Friday, September 4, 2015
Hebrews 10:19-20 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 ...
THE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN -- FINAL PHASE OF CONSTRUCTION
Every successful construction job has a final phase, when the last necessary work is completed, when "job one" becomes "job done." The stairway to heaven is no exception. There came a particular time on a particular day in the history of the world when the Son of God who became the Son of Man completed His work and Himself became that stairway to heaven. This he also could not have made any plainer than when, hanging there on the cross, He declared at the last, "It is finished!"
Jesus had completed the work which His Father gave him to do. He had fulfilled the law of God for us. He had suffered its curse, the sentence of death, in our stead. The stairway to heaven was fully constructed.
The writer of Hebrews encourages his fellow Christ-believers by reminding them (and us) to come confidently into the presence of God, because with his own body Jesus opened the way to God for us. Now, the people to whom Hebrews was first written were familiar with the massive 70 foot high heavy curtain that walled off the most holy place of the Temple from the nation of Israel. Therefore by inspiration the author of Hebrews urged "since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus -- by a newly living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body -- let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith."
So these two Bible scenes, taken together, are used by God Himself to emphasize the truth that Jesus is our access to God, our Stairway to Heaven.
1) The stairway dream of Jacob; and 2) what happened when on the cross "Jesus gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:50-51).
Jesus is the one way to God -- the stairway to heaven.
