By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Christ opened a fresh living path into God's immediate presence through the tearing of His own human body on the cross, entered by His shed blood. At His death the heavy veil between the holy and most holy in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, showing the earthly mercy-seat forsaken and all animal offerings finished in His one great offering. That rent veil throws heaven open to every repentant person of every nation and rank to come directly to God without earthly priest or ceremony. Risen He carries on His priestly work in the true heavenly tabernacle as Advocate and Mediator, perfecting believers under the new covenant where sins are remembered no more. Believers use this way by drawing near in full assurance of faith with cleansed conscience, holding fast their hope, confessing sin for pardon, and walking in obedience.
Way Through the Veil
Hebrews 10:20 teaches a new and living way consecrated for believers through the veil, which is Christ's flesh, and that way is entered by His blood. Jesus opened and dedicated this way by giving His flesh in sacrifice and offering His body, serving as high priest over His people to give confidence to draw near to God in faith. Through Christ believers may live in union with Him, a union revealed in holiness and Christlike love, coming with faith to confess sins and receive pardon. That way leads into the holiest, into God's presence and the true tabernacle, with boldness to enter by His blood and draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. With Jesus as High Priest over the house of God, believers come with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed, cleansed from condemnation and made perfect in Christ, depending not on what man can do but on what God can do through Christ. By His one sacrifice for sins forever He perfected forever the sanctified and established the new covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins no more, so where remission is there is no more offering for sin. This calls those who enter to hold fast the profession of faith without wavering because He who promised is faithful, to consider one another to provoke to love and good works, and to assemble together exhorting one another all the more as the day approaches, in a life consecrated to God spent in seeking to save perishing souls and growing in grace through daily conversion to simple obedience. His human flesh was rent on the cross as He bore the sins of the human race, and through that suffering and death He entered upon His priestly office forever. Christ Himself is the living way into the holy of holies, a way without screen or veil, consecrated through His own blood. Access comes only through Him as Mediator and the provision for atonement; there is no atoning efficacy apart from what He provided, human rites and methods are of no avail, and anything but Christ alone is nothingness. Entering by this way humbles the sinner and exalts the Saviour as all and in all, and it is followed by lifting the cross of Calvary, bearing the cross after Jesus in His consecrated self-denying footsteps with the Word of the living God as guide and counsellor to find salvation, bringing needs to God with full assurance of faith. He leads those who come by this way to God's throne and before God as a loving Father, revealing paternal love.
Sacrifice That Consecrated Way
The new and living way was consecrated by Christ giving Himself in sacrifice through Gethsemane and death, that sinners might not perish but have eternal life. He bowed His head and died as a sinless, perfect offering, and in that death God did not lessen His claim upon men in order to save them. That perfect sinless offering meets the demand of the divine law, so guilty sinners gain access as He stands as Mediator, and not through any merit of their own.
After Adam's transgression forfeited all right to God's favor and brought death as the consequence of sin, He stepped in between man and the Father and paid the penalty. To do this He laid aside His royal robes to become human, coming not with force of arms or kingly power but with lowliness of heart, on the side of the oppressed as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. By giving Himself as substitute and surety and atonement for man, He consecrated the way back to God after transgression of the law had shut heaven and separated man from God.
Accepted as the Beloved, He joins humanity to divinity, His human arm encircling the race while His divine arm grasps the Infinite, and thus heaven is opened to the sons and daughters of Adam. All who avail themselves of the proffered mercy have access to the Father, can be brought back into harmony with God, receive special power, be saved, and become sons and daughters of the Most High. He opened the way into heaven by His victory on earth, ascending from the field of conflict bearing His bruises and scars as trophies of a victory that will result in annihilating the power of Satan. At His ascension there was rejoicing in heaven and proclamation to all worlds that the ruined race is redeemed.
Temple Veil Torn Open
At the moment of His death the veil of the temple that separated the holy from the most holy place was rent in two from top to bottom by God's unseen, divine hand. That veil was costly purple and gold, of great length and breadth and of strong heavy material, which no human power could have torn. It was torn before witnesses in the temple at the hour of the evening sacrifice, when He breathed His last and cried It is finished and His sacrificial offering was accepted.
