19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus”. By the blood of Jesus Christ we have free entrance to enter into the holy place of God. There no longer remains a separation between God and us because the sin that divided has been dealt with in His Son. The blood of Christ has cleansed us and so we can have full confidence to go before God. We are completely different from the Old Covenant people who had tremendous fear of God and would not even dare go before Him. When they heard His voice they sent Moses to the mountain to listen to God out of fear of Him. And they had good reason to be fearful for God is an awesome God and will have no dealings with sin. So how much greater is the New Covenant under Christ so that we no longer have this fear of God, but confidence that He will accept us and hear us.
This confidence has come “by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,” which has been destroyed for us. The veil of the Old Covenant stood as the great separation between God and His people. Only one man once and year could go into the Holy of Holies to make the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. But the veil was only a sign or a shadow of what was truly to come. What the veil pointed to was the very flesh of Christ and when the flesh of Christ was torn so was the veil. The New Testament tells of the death of Christ and the veil being torn from top to bottom when the death of Christ came. Thus, when the true veil had been broken, God tore the veil of the Temple/Tabernacle because there is no longer separation between God and His people because sin has been dealt with.
“And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Because we have a mediator with God who intercedes for us we can have full assurance and joy in drawing near to God through Christ. We don’t have a God who looks at us as an angry judge who hates us for our sin, but as a father who loves us and has forgiven us. We have been sprinkled clean and washed pure, both our conscience and our flesh is undefiled in His sight. Thus, we can draw near to God and we should long to draw near to Him because He has provided the means to make it possible.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful”. This is such a great promise in the Bible, that the one who makes promises is faithful. God will not go back on His word. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He has promised to bless us and care for us and we can have complete confidence in this because He is faithful. When friends might fail us, when spouses might fail us, jobs fail us, and our own bodies fail us, He will never fail us. He is faithful to the end. How could we lose grip on the confession or our hope with such a great promise behind it?
So “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Yet, though we have such a great promise, we still reside in this fallen world and battle against a fall flesh and suffer the attacks of a fallen being. It is not in our nature to constantly trust in God. We many times have to fight for that. So often we begin to fail because our flesh is weak. That is why the preacher commands us not to forsake the assembling together of God’s people and tells us to find ways to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. He understands that it is hard to keep the faith. It is hard to stand strong in the midst of pain and persecution. Therefore we are go gather with believer to be encouraged and also to encourage. It is our God given responsibility to carry believers along the path of faith with us. God has given us the responsibility of being our brother’s keeper.
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