Confidence to Enter God’s Presence

Hebrews 10:19–25 is one of the warmest and boldest invitations in the New Testament. Believers are told that they have confidence to enter the holy places, not because they are naturally worthy, not because conscience no longer matters, and not because reverence has been set aside, but because Jesus has opened the way. The passage joins two truths that must never be separated: Christ has offered a completed sacrifice, and Christ now serves as the great Priest over the house of God.

That is why the language of boldness in Hebrews is so rich. It is not self-confidence. It is not spiritual bravado. It is not the freedom to come before God as if sin were a small thing. It is confidence born from the finished work of Christ and sustained by His living priesthood. The same passage that says, “Let us draw near,” also says that we come through His blood and under His priestly care.

Hebrews therefore calls believers to a sincere heart and the full assurance of faith. Hearts are sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. Bodies are washed with pure water. Hope is to be held fast without wavering. God’s people are to stir up one another to love and good works. All of that grows out of one reality: access to God has been opened in Jesus. Christian assurance is never independence from Christ. It is dependence on Christ without fear.

Through the Blood of Jesus and the New and Living Way

The phrase “by the blood of Jesus” does not point to something magical or mechanical. In Hebrews, Christ’s blood stands for His life freely given in obedient self-offering. He truly died for human sin. He offered Himself without spot to God. His sacrifice cleanses the conscience, redeems from transgression, and inaugurates the new covenant. Because His offering is perfect, it never needs repetition. Because He died once for all, the basis of forgiveness never changes.

Hebrews is insistent on this point. Animal sacrifices belonged to a divinely given order, but they could not bring the worshiper to final perfection. They pointed beyond themselves. Christ, however, came to do the will of God in a prepared body, and by that will believers are sanctified through the offering of His body once for all. His death is not one more sacrifice among many. It is the decisive sacrifice to which the whole earlier system looked forward.

That is why the way opened by Christ is called both new and living. It is new because what the earthly sanctuary could foreshadow, Christ has now accomplished. Under the former arrangement, access was restricted. Priests ministered regularly, and the high priest entered the inner apartment representatively and under strict conditions. The whole arrangement taught both the holiness of God and the unfinished state of the way into His immediate presence.

But the way opened by Christ is also living. It is not merely a new procedure or a revised ritual system. It is a way opened by a living Savior. The One who died has risen. The One who offered Himself now lives by an indestructible life. The One who shed His blood is now present before God for His people. Christians do not approach God through a dead memory. They come through the crucified and risen Christ, whose completed sacrifice remains forever effective.

Through the Veil, That Is, His Flesh

To understand Hebrews 10:20, we must remember the sanctuary background. The veil in the earthly sanctuary marked a boundary. It testified that God is holy and that access to Him is not casual. In the tabernacle and temple service, the veil separated the holy place from the most holy place. It signaled restricted access. It taught that sinners do not enter the divine presence on their own terms. Even the high priest entered representatively, with sacrificial blood, and only in the way God appointed.

Hebrews draws on that background repeatedly. It speaks of the second veil. It says that the way into the holiest was not yet manifest while the first order still stood. It declares that Christ entered the greater and more perfect sanctuary, not made with human hands, and that He now appears in the presence of God for us. It also says that hope enters within the veil, where Jesus has gone as our forerunner. The heavenly sanctuary, then, is not an empty symbol for inward religious feeling. It is real. The earthly sanctuary was a copy and shadow of a heavenly reality.

What, then, does Hebrews mean when it speaks of entering “through the veil, that is, his flesh”?

The safest and strongest conclusion is this: Christ’s incarnate humanity, brought all the way through obedient suffering, sacrificial death, resurrection, and glorification, became the God-appointed means by which access to God was opened. The phrase does not teach that Christ’s flesh was morally corrupt, sinful, or alienated from the Father. Hebrews says the opposite. He shared in flesh and blood. He was made like His brothers and sisters. He suffered, was tempted, and died. Yet He remained holy, innocent, undefiled, and without sin.

The point is not that His humanity was a barrier He had to cast off because it was sinful. The point is that access was opened through His embodied mission. The Son did not save us from a distance. He took our humanity. He obeyed in that humanity. He suffered in that humanity. He offered His body in that humanity. He rose in that humanity. He entered heaven as the crucified and risen Son of man. In that sense, the veil imagery points to His flesh as the appointed avenue through which the way was opened.

That also means His humanity is not something temporary or disposable. Hebrews never suggests that Jesus had to cease being human in order to enter the presence of God. Instead, His true and sinless humanity qualified Him to be our merciful and faithful High Priest. Because He became one with us, He can represent us. Because He remained without sin, He can save us. Because He passed through suffering into glory, He opened the path His people will one day follow.