The rending laid open and exposed to common gaze the most holy place that had been entered by human feet only once a year. It was a sign and declaration to the heavenly universe and to a world corrupted by sin that a new and living way, an open way, had been made for the fallen race. It declared that all sacrificial offerings terminated and ended in the one great offering of the Son of God, the Son of the living God.
It showed that God's presence would no longer overshadow and no longer rest over the earthly mercy-seat. He who had dwelt in the temple made with hands left it never again to fill it with His presence. No longer would the light of His glory be shown, and no longer would the cloud of His approval or disapproval appear upon the precious stones in the breastplate of the high priest.
Access Open to All
Christ's death opened a new and living way to God for both Jews and Gentiles, with access given to rich and poor alike without distinction of status, wealth, or nation. That opening ended the value of the blood of beasts for sin, because the Lamb of God had died for the sins of the world and thereafter served as Priest and Advocate in heaven. The tearing of the temple veil from top to bottom at His death displayed this change, laying open the most holy place entered before by human feet only once a year and showing that the presence of God no longer rested over the earthly mercy seat. Its tearing was God's own act, signifying that the Jewish sacrificial system had reached its fulfillment in Christ.
All can now approach and draw near to God through the merits of Christ, with liberty given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour instead of depending on priest, ruler, ceremonial sacrifice, or continuing offerings. Believers come personally to the footstool of Jehovah to Christ and the Father without lengthy resolutions, preliminary forms, or any human mediator, addressing Him with their own lips as children ask an earthly parent and believing their heavenly Father listens to every word. There is no veil between, for the torn veil marked the end of the separation that had kept the Most Holy Place from view and access, and people no longer need to wait for an earthly high priest.
The way to God's presence is open, giving free access to the royal presence and to the temple of God in heaven, and no one can bar the way to the city of God. The gates of heaven stand thrown open to repentant people who cease rebellion and return to allegiance, and they are left ajar so that all who avail themselves of the proffered mercy have access to the Father, can be brought back into harmony with God, receive special power, be saved, and become sons and daughters of the Most High. Christ is near, not far off, though Satan has divorced people from Christ and made them think He is distant, and trusting Him lets His glory shine on the believer. His sacrifice opened this new and living way for all to approach God.
His rent human flesh as He bore the sins of the human race removed the division and partition between Jew and Gentile, and through His death He entered forever upon His priestly office as High Priest for the whole world. The rent veil breaks down partition walls, cancels the handwriting of ordinances, and abolishes enmity by His blood, so that through faith in Christ Jew and Gentile may partake of the living bread. Through Him the hidden glory of the holy of holies that hid God's glory from Israel stands revealed, and by His death for every man and His blood offered as propitiation for sin the sons of men become the sons of God. The mercy seat upon which the glory of God rested is opened to all who accept Christ, and through it they are brought into fellowship with God, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord and being changed into the same image from glory to glory.
The veil rent from top to bottom means all who will may reach forth their hand to God, take hold of His strength, and make peace with Him. The heathen world is no longer to be wrapped in darkness, and midnight superstition and gloom disappear before the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, because the powers of hell have been overcome.
Heavenly Priesthood and Covenant
Through His death He entered upon His priestly office forever as Priest and Advocate in heaven for the whole world, and the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world made animal sacrifices valueless. His work did not end at the cross but continued after His resurrection in the heavenly sanctuary, where He henceforth officiates in the Heaven of heavens instead of sinners awaiting an earthly high priest. The death on Calvary opened the new and living way to God for both Jews and Gentiles, removing the barrier between them.
He was crucified to take away sin and, risen from the dead, stands in God's presence as Intercessor, chosen and appointed Advocate, Substitute and Surety. In Him humanity and divinity are combined so that all sufficiency is provided for every soul, and through His blood every soul may have access to God with help in every emergency and fitness for every work and trial.
By faith people may enter within the veil where Christ as Forerunner has gone before them, and the cross seen in the light of His heavenly work gives clearer insight into redemption. Through His mediation and intercession in the heavenly sanctuary, sincere desires, prayers, repentance and faith brought to God are presented before the Father purified by the incense of His own merits. After bursting the bands of the tomb He ascended to minister for man, first entering the holy place where by virtue of His own sacrifice He made an offering for sins, and next entering the Most Holy Place to make an atonement for the sins of the people and to cleanse the sanctuary, completing the divine plan of redemption as High Priest by the final atonement for sin.
