As I have studied the Book of Hebrews over the last several weeks, I have truly been captivated by the grace of God. The book continuously shows us how much greater Jesus is than all these things we anchor ourselves to in this life. The major revelation made in Hebrews that pierced my heart is the concept of unrestricted access. Chapter 9 starts by revealing to the reader all of the regulations of the Old Covenant; "Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves… With these things set up this way, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their ministry. But the high priest alone enters the second room". That's when it hit me like a ton of bricks, "He didn't just die for my sins, He also died to give me unrestricted access to God the Father. He died to fully restore a relationship that I was at fault for breaking apart". My question for all of us, including myself, is how often do we take this unrestricted access for granted?
We have become so accustomed to having this access that we don't even really take full advantage of God's grace! Jesus died so that we could once again fellowship in the presence of the Almighty Creator, yet we ignore Him so often. We can go days without even saying His name, let alone actually speaking with Him. As a pastor I have a lot of people ask me how they can improve their relationship with Christ. The first question I ask is always the same, "When was the last time you sat down and had a conversation with God?" Often times the answer is this, "I've been really busy and I just haven't had time." I then follow up with, "So what did you do this week?" They respond, "I went to this fellowship group, I spent some time with my family, I did some homework, I went to work…" The list goes on and there is never any mention of alone time with God. I am not saying that any of these things are bad, but they have spent a great deal of time investing in all these relationships with their unrestricted access. Then they wonder why all these relationships are doing well, but the one they've neglected is faltering.
In the old covenant we had one day a year to meet with God and it wasn't even us, it was the high priest on our behalf. One person, one day a year and you had to be from the Levitical bloodline. Now it's everyone, everyday of the year. We have unrestricted access to God, but we don't use it, or if we do, it's sporadic and often times only out of need or desire for something earthly, rarely solely praise and worship.
It's time that we change our attitude to realize the gift of grace we received through Christ in having unrestricted access to God. It's time that we stop selling Christ short. It's time that we invest in our relationship with God as much as we do our marriage, our friendships and our other relationships. It is just as much of a blessing to have unrestricted access to God as it is to have eternal redemption in Christ.
When was the last time you sat down and conversed with God? When was the last time you set aside time to spend with God? When was the last time you made your relationship with God a priority? The time in now!