Hebrews 10:19-25 (HCSB)
Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh ), and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Now that the writer of Hebrews has proved the superiority of Jesus as the divine high priest of the New Covenant, and the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old, he wastes no time in urging all his readers to enter fully, not only into the New Covenant, but into God’s very presence through the way opened by Jesus. This way through the curtain of the heavenly tabernacle into the heavenly Holy of Holies is through the crucified body of the Savior.
Instead of being sprinkled by the blood of a bull and a goat, the hearts of believers are being continually cleansed by being sprinkled with the poured-out blood of Jesus Himself. And instead of a symbolic washing in the bronze basin to cleanse away the stains of the world, believers hearts are continually washed and purified with the living water of the Holy Spirit, flowing unceasingly from within them (John 4:13-14, 7:37-39).
He also encourages the Jewish Christians to whom he is writing to not hold back, to not turn aside, but to hold unswervingly to Jesus and to all that He has done for them. Every believer, every part of the body of Christ, has a vital role to play in the work of the Kingdom, in the success of the mission. Therefore, each must do his or her job as an encouragement to the rest, and not become “Lone Rangers” who refuse to meet together, but who try to make their own way. The kingdom life cannot be successfully lived out alone.
Father, here we see warnings against holding our faith lightly, tiptoeing in the shallows of the Kingdom, afraid to dive deeply for fear of losing our way back to the shore of worldliness if the way becomes scary. But Jesus never lived the Kingdom life in half measures, and he never encouraged us, His disciples to live it by half measures either. Help me, Lord, to dive deeply into all the Jesus has made possible for me through His death and resurrection, and even more through His life reining in my own heart through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Amen.