SO long as the Jewish system of worship, with its priests standing daily offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, and with its sacrifices continually offered, which could never take away sin, was, by divine authority, the ordained religion upon earth, man could not have liberty of access into God’s presence. By God’s appointment the very nature of the system signified to man “that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest.” (Heb. 9:88The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: (Hebrews 9:8).) It pleased God, that there should be such a religious system upon earth as should show to man, that he could not enter into the holy light of God’s presence; and it pleased God, that the forms and ceremonies of the religion He instituted, should declare to the worshipper his inability to approach near to God; and it pleased God to write this lesson upon man’s heart, in order to teach him practically the immeasurable blessing which is theirs who know the efficacy of the blood of Jesus.
It should be borne in mind, that the ceremonials and sacrifices of Judaism never revealed to man the vileness of sin, and that they never explained the absolute holiness of God; and it is important to continually keep before the mind the principle that in Christian times ceremonials merely blind the worshipper to the reality of sin’s depths and God’s holiness. When the mind of an unconverted man becomes occupied with ceremonial observances, the practical result is, he is so taken up with such matters that he neither thinks of Christ’s sacrifice nor of his sins, which that sacrifice can alone atone for. When an awakened soul becomes occupied with such things, he either becomes, according to the degree of his anxiety to be assured that he shall not be finally lost, more and more miserable, and less and less satisfied in his ceremonials; or by degrees grows hardened through what he is engaged in, and so gradually losing his anxiety about his sins, becomes satisfied with his religion and himself.
Now if the Holy Spirit signified by the ancient system of worship, that the way into the Holiest was not yet made manifest, what does modern ceremonialism signify? Surely, that men do not believe that the way into the Holiest is now made manifest. But God has said, and has shown, that the way into the Holiest is now made clear. God has revealed Himself in His own holiness, and He has been glorified by the Lord in relation to His holiness. God does not allow the thinnest tissue or filmiest veil to cover His holiness from man. He is no longer in any sense hidden from man. And, on the other hand, what man’s is, is fully revealed. Sin is no longer passed over by God. We have not to wait till the day of judgment to know what God’s estimate of our guilt is, It has all been told out; it has been made clear, The days of ignorance before Christianity, when God, as it were, shut His eye to man’s indifference to sin, are past by. (Acts 17:3030And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: (Acts 17:30).) The true Light now shineth. (1 John 2:88Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. (1 John 2:8).)
With the contemplation of God’s holiness before us, we are made to feel our need of the full assurance of all that God has said to us connected with our sins and Christ’s sacrifice. We feel that we could not spare one single syllable of all that our God has said. Self, sins, have been laid bare before the eye of heaven at the cross of Christ; God’s own holiness has seen all that we are as manifested there. Even the Day of Judgment will not reveal God’s holiness, or God’s hatred of sin, as did the cross of Christ. God forsaking His Son upon that tree has a voice uttering God’s abhorrence of sin more deep even than the terrible words addressed to sinners: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:4141Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (Matthew 25:41).)
Now it is into the very presence of the holy God—yes, into the Holiest of All—that the believer is exhorted to enter, having boldness, or liberty. The liberty is his by the blood of Jesus. By that very blood, which marks God’s hatred of sin, the sinner is cleansed from his sins, and has boldness to draw near to the holy God.
The veil is rent. The lovely curtain which hung before the Holiest in the tabernacle was a figure of the incarnate Christ. It signified His pure and holy humanity— “the veil, that is to say, His flesh.” But it is rent. We have to do with a once-crucified Jesus. In no other way can we have to do with Him. Ours is a once-wounded, once-bleeding, but now glorified Saviour. The perfectly lovely and perfectly holy One, and perfectly lovely and perfectly holy in God’s eyes, was slain for us. The body which God had prepared Him was rent by nails, by spear. His soul was poured out an offering for sin. And it is through the crucified One, through the new and living way, through this new-made way to God of the once slain Jesus, that we have liberty to draw near. His blood, which explains to us what our sins are in God’s sight, has cleansed them all away, and is our title to come into God’s holy presence in the liberty of having all our sins taken away and ourselves made fit for God.
We have the liberty. “Having, therefore, brethren” —and all have the liberty to enter the Holiest place who are brethren. Who, then, are those designated brethren? In former days none but the high priest could enter the holy place. The children of Israel—the brotherhood of the sons of Jacob—had no more right there than Gentile strangers. But now all believers have access to God. There is no priestly caste distinct from the great brotherhood of all saints. It is the privilege, then, of all who believe to enter in the Holiest of all by the blood of Jesus. Christian liberty knows no different standard for any two Christians. What the blood of God’s Son has effected for one saint it has effected for the countless throng that none can number. The blood has secured our privileges; we are invited, nay, exhorted, to enter upon them.
And entering into God’s own holy presence by the blood of His Son we find the living Jesus there for us. We have not only boldness to enter in, we have also a High Priest over the house of God. Note the two havings—
“Having, therefore, brethren, boldness.”
“Having a High Priest over the house of God.”
The blood has put away our sins, and secured the way for us, and us for the way, into the Holiest. The living Person, the High Priest in God’s presence, sustains us in our infirmities, and bears us in where He is for us.
Such being the case, “Let us draw near, with a true heart and full assurance of faith.” None other spirit glorifies God. H. F. W.