“Who May Enter into Holy Places?” – Hebrews 9:1-14
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Hebrews 9:1-14. As always, I'll be reading out of the ESV, the English Standard Version. And so hear now the word of the Lord.
9 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 9:1-14, ESV
Well, earlier this week, I stumbled across an attention grabbing headline that stated this. It said, "More than 60 percent of born again Christians in America between the ages of 18 and 39 believe that Buddha, Muhammad and Jesus are all valid paths to salvation."
Now, this was based on a study on religious pluralism in America that was conducted by some Christian ministry. But after digging into the data a little bit that was provided, I discovered that while the headline singled out the 18 to 39 age bracket, those in the older brackets didn't really fare much better either. And in some cases they were actually worse. In short, it seems that among self-professed evangelicals, regardless of age demographics, pluralism that is the view that there are multiple valid religions in the world is a serious problem.
This study also fits with a similar survey that was conducted by another Christian ministry last year, where respondents were asked to respond to the phrase, "God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam." And respondents to that statement, fifty-two percent, in fact, of evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 34 either agreed or strongly agreed with that statement.
Now, assuming that these results are truly representative of the religious landscape among self-professing evangelicals in America, it goes to show, I think, just how well the world has catechized and discipled the church and her members. After all, when the world happily elevates such values as plurality, as the supreme values that we should live by, but downplays values such as truth. Well, it's no wonder why so many of our neighbors and people we love and maybe even you have followed suit in rearranging values more in line with what the world treasures and less in line with what the Bible affirms from start to finish is true.
But when we turn to the Bible, we find the unmistakable claim that our God is in fact unique among the so-called gods of the world. Rather than being just one God among many in a buffet of religious options, the Bible tells us that our God isn't anything like the so-called gods of the world. Our God, for one thing, is a triune begin. For another thing, our God, we learn, is infinite, eternal, all wise, all powerful, love, merciful, gracious, majestic, good. And he's the perfection of all of his attributes.
God just isn't like the so-called gods of the world, and as a consequence, how we approach this one triune perfect God really does matter. We can't approach this God through the values or systems of any world religion we choose, and neither can we approach this God as the weak and morally troubled people that all of us are and think that he'll smile upon us all the same. Whether the Bible tells us that to approach a holy holy Holy God, that is a God who's set apart from what's common in every way, to be received as children and people of this holy God, and to have our worship accepted by this holy God requires nothing short of holiness. Holiness, according to God's standards ourselves.
And so our big idea this morning is this, Holiness lies at the heart of our worship.. Again, we need to know that the one we worship, the one that we cling to for life is holy and therefore how we approach the holy God requires holiness ourselves.
So two points as we walk through this passage.
1. The Problem of Holiness. Yes, it requires holiness to approach a holy God, but we have a problem and it's a holiness problem. That's the first point.
2. Access Through the Holy One - And then second is how we nonetheless gain access to the Holy God through a Holy One.
The Problem of Holiness
So let's start out for this first point. First, the problem of holiness. And notice that when we turn to our passage, our author begins picking up where he left off in chapter eight. In chapter eight, you may recall a few weeks back when we spent some time studying that passage, our author spent some time comparing and contrasting the so-called old covenant. The old covenant was this covenant that God made with Moses to the nation of Israel. And he contrasts this old covenant with the new covenant, the new covenant, the covenant that God has inaugurated through his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
After comparing and contrasting these two covenants the old covenant and the new covenant, or the first covenant in the second covenant in chapter eight of Hebrews, arguing all along the way for the superiority of the new covenant. Now, in chapter nine, our author focuses on just one aspect of these various covenants. Namely how one worshiped in the old covenant versus how we worship in the new covenant. In fact, that's his focus throughout this passage.
And to begin, he spends the first 10 verses or so focused on what worship in this old covenant with Moses looked like in its own day. So to begin our survey of the contrast that our author draws in our passage, look with me at versus two through five of our passage. There our author begins by going back well over a thousand years from the time in which he writes, to explain to us the system of worship in the old covenant with the so-called tabernacle. Notice that in the first five verses or so of our passage, our author spends a lot of time here describing to us this earthly place of holiness that was known as the tabernacle.
So to give you a little bit of background to this thing called the tabernacle. After the Exodus event, and you can read all about this in the Book of Exodus, when God, through his servant Moses led his people out of slavery and captivity in Egypt. He gathered his people in the desert to himself at a place called Mount Sinai.
