Daily Bread - DEC/19/07

Hebrews 10:19-10 - Therefore brethren have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way that He has consecrated for us through the veil (that is His flesh).

When Jesus died for us at Calvary, the Holies of Holies was not destroyed; rather, access was provided for everyone who was willing to come in (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). The earthly tabernacle was only a sketch and a figure of the true Holies of Holies in heaven (Hebrews 8:5; 9:24; Exodus 25:9, 40). The Holies of Holies is, in fact, the throneroom of God (Psalms 11:4; Habakkuk 2:20; 2 Samuel 6:2; 1 Chronicles 13:6; 1 Samuel 4:4; Psalms 99:1; Isaiah 37:16; Ezekiel 10:1-4; Hebrews 4:16; 8:1; 12:2; Revelation 4:2-10; 5:1, 6, 13; 7:9-17; 8:3). When Jesus poured out His life for us He was providing the means by which His life would be poured into us. When His life was poured into us it had the same effect that light has on darkness: His life destroyed the death. When we were born of the Spirit we stepped into the body of Christ, and Christ stepped into us (Romans 8:1; 12:5; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:27; John 14:23; John 15:1; 1 John 3:24; 4:13-16).

During the time of the first tabernacle there was only one opportunity to enter into the Holies of Holies, and that was during the yearly purification (Leviticus 16:2). At that time, the sins of the people were sent away never to return, and the sin and testimony against man that was before the throne of God was removed (Leviticus 16:1-16). There was only one person who could enter into this most sacred realm, and that was the high priest as he came with the only cleansing agent that had the power to remove the stain of sin. The blood removed the sin that testified of man's condemnation before God. Today by the Spirit of God we are called to live in the throneroom being seated together with Christ as He sits at the right hand of the Father. God has allowed us to step into the reality of the picture that the sketch of the first tabernacle could only paint. Our interaction with God moved us from a cultic realm to the living reality. God is not just pleased to dwell in our midst: He dwells in us.

There is yet another dimension of this unseen interaction that we have with God in the Spirit. The church is to be the visible and living reality of the Holies of Holies in the earth today (Ephesians 1:23; 5:32; 1 Corinthians 12:12,27; Colossians 1:18; 2:9). The church is supposed to be the visible manifestation of all the glory and majesty of the unseen throneroom. When we consider that the church is the body of Christ and that it is the fullness of Him that fills all things then this is not hard to realize. The church is fundamental to the New Testament (Matthew 6:18; 18:17; Acts 2:1, 47; 14:23; 20:28). It is synonymous with the Kingdom of God and the place that God has anointed to reveal the fullness of Christ Jesus His only begotten Son (Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Matthew 21:43; 1 Peter 2:9; Colossians 1:13). Jesus and His church are one; there is no distinction between them. When Paul described the assembly and the worship that is of the church he revealed that it was Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22-24; 10:25). God has taken us and built us up together as a holy habitation by the Holy Spirit even as one stone is laid upon another. Together we appear as a holy temple in the Lord (Ephesians 2:21). As His Holy Church, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone that God laid in Zion and built us upon (1 Peter 2:6; Ephesians 2:22).

Be blessed,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
abidingplace.org