We have seen that the believers experience and enjoy the dispensing of the divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation by being transformed, by being conformed to Christ’s image as the firstborn Son of God, and by being conformed to the death of Christ. In this message we shall consider other aspects of this enjoyment of the divine dispensing.
As the believers are conformed to the death of Christ, they are released from many negative things, including the old man, the flesh with the passions and lusts, the practices of the body, the self, and the soul life. The more we are released from these things, the more we are enabled to go forward positively and, having passed the outer veil, to enter through the inner veil into the Holy of Holies (Heb. 10:19-20).
Hebrews 10:19 says, “Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus.” The Holy of Holies today is in heaven, where the Lord Jesus is (Heb. 9:12, 24). Even though we are still on earth, we can enter the Holy of Holies. The secret is our spirit, referred to in Hebrews 4:12. The Christ who is in heaven is also in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). He, as the heavenly ladder (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51), joins our spirit to heaven and brings heaven into our spirit. Whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. Here we meet with God who is on the throne of grace.
After showing us the heavenly Christ within the veil, the book of Hebrews encourages us to enter within the veil (Heb. 10:22), where we can look away unto Him (12:2) and consider Him (12:3; 3:1), enjoying direct contact with Him. Because He is within the veil, we must enter within the veil so that we may see Him and consider Him in order to receive His infusion. We can do this only by exercising our spirit, which is joined to the heavenly Holy of Holies. When we turn to our spirit and exercise it, we enter within the veil. Here we participate in the heavenly ministry of the heavenly Christ. Here we are saturated and permeated with the divine riches that make us the corporate reproduction of the firstborn Son of God for His expression.
Hebrews 10:19 tells us that we have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. It is a great matter to enter the Holy of Holies, for there God is sitting on the throne of grace. In order to enter into such a place we must have boldness, and we have it by Christ’s death and by His blood. By the blood of Jesus we have the boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies at any time, unlike the high priest in the Old Testament, who could enter into it only once a year.
Hebrews 10:20 indicates that we enter into the Holy of Holies by “a new and living way, which He dedicated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.” The way into the Holy of Holies has been cut. According to the Greek, the word “new” in this verse means “freshly slain.” Through Christ’s death on the cross, the way has been freshly slain for us. Not only the flesh but also the entire old creation has been slain. In Hebrews 10:20 the veil is the second veil (Heb. 9:3) within the tabernacle. This veil, which typifies the flesh of Christ, signifies the old creation, including us. On this veil were cherubim (Exo. 26:31), which signified the creatures (Ezek. 10:15). When the veil was rent, the cherubim also were rent, signifying that when the flesh of Christ, typified by the veil, was crucified, all the creatures also were crucified with His flesh. According to Matthew 27:51, when the Lord Jesus died, the veil was rent from top to bottom, meaning that it was not rent by anyone on earth but by God in the heavens. The old creation has been slain, and a new and living way to enter into the Holy of Holies has been cut. Now through the riven veil of the flesh and by the blood of Jesus we can enter into the Holy of Holies to contact God for our enjoyment. Furthermore, the fact that the veil has been rent implies that since our old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6), we have an open way to contact and enjoy God in our spirit as our life and life supply.
In Old Testament times only the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies. Once a year he brought the atoning blood and sprinkled it upon the propitiation-cover. That was the old way. In Hebrews 10 we are told that now, in the New Testament age, there is a new way of entering into the Holy of Holies. This new way is not only for the high priest but for all believers, not by the blood of goats and bulls but by the blood of Jesus, and not through a veil that has not been rent but through a veil that has been rent. Now we may pass through the rent veil, enter into the Holy of Holies, and go directly to the throne of grace.
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