This is an event you can read about beginning in Exodus 19, where the people of Israel were wandering through the desert and God led them to this mountain called Mount Sinai. It was at Sinai where God called Moses up on the mountain, and he gave him the Ten Commandments. God entered at that point into a covenant with Israel. He secured a relationship with his people. He promised at that point to be their God. He promised that they would be his people. He gave them laws, and he promised that if they lived according to those laws, that they would be blessed.
Well, after articulating that the essence of these laws in the Ten Commandments, much of the Book of Exodus, the second half of Exodus that is, is taken up with describing to us the construction and design of this thing called the tabernacle.
Now, the tabernacle was this large mobile tent in the old covenant where God's people would go in order to worship God. They would come into the tabernacle and they would offer bloody animal sacrifices when they sinned. The priest of Israel, a special group of among the nation, would also minister day and night in the tabernacle complex.
So with that background in mind, when we look at versus two through five of our passage, we noticed that our author is concerned here with describing to us the various sections of this mobile tent called the tabernacle and some of the furniture or the equipment that was in the tabernacle.
And by the way, if you're using a sermon worksheet this morning, the ones that we normally hand out or place in the back, I've included a schematic of the tabernacle in that for you to follow along as we work through these verses.
Nonetheless, let's point out a few features of this tabernacle, according to our passage. Well, for one thing, our author tells us that this tabernacle had various sections to it. When a worshipper would come into this tabernacle with a sacrifice, he would have to go into, first of all, this outer portion called the outer court of the tabernacle. That was as far as he could go. A worshipper could bring an offering a bull or a goat or a bird, depending on whatever the kind of sacrifice he came to offer would be. He would then have to kill the sacrifice himself in the outer courtyard. It gets a little bit graphic. He then had to chop up the sacrifice accordingly and then let the priest do the rest. Which often involved taking a portion of the sacrifice or all of the sacrifice, and then burning it all up on this thing called the brazen altar or the altar of burnt offering that was in this outside, outer court kind of complex.
Then towards the back of this tabernacle complex was a smaller tent, which was called the tent of meeting. This tent of meeting this enclosure in the back was divided into two sections, and only the priests of Israel were allowed to enter that tent. Average Joe Israel worshipper couldn't go in it. Only the priests were allowed to go in that tent.
So our author and Hebrews tells us that in this first section of the tent, this was known as the Holy Place, there was a lamp stand that was kept burning continually. If you've ever seen a menorah that represents this lamp, stand in the tabernacle, the lampstand was known as a menorah. There was also a golden table which had these 12 loaves of bread on it called show bread that were replaced every Sabbath day.
Then in front of the second curtain, so there was another curtain inside, there was an altar known as the Altar of Incense, on which the priests would crush up incense every day, and they burn these incense on this small Altar of Incense. This was located right in front of the second section, which is called the Most Holy Place. You have a Holy Place, and then the second section is called the Most Holy Place.
So let's talk about that second section for a moment. Again, after you entered the temple or tabernacle complex, then you walked into the tent of meeting, you'd arrive at the Holy Place. We just talked about that. Then there was a second curtain that opened into this Most Holy Place, and it was in that central most interior room that God's people held it to be the Most Holy Place on Earth. Because that in that Most Holy Place was where God in a sense, dwelled on Earth.
Now, the whole tabernacle complex was holy, but as you drew further and further into the tabernacle complex, you get into the courtyard, then the Holy Place, then the Most Holy Place. The idea was that you were drawing closer and closer to the glory and the presence of God.
So what was in this Most Holy Place? Well, our author points out, at least one thing. He tells us that this thing called the Ark of the Covenant was in there. Now this Ark of the Covenant was this ornate golden box that contained the two tablets of the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Then there was a jar of Manna and Aaron's staff that were placed nearby. This Ark of the Covenant also had on it something called the Mercy Seat, which is just a fancy name for the lid of this big thing called the Ark of the Covenant.
Then above the ark, there are these two golden cherubim. These images of heavenly creatures who overshadowed the mercy seat and they themselves represented the glory of God looking down upon the people.
Now, this is only a short summary of all of the various items that were in the tabernacle and what the tabernacle looked like. And you could go to the Book of Exodus or Leviticus, or to a lesser extent, Numbers and read about all the details that you ever would want to know about tabernacle and tabernacle worship.
