Drawing Near: The Unhindered Access Every Believer Has to God

Watch the service and sermon from Hebrews 10:19–22: “Draw Near: Christ Died, We Enter”. Because of Christ’s blood, body, and priestly intercession, believers can boldly enter the Father’s presence and find grace, mercy, and renewed hope.

There is a question worth sitting with for a moment: How often do you enter your Father's presence?

Not how often do you think about God, or how often you attend a church service, or how often you carry a vague awareness of his existence somewhere in the background of your day. But how often do you deliberately, intentionally, boldly draw near to God and step into his presence?

For many believers, the honest answer is uncomfortable. We come to God when the crisis hits. We reach for him when the diagnosis comes, when the relationship fractures, when the anxiety becomes unbearable. And yet even then, something holds us back. A sense of unworthiness. A feeling that we have not cleaned ourselves up enough. A quiet suspicion that the door to God's presence is not really open to someone like us.

The book of Hebrews dismantles every one of those hesitations.

In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 22, the author extends one of the most sweeping invitations in all of Scripture. He calls every believer to draw near to God, not with timidity, not with reluctance, and not after meeting a long list of religious requirements, but with boldness. With confidence. With the assurance of someone who belongs there.

To understand why that is such a radical statement, you have to understand what came before it. The entire Old Testament system of worship was built around the reality that sinful human beings cannot simply walk into God's presence. The temple had a curtain, a thick and imposing barrier, that separated the outer courts from the Holy of Holies, the innermost place where God's presence dwelled. Only the high priest could enter, and only once a year, and only after an elaborate process of cleansing and sacrifice. The message was unmistakable: the way to God is not open to everyone.

And then Jesus died.

Matthew chapter 27 records that at the moment Jesus breathed his last, the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. Not from the bottom up, as if human hands had done it. From the top down. God himself tore it open. The barrier was not merely moved. It was destroyed.

The author of Hebrews calls the body of Jesus the curtain. His flesh, given on the cross, is what opened the way. He describes it as a new and living way, using a word for "new" that literally carries the meaning of "freshly slain." The language is intentional and striking. Because of a freshly slain sacrifice, we have a living way forward. Death produced life. The cross produced access.

The word the author uses in verse 19, often translated as "boldness," is not a call to manufacture courage you do not feel. It is a declaration of legal standing. You have the right to enter. Not because of anything you have done, but because of everything Christ has done.

Think about what that means practically. When you are weary, you have the right to enter. When you have failed, you have the right to enter. When you are ashamed, when you are grieving, when you are confused, when you feel furthest from God, you have the right to enter. The access was purchased by Christ's blood, and it does not expire based on the condition of your week.

Hebrews 4, verses 14 through 16, reinforces this with equal force. It describes Jesus as a high priest who is not distant from human struggle but who has been tempted in every way we are, yet without sin. Because of that, we are invited to approach the throne of grace with boldness, to find grace to help us in our time of need. The throne is not a throne of judgment waiting to condemn your failures. It is a throne of grace, extended toward you in your weakness.

Here is something that changes the way prayer feels when you truly grasp it: when you turn to God, Jesus Christ is already there.

Hebrews 7:25 says that he always lives to intercede for those who come to God through him. He is not waiting to hear from you for the first time when you pray. He is already present before the Father, already mediating, already advocating. The enemy of your soul may be working to accuse you, but you have a great high priest who is working on your behalf, continuously and completely.

This is why the author of Hebrews says in verse 21 that we have a great high priest over the house of God. And you are the house of God. He is not governing a building. He is governing his people, caring for them, interceding for them, welcoming them in.

Verse 22 contains the command that all of the preceding verses have been building toward: let us draw near. The language is plural and ongoing. This is not a one-time event. It is a posture, a repeated and disciplined movement toward God, cultivated over time through prayer, through the study of his word, through gathering with other believers, through turning to him first when trouble comes rather than as a last resort.

The author describes those who draw near as having hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and bodies washed in pure water. This is not a checklist of conditions to meet before you are allowed in. It is a description of what Christ has already done for you. You have been cleansed. You have been qualified. The ordination has already taken place.

The only question that remains is whether you will act like it.

Whatever this week has held, whatever you are carrying into this moment, the way to the Father is open. The curtain was torn. The blood was shed. The high priest is interceding. You have been made spiritually fit not by your own effort but by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

So draw near. Draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Draw near not because you have earned it, but because he did. Draw near not once, not occasionally, but always, without limit, without hesitation.

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal, and the door to that healing has never been closed.

Whatever this week has held, whatever you are carrying into this moment, the way to the Father is open. The curtain was torn. The blood was shed. The high priest is interceding. You have been made spiritually fit not by your own effort but by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

So draw near. Draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Draw near not because you have earned it, but because he did. Draw near not once, not occasionally, but always, without limit, without hesitation.

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal, and the door to that healing has never been closed.

Choose one or more of the following to practice individually or as a group before your next meeting.

1. Establish a daily habit of intentional prayer. Rather than treating prayer as a routine or a box to check, set aside a specific time each day to intentionally enter God's presence. Come with a grateful and expectant heart, remembering that Jesus is already there interceding for you.
2. Memorize Hebrews 10:19-22. Committing this passage to memory will help you recall your right to God's presence in moments when guilt, fear, or discouragement tempt you to run away from him instead of toward him.
3. Identify what keeps you from drawing near. Take time this week to honestly reflect on what barriers most commonly prevent you from entering God's presence. Write them down. Bring them to God in prayer and ask him to help you remove them.
4. Exercise your priestly ministry. The sermon reminded us that every believer has been ordained to minister to God through worship and to lead others to Christ through the gospel. This week, identify one person in your life who does not know Christ and pray for them by name. Ask God to open a door for you to point them toward Jesus.
5. Encourage a fellow believer. Hebrews 10:25 calls us not to neglect gathering together but to encourage one another. Reach out to someone in your small group or church family this week with a specific word of encouragement. Remind them of the access they have to God through Christ.
6. Reflect on the Lord's Supper throughout the week. The sermon encouraged us to meditate on what the bread and the cup represent, not just during the service but as an ongoing act of remembrance. Take a moment each day this week to reflect on the truth that Christ's body and blood opened your way to the Father.

Pray through the following themes:

• Gratitude for the access to God that Christ purchased on the cross.
• Repentance for the times we have run from God instead of toward him.
• A request for the Holy Spirit to cultivate in each member a deeper and more consistent desire to draw near to God.
• Intercession for those in your lives who have not yet come to Christ.