His one sacrifice for sins forever perfects forever those who are sanctified under the new covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins and iniquities no more, so that where remission is there is no more offering for sin. He now stands in the presence of God as High Priest over the house of God and priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and through His continuing priesthood and intercession believers have boldness to enter the holiest by His blood into the true tabernacle not made with hands. His sinless life prepared and manifested that entrance into the Holiest, and His one offering given through the veil of His flesh made the former high-priestly services and sacrifices no longer needed.
End of Earthly Shadows
The death of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world made the blood of beasts and animal sin offerings valueless and terminated them in His one great offering. When He breathed His last and cried It is finished, His sacrificial offering was accepted, and all sacrificial offerings ended in the one great offering of the Son of the living God. The costly veil of purple and gold, of great length and breadth and of strong heavy material, was then torn in two from top to bottom by unseen hands, by a divine hand, by God Himself, before witnesses in the temple. That rending was a sign to the heavenly universe and to a world corrupted by sin that an open way had been made for the fallen race, laying open the most holy place entered before by human feet only once a year to common gaze. It declared that His presence who had dwelt in the temple made with hands left it never again to fill it, and would no longer overshadow the earthly mercy-seat, for from that moment the Saviour would officiate as Priest and Advocate in heaven itself, in the Heaven of heavens.
The yearly access of the earthly high priest and the sacrifices that prefigured Christ gave way to access for all through the Son, the true Lamb and final sacrifice. His death fulfilled what the sacrifices had foreshadowed, the way into the holiest was laid open and no longer barred, and there is no veil between. Sinful people therefore no longer need to await an earthly high priest or rely on continuing sacrifices and offerings.
What Moses saw was this way and the coming of Christ, the great offering on whom the sacrificial system was founded, opened through His blood by giving Himself as the perfect offering for sin. When His sacrifice fulfilled what the sacrifices had pointed toward, those offerings were to cease. The fuller light of Christ also lifted the veil of uncertainty about their meaning, and salvation comes through the merits of the crucified Redeemer.
God's favor is no longer obtained through temple service or sacrifices, for the torn veil marked the end of that barrier. Christ Himself is the living way and priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and His resurrection opened a new, direct way to God. This way brings full comfort and hope, and salvation through Christ is simple and freely offered to all.
Entering the Living Way
The new and living way is used by drawing near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water, believing the heavenly Father listens as children ask a parent. This drawing near rests on boldness to enter the holiest by His blood through the veil of His flesh, with Christ as High Priest over the house of God, under the new covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins and iniquities no more so there is no more offering for sin. The provision is given to be appreciated and appropriated for growth in grace, sound Christian experience, and daily conversion to simple obedience and a life consecrated to seeking perishing souls in dependence on the Lord rather than human agencies.
Those who enter hold fast the profession of faith without wavering because He who promised is faithful, consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, and do not forsake assembling together but exhort one another, and so much the more as the day is seen approaching. Entering is a day-by-day experience of talking with God and following on to know the Lord, binding the soul to the Mediator, becoming a partaker of the divine nature with life hid with Christ in God, being led by His Spirit in genuine faith. It means believing fully in the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice and trusting in His merits, becoming laborers together with God who work out salvation with fear and trembling because God works in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and by always keeping hold of Christ coming nearer and nearer to God. Going to God through Jesus is climbing the whole height of His work step by step, holding fast to the Mediator and climbing by His merits in perfect obedience to all the commandments, with constant striving and spiritual diligence because to let go is to cease to climb and to fall and perish, keeping the eye upward, escaping corruption through lust, laying hold of the hope set before in the gospel, straining every nerve to leave the world behind and lessen by successive steps the distance from God to obtain the mansions for the blessed.
The way is entered through surrender wholly to God, depending not on what man can do but on what God can do through Christ, whose strength is made perfect in weakness whether followers are renowned or obscure. When the soul fully believes, faith in His blood cleanses from all sin, frees the conscience from condemnation, makes the believer perfect in Christ Jesus so sanctification can be claimed and the favor of God enjoyed, and the repenting believing one is accepted in the Beloved whom Christ molds and fashions after His own likeness, so there is no need for anxiety about what Christ and God think of us but about what God thinks of Christ our Substitute. As the repentant person yields to cleansing power and the Spirit the heart is changed, Christ's righteousness goes before, and God gives grace and power to live and overcome, and all who cheerfully submit to His yoke learn their dependence, even those who thought themselves perfect, pure in spirit, or strong in faith.