Bear in mind that there were author gives us these these many details in verses two through five, and we could probably spend an entire sermon just talking about all those details and what everything represented. Our author gives us these details not to just give us some information, right? He does it with a particular purpose in mind. He wants us to see that though the tabernacle and all the furniture in it was arranged with with purpose and meaning and thought in mind. Though, this whole thing was carefully crafted by the best craftsmen in Israel, and it must have been a sight to behold in its own day. Pastor Jacob reminded us that it was a glorious place to be and in fact it was. It was nevertheless limited, incomplete and imperfect in what it could actually do. For as elaborate and ornate and as glorious as it must have been to be in the tabernacle in its own day. There was something about it that was always wanting.
Over in San Jose, California, there's a historic landmark known as the Winchester Mystery House. It's this massive mansion that's about twenty-four thousand square feet. One hundred and sixty rooms, ten thousand windows, forty-seven staircases and six kitchens. Now, as the story goes, Sarah Winchester, whose husband was the owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. They made the Winchester rifles. She tragically lost, in a short span of time, both her husband and her infant daughter to various diseases.
So widowed and alone and severely depressed, Sarah Winchester moved from her home in New England to California. At some point along the way, she became convinced that her family was cursed by the people who had fallen dead to the Winchester rifle, and that the only way to find relief from this supposed curse was to continually nonstop build a house. And so in 1884, Sarah Winchester purchased this very small farmhouse, and between the years of 1884 and until her death in 1922, this farmhouse was subject to round the clock construction. As Sarah frantically sought to expand the house to what it is today. She spared no expense in the process.
Now, if you were to visit the Winchester mystery house in its own day, I would imagine that you would probably encounter a beautiful, though still unfinished building. Although it probably looked majestic during its expansion. You nevertheless be faced with the fact that it was still incomplete. Regardless of how well it looked, there always seemed to be no end to the constant work and construction and expansion that was directed by Sarah Winchester.
Now, well, the tabernacle never underwent endless construction like the Winchester house. Worshippers nevertheless still had to face a similar reality to the one that onlookers and visitors to the Winchester house had to face in its own day. And that is, it was incomplete. In one sense, the construction of the tabernacle may have been done, but the tabernacle itself could never achieve what it pointed towards. It may have looked beautiful. It may have been this glorious place where God's presence dwelled, but its outward appearance couldn't make up for the fact that it was only provisional and limited, imperfect and incomplete, and it would never see the end to which it looked.
Just as this earthly place of holiness was limited, provisional, so too the holy regulations that governed what happened inside were likewise limited and incomplete. Notice that when we proceed in our passage to verses six through 10, our author tells us how the priests of Israel ministered inside the tabernacle. So we hear a lot about the furniture and the construction and verses two through five. And now we learned what happened inside the tabernacle.
Our author tells us a few things. First, he tells us that it was the priest's job, like we already said, to enter into this first section of the tabernacle regularly, what we call the Holy Place, to perform their ritual duties.
Now, these duties would have included things like trimming the lamps on the menorah, which was constantly lit up. It would have included crushing incense and burning incense, always at the altar of incense, Among other duties that they had to perform.
While these priests had the weighty job of drawing near to God, of drawing into the Holy Place, it was only the job of the High Priest, one select priests out of all the priests, who got to go into the Most Holy Place once a year and have as close to direct access to God as one could ever hope to have under the old covenant.
On the so-called Annual Day of Atonement and this is described for us in Leviticus 16, the High Priest got to draw near to God in the Most Holy Place. To do so required quite an ordeal to unfold. First, the high priest before he would enter in, he had to dress himself in pure white linen. A special vestments had to be procured and put on. Then after clothing himself accordingly, the high priest had to go outside. He had to slaughter a bull and then come into the Most Holy Place with the blood of a bull and was required to sprinkle it on the mercy seat, the mercy seat being that lid of the Ark of the Covenant that we already mentioned.
In doing that, he would take care of his own sins and the sin of his family. But all wasn't done because remember, a priest was supposed to represent the nation of Israel. The high priest supremely so. So after atoning making up for his sins and the sins of his family, he then had to go out to the courtyard and he had to get a goat this time. Slaughter a goat, bring the blood of the goat in in order to deal with the sins of the people of Israel, those he represented.
Now you only need to read a few chapters in the Book of Leviticus to know that this day, in particular, the Day of Atonement and tabernacle worship in general was a bloody affair. If you're the kind of person who gets queasy at the sight or thought of blood, I apologize. I do too just ask my wife. But the whole system revolved around the offering of blood in order to take care of the sins of our people.
