"The Holiest of All" part LXXXIII

THE NEW AND LIVING WAY
Hebrews 10: 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;......Let us draw near.

Continuing with the NINTH SECTION
Hebrews 10: 19-25.
Of Life in the Holiest.

SECOND HALF-PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters  10: 19 - 13: 25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

The Holiest of All is Opened for us to enter in and appear before God, to dwell and to serve in His very presence. The Blood of the One Sacrifice Forever, taken into Heaven to cleanse away all sin of man forever, is our title and our boldness to enter in. Now comes the question, What is the way that leads up and through the opened gate, and in which we have to walk if we are to enter in. This way, the only Way, the one infallible Way is, a New and Living Way, which Jesus dedicated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. The boldness we have through the Blood is the right or liberty of access Jesus won for us, when we regard His death as that of our Substitute, who did what we can never do--- made Redemption of transgressions, and put away sin Forever. The New and Living Way (which imparts the true Life of man back in him and thereby making man alive forevermore, as the original, again One with his maker.emphasis added), through the rent veil, that is, His flesh, has reference to His death, regarded as that of our Leader and Forerunner, who Opened up the path to God, in which He first walked Himself, and now draws us to follow Him. The death of Jesus was not only the dedication or inauguration of the New Sanctuary and of the New Covenant of His Grace, but also of the New Way into the Holy presence with our original intimacy and fellowship of God. Whoever in trust accepts, that is receives, of the Blood He shed has His boldness of entrance, must accept, too, of the Way He Opened up as that In which he also must walk.

And what was that Way? The Way through the veil, that is, His flesh. The veil is the flesh. The veil that separated man from God was the flesh, human nature under the power of sin. Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and dwelt with us here outside the veil. The Word was made flesh. He also Himself in like manner partook of flesh and blood. In the days of His flesh, He was tempted like as we are; He offered prayer and supplication with strong crying and tears. He learned obedience even to the death. Through the rent veil of His flesh (1Peter 2:24), His will, His life, was yielded up to God in death, He entered into the Holiest. Being made in likeness of men, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to death. Wherefore also God Highly exalted Him. Through the rent veil He rose to the Throne of God. And this is the Way He dedicated for us. The very path in which, as our Substitute, He accomplished Redemption, is the path which He Opened for us to walk in, the path of Obedience unto death. "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps." Christ our High Priest is as literally and fully Leader and Forerunner as He is Substitute and Redeemer.

His Way is our way. As little as He could open and enter the Holiest for us, except in His path of suffering and obedience and self-sacrifice, as little can we enter in unless we walk in the same path. Jesus said as much of His disciples as of Himself: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abides alone (John 12: 24). He that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal (John 12: 25). Paul's law of life is the Law of Life for everyone who can receive unto belief. Bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the Life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body ( 2 Corinthians 4: 10). The way into the Holiest is the Way of the rent veil, the Way of Sacrifice and of death. There is NO other Way for our putting away sin from us but the Way of Jesus; whoever accepts and receives His finished work accepts and receives what constitutes its Spirit and its Authority and power; it is for every man as for the Master--- to put away sin by the Sacrifice of self. Christ's death was something entirely and essentially New, and so also His resurrection to Life; a Life out of death, such as never had been known before. This New death and New Life constitute the New and Living Way, the New Way of Living in which we draw near to God.


Even as when Christ spoke of taking His flesh as daily food, so here where the Holy Spirit speaks of taking the rent veil of His flesh as our daily life, many say: This is a hard saying; who can bear it? Who then can be saved? To those who become receptive and are the Willing and Obedient and believe, all things are possible, because it is a New and Living Way. A New Way. The word means ever fresh, a way that never decays or waxes old (8: 13) but always retains its first perfection and freshness. A Living Way. A way always needs a living man to move upon it; it does not impart either life or strength (the old way of Aaron's priesthood or that of mans own self efforts or works). This way, the Way of Obedience and Suffering of self-sacrifice and death, however hard it appears, and to nature utterly impossible, is the only Life imparting and Living Way. It not only opens a track, but supplies the strength to carry the traveler along and through. It acts in the Authority and power of the Endless Life, in which Christ was made a High Priest. We saw how the Holy Spirit watches over the Way into the Holiest, and how He, as the Eternal Spirit, enabled Christ, in opening the way, to offer Himself without spot to God; it is He whose mighty energy pervades this Way, and inspires it with Life Divine. As we are made partakers of His Life, the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, takes possession of us, and in His strength we follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus. The Way into the Holiest is the Living Way of perfect conformity to Jesus, wrought in us by His Eternal Spirit.

The New and Living Way through the rent veil into the Holiest. We now know what it is: it is the way of death. Yes, the way of death is the Way of Life. The only way to be set free from our fallen nature, with the curse and power of sin resting on it and in it, is to die to it. Jesus denied Himself, would do nothing to please that nature He had taken, sinless though it was in Him. He denied it; He died to it. This was to Him the path of Life (the secret hid in God from before creation). And this is to us the Living Way. As we Know Him in the power of His resurrection, He leads us into the conformity to His death. He does it in the power of the Holy Spirit. So His death and His life, the New death and the New Life of deliverance from sin, and intimacy with God, which He inaugurated, work in us, and we are borne along as He was to where He is. Having therefore Boldness, to enter in by the New and Living Way, let us draw near.

"Let us draw near with a true heart." A heart that truly desires to forsake everything, to dwell in "The Holiest"; forsaking everything, to possess God. A heart that truly abandons everything in order to yield itself to the Authority and power of the Blood. A heart that truly chooses "the New and Living Way" in order to go through the veil with Christ, by the rending of the flesh. A heart that truly and entirely gives itself to the indwelling and Lordship of Jesus. But who has a true heart? The New heart that God has given is a true heart. Recognize that. By the power of the Spirit of God, who dwells in that New heart, place yourself, by an exercise of your will, on the side of God against the sin that is still in your flesh, that does so easily beset us. Say to the Lord Jesus, the High Priest, that you submit, and cast down before Him every sin, and all of your self life, forsaking all to follow Him. And as regards the hidden depths of sin in your flesh, of which you are not yet conscious, and the malice of your heart-for them also provision is made. "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Subject yourself continually to the heart-searching Light of the Spirit. He will uncover what is hidden from you. He who does this has a true heart to enter into "The Holiest."

1. When first a receiver become a believer avails himself of the boldness He has in the Blood, and enters into the Holiest, he does not understand all that is meant by the New and Living Way. It is enough if his heart is right, and he is ready to deny himself and take up his cross. In due time it will be revealed what the full fellowship is with His Lord in the Way He opened up, of obedience unto death of all self-will.
2. The New and Living Way is not only the way for once entering in, but the way for a daily walk, entering ever deeper into God's Love and perfect Will.
3. The Way to Life is the Way of death. This fallen life, this self, is so sinful and so strong, there is no way of deliverance but by death. But, praise God! The way of death is the Way to His Life; in the power of Christ's resurrection and indwelling "IF" we dare to walk in it.