“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest in the blood of Jesus . . . .” V. 19. Boldness was required to enter into the Holiest. There they stood before the face of God who was a consuming fire. Only the high priest was allowed to enter, but not without blood. If he was to stand before God who is the Judge of all, he had to come with blood to make atonement. In the new covenant we have boldness to enter into the Holiest in Jesus’ blood, for Jesus went in as High Priest with His own blood to make atonement. The ark of the Testimony with the tablets was in the Holiest. Above it was the mercy seat, and at each end was a cherub, but they were one piece with the mercy seat. Their wings were stretched out, covering the mercy seat; they faced one another, and their faces were turned toward the mercy seat. Ex. 25:17-22. What shall we do in the Holiest? We shall seek grace to help. Heb. 4:16. What do we need help for? We shall seek help to overcome sin and to do God’s will on earth as it is done in heaven. When we seek this help, we have boldness in Jesus’ blood to enter the Holiest. How do we enter the Holiest in Jesus’ blood? Jesus had a body like ours. Heb. 2:14. He presented this body as a sacrifice to do God’s will. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God . . . . By that will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Ch. 10:5-10. We are Jesus’ disciples and can follow Him after we have forsaken everything, hating even our own lives. Then we are surrendered to that same will by which Jesus’ body was offered, and this offering is then imputed to us. We are sanctified by that same will. To be sanctified means to be separated for a certain purpose. When the various vessels were sanctified to the Lord, they were not to be used for anything else except in the service of the Lord. It went badly with Belshazzar when he used them at his own feast. Dan. 5. Jesus’ body was sanctified to the Father. It was not used for anything else except to do the Father’s will. It was offered by His will, and the blood of this offering is atonement for the sins of the world. If the offering of the body of Jesus Christ is to benefit me, then I, too, must be surrendered to that same will, and by this will I am then sanctified to the Lord. Now my body shall also be used only in the service of the Lord; but I need help, I who am subject to sin and who have a flesh in which nothing good dwells. How could I possibly have boldness to present myself under the faces of the cherubim before God the Judge of all? I have this boldness in the blood of Jesus. When I have surrendered to that same will as a disciple of Jesus, then the life of Jesus is imputed to me. Then I am in Jesus’ blood, and in this blood I have boldness to enter the Holiest to receive all the grace I need to help me to follow Jesus as a true disciple. This is how what is imputed to me can become my personal life. Then I am being conformed into His image. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . .” Heb. 10:22. It must be true that I have forsaken everything, and that my sole desire is to do God’s will. It must be in the full assurance of faith. Everything in the Holiest is true. It is true that I receive help. No one enters in there in the blood of Jesus without receiving help. One receives everything one needs that pertains to life and godliness. Nevertheless, if I sin willfully after I have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. V. 26. If I sin willfully, I am not sanctified to the Lord. Then Jesus’ sacrifice is not imputed to me. Then I cannot enter into the Holiest in the blood of Jesus. There are many people who pray to God, but they do not pray in the Holiest before the throne of grace. They have not forsaken their business, their honor, or their ambitions in the world. They don’t gain the victory either. This is why many people cry out and pray for years on end without gaining the victory. Yet all those who are sanctified to the Lord enter the Holiest in the blood of Jesus. All of them receive the help they need. What else shall we do in the Holiest besides receive help? “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.” Ex. 25:22. “Now when Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him.” Num. 7:89. We are to enter there as servants of the Lord, as priests. In the Holiest we shall learn to know God’s will and understand our work. There we shall receive the food which we are to offer to the church. The high priest had to bring an offering for his own sins first, and then for the people. Heb. 7:27. It is obvious that I have to enter for myself first so I can gain the victory and do God’s will. When that is being realized in my life, I will have fellowship with Him in His sufferings by being conformed to Him in His death. Phil. 3:10. That is when Jesus’ blood flows in my life, and being conformed to Jesus, I now enter as priest into the Holiest in Jesus’ blood. Now I can be a sacrificial priest of Jesus Christ for the others by being a priestly steward of the gospel of God, that which has transformed me, so that the others can also be an acceptable offering. Rom. 15:16. I enter into the Holiest first for my own sin and then for the others’ sins. I have to be saved first, and then those who hear me. 1 Tim. 4:16. This is when we experience a continual development and growth, for Jesus is our High Priest, and it is not sufficient for the disciple until he has become like his Master. I cannot be a priestly steward of the gospel any further than it has been fulfilled in my own life. In Ezekiel 44 we read about two kinds of priests. There