17.1 A Living Way
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus consecrating for us a newly sacrificed and living way through the veil. – (His flesh). And – having a High Priest over the house of God. We possess a way through the veil, a way past the cherubim guarding the tree of life, a way that is (1) newly sacrificed, but at the same time (2) alive.
Now, does His flesh refer to the veil or does it refer to the way?
You see a way that is both newly sacrificed AND alive refers directly to the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement, combining both goats into one, the goat that was sacrificed for sins and the one that lived, carrying the sinfulness of the people.
The Climax of Hebrews
One thing we must do is take all of Hebrews as a whole; this is why I had you read the article, “The Order of Journey,” which gives an outline of Hebrews. The letter to the Hebrews is a tight and unified argument, every part working together, primarily to drive home this one climax, Hebrews 10:19-23. – You may want to read all of Hebrews. Everything coming before is to position for us the four (now five) things we possess: boldness to enter, a new and living way, a High Priest, hearts sprinkled, and bodies washed. And what comes before and after is partly the antithesis to the core of this sentence: let us draw near. – As in 10:38 – If anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
New
And so the “new” way means newly sacrificed, which refers directly to the New Covenant in preceding verses, which is authorized and legalized by the reality of a new High Priest. It is the new High Priest, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is also the new Sacrifice, that establishes all that follows.
The writer of Hebrews uses the word “new” specifically to set it against the old. That is, the new replaces entirely an old that was incapable of purging our sins or leading us to LIFE. But our new Way, the Way in which we are led to Life (defined as living only in the Holiest), is a Person. And thus the Way is also alive, having risen from the dead.
We Possess a High Priest
Hebrews declares that this alive Way, this High Priest, belongs entirely to us, He is our possession. This is what a Blood Covenant does. By purchasing us for Himself, Jesus also purchased Himself for us. Just as He “owns” us, so we own Him.
Over the last couple of years I have come to realize that the practice of calling Jesus, “God the Son,” something God never says, the practice of deifying Jesus and everything about Him, in actuality turns Jesus into the image of a high heavenly being. Most of our brethren, then, view Jesus only as an isolated and separated CREATURE, yet claiming that this deified creature is “God.”
Jesus Binds Us to Father
What does our possessing a High Priest mean?
Just as the Father is omnipresent Spirit, ALL, everywhere, in all, NOW, so the Father is always, every moment, everywhere, taking upon Himself the form of a servant, becoming, coming in the Person of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, all, everywhere, now. But specifically, this all everywhere now Person of Jesus, lives in our hearts, and arises in us as the Bond, the connection, between you and me and a Father we cannot know except through this Person, Jesus, our High Priest every moment.
Thus everything the writer of Hebrews says about this High Priest, Jesus, is defining for us the meaning of the DNA model in Session 6: Containing God.
A Present Intercession
Because He continues forever … He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives (in our hearts) to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us … (Hebrews 7:24-25).
Again, we are not speaking of two far away Creatures negotiating together about you and me, far outside of Their immediate place and presence. Neither does this refer to a Jesus, pleading with an angry God not to punish us every time we do bad things. This “intercession” is a living and present quality, the essential ingredient in Christ living as us. Every part of this argument MEANS our utter and present union with Jesus, Christ as us.
The Source of Life
The source of the river of life, God flowing out of us, is found inside the veil, in the Holiest of All. That source of life is the Mercy Seat, the throne of God.
The entire question before us is HOW????? How, Lord, do we pass through this seemingly impenetrable veil that we might live entirely and only in Your Holiest, in all purity and sinlessness? How, Lord, do we become Your Salvation, that rivers of living water might flow out of us every moment, setting creation free?
The answer, at every point along the Way, is, you ARE!!!!! You are already the Mercy Seat of God, turn around.
Five Mighty Opponents
But here is what God is doing for us to persuade us that we can turn around, that we ARE going forth every moment ONLY as Father revealed, that the Father shares together with us all the circumstances of our lives, showing Himself now as He wishes in our every moment.
The three mighty opponents set against Adam as he contemplated the glory of eating of life, are also arrayed against us, far bigger than against Adam, three opponents who have been joined by two more Adam did not know: sin and death. (1) What other Christians think, (2) the word of God on the outside of me, (3) the desire to pretend like the serpent, (4) visible and ongoing acts of sin, and (5) a dying physical body.
Five Mightier Possessions
Don’t you just love patterns! Look at what we possess.
1. Boldness to enter against the face of those who say otherwise.
2. A newly sacrificed and alive Way against word on the outside of us creating only curse and a false self.
3. A High Priest Himself the Sacrifice, hanging unashamed on the tree of life alive in my heart against a stupid pretender who imagines that outward show means something.
4. A heart sprinkled against an evil conscience, against considering any more the claims of any acts of sin.
5. A body washed with pure water against the appearance of death remaining in it.
Full Assurance
The How of God, Salvation, is Jesus alive in our hearts. The entire Bible is God showing us what that means, that we might have FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH to enter into the Holiest place in the universe and never think otherwise again.
I am alternating between tears and laughter at the joy and wonder of His Salvation.
I want to come back to a newly sacrificed and alive Way. The Way is both our Path and our Journey upon that Path. Jesus Himself in Person is our Journey as much as He is our Path. And Jesus is our one Sacrifice for sins forever, as much as He is alive and living as us.
Symmorphy
But every path goes somewhere. This is why we must have the WHY verses fully in our hearts before we consider the HOW verses.
Where are we going?
Complete symmorphy with the Father, the Father and us as One person together. The Father and you, the Father and me, sharing one body, one heart, one mind, one Spirit together.
Throw out of your mind and heart everything you have ever heard or imagined about “going to heaven.” Our destiny is Symmorphy with Father, wherever we might be.
The Father’s Journey
But the moment we are fully turned around in our minds inside of God, now we are on the Father’s journey, as He reveals Himself through the Body of Christ, restoring all things to Himself.
This new and living Way upon which you and I now walk is not our way “into God”; it is the Father’s Way through and together with us, out into the hedges and highways of His creation, finding and saving all that is lost. Our new and living Way is the channel of the river of Life, flowing out of our bellies, setting all creation free.
Every step you and I take in every moment and circumstance of our lives IS Father and us together going forth in joy.