Walking in the way means following Christ by faith and obedience rather than seeking acceptance through one's own righteousness, holding fast to Him unto growth in grace and knowledge of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. It means looking to Jesus as Saviour of the world and only hope, keeping God's law and living, following onward in spiritual growth so as to win others to it. Christ alone is Mediator and provision for atonement, human rites and methods cannot take His place and apart from His provision there is no atoning efficacy, so entering humbles the sinner and exalts the Saviour as all and in all, bearing the cross after Jesus in consecrated self-denying footsteps with the Word of the living God as guide and counsellor. Through His blood sinners may come with faith, confess sins and obtain pardon and cleansing, for He washes and makes clean those who come seeking repentance and acceptance, serving as atoning sacrifice and priest over God's house and giving access to the holy of holies and communion with the Father and the Redeemer.
His death made another probation and trial possible, opening a living way for sinners to return to loyalty, be pardoned, live in harmony with God, and receive eternal life. This way brings full comfort and hope, for God's favor is no longer obtained through temple service or sacrifices and salvation through Christ is simple and freely offered to all. Those who repent and receive Him as personal Saviour and Redeemer see and follow the way to life and salvation, while to those who refuse His sacrifice it is death and upon the impenitent transgressor the sentence of eternal death is passed.
Refusing the precious glorious light of redemption repeats the scribes and Pharisees, who would not walk in it but closed ears to Christ, clung to ancient customs and practices, spurned salvation through Christ and were blinded to redemption. Their refusal sprang not from excusable ignorance but from selfish corrupt motives, desire for wealth and honorable position, unwillingness to embrace reform that would detract from dignity, and opposition to gospel reform and human progress, deserving withering rebukes and retribution from divine justice, and if those upon whom the ends of the world are come travel the same path and close eyes to light they will suffer God's rebuke as the Jews did, though Jesus loves them and labors with tender solicitude to bless and save them. Christ crucified manifests God's wisdom and power to daily convert the soul, meet every obstacle and trial, fit the follower for every work and trial even while opposed at every step, and give help in every emergency through genuine faith in a personal Saviour who was crucified to take away sins and risen stands in God's presence as Intercessor, Advocate, Substitute and Surety combining humanity and divinity so all sufficiency is provided.
He waits to open to minds and hearts a new way not yet walked of humbly walking with God divested of self, giving deeper experience, thorough change of spirit, meekness and lowliness of Christ, removing pride and lofty ideas, opening riches of glory and divine grace in His methods of saving souls, astonishing youth at present ideas of religious life, bringing them to simplicity of true godliness, revealing Christ as Sanctifier and making workers living channels of light. That simplicity of godliness is what the church must reveal as a bright shining light by reaching the high standard of holiness and showing demarcation between lovers of the world and sons and daughters of God, with heavenly graces imparted in full measure to make it a living working power whose capabilities through the cross and death of Jesus become a drawing power, so a united church with no one living to himself manifests wonderful power. Entering the holiest joins a softened subdued heart ready to listen, accepting the Bible as inspired, laying aside every previous idea, taking the Word in simplicity, and renouncing every sinful practice.
Those who find the true and living way receive joy and share their experience, and Scripture speaks to those longing for truth with the authority of God bringing conviction to hearers. Believers may enter within the veil into God's presence with sanctified boldness, and earnest prayer and close acquaintance with God bring heavenly light and transforming influence. Through Him people bring needs to God with full assurance of faith, casting themselves just as they are on mercy, laying hold by faith, putting away selfishness, covetousness and sin, cleansed from moral defilement by faith in His blood, fallen on the Rock and broken to receive full free salvation, overcoming by cooperating with God, because Christ as personal Intercessor, substitute and surety pities helpless souls, raises every trembling suppliant, imputes His righteousness, supplies inexhaustible moral power from His atonement and perfect obedience, treasures His merits as incense to mingle with humble prayers to make them fragrant, and since the Father always hears the Son, ceaseless prayer in that way receives sure answer.