The Living Priesthood in the Heavenly Sanctuary

Hebrews never isolates Christ’s death from the rest of His saving mission. He came in a body to do the Father’s will. He learned obedience through suffering, not because He had ever been disobedient, but because He experienced obedience under the full weight of human pain, temptation, and endurance. He remained faithful where humanity had failed. Then He offered Himself once for all. His obedient life qualified the sacrifice. His sacrificial death dealt decisively with sin. His resurrection vindicated His mission. His ascension brought the victorious Son into the presence of God as High Priest and King.

For that reason, Hebrews carefully distinguishes between Christ’s sacrifice and His continuing ministry. His sacrifice occurred once on earth. It was complete, sufficient, and unrepeatable. He does not suffer again. He does not die again. He does not offer Himself again in heaven. The cross cannot be improved upon.

At the same time, Hebrews also teaches a continuing heavenly ministry. After His resurrection, Christ ascended, entered God’s presence, sat down at the right hand of Majesty, and began His priestly work on the basis of the sacrifice already accomplished. That ministry includes intercession, mediation, covenant service, cleansing, and the priestly application of the benefits of His once-for-all offering. Ongoing ministry does not mean another sacrifice. It means the living administration of the sacrifice that has already been completed.

This distinction is especially important for understanding the sanctuary. Christ’s entrance into heaven at His ascension was real access to the Father’s presence. It was His enthronement and the inauguration of His heavenly ministry. Hebrews leaves no room for the idea that He remained outside the Father’s immediate presence until some later date. The risen Christ went into heaven itself and appears before God for us.

Yet that same truth does not mean every phase of heavenly ministry began in exactly the same sense at exactly the same moment. Scripture distinguishes among Christ’s death, His resurrection, His ascension, His entrance into the heavenly sanctuary, His enthronement, His continuing intercession, the climactic judgment work prefigured by the Day of Atonement, and His second appearing for salvation. Location, function, and phase must not be confused. Christ had full access to God at His ascension. He began His heavenly priestly ministry then. But the biblical pattern also allows for a later climactic phase of final judgment and cleansing before the consummation.

That is why Adventists insist on two things at once. First, Christ did enter the heavenly sanctuary and the Father’s presence at His ascension. Second, His heavenly work includes ordered phases, just as the earthly service included both regular priestly ministry and the special yearly Day of Atonement. The open way into God’s presence therefore supports, rather than cancels, the reality of Christ’s ongoing priesthood.

Misunderstandings the Letter to the Hebrews Will Not Allow

Several misunderstandings must be set aside if we are to read Hebrews faithfully.

One error says that Christ’s flesh was itself a sinful barrier. But Hebrews presents His humanity as genuine and full, never as morally corrupted. He was tempted, but temptation is not sin. He suffered, but suffering is not defilement. He shared our condition in weakness and mortality, yet without sin.

Another error says that because the way is open, no heavenly priesthood is needed anymore. Hebrews says the opposite. The very passage that celebrates bold access also speaks of “a great priest over the house of God.” Access is through Him, under His ministry, and because of His blood.

A third error imagines that ongoing priesthood repeats the sacrifice. Hebrews strongly rejects repeated sacrifice. Christ offered one sacrifice for sins forever. His present ministry does not add another offering. It applies and completes the saving benefits of the one offering already made.

A fourth error treats the sanctuary as merely symbolic, as though heavenly access means there is no real heavenly sanctuary at all. But Hebrews grounds its message in the contrast between earthly copies and heavenly realities. The sanctuary above is not less real than the earthly one, but more.

A fifth error assumes that since Christ entered heaven at His ascension, all sanctuary functions began simultaneously without distinction. Hebrews does not flatten Christ’s work in that way. The letter presents a living, ordered ministry moving toward final consummation, just as salvation itself has past, present, and future dimensions.

Finally, some read Christian confidence as though it removes the need for repentance, cleansing, perseverance, or judgment. Hebrews will not allow that either. The same book that gives bold assurance also warns against unbelief, shrinking back, defilement, and apostasy. Confidence in Christ produces reverent perseverance, not careless presumption.

Drawing Near Through the Living Christ

The pastoral beauty of Hebrews 10:19–20 is that doctrine becomes invitation. Because Jesus has opened the new and living way, believers do not have to hide in shame. They may come to God. They may receive forgiveness. They may know cleansing of conscience. They may find mercy and grace in time of need. They may hold fast the confession of hope. They may strengthen one another while they wait for the day of Christ.

This passage also teaches believers how to face judgment. Hebrews never separates judgment from the gospel. The One before whom all things are naked and open is the same One who loved us, took our flesh, shed His blood, entered heaven for us, and now intercedes as our High Priest. That is why the believer’s confidence is real. It does not rest on self-defense, but on Christ’s representation.

In the end, the way into God’s presence is not an abstract idea. It is not a mystical feeling. It is not a human achievement. It is Jesus Himself: the incarnate Son, the obedient Servant, the once-for-all Sacrifice, the risen Lord, the enthroned King, and the living High Priest. Through the veil, that is, through His flesh, He has opened the way. And because He lives, that way remains open for every believer who draws near in faith.