19. Here begins the third and last division of the Epistle;
our duty now while waiting for the Lord's second advent.
Resumption and expansion of the exhortation
(Heb 4:14-16;
compare
Heb 10:22, 23
here) wherewith he closed the first part of the Epistle, preparatory to
his great doctrinal argument, beginning at
Heb 7:1.
boldness--"free confidence," grounded on the consciousness that
our sins have been forgiven.
to enter--literally, "as regards the entering."
by--Greek, "in"; it is in the blood of Jesus that
our boldness to enter is grounded. Compare
Eph 3:12,
"In whom we have boldness and access with confidence." It is His
having once for all entered as our Forerunner
(Heb 6:20)
and High Priest
(Heb 10:21),
making atonement for us with His blood, which is continually there
(Heb 12:24)
before God, that gives us confident access. No priestly caste now
mediates between the sinner and his Judge. We may come boldly
with loving confidence, not with slavish fear, directly through Christ,
the only mediating Priest. The minister is not officially nearer God
than the layman; nor can the latter serve God at a distance or by
deputy, as the natural man would like. Each must come for himself, and
all are accepted when they come by the new and living way opened by
Christ. Thus all Christians are, in respect to access directly to God,
virtually high priests
(Re 1:6).
They draw nigh in and through Christ, the only proper High Priest
(Heb 7:25).
JFB.
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