Hebrews 10:10 tells us that by the will of God “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Christ offered His body once for all to replace all the sacrifices and offerings in the Old Testament with Himself in order to sanctify us unto God.
Hebrews 10:19-20 says, “Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus, which entrance He initiated for us as a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh.” In these verses we see that Christ is the Initiator of a new and living way.
As the Initiator of a new and living way, Christ opened the way for us to enter the Holy of Holies by His blood through the veil, His flesh (v. 20). This refers to His death on the cross, which rent the veil in the temple to open a new and living way for Him to enter through His own blood into the Holy of Holies, where He is in the direct presence of God, ministering as our High Priest all that God is into our being as our life and life supply in the heavenly atmosphere. The Holy of Holies is the place within the veil, where we may enjoy Christ, ministering the riches of God in the heavenly atmosphere. When we receive such riches of the divine being into our being, we enjoy Christ as the Initiator of a new and living way.
The way into the Holy of Holies has been cut. According to the Greek, the word new in verse 20 means “freshly slain.” Through Christ’s death on the cross, the way has been “freshly slain” for us. What was slain was not only the flesh but the entire old creation. In this verse the veil, which is His flesh, signifies the old creation, including us. On the veil were cherubim (Exo. 26:31), which signify the creatures (Ezek. 10:15). This indicates that in His flesh Christ bore all the creatures. When the veil was rent, the cherubim were also rent, signifying that when the flesh of Christ, which is typified by the veil, was crucified, all the creatures borne by Him were also crucified with His flesh. This flesh has been slain. According to Matthew 27:51, when the Lord Jesus died, the veil was split in two 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. His death and His blood are still available to us today.
The Holy of Holies today is in heaven, where the Lord Jesus is (Heb. 9:12, 24). How, then, can we enter the Holy of Holies while we are still on earth? The secret is our spirit, referred to in 4:12. Christ who is in heaven is now also in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). As the heavenly ladder (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51), He joins our spirit to heaven and brings heaven into our spirit. Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. There we meet with God, who is on the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16).
Through the better sacrifices of Christ, we have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies (9:23; 10:19). It is not a small thing 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 Lord’s death and His blood we have the boldness to enter the Holy of Holies at any time, unlike the high priest in the Old Testament, who could enter into it only once a year (9:25).
The Holy of Holies in Hebrews 10:19 refers to the Holy of Holies in our spirit. Our human spirit is the Holy of Holies, which is God’s residence, the chamber in which God and Christ dwell. If we would find God and Christ, there is no need for us to go to heaven. God in Christ is so available, for He is in our spirit. The Holy of Holies in our spirit corresponds with the Holy of Holies in the heavens. In principle, these are two aspects, two ends, of one entity. Subjectively speaking, the Holy of Holies today is in our spirit. Therefore, we must discern our spirit from our soul (4:12) so that we may enter into the Holy of Holies, where Christ, the shekinah glory of God, and the presence of God are, where we can contact God, obtain mercy, and find grace as the flowing, living water for us to enjoy. This flowing, living water is simply the Spirit of grace who transmits the riches of Christ as grace into our spirit for our enjoyment to meet our timely need. This is the key to the experience of the things of Christ that are revealed in this book. Without the key of our spirit, Christ would only be objective to us, and we would have no way to enter into Him.
On the one hand, we need to have an objective vision of Christ as the One who is superior to Judaism in every aspect. On the other hand, we must realize that today He is the eternal Spirit, the Holy One, who brings Himself into our spirit. God the Father deals with us in our spirit, so in order to contact God, experience Christ, and realize the Spirit, we must discern our spirit from our soul. This means that we must always turn to the spirit and experience the dividing of our spirit from our soul. When we turn to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. Then we have Christ as the presence of God. We can contact God in all His fullness and enjoy Christ as the tree of life in the flow of the living water (Rev. 22:1-2). The tree of life is Christ as our grace, and the flow of living water is the transmitting Spirit.
God’s intention in His creation of man was that man would partake of the fruit of the tree of life and thereby receive the eternal life of God. But in the fall, Satan’s evil nature was injected into man. As a result, man had to be barred from the tree of life. According to Genesis 3:24, Jehovah God “drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” Thus, man was estranged from the life of God. The cherubim, the flame, and the sword signify God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. These three things kept sinful man from receiving eternal life. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He fulfilled all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. Therefore, through the redemption of the Lord Jesus, the way has been opened for us to contact the tree of life once more. The tree of life is in the Holy of Holies. As believers in Christ, we have been brought back to the tree of life. Now the divine life in the Holy of Holies may be our daily enjoyment.