INTO HIS PRESENCE

Ezekiel 23:1-49; Hebrews 10:18-39; Psalm 109:1-31; Proverbs 27:13

“And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies…. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised….”

“Help me, O Lord my God! Save me because of your unfailing love. Let them see that this is your doing that you yourself have done it, Lord. Then let them curse me if they like, but you will bless me! When they attack me, they will be disgraced! But I, your servant, will go right on rejoicing!”

There it is: the entire Bible in a nutshell, certainly the New Testament, anyway. It really is that simple, and that complex. And it’s not that we don’t, or can’t understand the verbiage, either. We recognize the meaning; the jist of it, anyhow. What does not translate, in any language, is the sheer enormity – to the point of incomprehensibility – of the ideas behind the words.

Look closely. Slowly digest the Scriptures quoted above. The artificial separation between man and God caused by sin is truly a thing of the past. Not only can we call “from here to there” for Him to help. We can go for a personal, face-to-face visit! That particular blessing, as counterintuitive and metaphysical as it sounds, has nothing to do with our opinions or beliefs, either. It is fact, not faith. If we remain separated from our Creator, it is now a matter of personal choice, not circumstance or bad spiritual DNA. The Law has been fulfilled, for those willing and wanting to seriously, radically claim that fact. The nitpickiness of “right” and “wrong” and the use of worldly priests and pastors as go-betweens is an obsolete approach to the things of eternity. We really can go directly to the Source. More to the point, though, is that we actually are expected to stand upright before the Father, the very source of Holy, as if we had nothing to be ashamed of or apologize for, and as if we deserve to be called His children.

Now that, to me, seems the very pinnacle of audacity. It presumes a braggadocio I, for one, just don’t possess. Besides, whatever happened to humility? OK, let’s start there. Humility does not mean doormat. It means teachable, and we will never find a more teachable moment than when standing at the feet of the Father. He has much to explain, and many mysteries to reveal, and on that day, we will ultimately be free to give Him our undivided attention without fear. Then, as we face Him, we will finally learn just how often we spoke irreverently or inaccurately of things we “did not know, things too wonderful to understand.” It will be one of the few experiences in this life or the next honestly deserving of the term “awesome!” To have the ability to finally understand and share the wisdom of the One who made it all… Oh, my! That’s an enormity too stupendous for words, but a promise nonetheless.

Still, we have not escaped Satan’s wiles completely yet, have we? Dare we so quickly forget the seemingly eternal “yeah, but” that begins, “Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning….”? Here is what I am only now, after all this and over 50 years of intimate experience with sin, beginning to understand. No, we neither escape nor avoid sin, not in this life. We will all – especially Christians – be obsessed with it for as long as we live in this world. It cannot be avoided, spiritually or pragmatically. We live in a completely fallen world, and it really is presumptuous to assume or expect temptation to just disappear. No, sin cannot be avoided, but it can be, it MUST be, superseded by something for more important, something with much greater priority. That something is Christ, again, pure and simple.

Christ not only paid the penalty; His Spirit actually will eventually replace the sin nature of those who fully depend on Him and open themselves completely to His influence. Our persistent focus on Christ, if we do it right, will overcome our desire to sin. If we get good enough at staying open to Him and are dedicated enough to not just leap off the wagon, so to speak, the Spirit will finally train us in such a way that we just become unable to sin. Sin then will be contrary to our nature and thus, much easier to avoid. Imagine that possibility and potential!

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I know of no one that dedicated but the Author and Perfector of the whole process Himself. Nevertheless, I am coming to believe the system works when we give it a chance. Call it “the audacity of faith,” if you will. But try it anyway. Open fully and consistently. Who knows? We may just come to like it.

We are expected to face the Great Yahweh Almighty and stand. It is our right, our calling and, to some extent, our destiny as His kids. However illogical it sounds, it also is His heartfelt desire. I will never comprehend how the Holy can even tolerate, let alone love, the unholy. But I can and do praise the Lord because I do not have to comprehend. I only have to accept the invitation to allow the Son and His Spirit to totally fill me before I get to the Father. We’re all still workin’ on that, but at some point, I actually think I will ask Him to just take over. On that glorious day, I’ll actually mean it, too, and He’ll just totally do it.

Pretty cool, and definitely something to look forward to!