God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Plan to give us unrestricted access
Heb 4:14-16

†  I.H.S. †

May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ assure you that you are welcome before the very throne of God, even when you are in need of forgiveness!

Access

The young man swept an ID card at the Pepperdine Senior faculty/administration parking lot gate in front of me. He got out of the car, and pried open the control box, and just as he was about to hit the manual overrise to open the gate, I asked him what he was doing.

He claimed he worked for the Director of University Card Services, and he was checking on the box to see if it was functioning. He said he did this all the time, and was allowed to park in the parking lot.

I asked him what the name of the Director was, and he looked at a business card and said, Dustin Parker.

Of course at that point, our public safety sergeant Mick showed up, and said,, “hey Dustin…..how are you doing?”

The look on the young man’s face was precious…

Not only was he not granted access to that parking lot that day, he would never need to access that parking lot or any other parking lot for the rest of the year, as his ability to have a car on campus was suspended.

At the same campus, the card services manager, who was responsible for all the computers in food services, was granted access to the senior faculty, administrators dining room. It was a fun place to eat, as some of the discussions were incredibly interesting. Not to mention the food was incredible, and not expensive!  I didn’t deserve the access, but accepted the gift and the blessing of it being given—by the one who could grant it!

Restricted Access

When access is restricted, many of us begin to assume it is because of injustice. We, or someone we love, can’t get into the right university, because we don’t have the right connections, or the right money. We can’t get a foothold in the career we want because of some demographic reason, We can’t get the car we want, or the house, because we don’t economically qualify for it, or we can’t get the best medical care, because we don’t have the right insurance.

Well – at least in that instance we can talk to Helena…

Or perhaps we don’t like that others have easy access to what we fought so hard to get, because they do have some connection!

This includes access to heaven—we often think we deserve it because we are good, or because we did something special, or because we were born into the right family, or the right place and time.

Or we believe we don’t belong in heaven, if we look at those same works, those same connections, those same points of origin, we know we don’t belong, that we belong in a different place.

It was no different in the Old Testament, as the Tabernacle and then the Temple were commissioned, when people weren’t satisfied that only on family, in one clan were allowed to enter the Temple, and only one person in that clan could enter the Holy of Holies, the place where grace was made known—between the wings of the cherubim, where the blood would be poured out….and that only once a year.

Yet others would try to take that role, including King Saul, and so many others…and in doing so, they denied themselves the very grace they originally sought.

Their access to heaven is much the same as the young man’s access to the admin/faculty lot – there wasn’t any. And the more we try to get access by our own right, the more trouble we get ourselves into…the more we are tempted to sin, especially to find idols, or make ourselves into an idol. We often know when we’ve done that, when we want to judge and condemn others.

Unrestricted Access

There is much more at stake here, than having to park in the gym parking lot and climb 268 steps straight to get to the bottom level of the campus classrooms! We needed someone to get into, not just the holy place in the temple, nor the holy of holies, but to get to the throne of grace the place where sin is completely nullified where we are welcomed, and receive the mercy, the grace and help which we need.

That is where the high priest comes in, in this case, Jesus, our perfect high priest. For he not only enters heaven, the Greek word there in reminiscent of a penetrating blast that a swat team would use to enter a building….

The kind of thing that happened at Christ’s death, when as He died on the cross the foot think veil dividing the holy of holies from the holy place. He penetrated that barrier for us, and did the same thing for heaven, enabling us to enter through the veil that once blocked people from accessing the throne of grace.

Going back to the idea of access…and the Executive Admin and Senior Faculty Dining room for a moment. You didn’t go there, unless you were… well hungry. And hunger was satisfied, more than that! Likewise, going into the Holy of Holies was meaningless, unless the mission was to see people forgiven, their relationship with God, and with each other restored as they were redeemed. It is the same concept in Hebrews, hear it again,

“¹⁶ So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. 

We aren’t perfect before when we are drawn to Christ – that is His work – that is why he opened the route in to the throne. It is there we find the access to the healing we need the reconciliation, and the transformation that is repentance.

And then we are welcome there forever, but it is there, here in the presence of God that we receive the incredible mercy and grace. Because of Jesus, and His death and resurrection, we shall always have unrestricted access to the glory of God…