Notice that in our passage our author reminds us that when the High Priest went in to the Most Holy Place, he did so not without taking blood. Blood was central to these offerings because blood was seen as representing the life of an animal or person. And so when you offered the blood of an animal, you are offering life in your place. Because the wages of sin is death.
Understand that sin is so serious, even one sin is such an affront against a holy and eternally Holy God, that life has to be taken. Blood has to be spilled in order to pay the debt that our sin incurs. In a sacrificial system, this is what you'd be reminded of over and over again. You'd be reminded every day about the seriousness of sin and about how costly rebellion against a Holy God really is.
One the things we should take away from this curious study of the tabernacle is exactly that. That sin is serious and sin, brothers and sisters is quite costly. I can recall the first time in my life. Unfortunately, the only time up until now in my life where I got into a car accident. When I was in high school, I was driving through a parking lot and upon turning down one of the rows, I took to turn a little bit too tightly and ended up clipping the front end of a car with my parents minivan that I was driving. Apparently, I took the turn too tightly and in the aftermath I was quite embarrassed by it all. I was afraid of the consequences of my parents, but other than that, I didn't think too much about the fender bender, because outside of a few dents and scratches, the minivan seemed OK. It was still running fine, so no harm, no foul.
But a week or two later, after the minivan got repaired, my dad reported to me the damage that was incurred to the minivan. Fortunately, insurance covered it, but he told us that he told me that the insurance claim was as far as I can recall, it's been a while, several thousand dollars. At the time that was shocking to hear because it just didn't look that bad. As a naive high schooler who admittedly had no conception for what things cost, it took me quite by surprise to hear that dents and scratches and bodywork could cost that much. It took that event for me to come to terms with just how costly it can be to scratch up your vehicle a little bit. It might not look that bad on the surface of things, but the cost can be quite steep.
In the same way, friends, we often just don't get the costliness of our own sin. The only reason that such a pervasive belief exists even among Evangelicals, that there are many paths to God and that God accepts a variety of worship is because the need for holiness isn't held in as high regard as it needs to be.God just isn't elevated in our thoughts or affections as the one who is utterly holy, and we don't view ourselves very often through the lens in which the Bible sees us, as utterly unholy in our human nature.
The only reason that belief that I mentioned at the outset, the only reason that gains a foothold in the world and in the church is because we have a severely distorted view of holiness. But even if you're on the right side of orthodoxy on that issue and you're part of the apparently 40 percent of evangelicals who rightly confess that the only way to God is through Jesus Christ and him alone. Well, we too, can sometimes carry a functionally naive view of our sin. After all, how often do we see ourselves completely justified and unstained in the midst of conflict? Or how long do we harbor grudges and bitterness when somebody sins against us in the most minor of ways? Or how many times do we relativize our sin to comfort ourselves in view of the apparent graver infractions of others?
Friends, we need to understand that even the smallest sin is rebellion against God and his law, and even the smallest sin requires that blood be spilled and that life be paid to shield us from the righteous wrath of God. Do you understand that? Do you get that? And if you're a Christian, do you grieve your sin accordingly? Or are you humble when your church family graciously calls you to confession? And more importantly, are you looking to Jesus every single day as the only solution to your sin problem?
And if you're not a Christian, if you don't even consider yourself a Christian, know that you have a serious holiness problem. God is more holy than you ever dared imagine, and you are less holy and less well off than you imagine that you are. The only solution, the only solution to our holiness problem and the only way any of us could draw near and stand in the presence of a Holy God is through a priestly representative who himself is the perfection of holiness.
Access Through the Holy One
This leads to our second point where we discover that though our sin makes access to God into Holy Places, tenuous at best. Through the Holy One of Israel, the doors to God's throne of Grace have been swung wide open for you and me.
So second point, access through the Holy One. Know again, there were a couple of big issues with the tabernacle in the old covenant. For one thing, access we already mentioned this, was extremely limited. Remember only the High Priest and only at that once a year got to enter into the Most Holy Place. Another issue was that the entire sacrificial system couldn't, as our author tells us, quote, perfect the conscience of the worshipper. These sacrificial offerings may have been able to deal with external issues and ceremonial issues, but they couldn't get at the sin issue that's lodged deep in the human heart.
But when the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ, our Lord came into the world as our better high priest. When he lived as an unstained priestly representative on our behalf and then died as a perfect and final bloody sacrifice for sin. What we learn in our text and Hebrews returns to this theme a number of times, that when that happened, Jesus entered in to the real heavenly tabernacle so that as a holy cleansed people, we could follow in his train.
