Verse of the Day Devotion.  Hebrews 10:23 

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” – Hebrews 10:23    

This is such an important verse. We should never doubt what God has done for us through Christ. Looking back we read the following. “Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,” Hebrews 10:19-20. Under the Jewish Law in the Old Testament, there was an ordinance stating that no man should ever go into the holiest of all places in the temple, with the one exception of the high priest, and he but once a year on the Day of Atonement. and not without the blood of the sacrifice. If any man had attempted to enter there he must have died, as guilty of great presumption and of profane intrusion into the secret place of the Most High.

However, with the death of Christ on the cross we can now enter by a new and living way, that being through the veil, Christ’s flesh, signified by the tearing of the veil at the moment He died. “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” Matthew 27:50-54. At no time prior to this did anyone but the High Priest, and then only once a year, was anyone allowed into the Holy of Holies; the inner sanctum of the Temple. But with His death, the veil is torn giving access to God the Father through Him. In a sense, the veil was symbolic of Christ Himself as the only way to the Father. “Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” John 14:6. 

Now we see in the next couple of verses, “and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having 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”. Hebrews 10:21-23. The Israelite could not pass through the veil that hid from public gaze the glory of the Shekinah, and Jesus Christ’s humanity was a veil that somewhat concealed the glory of His Deity. But the flesh of Christ having been crucified, the veil has been rent being His body, and now we may come right up to the throne of God without trembling. We may come even with holy boldness and familiarity and speak to God without alarm. Having such a privilege as this, let us not neglect it. It was denied to prophets and kings in the olden time; but now that it is given to us, let us avail ourselves of it.

We come before God with humility due to Christ’s sacrifice, not in our character. Therefore, we may come as perfect at all times, knowing that God sees no sin in us. In this sense, Christ has perfected forever every consecrated vessel of His mercy. Is this not a delightful thought: that when I come before the throne of God, I feel myself a sinner, but God does not look upon me as one? When I approach Him to offer my thanksgiving, I feel that I am unworthy in myself, but I am not unworthy in that official standing in which He has placed me. As a sanctified and perfected thing in Christ, I have the blood upon me; God regards me in my sacrifice, in my worship, and in myself as being perfect.

Take time to go before Him as often as possible. Because of what Christ did for us on the cross, we have access to God the Father, to fellowship with Him and to present our sins before Him in repentance. This was something no man had access to until the sacrifice from God of His son Jesus. And we can partake of this at any time. So, as the author of Hebrews said, draw near to God with a sincere heart in faith knowing that, as Christians, we are clean and thus have full access to Him. This is His promise and gift to us. Take advantage of it, for there is nothing better than coming before God and fellowshipping with Him.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.