We approach God today only through Christ
English: High priest offering a sacrifice of a goat, as on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur; from Henry Davenport Northrop, "Treasures of the Bible," published 1894 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Let us draw near and worship our triune God with full assurance and abundant joy, with reverence and with awe
In the wilderness era, God's people challenged Aaron's prerogative as high priest three times (see Num 16:1-40, 41-50; 17:1-13). The last rebellion was resolved by depositing twelve rods or staffs representing the twelve tribes of Israel by the ark in the tabernacle (in Hebrew, the same word for "rod" means "tribe"). On the next day, Aaron's rod budded with blossoms and ripe almonds, while the other rods remained dry wood. This life out of death symbol served as God's justification of Aaron as the designated mediator. Drawing near to God through Aaron would lead to life. Doing so apart from this messiah, would lead to death: "Surely we die, we perish, we all perish" (17:12 NKJV).
With the advent of Jesus Christ, the symbolic worship of the tabernacle has given way to the reality: we draw near to God through the rent flesh and shed blood of the Messiah. His resurrection is God's justification of His mediatorial work (see Acts 17:31).
Any approach to God apart from Christ, therefore, is rebellion and must end in death. However, to forsake the assembly of God's people in worship is also to slight Christ's atonement and His role as high priest: He died and lives for the sake of bringing us near to God. Indeed, having such a high priest—One who endured the wrath of God that we might dwell amidst the consuming fire—let us draw near and worship our triune God with full assurance and abundant joy, with reverence and with awe.