Sue’s Views
12 Steps to a Good Year (by Derek Prince)
Step 6: Let Us Draw Near To The Most Holy Place
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:19–22 NIV)
Let us draw near to the throne (Step4) means that we are to come for the help we need—for mercy and grace. But Let us draw near to the Most Holy Place is to draw close to God Himself. I believe it takes us much further. The suggestion is not merely that we come to the throne for help, but that we are invited to take our place with Christ on the throne. That is what it means to enter into the Most Holy Place.
Speaking about our entrance into the Most Holy Place and approaching the Mercy Seat and the throne, the writer of Hebrews says there are four requirements. Let’s look very briefly at each of those requirements.
1. A sincere heart. We approach God with our heart, not with our head. God is not the answer to an intellectual riddle, but He does meet a longing heart. It must be a sincere heart, without any pretensions or hypocrisy. We have to expose ourselves to God just as we are and not try to cover up anything or pretend to be different than we are. We must be open and honest with God.
2. A full assurance of faith. In the next chapter of Hebrews we read:
“But without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to God must believe…”(Hebrews 11:6 NKJ)
So we see that we must come with faith in God’s faithfulness; in other words, not in our own ability or righteousness, but with absolute faith in God’s faithfulness.
3. Our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. An “evil conscience” comes from wrong and sinful deeds that we have committed in the past. Through the blood of Jesus, however, we can receive assurance that all those evil deeds in the past have been forgiven and our hearts are pure from sin. We can have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience through the blood of Jesus.
4. Our bodies washed with pure water. In his first epistle, John tells us that Jesus came by water and by blood. (See 1 John 5:6.) In these two conditions, we see both elements: the blood that sprinkles from an evil conscience, and the water that washes our bodies. I believe that “water” refers to Christian baptism. In every place where it is explained in the New Testament, Christian baptism is depicted as sharing in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So “the new and living way” is Jesus. It is the act of coming and partaking of His death, His burial and His resurrection. We are to be identified with everything that Jesus went through in dying for our sins.
