"Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat." Leviticus 16:15

 Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest of Israel would slaughter a bull to atone for his own sins and then slaughter and sacrifice a goat for the sins of the people. On this day alone he passed through the veil into the presence of God with incense and the blood of the goat.

Like the Tabernacle itself, the blood was only a shadow of the reality which came in Christ who enters into the heavenly Temple as our High Priest with his own righteous blood. "Therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place 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 priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith." (Heb.10)

 By what authority do we enter through the veil into God’s presence?

 It is by the blood of Jesus alone.

It is Jesus as our High Priest who takes us through His torn flesh with the blood to present us pure before the Heavenly Father. Sin has separated man from God and only by the righteous blood of the Lamb of God can we come blameless into His presence. Our access is by the blood alone - our confidence is in the blood alone. God looks for the blood of atonement and must see it. When God was ready to deliver Israel from Egypt He instructed them to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and smear the blood on the door posts of their houses saying, -"When I see the blood I will pass over that house and no plague will come near."

 There is no sacrifice or offering that we can make that will give us access to the Throne of Grace, only the righteous blood of Jesus will do - only the blood can satisfy the wrath of God. Dare we come another way?

You feel confident in coming before the Lord today because you were kind to your wife and gave a poor beggar a dime. Would this not be entering in based on your faith in your own personal merits? You love the Lord and seek to please and obey Him, yet are not confident to press into His presence in prayer or worship because you feel unworthy. You kneel to pray and then suddenly remember a lustful thought you had earlier in the day or remember somewhere else where you fell short of God’s perfect will and as a result feel unworthy. Now you’ve gone to the other extreme but are still relying on your own merits.

 Should we always strive to walk in the perfect Light of God? Yes, but God fully understands that we can never produce a righteousness of our own that is anything more than filthy rags which is the very reason He offered His Son, -"Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a Body You have prepared for Me." (Heb.10)

We must be as the Apostle Paul was and glory in Christ Jesus and put our confidence in the finished work of the cross, -"We are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." (Phil.3)

Paul knew that the flesh could produce nothing more than the body of death that it is, but that in the Spirit in Christ He was forgiven and delivered, -"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Rom.8) "The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin." (1 Jo.1)