Christ opened a fresh living path into God's immediate presence through the tearing of His own human body on the cross, entered by His shed blood. At His death the heavy veil between the holy and most holy in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, showing the earthly mercy-seat forsaken and all animal offerings finished in His one great offering. That rent veil throws heaven open to every repentant person of every nation and rank to come directly to God without earthly priest or ceremony. Risen He carries on His priestly work in the true heavenly tabernacle as Advocate and Mediator, perfecting believers under the new covenant where sins are remembered no more. Believers use this way by drawing near in full assurance of faith with cleansed conscience, holding fast their hope, confessing sin for pardon, and walking in obedience.
Way Through the Veil
Hebrews 10:20 teaches a new and living way consecrated for believers through the veil, which is Christ's flesh, and that way is entered by His blood. Jesus opened and dedicated this way by giving His flesh in sacrifice and offering His body, serving as high priest over His people to give confidence to draw near to God in faith. Through Christ believers may live in union with Him, a union revealed in holiness and Christlike love, coming with faith to confess sins and receive pardon.
That way leads into the holiest, into God's presence and the true tabernacle, with boldness to enter by His blood and draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. With Jesus as High Priest over the house of God, believers come with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed, cleansed from condemnation and made perfect in Christ, depending not on what man can do but on what God can do through Christ. By His one sacrifice for sins forever He perfected forever the sanctified and established the new covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins no more, so where remission is there is no more offering for sin. This calls those who enter to hold fast the profession of faith without wavering because He who promised is faithful, to consider one another to provoke to love and good works, and to assemble together exhorting one another all the more as the day approaches, in a life consecrated to God spent in seeking to save perishing souls and growing in grace through daily conversion to simple obedience.
His human flesh was rent on the cross as He bore the sins of the human race, and through that suffering and death He entered upon His priestly office forever. Christ Himself is the living way into the holy of holies, a way without screen or veil, consecrated through His own blood. Access comes only through Him as Mediator and the provision for atonement; there is no atoning efficacy apart from what He provided, human rites and methods are of no avail, and anything but Christ alone is nothingness. Entering by this way humbles the sinner and exalts the Saviour as all and in all, and it is followed by lifting the cross of Calvary, bearing the cross after Jesus in His consecrated self-denying footsteps with the Word of the living God as guide and counsellor to find salvation, bringing needs to God with full assurance of faith. He leads those who come by this way to God's throne and before God as a loving Father, revealing paternal love.
Sacrifice That Consecrated Way
The new and living way was consecrated by Christ giving Himself in sacrifice through Gethsemane and death, that sinners might not perish but have eternal life. He bowed His head and died as a sinless, perfect offering, and in that death God did not lessen His claim upon men in order to save them. That perfect sinless offering meets the demand of the divine law, so guilty sinners gain access as He stands as Mediator, and not through any merit of their own.
After Adam's transgression forfeited all right to God's favor and brought death as the consequence of sin, He stepped in between man and the Father and paid the penalty. To do this He laid aside His royal robes to become human, coming not with force of arms or kingly power but with lowliness of heart, on the side of the oppressed as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. By giving Himself as substitute and surety and atonement for man, He consecrated the way back to God after transgression of the law had shut heaven and separated man from God.
Accepted as the Beloved, He joins humanity to divinity, His human arm encircling the race while His divine arm grasps the Infinite, and thus heaven is opened to the sons and daughters of Adam. All who avail themselves of the proffered mercy have access to the Father, can be brought back into harmony with God, receive special power, be saved, and become sons and daughters of the Most High. He opened the way into heaven by His victory on earth, ascending from the field of conflict bearing His bruises and scars as trophies of a victory that will result in annihilating the power of Satan. At His ascension there was rejoicing in heaven and proclamation to all worlds that the ruined race is redeemed.
Temple Veil Torn Open
At the moment of His death the veil of the temple that separated the holy from the most holy place was rent in two from top to bottom by God's unseen, divine hand. That veil was costly purple and gold, of great length and breadth and of strong heavy material, which no human power could have torn. It was torn before witnesses in the temple at the hour of the evening sacrifice, when He breathed His last and cried It is finished and His sacrificial offering was accepted.