were the Levitical priests who wanted to please the people. They were punished by not being permitted to enter the Holiest. They were to be ministers in the sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; they were to slaughter the burnt offering and bring the sacrifice for the people, to stand before them and minister to them. However, the sons of Zadok had been faithful. They were permitted to come near to the Lord and serve Him. They were to stand before His face to offer the fat and the blood. “They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.” In Israel two kinds of sacrifices were brought, guilt offerings and sin offerings, which they had to bring every time they transgressed the law. These sacrifices belonged to the priests. They could eat the meat because its blood was not borne into the Holiest. Then there was the great Day of Atonement on which the high priest bore the blood into the Holiest. They were not permitted to eat that sacrifice. Num. 6:18-23. The priests had to do a lot of slaughtering and perform many ministries with which they had to minister to the people so that the people could be preserved in the right relationship to God and have a good conscience. Therefore we read about the priests that they lived off the people’s sins. Hosea 4:8; Micah 3:5. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body. 1 Cor. 6:18. It is manifest. Gal. 5:19. Then a person has a bad conscience, and the ministry of the tabernacle has to be performed. The body has to be washed. Heb. 10:22. That is what it means to serve the people. Many preachers never go beyond ministering at the tabernacle—preaching the forgiveness of sins. The listeners ask, “Do you think this is sin, and can’t I do that if I am a Christian?” etc. This is where the preacher tries to please the people so they can be at rest when it concerns their relationship to God. But it has nothing to do with following Jesus, for He never committed sin. Such priests are not permitted to enter the Holiest Place to serve God. What does it mean to serve God? God condemned sin in Jesus’ flesh. Rom. 8:3. This is the hidden life with Christ in God. It means walking on the new and living way that goes through the flesh. Heb. 10:20. This is the way Jesus consecrated for us so that we would follow Him. This is sanctification. This is not a ministry just so I can have a good conscience, but to go from light to light. Only Zadok’s sons are permitted to approach the table of the Lord in the Holiest Place with food that serves unto sanctification. They do not serve men according to their light and desires; they serve God according to His counsel and plan with them. We praise God for the sons of Zadok in these days who are faithful and do not seek the honor of men, and it is our prayer that God will let many such ministers grow up at the closing stages of this dispensation of grace.Sigurd Bratlie

“Blessed are the peacemakers . . . .” Matt. 5:9. Being a peacemaker when everyone else is one too, when they are all righteous, reasonable, and pleasant, is not really a good reason for honoring and commending such a person. However, always being a peacemaker, always keeping the peace in the midst of an evil world where you regularly encounter unrighteousness, unreasonableness, unpleasantness, defamation, and everything that is evil—that is extremely praiseworthy. Only the person who loves God, who loves peace so much that he is repeatedly willing to suffer anything in order to keep the peace—only such a person can be a peacemaker. Unfortunately, such people are very rare. In the majority of cases there is strife and unrest even for the sake of some trifle. People usually belong to the sons of tumult. In Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is called Prince of Peace or Peacemaker. Our calling is nothing less than ruling as princes of peace, or peacemakers, together with Him. We are trained and educated by Him for this purpose in this world among the sons of tumult. If it is always difficult to keep the peace, yet it is much more difficult to be able to make peace between warring parties! “All” that is needed to be able to keep the peace is that you have genuinely forsaken everything in this world, neither demanding your right, nor having your will pushed through, nor any honor or consideration from your fellow sojourners. Moreover, to be able to make peace between people, everything, so to speak, is required: a thorough salvation in all areas. You need to have a fullness of fervent love for both parties; you need to be set free from partiality, have wisdom, meekness, a burning zeal and firmness (see Isaiah 9:7) and endurance until the end has been obtained. You need to be exercised in discerning between non-essential and essential things so that you stay with what is important instead of getting lost in an innumerable number of insignificant things that are not of critical significance anyway. You need to have a deadly serious view based on experience of the indescribably terrible consequences that contention and bearing a grudge against someone can have, also how terribly difficult it is for matters to heal perfectly again. However, it is possible—glory to God!—to restore everything one hundred percent again. I think if people knew how deadly serious it is to fall out with someone, they would rather choose to be tortured than to let that happen. Here we need to be trained by the Most High! Glory to God, who in His great love for us gives such training! Blessed is everyone who senses his calling and is drawn to such a life in the midst of this evil world.Elias Aslaksen