More About The Believer (2): Granted Access To God

“For through Him we both access to the Father by one Spirit”

Ephesians 2:18 NIV

Trying to get an audience with highly placed individuals like leaders, celebrities or even executives in organizations can be a herculean task. Many of them have their schedules booked to the full with different engagements and events that it is very unlikely that a stranger can just show up unannounced and get a chance to speak with such a person.

I can imagine how difficult it would be to call Aso Rock Villa to try and get even a 5 minute discussion with the President. Perhaps it would even be more difficult to get such audience at the White House in Washington DC. I am sure questions like “who are you?” “Where are you from?”, “what is your discussion about?” “Why do you want to speak with the President?” would be thrown my way. But I am almost sure that any of the children of either President Muhamadu Buhari or President Donald Trump would not get such responses. The difference is that they have a direct access to President-they are his children.

Not only has God through Jesus Christ removed every barrier and taken away everything that excluded us from His family, we have access to the Father by the Holy Spirit through Christ Jesus. This word “access” describes more than a simple admittance into the presence of God. It signifies the free fellowship we enjoy with God as result of our having entered a state of friendship with Him. It is an introduction to God that makes it possible for us to regularly approach Him in prayer and communion with confidence that He will not turn us away.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand”

Romans 5:1, 2 NIV

It is recorded that at the death of Christ on the cross, the veil in the temple in Jerusalem was torn from top to bottom (see Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). The veil was an elaborately woven fabric. Sixty feet long and thirty wide, the veil was also about a hand breath in thickness and 300 priests were needed to wash it. The veil was to separate the holy from the most holy place and only the High Priest could go beyond the veil (see Exodus 26:31-33). The ripping of the veil at the death of Christ was not a natural occurrence, neither was it a coincidence. It was emblematic of the wonderful reality that God has now granted all mankind access to Himself (see Hebrews 10:19-22)

“In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence”

Ephesians 3:12 NIV

So remember, dear believer: you have been granted access to God through Christ by the Spirit. You can always approach God in full confidence and assurance. You don’t need any other go-between or mediator, dear believer in Christ. You have a direct line to God, it is your inheritance in Christ Jesus.