ACCESS
[p. 249] ACCESS
Romans 5:1,2; Hebrews 10:19 - 22; Ephesians 2:18
JT In our reading here last evening we had these opening verses of Romans 5 and the thought of access was considered a little. It occurred to me that that would be profitable for us at this meeting, not only as it appears there, but as in the other two scriptures read, that is Hebrews and Ephesians. The latter scriptures will enable us to consider, by the Lord’s help, assembly privilege, which the Lord is concerned about, I believe, at the present time — that His people should know how to draw near to God, to worship God. The first passage in Romans simply speaks of access into favour or grace. The passage in Ephesians 2 contemplates much more, and instead of being by faith, in Ephesians it is said to be through Christ by the Spirit that we have access to the Father. The first scripture may perhaps be before us now specially. What is to be borne in mind in the types in the Pentateuch is that they contemplate a people near to God as of supreme importance. He had borne them on eagles’ wings and brought them to Himself, so that they should be near. Then there is the unfolding of His covenant with them, the disposition of His mind and heart; He would have them near, but near in a certain dignified way, as a holy priesthood, and would dwell amongst them; then in Leviticus He would invite them to draw near. Leviticus contemplates that they would show their love, not only in being near as set around the tabernacle, but that they would draw near themselves with an offering, and I think these passages would help us as to this.
JHT Are you suggesting that Exodus brings in favour, and Leviticus approach [p. 250] answering to it?
JT Answering more to Hebrews and Ephesians, I thought.
FSM Would Queen Esther furnish the type of the first scripture? As she went in to the king she touched the golden sceptre. She was concerned to ascertain what was the mind of the king concerning her.
JT The king extending the sceptre would be an evidence of favour, that is what you had in mind?
FSM Yes, it was an indication that the king was favourable.
JT In Romans, up to the end of this chapter, it is God coming out in grace through our Lord Jesus Christ — the out line, as we might say, God coming out. Chapter 6 opens up the in line, that is our going in, and in a moral sense the up line. So that the preposition changes from through to in. “In Christ Jesus”, “In the Spirit”, and so on. But we have the inkling of it in this verse, the word “access”. This is not God coming out but the way opens towards Him. Peace comes in from the resurrection of Christ. His death and resurrection occasion peace, but it is peace towards God, towards Him. That is, the movement of the heart is in that direction, what we have towards God, and then the access is a strengthening of that, the thought of access, not exactly to Him but into favour. Favour towards us is established and we have access into it — we stand in it.
JTr Would the appeal of Joseph to his brethren support that, “Come near to me, I pray you” (Genesis 45:4)?
JT That runs with it. There was lack of confidence in them, but he would encourage them to nearness to dispel that lack of confidence.
WS Would you say the woman in Luke 7 drew near with her offering?
JT She moved beyond what this chapter teaches but still it is included. She had a sense of liberty to draw near and handle the Lord Jesus [p. 251] Christ.
WS I was thinking of what the Lord says of her on that occasion, “She loved much”.
JT That goes beyond our chapter. “She loved much” more properly fits in chapter 8 than in chapter 5 but the foundation of it is here. One is so in the light of the death and resurrection of Christ and God known in a realm of favour and grace that one moves in that direction. It is an inward movement and culminates in Ephesians. David built inward. This is the beginning of it. The effect of the gospel, simply received, is to lead us to move in this direction.
FSM Does the expression, “This favour in which we stand”, indicate access here?
JT This favour or grace. The “we” is characteristic of christians. “We” implies persons experiencing a realm of favour. Light has come into the soul through the gospel and there is movement contemplated — access. That is what God is in Christ in this connection. You cannot question that He is favourable any more than you could question that mount Horeb was favourable to Israel when He said, “I have ... brought you to myself”.
JHT The glory filled the tabernacle in Exodus, and here, “We boast in hope of the glory of God”. Does that lie before you in Leviticus — display?
JT It does. The glory in Leviticus is what God is in the covenant — that is what is before us on the threshold of the assembly, the shining out of God in His love. So that as things were made and brought to Moses, he puts them in their respective places. Each is functioning in its place and it says, “The cloud covered the tent of meeting”. God was saying, ‘That is pleasing to Me’. Each saint taking his place and functioning in it — God loves that. He covers it with a cloud as if He would take possession of it, and fills it with the glory. Here we boast in hope and glory. That is Romans is very explicit; Scripture always is, of course, but Paul in laying [p. 252] the foundation presents truths very explicitly. We are not to bring Ephesians into Romans, but it is well to see the fundamental elements, how that the favour is to be boasted in. We come into something in our souls. Whatever others may think it is satisfying and assuring to ourselves.
TW Why is it “by faith” in Romans and by divine Persons in Ephesians?
