19-22 we find a dynamic passage of scripture that powerfully tells us about our relationship with God: Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
There would have been no place on the planet that a Jew would have been less confident in entering than the Holy of Holies within the Temple of God. This was the place reserved for the High Priest, and him alone, and that on only one day per year after spending hours in rituals and ceremonies to make himself clean and acceptable. In the time before the exile in Babylon, the Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant. To approach it improperly would mean certain death. That place, the Holy of Holies, was separated from humanity by a thick curtain. This curtain did not allow even a sliver of light to shine within. It stood for the complete separation that was required between sinful man and the glory of their holy God.
But we live on this side of the cross of Jesus. We live in the time after His sacrificial death, and after His miraculous resurrection.
We, therefore, have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.
We may enter into the presence of our living God without fear or worry. Why? Because the curtain of separation has been replaced by the Body of Christ. He is our High Priest. He is our welcoming and open doorway into the presence of God.
Why do we enter without fear? Because this Jesus, our Jesus, has paid the price to make each of us who love Him in obedient adoration pure, sinless, and holy. We, through Jesus, are worthy of being in the presence of God. Therefore, our fear is replaced by confidence! Our guilty conscience has been cleansed and our worries chased away. All of this is thanks to the love and the sacrifice of Jesus, whose body is our curtain, which is now an open doorway for those who love the Lord.
Praise God!
Vern