"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." — Hebrews 10:23

There is a place we long for in our deepest hearts. 

A better place. And whether we realize it or not, our hunger for this good place is evident in our desires. We crave beauty—to bask in pure loveliness and celebrate it. We want perfection—to have every stain and spot washed clean. We yearn for joy—to have every tear wiped away and live in perpetual delight. We desire righteousness—for all things to be made right and stay right, always. And perhaps most of all, we long for love. We want to be fully known, fully accepted, and fully embraced. But could there be a place like that? It sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?

Actually, it is. 

It’s the place where God is—the place we long for in our deepest hearts. And it’s beautiful because he is beautiful. And it’s perfect because he is perfect. And it’s filled with joy because he is joyous. And everything there is completely right because he is righteous. And it’s filled with love because he is love. We long for God’s own throne room, because God himself is there. And though it is the place we most desperately long for, the place we were made to be…

It is the place we cannot go. 

We cannot bring our spots and stains and our wrongs and rebellion into that beautiful, joyous, good perfection. We are broken people who break things, hurting people who hurt others. Were we to stumble upon heaven's threshold, how could we drag all of our trash-baggage into that place? Wouldn’t we ruin its perfection? Or maybe it would ruin us. Wouldn’t we flatten to the ground and confess our rightful destruction like the few who’ve gotten a glimpse, “Woe is me…I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5)? Yes. This is our conundrum. We desperately long for a place where we simply cannot go and do not belong. 

Yet, we’ve been given an invitation.

God himself has invited us in. More than that, he’s made a way for us to enter without ruining his perfection or crushing us. But how? Isn’t that impossible?! Not with God, he has made a way! This is the good news in our verse this month. We have the wondrous hope of heaven promised to us by the great promise keeper, God himself. It says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). And the entire book of Hebrews is the brilliant retelling of this marvelous story of humanity's great need and God’s even greater love and power, exerted through his Son, Jesus. For now, let me give you the skinny. For the full scoop, be sure to tune into this week’s teaching episode on the Dwell Differently Podcast. 

Jesus Invites us In

Hebrews begins by reminding its Jewish audience (and us) that God longs to be with his people. He sent messenger after messenger with that same welcome for centuries. But then it says now, “in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1), who we quickly learn is an infinitely better messenger (better than all the angels and prophets). Hebrews hits us with this rapid fire list of just exactly who this better messenger is: God’s own Son, the heir of all things, the one through whom the universe was made, the radiance of God’s glory and his exact representation, the sustainer of everything, the one who purifies believers from sins, and the one at God’s right hand ruling with him even now (Hebrews 1:1-4). Whoa. This is who invites us into God’s throne room. Yet, he not only delivers God’s invitation,  he actually makes our entrance possible. 

Jesus Is the Way

Hebrews retells much of the Old Testament story…through the lens of Jesus. It explains how the entire system God established to interact with his people (i.e. the law, the temple, the priests, and the sacrifices) were all “copies of the heavenly things,” not the things themselves (Hebrews 9:23). And Jesus is the thing itself, offering entrance into the place itself, God’s own heaven. So Hebrews explains just how Jesus makes all of that possible—fulfilling the law at every point, offering his life as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, entering heaven itself as the great high priest, and now sitting at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. Jesus is right now in heaven and he has given us full access to God. Therefore we can “draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19-22).

This Is Our Hope

This is the hope we can hold unswervingly, the hope we profess, the hope of heaven. And Jesus himself beckons us in. We who did not belong, belong in him. We who were broken, are made whole in him. We who were hopelessly stained, have been made white as snow in Jesus. And he is right there at his Father’s side welcoming us into his presence, the place where we most desperately long to be, the place we were made for, the place where, in Jesus, we finally belong. So then,  “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).