Some weeks ago, I wrote about the good Father; the Father who answers when we ask, can be found when we seek Him, and opens the door when we knock. The picture that comes to my mind in this description of God, the good Father, is this: God is not a father who is parked in his study, doing his God work while we remain locked out in the hall seeing only the glow of the study light coming out from under the closed door. No. No. No. As children of God, we have every right to fling the door open, run inside, and like an excited four-year-old, leap into God’s lap. Is this picture wishful thinking? Can it really be true?
“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God (i.e. all believers), these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ ” (Rom 8:14-15). Did you hear that? We cry out, “Daddy! Papa!” And it is these words of tender relationship that inform my four-year-old in the lap picture.
“Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place (God’s personal study in my word picture) by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb 10:19-22). We have the right to enter God’s study, God’s holy place, God’s personal space by the blood of Jesus. We have the right to “draw near” by the blood of Jesus. When we embrace the gospel message, we become adopted, and through Christ, we have direct access to the Father. And by faith, I believe that when I leap into the air like a child, God’s loving arms will catch me and draw me onto His lap.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him and he with Me” (Rev 3:20). When we see the light from God’s study and dash down the hall toward it, we do not run into a locked door. No, we find an open welcome. When we rush inside, we see God waiting for us and are invited in for tea and watercress sandwiches or a Thanksgiving buffet; whatever fits the need of the moment. There is a tender relationship in dining together.
If this image of God sounds too tender, too grandfatherly to you, please heed this warning. Do not let your Old Testament view of God put up a wall between you and your access to the good Father described in the New Testament. Right there in our Hebrews passage, it emphasizes that Jesus “inaugurated a new and living way” to enter the Father’s presence. I cannot say this loud enough. Our access to the Father is a brand new way of relating to God, all made possible by the blood of Jesus. The Old Testament way, the Old Testament arrangement, the Old Covenant method had been put on the shelf; literally “made obsolete” (Heb 8:13) by the blood of Jesus.
Can I encourage you? Do not approach the Father in a way that is obsolete and out dated. Instead, enter His holy place. Climb up beside your heavenly Father and find out what He is working on. Find out what is going on in that God world of His. And join Him in the work. Working alongside the tender Father who loves you and welcomes you in.