JT You have a little of that here, you will notice. “Through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom we have also access by faith”. That is you have Christ here throughout; He is the blessed instrumentality of all that has come in. Ephesians contemplates the work of God in us. Faith is omitted in that particular setting — access through Christ, by the Spirit. Through is one preposition and by is another. “By” signifies the power of the Spirit. Here it is through grace by faith.
FSM Is the Lord Jesus Christ the true Boaz giving Ruth the sense of favour and grace so that she has boldness to draw near?
JT That is very good. The Lord Jesus Christ has such a place as instrumental. It is nothing of my doing at all. The believer says it is all through Another.
JTr Does it involve a movement on our side here?
JT I think it does. The characteristic “we” implies that some are in that. Access implies that some come into it. The instrumentality here is the great thing. The Lord Jesus Christ is in the mind of the believer — through Him. What can there be otherwise? Not only that He died and rose again but He is by your side to effect everything. The principle of it is faith; the Spirit is not mentioned. Faith contemplates that things are against you. What you speak of is not confirmed by anything that can be seen. What have you got to show? That is what faith [p. 253] means. I think very largely is a question of myself. Whatever others think, it is what you have in your own soul.
WS Is that the reason Abraham is brought in at the end of chapter 4?
JT It is a question of his faith in what God says. “Against hope believed in hope”. It is a question of the power of God — what one has in one’s soul here. If I have access into this favour it is what I have got. That is all that is necessary for salvation in its delivering power.
Ques Is it not rather remarkable that it is put, “we have also access”, they are already there?
JT The speakers are there — some are there.
JW Is the access equal to the approach of God to us?
JT The access must be equal to the approach to us. Access is put in here as initial. It does not go very far but yet it is a delivering element. There are those who stand in this favour, in the sense that God is favourable. It helps greatly to compare this passage with Exodus 19.
Ques Is this largely how God has come out and met things from His side and how we come into it by faith?
JT The ‘in’ line begins here. There is the way in. Not far compared with Ephesians but still considerable.
Ques You were speaking of what the believer had. Would that be like Abraham who had the witness that he was righteous?
JT Yes, but this is the sense that you are in the favour of God. I know that God is for me. I see it clearly that He is favourable. There is much to follow this. The dignity He puts upon us in our nearness to Him, but I see here that there is a way in towards Him. Peace is towards Him and access is into favour and it is this favour in which we stand — [p. 254] there are some in it. That is the value of believers in the gospel meeting, they have something, whatever others think, and that thing delivers and satisfies.
SB Would you say that Abel recognised in God’s having clothed his parents that He was favourable, and therefore he could approach Him with his offering?
JT We have to read between the lines in Scripture and I suppose Abel would enquire of his father and mother where they got the clothes from, and no doubt they would tell him God gave them, and that would produce something in his mind. As having faith he would think about that and it would be light in his soul and lead to his presenting the right kind of offering, and in that he was accepted. We must not put these words into Abel’s mouth but the Spirit of God intimates there was something like that in his soul. We stand in it, Paul says. Anyone speaking with an assurance like that must have some effect upon his hearers. He has something.
JHT Why did you refer to Exodus 19?
JT Because of what happened there. Israel had moved. They passed Rephidim, it says, and pitched before the mountain. The battle of Rephidim is important but they had passed that and moved to the mountain and camped there, and God now speaks to them. He conveys to them His thoughts about them. They are of great interest to Him, in His favour, and He is ready to clothe them with great dignity. That is what this epistle does — God is ready to clothe the believer with great dignity. God conveys, in Exodus 19, what His mind is in a general way, before He opens up the details of the covenant. He has great regard for them. That is what the gospel is: it sets forth what God is ready to do for you. He has brought you to Himself and there is much more. This epistle does not end here but I am afraid it does for many people. The Reformation [p. 255] did not take believers much beyond chapter 4. In Exodus 19 God indicates He is ready to go a long way; they have a great place in His mind, and He is ready to dignify them.
Ques Does it go as far as the best robe?
JT Not quite so far. Romans hardly gives us the best; it prepares us for it.
Ques Would this suggest how the soul comes into the lordship of Christ?
JT I think it does. That is one great point in Romans, to establish the authority of Christ in the souls of believers.
FSM In Exodus 19 it says, “I have ... brought you to myself”, and a little later, “Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests”. Is it that we should abide there, we should be to Him? Is not this initial in Romans?
JT Yes, in Leviticus “Ye shall be to me”. What they are as drawing near to Him, do you not think?
FSM The first is in view of this. Could we have Hebrews and Ephesians if we do not enter in faith and power into Romans 5?
JT I do not think we could. Many do take a short cut into Ephesians but I think, as we were seeing last night, it is a question of step by step, item by item. We have here the idea of favour; then we have later the love, but access into favour precedes that thought. It is the beginning of the inward movement that culminates in Ephesians, where the Father is expressly the object of the movement.
