¹⁹… by the blood of Jesus ²⁰ by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh …

We have two reasons for confidence in entering the holy place (10:19a) which before was only open to the high priest, and that only once a year. The first is that believers in Christ now have access by the blood of Jesus. This alludes to the requirement of blood, which represents the death of that which was offered. Animal sacrifices only permitted a temporary and severely limited access. The blood of Christ provides an eternal access without limits. There is now nothing to stop us from confidently coming into the very presence of God!

But what does this mean, “the very presence of God”? In communicating this truth, God uses the imagery of the priest going into the inner place of the Holy of Holies, that inner recess of the tabernacle, where God was pictured to reside. Today, we use this mental picture in prayer, aware that God does not live in temples made of human hands. Solomon understood this when he dedicated the temple built to replace the tabernacle: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! … Listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven Your dwelling place; hear and forgive” (1 Kings 8:27, 30).

Today we don’t pray toward the temple, as Jesus said to the woman at the well: “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father … But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:21, 23)

In fact, our bodies are the new temple of God (1 Cor 6:18), so whenever we pray “in spirit and in truth” we are in the presence of God. Our verse also mentions the veil of the temple, the barrier curtain keeping people out of the Holy Place. Christ’s physical death is likened to that veil being torn (Matt 27:51), so there is no longer a barrier between us and God. Unfettered and continuous (“living”) access is ours, to our Most Holy God.

Nothing can stop us, apart from our own lack of faith. The repeated challenge of this letter to the Hebrews is to not go back to an old way of the Law, which places the individual outside the temple, with no direct access to God. We need to appoach in faith and confidence because of what Jesus has done.

Lord, apart from Your Son I have no worthiness, but in Him You have given me access into Your very holy presence. What an absolutely amazing privilege!