Down in the swamps of Central Florida lies what many people would believe to be the happiest place on Earth, Walt Disney World. At one of the parks in Disney World Epcot Center, you can immerse yourself if you so choose in the culture of a variety of different nations. You see at Epcot, there's this large lake, and around this large lake are 11 pavilions, which feature 11 different nations. The architecture of each of these pavilions is designed to reflect the respective nation they represent, as well as the food they serve and the items they sell. It's supposed to be this cross-cultural experience in the heart of Central Florida.
So take France, for example, if you spent some time at Epcot Center and in the French Pavilion at Epcot, you could feast on authentic French pastries. I think they call them patisserie in French. You could speak with employees in French, even if your French is broken and they'll happily converse with you rather than rolling their eyes at you like a Frenchman did to me once in Paris, but that's another story. There's even a miniature Eiffel Tower at the French Pavilion in Epcot, too.
Despite journeying to the French Pavilion at Epcot, you can't say you've been to France because it's not the real thing. It may have the look and feel of authentic French culture. People might speak the French language, but you'd be fooling yourself if when you return you said, I have been to France, because the pavilion is only an imperfect replica of the real thing.
This is what the tabernacle of the old covenant was. We've already said that it was imperfect, it was incomplete, but in saying that, bear in mind, it was never going to be complete because it always represented something better. Heaven itself. When Jesus spilled his blood, we learned in Hebrews 9:12, he entered once for all into Holy Places. He didn't enter into the physical tabernacle or the physical temple in Jerusalem. Not at all, he entered into heaven itself, and in doing so, he opened up the way for you and me to truly fellowship with God in the present that no one, not even the high priest of the old covenant, was privy to.
Friends, the benefits we receive from Christ's ascension into the better and more perfect tabernacle are benefits found in no other world religion and no other institution on Earth. The Heidelberg Catechism, one reformed confession catechism that we look at from time to time, ask the question at one point, how does Christ's ascension benefit us? It's a good question to ask. What should we gain from Christ ascension? And it answers that question by reminding us that because of Christ ascension, we have three things. We have one someone who advocates for you and me at the father's right hand. Because of Christ ascension two, we have the promise that we one day when we die and finish our sojourn on this Earth we will be taken to heaven too. Then three, because of Christ's ascension, we receive the spirit of the risen and ascended Christ right now, who, according to Heidelberg Catechism, who by whose power we seek, the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and not things that are on Earth.
So are you doing that right now? Are you seeking the things of heaven and not the things of Earth? Brothers and sisters, because Christ entered into the heavenly tabernacle, we have been granted the spirit of the risen and ascended Christ, who, among other things, directs our gaze heavenward. Who Directs our gaze from thinking about and concerning ourselves from day to night with the things of this Earth and instead directs our gaze to the heavenly places where Christ is seated. Is that where your mind, is that where your heart, is that where your affections are focused as you sojourn in this life under the sun?
Ask yourself in relationships with people who you love, who don't know Christ, is it your desire above everything else that they would become citizens of this heavenly kingdom through faith in Christ? Is it your hope above everything else that the Kingdom of God that the will of God would be done on Earth as it is in heaven? And does your speech reflect that in the way you talk about God and in the way you talk about things? Does your schedule reflect that in the way you prioritize things? Or are you really more focused on building and preserving your own kingdom here on Earth?
Friends through Christ's ascension into the real deal, the real heavenly tabernacle, we have access to God in the present. Access that no priest under the old covenant administration had. Access to better heavenly food and spiritual gifts and the great hope of one day joining Christ in the heavenly places, too.
As our passage prepares to close, we're reminded once again that the only reason at all that we have these benefits in the so-called new covenant, which is where we live in and what we enjoy, is because of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Now we've already heard quite a bit about blood in our passage. But the reality is that animal blood could never do anything about the problem of sin. It could purify the flesh as far as externalities were concerned, but it couldn't do anything about the human heart. And yet, Christ's blood does and can.
First, we learn that Christ's blood didn't deal with temporary uncleanliness. Remember, the tabernacle blood had to be offered again and again. A worshipper sins, they come into the tabernacle, they offer blood. The next week, they sin, they come into the tabernacle, more blood and on and on and on. But with Christ, our author tells us, when he offered up his own blood, he secured an eternal redemption. This is why Jesus could say on the cross it is finished. No more laboring and never arriving, no more longing and never receiving. In Christ and it's finished and it's finished for good.