JHT Is this the first impress God would put upon the soul — the sense of favour, and then the covenant (Hebrews 10) to give boldness to move from our side?
JT That is exactly the thing here. The covenant I think in the type includes Exodus 24. Love is particularly stressed in that chapter and, according with that, the idea of going up. But love is there in [p. 256] volume, typified in the blood in the basins. It is the blood of the covenant and that is what is in mind here, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts in the power of the Spirit.
Ques Is the first point in Exodus His movement? “Ye have seen what I have done to the Egyptians”. God calls attention to His intervention on their behalf.
JT Just so, and then there is the thought of dignifying them and the blood of the covenant in such volume so that there is no question about it: it is there. Then I believe there is the Spirit’s action — the people were sprinkled with it. The Spirit’s action is to make that a known thing in the believer’s heart — the love of God. That is the basis of the tabernacle really — it is what the Spirit has put into our hearts.
JHT Why do the youths of the children of Israel come in in that chapter?
JT Priesthood had not as yet been formally inaugurated. I think it is to bring out the freshness of things, that the current work of God implies all that is necessary. Not yet an official priesthood but persons who can do the work in keeping with the moment. It is the start of things. “I remember for thee”, says Jehovah, “the days of thy youth”, the movement, I think, of their love. That was pleasing to God. It should touch all the young brothers and sisters. We who are older know how refreshing it is when a young brother stands up and speaks in a priestly way by the Spirit.
JHT Why is that freshness not carried on into Hebrews and Ephesians?
JT You have more in your mind?
JHT That freshness should continue with us. The fresh impress of the favour of God in which we stand immovably ought to continue in freshness, running on into Ephesians.
JT I think it is intended to continue, but when [p. 257] we come to Hebrews we have mournfully to recognise it is a matter of recovery. You cannot get freshness with retrogression, you have to deal with the bare terms of the light governing the position. The saints are not even called priests in Hebrews, which is a very humbling thing, but the teaching in Hebrews is intended to make us priests, not only in youthful freshness but in heavenly dignity. Great stress is laid on the priesthood in heaven in Hebrews. Not only freshness but heavenliness, “Partakers of the heavenly calling” (chapter 3:1).
JHT Would the word as to Timothy at the end of Hebrews imply freshness?
JT Yes, one young man at any rate is set at liberty. “Know that our brother Timotheus is set at liberty” (chapter 13:23). That is a word for the young men. That is what is required — men like that.
FSM ‘Having boldness to enter, let us approach’. It is in the form of an exhortation.
JT People were not approaching; they were retrogressing, pretty much corresponding to what is in christendom. “By the blood of Jesus” is a most touching way, not the blood which has met my sins, but the way in. Sins are included, but it is the blood of Jesus as a way in, a living way. That word “living” applies to persons, that is, that I am not simply a sacramentalist, but that I am actuated in spiritual power in my movements.
JTr Would you say a word as to the bearing of the blood of Jesus here?
JT The bearing of it is in relation to the teaching of chapters 8, 9 and 10. It is the blood of the covenant. The teaching that leads up to this begins at chapters 8, 9 and 10 up to this verse. It is put in this way to be appealing — “By the blood of Jesus”. “The new and living way” implies the Spirit, I think. We cannot have anything save by the Spirit. It includes what we get in Ephesians, but it is put in this initial [p. 258] way. It is not dead like the sacramentalism current at that time in Jerusalem; it is a living thing. You could not say how many meetings of saints there would be at Jerusalem after Pentecost, probably a meeting in every street, people having the Holy Spirit and worshipping God in a living way. It was a new thing brought into Jerusalem. The opposers said Jerusalem was filled with their doctrine, but Jerusalem was filled with living persons who drew near to God by the Spirit to worship by the Spirit. But they had gone back from that and the apostle is alluding to it. There was a living state of things brought in and it was for them to go that way.
JTr Does it carry the thought of that precious life of Jesus poured out sacrificially to God?
JT I think it does. It ought to touch every christian that it is the blood of Jesus that has opened up a living way, and that implies the Spirit. “Through the veil, that is, his flesh”. You see beyond the flesh, Christ as He is now, Christ in heaven.
WS The blood of Jesus came from the side of Jesus, so it speaks better things than that of Abel.
JT It touches the heart. The living way is by the Spirit, I think. It must be, for there is no other way of drawing near to God than by the Spirit.
FSM Is this the basis of worship? Does it lie at the basis of the service of God?
JT That is so. It helps me to go back to the early days. What a scene every Sunday, yea, every day. You see how simple yet how fresh and energetic it was. You might pass down any street in Jerusalem and they would be singing together in freshness. That was the new and living way, different from what was in the temple, although they did go into the temple in patient testimony. They were continually in it, praising and blessing God.