The rending laid open and exposed to common gaze the most holy place that had been entered by human feet only once a year. It was a sign and declaration to the heavenly universe and to a world corrupted by sin that a new and living way, an open way, had been made for the fallen race. It declared that all sacrificial offerings terminated and ended in the one great offering of the Son of God, the Son of the living God.
It showed that God's presence would no longer overshadow and no longer rest over the earthly mercy-seat. He who had dwelt in the temple made with hands left it never again to fill it with His presence. No longer would the light of His glory be shown, and no longer would the cloud of His approval or disapproval appear upon the precious stones in the breastplate of the high priest.
Access Open to All
Christ's death opened a new and living way to God for both Jews and Gentiles, with access given to rich and poor alike without distinction of status, wealth, or nation. That opening ended the value of the blood of beasts for sin, because the Lamb of God had died for the sins of the world and thereafter served as Priest and Advocate in heaven. The tearing of the temple veil from top to bottom at His death displayed this change, laying open the most holy place entered before by human feet only once a year and showing that the presence of God no longer rested over the earthly mercy seat. Its tearing was God's own act, signifying that the Jewish sacrificial system had reached its fulfillment in Christ.
All can now approach and draw near to God through the merits of Christ, with liberty given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour instead of depending on priest, ruler, ceremonial sacrifice, or continuing offerings. Believers come personally to the footstool of Jehovah to Christ and the Father without lengthy resolutions, preliminary forms, or any human mediator, addressing Him with their own lips as children ask an earthly parent and believing their heavenly Father listens to every word. There is no veil between, for the torn veil marked the end of the separation that had kept the Most Holy Place from view and access, and people no longer need to wait for an earthly high priest.
The way to God's presence is open, giving free access to the royal presence and to the temple of God in heaven, and no one can bar the way to the city of God. The gates of heaven stand thrown open to repentant people who cease rebellion and return to allegiance, and they are left ajar so that all who avail themselves of the proffered mercy have access to the Father, can be brought back into harmony with God, receive special power, be saved, and become sons and daughters of the Most High. Christ is near, not far off, though Satan has divorced people from Christ and made them think He is distant, and trusting Him lets His glory shine on the believer. His sacrifice opened this new and living way for all to approach God.
His rent human flesh as He bore the sins of the human race removed the division and partition between Jew and Gentile, and through His death He entered forever upon His priestly office as High Priest for the whole world. The rent veil breaks down partition walls, cancels the handwriting of ordinances, and abolishes enmity by His blood, so that through faith in Christ Jew and Gentile may partake of the living bread. Through Him the hidden glory of the holy of holies that hid God's glory from Israel stands revealed, and by His death for every man and His blood offered as propitiation for sin the sons of men become the sons of God. The mercy seat upon which the glory of God rested is opened to all who accept Christ, and through it they are brought into fellowship with God, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord and being changed into the same image from glory to glory.
The veil rent from top to bottom means all who will may reach forth their hand to God, take hold of His strength, and make peace with Him. The heathen world is no longer to be wrapped in darkness, and midnight superstition and gloom disappear before the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, because the powers of hell have been overcome.
Heavenly Priesthood and Covenant
Through His death He entered upon His priestly office forever as Priest and Advocate in heaven for the whole world, and the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world made animal sacrifices valueless. His work did not end at the cross but continued after His resurrection in the heavenly sanctuary, where He henceforth officiates in the Heaven of heavens instead of sinners awaiting an earthly high priest. The death on Calvary opened the new and living way to God for both Jews and Gentiles, removing the barrier between them.
He was crucified to take away sin and, risen from the dead, stands in God's presence as Intercessor, chosen and appointed Advocate, Substitute and Surety. In Him humanity and divinity are combined so that all sufficiency is provided for every soul, and through His blood every soul may have access to God with help in every emergency and fitness for every work and trial.
By faith people may enter within the veil where Christ as Forerunner has gone before them, and the cross seen in the light of His heavenly work gives clearer insight into redemption. Through His mediation and intercession in the heavenly sanctuary, sincere desires, prayers, repentance and faith brought to God are presented before the Father purified by the incense of His own merits. After bursting the bands of the tomb He ascended to minister for man, first entering the holy place where by virtue of His own sacrifice He made an offering for sins, and next entering the Most Holy Place to make an atonement for the sins of the people and to cleanse the sanctuary, completing the divine plan of redemption as High Priest by the final atonement for sin.
