8
8
If you read Hebrews 9 you will see that as the result of the
death of Christ there are four great things that the believer
has. The first is that he has immediate access into the
presence of God. The second is that he is there with a purified
conscience. It is a terrible thing to have a conscience that is
not purified. The death of Jesus gives us a moral basis for a
purged conscience, so that there is nothing to hinder us going
into God. Then the third thing in chapter 9 is that we are in the
presence of God on the ground of an eternal redemption. How
wonderful! The Scriptures are wonderful, brethren. Young
people, read the Scriptures. The fourth thing is that we have
an eternal inheritance. In chapter 10 the writer, no doubt Paul,
is urging the brethren to take up the right of going in to God—
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the holy
of holies”. It is not boldness of flesh; the only
place for the flesh is to judge it in the light of the cross of
Christ. We remember the word as to not going up by steps to
the altar, that nakedness be not discovered thereon (Exodus
20: 26). We can thank God for the cross of Christ and its
power, and the power it gives us by the Spirit to judge the
flesh. A moralist may suppress the flesh, but as soon as the
pressure is released the flesh rises again. It is only a Christian
who can judge himself in the light of the death of Christ and
renounce the flesh so that it is not operating in him.
So we have boldness, not fleshly boldness, but holy boldness
“for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, the
new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the
veil, that is, his flesh”. That means that the Lord Jesus laid
down a holy condition in death, and thus our sinful state, the
sinful state that belonged to man, was removed from the eye
of God so that you and I, beloved, might have nothing to
hinder us in our approach to God. So it says, “let us approach
with a true heart”. Who would want a heart otherwise than
true? “With a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as
to our hearts from a wicked conscience”. We are perfectly free
to go in, unhindered, unhampered by the burden that active sin