A couple of weeks ago the national champion University of Arizona softball team was invited to meet President Bush at the White House. But if you or I want to visit the White House, it requires some prior arrangements. If I just want to take a trip to Washington D.C. and visit the White House, I can contact Gabrielle Giffords, who is my congresswoman, and she can arrange for me to take part in one of the free tours of the White House which are held on Tuesday through Saturday mornings.
But if I want to visit with President Bush while I’m there, the process is much more difficult. In fact, I would probably find it impossible to obtain access to the President. The only people who have the opportunity to have an audience with him are those who have important matters to discuss with him and who can make arrangements to meet with him with the proper members of his staff.
But even though I don’t have unrestricted access to the President, I have something much more valuable – access to God Himself. Paul has already touched on that idea earlier in his letter to the church at Ephesus. Perhaps you’ll remember this verse from Chapter 2:
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Ephesians 2:18 (NIV)
In that verse, Paul was emphasizing that both the Jews and the Gentiles had been provided with direct access to God by the same means – the death and resurrection of Jesus. As we continue with our journey through Ephesians this morning, Paul is going to return to that idea one more time. For some reasons that will hopefully become more apparent in a little bit, I’m going to have us read this passage in three different translations this morning:
In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Ephesians 3:12 (NIV)
in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
Ephesians 3:12 (NASB)
In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
Ephesians 3:12 (KJV)
You’ll note that there are some subtle differences in each of these translations and we’ll be discussing the reasons for some of those variations and their possible implications for us as we examine this verse today.
On a surface level, this verse is really pretty simple. All believers – in Paul’s case he is referring specifically to both Jews and Gentiles – have direct access to God through Jesus Christ. But that rather simple concept has some important implications for us and our relationship with God. This morning I’d like us to focus on just three of them.
THREE IMPLICATIONS FOR MY ACCESS TO GOD
1. Access to God is only through Jesus
All the translations we looked at this morning begin this verse with the phrase “in whom” or “in him”, obviously a direct reference to Jesus Christ at the end of verse 11. Once again, this is no surprise for us since Paul has made it clear from the very beginning of his letter that it is the work of Jesus Christ that makes it possible for us to experience all the spiritual blessings of God.
Our access to God is no different. That access is made possible to His children totally and completely through Jesus Christ. Jesus emphasized that principle to His followers shortly before he made that access possible when He redeemed us by paying the price for our sins on the cross:
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (NIV)
The Gentile culture of Paul’s day had all kinds of gods and the people believed that the affliction and misfortune that came into their lives was a result of offending those gods. So whenever something bad would happen – someone got sick or died, the crop failed, a storm wiped out one’s property – it was assumed that someone had done something to offend one of the gods. So the people would engage in some kind of ritual in an attempt to appease the gods.
Those rituals often took the form of some kind of sacrifice, even the sacrifice of one’s own child in many cases. There were also different forms of prayer and acts of penance that might be entered into. But the problem is that the people could never even be sure of which god had been offended, alone be sure that their acts of appeasement would be adequate. Within that culture, the whole concept of having access to or a relationship with the gods was completely foreign.
But Paul makes it clear that we don’t have to try to appease God in order to be able to enter into His presence. In fact, whatever we do to try to appease God will always fall short. But it doesn’t matter because Jesus has already provided that access for me. Paul reinforces that principle in another of his letters:
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:4-6 (NIV)
In our passage here in Ephesians, the word translated “access” in the NASB and KJV and “approach” in the NIV is a word that indicates a formal introduction into the presence of a king. In much the same way that not just anyone can approach our President today, in the ancient world one could not enter the presence of the king unless they had been summoned and were brought into the presence of the king by one of his court officials.
Perhaps you remember the story of Esther in the Old Testament. After she had learned of Haman’s plan to kill the Jews, she couldn’t just go into the king to tell him of the plot, even though she was the queen. She either had to wait until she was summoned by the king or hope that if she chose to enter without being summoned the king would hold out his golden scepter. If he didn’t, do that, she would be killed. Fortunately, because of God’s providence, the king did offer her his scepter when Esther took the risk of entering into his presence without being summoned.
For those of us who are God’s children, Jesus serves as our introducer who escorts us into the presence of the King. And He’s the only one who has the authority to do that. And just to make sure we don’t miss this principle, Paul ends verses 12 with one more reference to the fact that Jesus is the one who has gained access on our behalf.
You’ll notice that there is a fairly significant difference in translations here. Both the NIV and NASB and most other translations reflect that our access is “through faith in him”. If that translation is correct, then the emphasis is on our response to what Jesus has done for us. Our access is a result of placing our faith, or trust, in what Jesus did for us on the cross.
On the other hand, the KJV and a few other translations render that same phrase “by faith of him.” That translation focuses more on the work of Christ rather than our response. In that case our access is a result of the faithfulness of Jesus in carrying out His Father’s plans and dying on the cross on our behalf.
This is one of those cases where grammatically and theologically either translation is possible. And is often the case, there are a number of knowledgeable commentators that take each position. Based on everything else we’ve seen in Ephesians so far, I tend to lean towards the view that the focus here is on the faithfulness of Jesus, and not on our faith. But perhaps this is one of those times where Paul is intentionally vague because there are elements of both possible translations involved here. But even if it is our faith that is in view here, we saw back in Ephesians 2:8,9 that even our faith is a gift from God. So no matter how we translate the verse, ultimately the focus is on Jesus and what He has done for us in order to provide our access to God.
