Hebrews 10:20 Commentary and Bible Study

Jesus Christ, our great high priest has entered into the holiest place in the tabernacle on high, into the presence of God, and he has done so to open a way for us to enter also. He entered as our surety, representing us to the Father, and so clearly it is with the intention that we should follow and not stay outside, at a distance from our God. This is called a new way because it has never been available to the people of God before. Yes, it is true that Abraham and David and all the saints of Old Testament times drew near to God, and they had intimate fellowship with him, but the basis of their entering in lay in the future and they entered by way of divine anticipation. Not until Christ offered up himself was this realised. We have a newly-made way brought to us in the new covenant.We also have a living way into the holiest. We may enter and live. We may appear in the presence of the living God. We eat of the tree of life and we have eternal life as the gift of God. Our fellowship with God is not time-limited as if we must lose all that we have gained at some point. In this world we exist as mortal human beings, and we are used to thinking in terms of life coming to an end and degrading even before that. What is gained in this world must be relinquished before we leave it. What release of spirit, what liberty, for our souls to be able to step into an endless life where there is no prospect of ever losing the things that they have gained in Christ! Life is given to us for ever. Life is promised us by him whose word cannot fail. Even before we reach heaven, even while we still live under the shadow of death, we can enjoy the prospect of eternal life by faith.This way is through the veil. The veil referred to was pictured by the veil that separated the first chamber of the tabernacle from the holy of holies. Hebrews 9:8 has already told us that the Holy Spirit was signifying by the presence of this veil as a barrier and by the fact that only on one day each year was the high priest alone allowed to go through the veil; he was signifying by this arrangement that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest. It would not be made manifest while the first tabernacle, or the temple which replaced it, was still standing. Everything to do with the old tabernacle was temporary. It was a figure only. What was permanent was the heavenly tabernacle which it pointed to. The real holy of holies is there in heaven, and the real veil is not simply a curtain hanging at its entrance. The real veil is something that needs to be removed in order for God’s people to have access to him on the throne of grace. This verse tells us that the true veil is the flesh of Jesus Christ. What does this mean? It means that his flesh had to be torn before we could enter. This is just another way of saying that he had to lay down his life in order for us to be forgiven and to have access to the throne of grace. The barrier to our entrance was or sin, but the way our sin was removed was by the veil of his flesh being torn. The Scripture records the remarkable event which took place at the time of Christ’s death. Both Matthew and Mark record this; Mark says: ‘And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom’ (Mark 15:38). God would not allow that symbolic veil to remain intact when the true veil had been rent in two by the death of Christ. Even before the temple ceased to stand when the Romans destroyed it in AD 70, there was an indication from heaven that the veil was no longer intact, no longer appropriate, and a new and living way was opened up.