Boldness By The Blood

By Oswald Chambers

    "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…" (Heb. 10:19-22).

    Have we learned the wonderful power in prayer of that phrase "boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus"? It means we can talk to God as Jesus Christ did, but only through the right of Christ’s Atonement.

    We must never allow the idea that because we have been obedient, because our need is great, because we long for it, therefore God will hear us. There is only one way into God’s presence, and that is by the blood of Jesus. It is because our Lord Jesus Christ went through the depths of agony to the last ebb in the Garden of Gethsemane and because He went through Calvary that we can boldly enter God’s presence.

    When we pray, do we rely on the blood of Jesus or on our own earnestness? We are not heard because we are in earnest, but on the ground of Redemption only. We have "boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus," and by no other way. Our ability to approach God is due entirely to our Lord Jesus Christ’s life-giving death….

    Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience; it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it.

    Launch out in reckless faith that the Redemption is complete, and then begin to do as Jesus Christ said – pray for the friend in need, pray for the Church, pray for all people. Do not pray with this plea, "O Lord, I have done my best, please hear me." Pray on the realization that you are perfect only in Christ (see Hebrews 10:14).

    What an unspeakable joy it is to know that we each have the right of approach to God in confidence. What an awe and wonder of privilege "to enter the Holiest" in the perfectness of the Atonement "by the blood of Jesus."