Receive the New and Living Way

June 10

“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,” Hebrews 10:19, 20.

The death of Jesus rent the heavy veil of the temple that separated the outer court from the Holy of Holies. Symbolically, this conveyed to the world that we no longer need to rely on priests to enter the Holy Place in our behalf, we may enter ourselves.

To further assure us of the reality that God was opening the inner sanctum, the earthly place of His abode to man, the veil of the temple was torn, as if by His own hand, from top to bottom. He wanted everyone to know that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross had opened to man the very Throne Room of the Holy One. (See Matthew 27:51 and Mark 15:38.)

There is a Jewish and Christian legend that the high priest had to tie a rope to his ankle before he entered the place of the Lord’s abode, the rope being so he could be pulled from the Holy of Holies should his sins have caused God to strike him dead while he performed his duties. It is said that little bells were sewn to his garments so their tinkling would allow those waiting outside the Holy Place to know he was received by God and remained alive to do his work.

Whether that legend is true or not, we know that the blood of Christ, applied to the door post of our heart causes death to pass over us as we approach the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Even as the blood was applied to the doors of the homes of the children of Israel so the death angel would pass over them when the horrible plague of death struck the firstborn of Egypt because of Pharaoh’s disobedience to God (see Exodus 12:7), so we pass from life to life because Jesus died and rose in our behalf.

As Revelation 21:4 tells us, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor sighing, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

The former things—an unapproachable God, death, hell and the grave—are passed away because Jesus is our perfect Sacrifice as we are told in Hebrews 9:11-15:

“But when Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.

“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins they have committed…”

Should we not, then, enter as Paul admonishes us to do in Hebrews 10:19, 20? Should we not avail ourselves of the perfect sacrifice that Jesus made to redeem us, to buy us back from the enemy of our souls?

The only viable answer anyone can give to those questions is, “Yes, Lord, I believe and I receive.”