Thursday 25th
Hebrews 9:1-10
NIV (v3) – ‘Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place.’
ESV (v3) – ‘Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place.’
I stopped at this verse with the phrase ‘the Most Holy Place’ and decided we would just investigate this further. What is meant by ‘the Most Holy Place’?
The name itself tells us that it is something somewhere that is of extreme importance, the KJV calls it the ‘Holiest of All.’ The ‘Most Holy Place’ was a room that was separated from the ‘Holy Place’ with a veil or a curtain, If we go back to Exodus 26:33-34 we read ‘And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place.’ This tells us that the ‘Most Holy Place’ was where the mercy seat and the ark of the testimony were kept.
The ark of the testimony, or the ark of the covenant represented the throne of God in the earth, it is here as we have seen where the mercy seat is to be found.
When Jesus died, the Hebrew writer tells us in this ninth chapter that Jesus entered both the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place on our behalf, (‘he entered once for all into the holy places’ v12) and in doing so he was offering his own blood as an offering for the sins of the world, (‘but by means of his own blood’ v12) thus bringing in the new covenant which would be an everlasting covenant. In going into the Most Holy Place he has become the mediator of this new covenant so that all who receive him will receive the promised eternal inheritance. (v15)
What the writer is emphasizing here is what we have already considered, that Christ HAS done all that is needed to bring about eternal redemption, he HAS entered into ‘the Holy Place’ and into ‘the Most Holy Place’ that is into the very presence of God himself and offered himself, his own blood as the only means of
propitiation for the sins of the world and what he has done will never need to be repeated for it is a permanently effective sacrifice, ‘For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.’
‘Christ has for sin atonement made, what a wonderful Saviour, we are redeemed the price is paid, what a wonderful Saviour. What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Jesus, what a wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord.’
But the good news continues as we have already discovered, because Christ has entered the ‘Most Holy Place’ on our behalf we too have access into the presence of God, we can draw near to him. Hebrews 4:16 ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace . . .’ Hebrews 7:19 ‘. . . a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.’ And v25 ‘Consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God . . .’
May we take full advantage of this awesome privilege of being able to draw near to God, not in fear and trembling, but with respect and awe, in the full knowledge that ‘In Christ’ our sin has been dealt with and we can come before God himself clothed in robes of righteousness, come before him in praise, adoration and worship, knowing that what Christ has done as effected for us not only eternal redemption but eternal access. What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord.
No more veil ! God bids me enter,
By the new and living way.
Not in trembling hope I venture,
Boldly I His call obey:
There with Him, my God I meet,
God upon the mercy seat !
In the robes of spotless whiteness,
With the blood of priceless worth,
He has gone into that brightness,
Christ rejected from the earth –
Christ accepted there on high,
And in Him do I draw nigh.
Oh, the welcome I have found there,
God in all His love made known !
Oh, the glories that surround there,
Those accepted in His Son !
Who can tell the depths of bliss,
Spoken by the Father’s kiss ?
One with Him, O Lord, before Thee,
There I live, and yet not I;
Christ it is who there adores Thee ;
Who more dear, or who more nigh ?
All the Father’s heart mine own –
Mine – and yet His Son’s alone.
All the worth I have before Him
is the value of the Blood;
I present when I adore Him,
Christ the first-fruits unto God ;
Him with joy doth God behold,
Thus is my acceptance told.