17.3 Having Boldness to Enter
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Having boldness to enter the Holiest. Entering the Holiest is the most important thing we MUST do (and have done). Why is absolute boldness essential? First, let’s get the picture.
And God placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24b). The writer of Hebrews is suggesting that we push our way right past those cherubs, right through that flaming sword, in order to do one thing – to seize LIFE for ourselves.
NOT Heaven
We do NOT want to “go to” heaven. We will never enter in unless we rid ourselves of the wicked practice of placing all the reality of God spoken about in the Bible into a “place” we wrongly call “heaven,” a place imagined by fallen minds, a place that does not exist.
Yes, there is a heaven, tied utterly together with earth, as shattered by sin and death as earth is. The real heaven is filled with angels and demons, the purity of Christ in the Spirit side by side with darkness, just like in the physical earth. The real heaven is of the old creation and is passing away. The real heaven is NOT salvation.
Salvation Is Wholeness
All believers in Jesus who exist right now in heaven only are dead. They live utterly inside of Christ, yes, just as you and I do. But death is the severance between heaven and earth. Thus without earth bodies, they are dead. Salvation is wholeness. A man missing his two legs is not whole, no matter how much in Christ he lives. A Christian missing his or her body is not whole.
If all those who have had their bodies ripped away from them and now live only in heaven, still in Jesus, just like you and me, had actually entered into the Holiest, then they would be back on this earth in physical bodies and creation would already be fully set free.
The Lie of “Heaven”
Those who continue to buy into the LIE that “going to” heaven is entering the Holiest will NOT enter in because they are convinced they cannot without committing suicide. The Christian definition of heaven IS your greatest enemy because it is more capable than anything else of convincing God’s people not to enter into the Holiest.
Heaven is NOT the place God has chosen. Those believers in heaven only right now want nothing more than getting their bodies back – it’s called the resurrection. If I were capable, if I had the strength and the ability, I would shatter heaven right now. I would expose it for what it is so that God’s precious people would stop all talk about “the next life.”
The Place God Has Chosen
God is HERE and NOW. Today is all Salvation.
The Holiest is the Heart of God. And that Heart of God, for me, is in one place only. The Heart of God, for me, is in my chest. I’m not talking about “me,” I’m talking about God. And that same heart of God, for you, is also in one place only. Look at your breast. The Heart of God, the Holiest Place in the universe, for you, is in your chest.
The Place God has chosen; hearts of flesh.
Barriers
Do we understand the obstacles set against our way? We are talking about the most private, the most personal, the most sacred, the most wonderful Heart that exists, the Heart of our Father.
How many pretenders would steal even just a bit of that Heart for their own show, for their own dance before the faces they imagine must be obsessed with them? You can do anything with God that you want. Anything. He will not resist you.
You see, even though God has placed many mighty barriers against the folly of man, yet still fools continue to rush in where angels fear to tread (a line from Alexander Pope).
Opponents
Cherubim, the mightiest creatures in God’s universe, are set against us. A flaming sword blazes before our face. Satan and all demons of Hades are screaming against us. All humans are doing everything in their power, knowledge, and seduction to drag us back down into the pit with them. Even our brethren are hostile against our pursuit.
The curse is against us along with our subjection to vanity. The death killing our bodies is against our entering in. It even seems, at times, that the hand of God opposes our getting anywhere near the Holiest of All. Will we enter in?
Seizing Life
I’m not talking about feeling good. I’m not talking about grace to help in time of need. I’m not talking about no condemnation. I’m not talking about answers to prayer.
I am talking about seizing for ourselves the fruit of the tree of life, incorruptible life, the very life of Almighty God. I am talking about the resurrection of our bodies, swallowed up into and as His glorious body.
If, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. – Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body (Philippians 3:11 & Romans 8:23).
What Is Life Worth?
LIFE!!! – Incorruptible LIFE. Do you want it? You will find it in one place alone – inside the Holy of Holies – inside your heart. Fight the good fight of faith, seize hold of age-abiding life! (1 Timothy 6:12a).
What is it worth to us, this Heart and Life of Father? Yes, this is what the New Testament teaches, this is what it has always taught. No one will enter into God because no one will believe. Everyone shoves God off to “heaven.”
Beware, Brethren
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end … And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it (Hebrews 3:12-4:1).
Jeopardy
For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest … There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His (Hebrews 4:2-9).
These verses are the great jeopardy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the verses of the resurrection. And inside of them is the seventh most important verse in the Bible, thus the passage here. We cease from “our works” by one means only, living now in full union with Christ, Christ our only life.
Boldness to Enter
I don’t mean to scare anyone away from becoming the Mercy Seat of God, but we do need to know why it is that the bold heart of a Pirate, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, beats now in our chests.
Let’s go back to the Greek definitions. Boldness to enter – Parresian eidodon.
- Parresian: freedom of speech, confidence. Freedom, openness, especially in speech; boldness, confidence. Parrhēsía (from pás, "all" and rhēsis, "a proverb or statement quoted with resolve,") – properly, confidence.
- Eisodon: an entrance, i.e. both the place or way leading into a place (as, a gate), and the act of entering.
Freedom of speech! – The action of entering.
God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17). God always plays substance against appearance. Substance does not exist, is NOT – to the created mind. Appearance seems to be the only thing real. The truth is the very opposite. God has chosen the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are (1 Corinthians 1:28).
Our boldness is our freedom of speech. You and I are free to speak together with God.
Speaking Christ
Boldness MEANS that we are free in God to call Christ Jesus, the very incorruptible life of God, as our only LIFE right now. Boldness means that we are free in God to call every part of Christ, as He is in all of His ascended glory, ALL that we are, right now, in our present dying appearance. Boldness means that we are free to call every element of our present dying appearance in every ongoing circumstance of our lives to be only the Being and Actions of Jesus, our Salvation.
Of truth, this boldness by which we enter in, this boldness to speak Galatians 2:20, Christ IS my life, I have no other life, carries us forward into the seventh most important verse in the Bible, walking right now IN resurrection life.