Christ's blood, we read, redeems us, which means that it frees us from the slavery and bondage of sin. Understand that if you don't know Christ, the Bible tells us that you are not free. The Bible tells us that you are a captive, that you are enslaved by your own sin nature. You're not free in the way you might think. Yet Christ offers for us the perfect price to emancipate all those who find refuge in him from the slavery of guilt and sin, that apart from Christ, holds all of us captive.
Then we learn that through the very same blood of Christ, it also purifies our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. Through Christ's blood our hearts are cleansed, our souls are cleansed, all of our spiritual faculties are cleansed whiter than snow.
In telling us that Christ purifies our consciences or authors getting something specific here. Understand that in the Bible, the conscience is what gives us our sense of guilt. When we feel guilty about something, it's because our conscience has been pricked. John Owen, for example, notes that when Adam hid from God after he sinned, it was because of his conscience. His conscience produced in him a sense of guilt and shame. And so too, when our consciences are overwhelmed with a sense of guilt of our sin, it's often our tendency, we do this in various ways, to hide from God.
Yet through the blood of Christ, our consciences, we hear have been purified such that we have no reason to hide from God. We don't need to hide our sin or try to hide our sin from God as if we ever could. We don't need to be apprehensive about coming to our Heavenly Father. Though we often do and should grieve our sin when we sin, we need not be haunted by the sins of our past. Christ has cleansed our whole being through his blood, including our consciences. As a consequence, we have been not only free to approach God regularly and boldly, approaching, as the author of Hebrews tells us earlier the throne of grace with confidence, but we've also been invited and this is where our passage ends to serve him too.
This is the direction this whole passage drives. That having been cleansed, having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, we are urged then to serve the living God. As Christians, we serve God in a number of ways. First and foremost, we serve him in our worship by giving him the praise that he's due. We serve him in the world by bearing witness a salt and light in every opportunity that we're given. We serve him in the church by serving his body. We serve him at our homes by disciplining those in our household. Christ has set us free so that we might boldly do just that. That we might boldly serve him in all of the various ways and opportunities he's given us to do so. That's the call that this passage ends with.
Application
What should we take away from all this? Well, in conclusion, I just have one thing for us to think through. One thing for us to maybe apply, if you will, and that is be holy. By this, I mean two things. First, be holy positionally. That is if you don't embrace the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ as savior and king know once again that you will have no hope to enter the Holy Places where Christ is seated. Unfortunately, one of the typical tropes we hear in our pluralistic culture is that just as there are many ways up a mountain, theoretically, so too there are many ways to God. Yet the Bible tells us that the only way to ascend the mountain, the mountain which belongs to God, is with clean hands and a pure heart.
Now, in our human nature, none of us meet those criteria spiritually. All our hands are dirty, and all of our hearts are stained with sin, rotten to the core. But Jesus Christ does meet those criteria. The plea from our passage is that you would therefore know him, that you would identify with him, that you would place your trust in him, and that when you do so that you know that you will be a member of the holy people of God. Who are holy, not because of anything we've done, but only because of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yet the starting point for all of us is to be holy in this positional kind of way through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible still calls us to be progressively holy, too. After all, Peter tells us, "Just as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct." To be holy simply means to be set apart from that which is common. As it applies to our lives as Christians, holiness calls us to recognize first and foremost where our citizenship lies and to live as citizens of that kingdom during our sojourn on Earth. It's an appeal to learn the language of that kingdom, the customs of that kingdom, to grow in fellowship with the people of that kingdom, and to resist being discipled by the kingdoms of this world.
So grow and holiness, because in Christ Jesus, you are already holy. Trust that the Holy One of Israel will welcome you into his holy, heavenly tabernacle through Christ and Christ alone when he calls each of us into our glorious home.
Pray with me. Gracious, Heavenly Father, Lord, we are challenged in some ways by this appeal to holiness because we know in our flesh that we often don't live as holy people that we are. And we also take hold of the promise, the promise that through Christ Jesus, we are the holy people of God. Through the Holy One of Israel, we have become positionally holy so that we could draw near to you regularly and boldly and with confidence. Lord, I pray that we would remember that. That we would do that regularly. That we would not shortchange the benefits of the new covenant that are ours in Christ Jesus. That you would help us remember these things by your Spirit as we live, move and have our being. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.