Hebrews 10:19-21

Hebrews 10:19-21. Having therefore (on the grounds already named), brethren (again he puts himself in communion with those he addresses as in chapter 3), confidence by the blood of Jesus (see on chap. Hebrews 3:6) in respect to [going] the way into the holiest, a new and living way which he first opened (or inaugurated) for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having a great priest (who is at once Priest and King) over the house of God, let us use the way that is opened in joyous assurance (Hebrews 10:22), let us hold fast our profession (Hebrews 10:23) and complete the graces of our character, faith and hope (Hebrews 10:22-23), by the love which is the crown of all (Hebrews 10:24). Through the perfection of the sacrifice of Christ and His position in heaven, where He has entered for us, we have holy filial confidence in approaching God, a feeling that contrasts with the fear and bondage of Old Testament worshippers. Christ has preceded us (as forerunner, Hebrews 6:20), we follow along the way He has formed and opened, knowing ourselves to be sanctified by the one oblation of blood which was shed on earth and presented in heaven; and so we have access to the holy place, which is heaven itself (Hebrews 9:24): there is the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), and there Jesus, the Minister of the holy places (Hebrews 8:2), appears for us. This way is further described as a new and living way, ‘new;' literally, ‘newly slain;' but in common Hellenistic usage the meaning is ‘newly made;' and yet there is probably a reference to the fact that it is made with blood and yet living, the opposite of what is lifeless and powerless, the way opened by Christ which leads and carries on all that enter it into the home above. He who is ‘the Way and the Life' is not dimly described in these half-contradictory words.

Through the veil that is, his flesh, has been differently interpreted. The thing to note is that ‘ through' does not mark the instrument, but the intervening hindrance that needed to be removed or rent that man might enter the way was through it unto God, so that the true parallel is Matthew 27:51. Christ came in ‘the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,' and it is exactly the sin and the sinful flesh His incarnation and dying represent, that come between us and God; and when He died for sin, the veil was rent; and when He ascended and entered heaven for us, it was completely taken away. Thus it is that we are reconciled in the body of his flesh through death (Colossians 1:22).