A New and Living Way

Christ stands for us in Heaven. There He intercedes for us. But His intercession there does not involve Him speaking for us in the way a lawyer might defend a client. Instead, he stands for us in Heaven, and we are in him - right there, in Christ, in the heavenlies. His being there allows us to be there; now we too may draw near to God through him.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God [the Father] through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 ESV

When we take hold of that potential and draw near to the Father through Christ, then he can save us to the uttermost. To come to the Father is to get the complete package, all he has on offer, the uttermost salvation available. He stays there and always lives, so that this will always be available. His body, standing there for us is the key. He is the way to the Father not just because his death satisfied him at the cross. He Himself, there in the Father's presence, is actually the way to the Father as well.

When Jesus was speaking to Nathaniel, he claimed to be the stairway to heaven that Jacob saw in a dream centuries before.

Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:50-51

We respond to that by thinking of the veil that was torn as a result of his death. He died and opened the way, right? So he is the way to God. But Jesus claims more than that …

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 
John 14:6

That verse is not referring to the Cross. He is speaking of us drawing near to the Father in his body as he sits at the Father’s right hand. To be there before the Father is to live in his house, but we live there in Him. He is the way and the life. And in John’s gospel he uses truth in two ways. One is as we expect: truth vs. lies or falsehood. The other meaning is interesting. It is a word that stands for a body of truth: for kingdom truth, spiritual truth or heavenly truth. He is not just the way and the life, but also the truth. As the stairway to heaven, and the means whereby we experience the Father’s dwelling he is the truth. Within his body is all the potential for spiritual experience we will ever desire.

Essentially, when we begin to value him seated in heavenly places and what that means for us, we begin to not just value his death and resurrection, but also his ascension as well. By his death he brought us forgiveness, and by his resurrection he set us free from bondage. Through his ascension he brings us to the Father’s house. Jesus says that he is the door.

I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9

His body is the door. We enter through him and as sheep we find not just salvation, but pasture as well. We are not just saved from Egypt, we enter the Promised Land. And it all happens through his body – On the cross, in the tomb, and seated in the heavenlies.

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. Hebrews 10:20-21

The way by which we enter heaven is his flesh, his body. It is a new and living way to the Father. To go through that door is to open our spiritual eyes from within Christ as he is seated in heaven. His body is living…a living way into that place. He took his body through the veil first, so that we could follow him and have access through him. It is so different than what we first thought. We follow in his footsteps, not by trying to emulate him, but by following him through the veil.