His one sacrifice for sins forever perfects forever those who are sanctified under the new covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins and iniquities no more, so that where remission is there is no more offering for sin. He now stands in the presence of God as High Priest over the house of God and priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and through His continuing priesthood and intercession believers have boldness to enter the holiest by His blood into the true tabernacle not made with hands. His sinless life prepared and manifested that entrance into the Holiest, and His one offering given through the veil of His flesh made the former high-priestly services and sacrifices no longer needed.
End of Earthly Shadows
The death of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world made the blood of beasts and animal sin offerings valueless and terminated them in His one great offering. When He breathed His last and cried It is finished, His sacrificial offering was accepted, and all sacrificial offerings ended in the one great offering of the Son of the living God. The costly veil of purple and gold, of great length and breadth and of strong heavy material, was then torn in two from top to bottom by unseen hands, by a divine hand, by God Himself, before witnesses in the temple. That rending was a sign to the heavenly universe and to a world corrupted by sin that an open way had been made for the fallen race, laying open the most holy place entered before by human feet only once a year to common gaze. It declared that His presence who had dwelt in the temple made with hands left it never again to fill it, and would no longer overshadow the earthly mercy-seat, for from that moment the Saviour would officiate as Priest and Advocate in heaven itself, in the Heaven of heavens.
The yearly access of the earthly high priest and the sacrifices that prefigured Christ gave way to access for all through the Son, the true Lamb and final sacrifice. His death fulfilled what the sacrifices had foreshadowed, the way into the holiest was laid open and no longer barred, and there is no veil between. Sinful people therefore no longer need to await an earthly high priest or rely on continuing sacrifices and offerings.
What Moses saw was this way and the coming of Christ, the great offering on whom the sacrificial system was founded, opened through His blood by giving Himself as the perfect offering for sin. When His sacrifice fulfilled what the sacrifices had pointed toward, those offerings were to cease. The fuller light of Christ also lifted the veil of uncertainty about their meaning, and salvation comes through the merits of the crucified Redeemer.
God's favor is no longer obtained through temple service or sacrifices, for the torn veil marked the end of that barrier. Christ Himself is the living way and priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and His resurrection opened a new, direct way to God. This way brings full comfort and hope, and salvation through Christ is simple and freely offered to all.
Entering the Living Way
The new and living way is used by drawing near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water, believing the heavenly Father listens as children ask a parent. This drawing near rests on boldness to enter the holiest by His blood through the veil of His flesh, with Christ as High Priest over the house of God, under the new covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins and iniquities no more so there is no more offering for sin. The provision is given to be appreciated and appropriated for growth in grace, sound Christian experience, and daily conversion to simple obedience and a life consecrated to seeking perishing souls in dependence on the Lord rather than human agencies.
Those who enter hold fast the profession of faith without wavering because He who promised is faithful, consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, and do not forsake assembling together but exhort one another, and so much the more as the day is seen approaching. Entering is a day-by-day experience of talking with God and following on to know the Lord, binding the soul to the Mediator, becoming a partaker of the divine nature with life hid with Christ in God, being led by His Spirit in genuine faith. It means believing fully in the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice and trusting in His merits, becoming laborers together with God who work out salvation with fear and trembling because God works in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and by always keeping hold of Christ coming nearer and nearer to God. Going to God through Jesus is climbing the whole height of His work step by step, holding fast to the Mediator and climbing by His merits in perfect obedience to all the commandments, with constant striving and spiritual diligence because to let go is to cease to climb and to fall and perish, keeping the eye upward, escaping corruption through lust, laying hold of the hope set before in the gospel, straining every nerve to leave the world behind and lessen by successive steps the distance from God to obtain the mansions for the blessed.
The way is entered through surrender wholly to God, depending not on what man can do but on what God can do through Christ, whose strength is made perfect in weakness whether followers are renowned or obscure. When the soul fully believes, faith in His blood cleanses from all sin, frees the conscience from condemnation, makes the believer perfect in Christ Jesus so sanctification can be claimed and the favor of God enjoyed, and the repenting believing one is accepted in the Beloved whom Christ molds and fashions after His own likeness, so there is no need for anxiety about what Christ and God think of us but about what God thinks of Christ our Substitute. As the repentant person yields to cleansing power and the Spirit the heart is changed, Christ's righteousness goes before, and God gives grace and power to live and overcome, and all who cheerfully submit to His yoke learn their dependence, even those who thought themselves perfect, pure in spirit, or strong in faith.
