Daily Thoughts from Hebrews: Privilege (10:19-25)

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:19-25, ESV)

What would it be like to be told by the most powerful person in the world that you would always be welcome at his or her office, never have to make an appointment, and always listened to with utmost attention?  That is akin to what the author of Hebrews is describing as the believer’s privilege.

This privilege was made possible by Jesus entering the heavenly holy place to offer his own blood as a permanent sacrifice and taking over the role as high priest forever in God’s tabernacle.  As a result of that he encourages the Hebrews and us to do three things:

1. Draw near to God.  And don’t do it tentatively but with full assurance that you are cleansed and in full fellowship with the God who made and redeemed you.  You can enter the King’s court whenever you desire and He longs to meet with you.  He has always said, “I will be your God, you will be My people, and I will dwell with you.”
2. Don’t waver in your faith.  God not only made this way for you and me but He made a promise that He will always keep that this access is ours because of what Jesus did.  Wavering is tantamount to calling Him a liar.
3. Meet together for encouragement.  You can’t maintain your faith on your own.  The fellowship of believers you meet with will be doing what it is called to do when it encourages you to love each other and do good works that reflect His coming kingdom.

God designed church to be the place where our most important identity formation occurs, among other people. We become more like Christ as we participate in the life of the church and form relationships there. But too often we think we must have our spiritual house in order before we can fully participate. Or, by contrast, we see the church as a place of performance, instead of a place where we are developed into more fully authentic—that is, more Christlike—humans.

Further, our Christian subculture is marked by church hopping. We stay put as long as it suits us, until we are offended or decide we’re not being “fed.” So, wanting to quietly validate our own identities, we tend to silo ourselves into churches where everyone looks like us, talks like us, likes the same movies, and won’t embarrass us in public. But what if we took a cue from popular culture’s push for diversity and realized that surrounding ourselves with our duplicates only makes us more self-centered?

Christianity Today article by Alissa Wilkinson, chief film critic for CT and assistant professor of English and Humanities at The King’s College, and author of the book How to Survive the Apocalypse. (Jan/Feb 2016, vol. 60, No. 1, page 48, “The Year We Searched for Ourselves”)