“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,”

(Heb. 10:19)

I believe so strongly in the security of the believer, and i base this belief on God’s promise that we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. King James has the word ‘boldness’, and it’s used in numerous occasions in the book of Hebrews. It’s a Greek word that meant freedom of speech. It spoke about someone who could say what they wanted to when they wanted to. But it came to develop and multiply until it came to mean confidence, boldness, or assurance. Personally, i would like to translate this word as ‘assured freedom’ or ‘assured access’, or something like that. The verb is in the present tense, meaning we continue to have as a matter of our life free access to the holy place. Now, unless you know the Old Testament, that won’t mean anything to you.

In the Old Testament, the high priest once a year entered behind the inner veil of the holy place with the blood of a bullock to sprinkle on the top of the Ark of the Covenant to expiate for his sin and the sins of Israel. Once a year, only one man could enter in this very special place which symbolized the very presence of God. The high priest had on the bottom of his robes pomegranates interchained with golden bells all the way around. The people would be so worried for when a sinful man approached a holy God anything could happen, so they would put a rope around his leg and in case God appeared and he was struck dead, they could pull him out from under the curtain. Because nobody else could go in there either and lived, so they thought. The Ark of the Covenant was made of acacia wood, and it was overlaid with gold. On top of the gold covered lid was two cherubim whose wings met right across the middle, where it was believed that God symbolically dwelt with His people. Remember, inside the Ark was Aaron’s rod that budded, the tablets of the Ten Commandments that Moses had taken from God written by His hand, and also some old jar of manna as a remembrance for them. The high priest came in ther and sprinkled blood on top of the mercy seat, and the blood symbolically covered the sins of the people from the sight of God.

What a difference we have now, we who know Jesus Christ by faith. We don’t have to wait till once a year, and just one of us can go before the presence of God. We are the children of God (cf. Jn. 1:12) and we can come come into His presence anytime as God’s children. And every time we bow our heads in prayer or think about God, we are in a very real sense right into His throne room. We are the children of the King. Where others have to knock and ask for entrance, we bounce through the curtain always welcome because we’re God’s children. God is never too busy for us, He’s never got too much going, never says ‘No’; we come right into the Holy of Holies, right into the very presence of God anytime we want. And we have this assured access by virtue of the blood of the Lamb. We enter boldly into the presence of God by way of the blood of Jesus. O, what a contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Hallelujah!