Walking in the way means following Christ by faith and obedience rather than seeking acceptance through one's own righteousness, holding fast to Him unto growth in grace and knowledge of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. It means looking to Jesus as Saviour of the world and only hope, keeping God's law and living, following onward in spiritual growth so as to win others to it. Christ alone is Mediator and provision for atonement, human rites and methods cannot take His place and apart from His provision there is no atoning efficacy, so entering humbles the sinner and exalts the Saviour as all and in all, bearing the cross after Jesus in consecrated self-denying footsteps with the Word of the living God as guide and counsellor. Through His blood sinners may come with faith, confess sins and obtain pardon and cleansing, for He washes and makes clean those who come seeking repentance and acceptance, serving as atoning sacrifice and priest over God's house and giving access to the holy of holies and communion with the Father and the Redeemer.
His death made another probation and trial possible, opening a living way for sinners to return to loyalty, be pardoned, live in harmony with God, and receive eternal life. This way brings full comfort and hope, for God's favor is no longer obtained through temple service or sacrifices and salvation through Christ is simple and freely offered to all. Those who repent and receive Him as personal Saviour and Redeemer see and follow the way to life and salvation, while to those who refuse His sacrifice it is death and upon the impenitent transgressor the sentence of eternal death is passed.
Refusing the precious glorious light of redemption repeats the scribes and Pharisees, who would not walk in it but closed ears to Christ, clung to ancient customs and practices, spurned salvation through Christ and were blinded to redemption. Their refusal sprang not from excusable ignorance but from selfish corrupt motives, desire for wealth and honorable position, unwillingness to embrace reform that would detract from dignity, and opposition to gospel reform and human progress, deserving withering rebukes and retribution from divine justice, and if those upon whom the ends of the world are come travel the same path and close eyes to light they will suffer God's rebuke as the Jews did, though Jesus loves them and labors with tender solicitude to bless and save them. Christ crucified manifests God's wisdom and power to daily convert the soul, meet every obstacle and trial, fit the follower for every work and trial even while opposed at every step, and give help in every emergency through genuine faith in a personal Saviour who was crucified to take away sins and risen stands in God's presence as Intercessor, Advocate, Substitute and Surety combining humanity and divinity so all sufficiency is provided.
He waits to open to minds and hearts a new way not yet walked of humbly walking with God divested of self, giving deeper experience, thorough change of spirit, meekness and lowliness of Christ, removing pride and lofty ideas, opening riches of glory and divine grace in His methods of saving souls, astonishing youth at present ideas of religious life, bringing them to simplicity of true godliness, revealing Christ as Sanctifier and making workers living channels of light. That simplicity of godliness is what the church must reveal as a bright shining light by reaching the high standard of holiness and showing demarcation between lovers of the world and sons and daughters of God, with heavenly graces imparted in full measure to make it a living working power whose capabilities through the cross and death of Jesus become a drawing power, so a united church with no one living to himself manifests wonderful power. Entering the holiest joins a softened subdued heart ready to listen, accepting the Bible as inspired, laying aside every previous idea, taking the Word in simplicity, and renouncing every sinful practice.
Those who find the true and living way receive joy and share their experience, and Scripture speaks to those longing for truth with the authority of God bringing conviction to hearers. Believers may enter within the veil into God's presence with sanctified boldness, and earnest prayer and close acquaintance with God bring heavenly light and transforming influence. Through Him people bring needs to God with full assurance of faith, casting themselves just as they are on mercy, laying hold by faith, putting away selfishness, covetousness and sin, cleansed from moral defilement by faith in His blood, fallen on the Rock and broken to receive full free salvation, overcoming by cooperating with God, because Christ as personal Intercessor, substitute and surety pities helpless souls, raises every trembling suppliant, imputes His righteousness, supplies inexhaustible moral power from His atonement and perfect obedience, treasures His merits as incense to mingle with humble prayers to make them fragrant, and since the Father always hears the Son, ceaseless prayer in that way receives sure answer.