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Nearness to God

Normally when I study at work, I hibernate in my office with my door closed. If someone on our staff team needs to interrupt me, they knock first. Some years ago, I was studying when I noticed my door was very slowly opening. I thought to myself, this is odd. Someone is coming in and not even knocking, and they are opening that door ever so gingerly. Finally, I saw who was behind the door. It was my son John Paul, who, when he finally appeared, greeted me with a big smile and a warm, “Hi, Dad.”

How do you think I responded?

Well, I was delighted. He’s my son, and I was thrilled to see him. I was not annoyed in the least. I gave him a big hug.

If that’s how I, a fairly human, self-centered dad, responded to my child, then how does your Father in heaven respond when you come into his presence?

That’s right: He loves it. You never annoy him. He’s thrilled that you come into his presence. It is only because of Jesus that we can even come into the presence of God. It is because of his blood. Once we were far from God, enemies of God. But Christ’s blood has covered our sin, and now we have nearness to God.

The central motif of the Old Testament was the distance between humans and a holy God. No one could come into God’s presence in the Most Holy Place except the high priest once a year. But now, because of Christ’s shed blood, the temple curtain before the Most Holy Place has been torn, and access to God is thrown wide open. If distance marked Old Testament faith, then nearness marks New Testament faith. We are now near to the holy God. We have access at any time. At any moment, without knocking, we can walk right into our Father’s presence and receive his smiling embrace.