“The whole spirit of Old Testament religion was determined by the thought of God’s holiness. The constant emphasis was that human beings, because of their weakness as creatures and their defilement as sinful creatures, must learn to humble themselves and be reverent before God. Religion was “the fear of the Lord” – a matter of knowing your own littleness, of confessing your faults and abasing yourself in God’s presence, of sheltering thankfully under his promises of mercy, and of taking care above all things to avoid presumptuous sins. Again and again it was stressed that we must keep our place, and our distance, in the presence of a holy God. This emphasis overshadowed everything else.
“But in the New Testament we find that things have changed. God and religion are not less than they were; the Old Testament revelation of the holiness of God, and its demand for humility in man, is presupposed throughout. But something has been added. A new factor has come in. New Testament believers deal with God as their Father. “Father” is the name by which they call him. “Father” has now become his covenant name – for the covenant which binds him to his people now stands revealed as a family covenant. Christians are his children, his own sons and daughters, his heirs. And the stress of the New Testament is not on the difficulty and danger of drawing near to the holy God, but on the boldness and confidence with which believers may approach him: a boldness that springs directly from faith in Christ, and from the knowledge of his saving work. “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Ephesians 3:12).
– J. I. Packer, “Knowing God” (p.202-203)
“But something has been added. A new factor has come in. New Testament believers deal with God as their Father.”
Can we truly grasp everything that changed for us the moment Jesus left His throne in heaven, descending to where we are, to save and rescue us from sin and shame? That through His death, resurrection, and ascension we were given God’s indwelling Spirit that comforts, guides, instructs, and encourages us as His children?
In the transition from the Old to the New, nothing was lost and everything was gained; a relationship emerged that forever binds us with God, Who we no longer have to approach with timidness and fear, but with confidence, courage, and even joy!
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. – Hebrews 10:19-23 (NLT)
Former Blackout Artist 