Doctrine has held sway over the reader of this epistle for a long period, but however involved the argument may

be, and however multiplied the proofs, it must certainly somewhere before the close, give place to practical teaching

and exhortation. To that we have arrived, and it is introduced by the words of verses 19-22, `Having therefore ... Let

us'. The exhortation `let us' is valueless without the `having therefore', but so also is the `having' without the

practical issue. What does the apostle say these believers have?

Boldness to enter into the holiest. Under the law this was restricted to the high priest, and to the day of

atonement. `The high priest alone once' (9:7). `With the blood of others' (9:25). The case is now different.

Boldness to enter is the privilege of all believers by the blood of Jesus.

By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us. The legal way was old. `Now that which decayeth

and waxeth old is ready to vanish away' (8:13). This way is new. Prosphatos means primarily `newly slain'; the

legal way was dead. `Priests ... were not suffered to continue by reason of death' (7:23). The entrance is `by the

blood of Jesus' (10:19) and `His flesh' (10:20). The New Covenant demands a new way.

The Lord's flesh is likened to the veil. Of all the many and wonderful suggestions that have been made by

commentators as to the meaning here of the veil, none seem worth a second thought that have no place for that

historic fact that `the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom' (Matt. 27:51) when the Lord

Jesus died. The second veil barred the entrance to the holiest of all, `the Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way

into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest'. The newly-slain and living way means a rent veil.

And having an High Priest over the house of God. As chapter 8 puts it, New Covenant believers have a seated

Priest in a heavenly sanctuary. So far the summary of the doctrine, what they `have'. Now follows the summary of

the practice `let us'.

Let us draw near with a true heart. To draw near expresses the full privilege of those who are sanctified. It is a

word used nowhere else in the epistles of Paul except 1 Timothy 6:3 where `consent' translates the word and shows

an entirely different usage. So special a word we would expect to be stamped with the hallmark `seven', for that is

the number of its occurrences in Hebrews.

The true heart means the heart of the New Covenant realities in contrast with the old Covenant shadows (8:10).

So we read of the `true' Tabernacle (8:2), and of the antitypes of the `true' (9:24).

In full assurance of faith. Hebrews 6:11 speaks of a full assurance of hope, and both hope and faith find anchor

`within the veil' (Heb. 6:19; 10:20).

To draw near (proserchomai)

A 4:14-16.

Having a great High Priest, let us hold fast our

profession and draw near boldly.

B 7:25.

Saved unto all perfection those who draw near.

Could not perfect unto perpetuity those who

Having an High Priest, let us draw near with

boldness, and let us hold fast our profession.

Those who draw near to God must believe that

He is.

Sinai. Blackness, Darkness.

Zion. Spirit of perfected righteous ones.

Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. The sprinkling

here refers to the `ashes of the heifer sprinkling the unclean', which set forth in type that cleansing of the conscience

from dead works, which was only possible through the blood of Christ (9:13,14). The washing of the bodies with

pure water refers to the spiritual reality set forth in the typical `divers washings' of the law (9:10).