We live in a world today that increasingly tells us that there are many roads to God and that all we have to do is to pick the one we want. But the Bible is clear on this matter. There is only one way we get access to God and that is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. I can be myself in God’s presence
Obviously entering into God’s presence is a serious matter. So I need to approach God with reverence and awe. But I don’t need to be afraid to just be myself there.
When God first created Adam and Eve, they had access into the presence of God. And even though we don’t get a lot of details from the account in Genesis, there is every indication that they felt free to be themselves in the presence of God. For instance the Bible records that they were both naked and felt no shame. But when they sinned everything changed. Because of their guilt, Adam and Eve ran and hid from God. And from that time forward, man’s relationship with God was forever changed.
Before Jesus, no one had continuous access to God. From time to time, God chose to appear to leaders like Moses or to His prophets. But God decided when and where and how to do that. But even though no one had unrestricted access to God, God wanted to manifest His presence among His people. He chose to do that in the tabernacle, and later in the Temple.
The tabernacle and the Temple consisted of three different areas. There were the outer courts, where all of His people could go. Then there was the Holy Place where the priests ministered before God on a daily basis. But the cloud of God’s presence was contained within the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place, which contained the Ark of the Covenant.The only person who was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies was the high Priest and even he could only enter there once a year on the Day of Atonement. As we’ve seen previously, when Jesus died on the cross the curtain that separated man from God’s presence in the Holy of Holies was torn in half from the top as a picture that God’s children have now been granted permanent, unrestricted access to Him. The writer of Hebrews explains that concept more fully:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:19-22 (NIV)
Not only can we enter into the presence of God because of the work of Jesus, both Paul and the writer of Hebrews tell us that we can enter boldly and with confidence.
In our passage from Ephesians, the term translated “freedom” in the NIV and “boldness” in the NASB and KJV is a word that originally conveyed the idea of freedom of speech. It came to mean confidence in approaching someone in authority. When Paul uses that word here, I think it conveys both ideas. We can approach God with confidence and we also have the freedom to speak openly before Him.
I can remember quite a few years ago when Dan Quayle was Vice President and was here in town, I was invited to go to the event. Many of you remember Dan Quayle. He’s the one who said things like this:
• One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ’to be prepared’.
• Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
• What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.
• I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.
• I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.
So you can obviously imagine just how thrilled I was to go and hear him speak. But because he was the Vice President of the United States, I put on my nicest clothes and I was on my best behavior that day, especially when I actually got to meet Mr. Quayle face-to-face and have my picture taken with him. I wanted to make sure I didn’t do or say anything to offend him because I was afraid that I would immediately be escorted from his presence.
But when I went home that night, I could throw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and just be myself without worrying that I would say or do something that would cause Mary to throw me out of the house – although I’m sure I’ve probably come close a time or two.
Although I obviously need to have respect and reverence for God, there is a sense in which my access to Him is much more like hanging out with Mary than it is meeting the Vice President. That means that I can just be myself before God. I don’t have to pretend to be something I’m not. I don’t have to use fancy words when I talk to God. And since my access to Him is based on what Jesus has done and not my own efforts, I don’t have to worry that God is going to cut off my access because of something I say or do.
3. Access to God has both a personal and corporate aspect
All of God’s children have personal access to our heavenly Father. We don’t need a pastor or priest or other person to act as a mediator between us and God. Jesus, as we’ve seen, has already done that for us. That’s what theologians refer to as the “priesthood of the believer”. That principle is a foundational belief for most Protestant churches, including ours. In fact, you will find that belief in our Statement of Faith in our Constitution.
But unfortunately in some circles that idea has been taken to the extreme where followers of Jesus Christ claim that they can live out their faith on their own. They don’t need to be part of any local body of believers and they certainly don’t need anyone else to tell them what the Bible means – they can figure that out on their own. But as we have seen time after time in Ephesians, our Christianity is not just for us. It is to be lived out within the community of faith we call the church.
In His letter, Paul frequently switches between addressing his readers as “you”, when he is specifically referring to the Gentiles and “we” when he want to emphasize the idea that both Jews and Gentiles have been brought together in Christ. As you’ll notice, here in verse 12, Paul uses the word “we” once again. By doing that, Paul seems to be implying that there is a corporate aspect of our ability to experience the presence of God in our lives.
And Paul is not the only one who does that. The writer of Hebrews also emphasizes this idea of corporate access to God. Just a few minutes ago we looked at the passage from Hebrews 10 that described how Jesus became our High Priest who allows us to enter into the presence of God. Let’s continue reading the next few verses of that passage:
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:23-25 (NIV)
According to the writer of Hebrews, one of the benefits of having direct access to God is that we can gather together with others who enjoy that same privilege for the purpose of encouraging each other in our faith and helping others to live the life that God has called us to live. Even Jesus spoke about this idea of corporate access to God.
For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
Matthew 18:20 (NIV)
I can go to God on my own any time I want because of what Jesus has done for me. And I should do that. But there is also a sense in which my relationship with God will never be all that God intends for it to be until I enter into his presence in community with His other children.
This whole idea that I can enter confidently into the presence of God is so amazing to me. But what’s even more amazing to me is how many times I fail to take advantage of that great privilege. You see, Jesus has opened the door, but I have to be the one who chooses to enter in. God will never force us to take advantage of the access he has provided for us. So we need to heed the advice of James:
Come near to God and he will come near to you…
James 4:8 (NIV)
God is waiting for you to come near. The rest is up to you.