TW Had these believers had part in that and were slipping away from [p. 259] it?
JT That is right, so the word, “Remember your leaders”. Possibly there were some going on with it but generally there was a falling back.
Ques Does the veil exclude what is not of the Spirit?
JT I think the veil is still there, but we go through it. We see Jesus where He is, crowned with glory and honour. Others do not see Him, although the system of things with which He stood connected stands — He stood connected with the law — but we see Him now passed out of all that. We see Him in heaven, the Holy Spirit making it a very real thing to us.
JW Would the veil in Hebrews be the veil of the tabernacle or the temple?
JT The tabernacle is in mind. They will not go through the veil in the millennium; the Jews will not get inside, but we go there now. Hebrews is the book of the opened heavens, you see everything up there. The new and living way has all that in mind.
FA Is it as we learn the value of the blood that we have this boldness?
JT Just so. Boldness to draw near and to enter the holiest, that is the greatest privilege. Aaron even was denied this, for he could only enter once a year and then under restriction. The veil is still up as regards Israel — but we go through it.
JTr “Through the veil, that is, his flesh”. How does that thought work out?
JT You get past it. John 9 helps as to it. What Jesus was here comes to light.
FSM What is the object of access in Hebrews?
JT The service of God, but the holiest is necessary for instruction. You see there what He is going on with; just as in Exodus 24 the elders, who went up and saw what was under His feet, saw the God of Israel. I believe entrance into the holiest enables us to see what is before God, what He is [p. 260] going on with. You see Christ, not only as He was here, but as He is there. God is not going to change His mind, and I learn what that mind is. I doubt if anyone is in the assembly according to God’s mind who does not understand the holiest.
WS Is there a distinction between the holiest and the house of God?
JT The house of God is a more general thought. Moses was servant in it; Christ is Son over it. It includes the assembly now. Christ is over the house as great priest here, not simply high priest. It means He will come down alongside you and do anything for you to set you free to go in. Everything is to set you free to go in there according to God.
Ques Does it help us to contemplate what Christ is to God?
JT The idea is contemplation. I see what is there and, understanding what is there, I know how to be in it suitably. The assembly is a wider thought.
JHT In Leviticus if any one would draw near there were specific directions as to what he was to bring and how he was to bring it. Does that help you to go in?
JT Yes, the priests are there, but it cost them something to be there.
Ques In chapter 9 it speaks of Christ entering in by His own blood. Has that any reference to our chapter?
JT Yes, to bring out the value of the precious blood. He has entered in on our side in all the value of the precious blood.
TW Is this book for the present day of the church?
JT It is for us, not for Israel. The epistle is for us, for christians.
JW Hebrews carries us as far as the holiest, but does not take us in?
JT Ephesians is the highest thought, I think.
[p. 261] The access is through Christ in the power of the Spirit. I think it might be read in that way. It is only thus we can approach the Father.
JHT Is this verse in Ephesians one of the most comprehensive verses in Scripture?
JT Three divine Persons to be approached. “We both” is a collective thought. Every christian says, ‘I am going to have the brethren’. You must have the brethren with you. You are not individual; you are always thinking of others. “Raised us up together”, seated together. “We both have access”. You could not have the assembly with the converted Jew only, you must have both.
JTr Is this the priestly support you refer to?
JT Yes, that is what it is. Through Christ, in the power of the Spirit, we have access to the Father. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, the Son and the Spirit serving us. It is very wonderful and very touching and shows what a great subject this is, so that there might be approach to God to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Ques Are the other two thoughts of access individual movements, and is this a collective movement?
JT This is more especially collective when it says, “We both”. That is a collective thought. The ‘we’s’ in Hebrews and Romans are just characteristic ‘we’s’. Let us draw near, such persons as we are.
Ques Is it somewhat similar, “Every one ... in Zion appeareth before God”?
JT That is only Zion, you know, but Asaph is very prominent in the third book of Psalms and he begins by telling us, “Until I went into the sanctuary” (Psalm 73:17). He would go inside and most of the Psalms in the third book belong to him. He begins by telling us that he went into the sanctuary and then he understood. There are no mixed feelings there, for you have done with what is outside and are satisfied with what is inside. That is what heaven will be,
[p. 262] no mixture at all but everything according to God.
Ques Is sonship involved in this access?
JT I think it is. That is, we are at peace and the covenant love of God sets our hearts free. “And having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”. They took up Christ’s place before God; they took that up collectively. They left Jerusalem; they did it. There is not a word about Jesus doing anything in that movement. Not that He was not there, but they moved collectively to that place. That is what enters into Ephesians 2:18, collective movement. You are in liberty; the Son has His place. He directs the movement now, and through Him, in the power of the Spirit, we draw near to the Father.