hey will never to the very last need anything but
that sacrifice and offering to be the cause and the warrant of their
place within that home. "Their sins and their iniquities" their
reconciled Father "will never remember any more" against them (ver. 17),
in the sense that the sacrifice once presented on their behalf will be
before Him every moment in the person of the Self-Sacrificer, who sits
beside Him, "appearing for us." They are the Israel of the great New
Covenant. And that covenant, as we have already remembered (viii. 7-13),
provides for the spiritual transformation of the wills of the
covenanters; the law of their God shall be "written on" their very
minds; that is to say, they shall will His will as their own. But such a
"writing" demands, by the very nature of things, that _first, not last_,
there should be an absolute remission. For without remission there could
not be inward peace, nor therefore filial and paternal harmony. So, for
this deep mass of reasons, the new Israelites are _first_ wholly
accepted for the sake of their self-offered High Priest, that _then_
they may be wholly transformed by His power, working through His peace,
within themselves.

The great closing paragraphs of the chapter (verses 19-39) are one long
application of this sublime finality of the one Offering and this
presentness of our complete acceptance. First, the new Israelite, his
"heart sprinkled from an evil conscience" (ver. 22), released, that is
to say, by the applied Sacrifice from the haunting sense of guilt, and
having his "body washed with pure water," the baptismal sign and seal of
the covenant blessing, is _to behave as what he is_--the child at home.
That home is the Holy Place; it is the very Presence of his God; but _it
is home_. He is to pass into that sanctuary, along the pathway traced by
the blessed blood, not hesitating, but with the "boldness" of an
absolute reliance, perfectly free while perfectly and wonderingly
humbled; "with a true heart, in fulness, in full assurance, of faith"
(ver. 22). He is to hold fast his avowal of assurance, and meanwhile he
is to animate the brethren round him to a holy rivalry (ver. 24) of love
and zeal. He is to maintain all possible worshipping union with them, in
the dawning light of the promised return of the now enthroned High
Priest (ver. 25).

Then, further, the new Israelite is to cherish the grace of godly fear.
The "boldness" of the loyal child is to go along with the