ed with fitness to enter into the true holiest place. He
has perfected also for ever them that are sanctified: freed from guilt
as worshippers, they enter the holiest through a priestly consecration.
The new and living way has been dedicated through the veil.

But the important point is that the fulfilment of the promise has not
dispensed with the necessity for faith. We saw, in an earlier chapter,
that the revelation of the Sabbath advances from lower forms of rest to
higher and more spiritual. The more stubborn the unbelief of men became,
the more fully the revelation of God's promise opened up. The thought is
somewhat similar in the present passage. The final form which God's
promise assumes is an advance on any fulfilment vouchsafed to the saints
of the old covenant during their earthly life. It now includes
perfection, or fitness to enter into the holiest through the blood of
Christ. It means immediate communion with God. Far from dispensing with
faith, this form of the promise demands the exercise of a still better
faith than the fathers had. They endured by faith; we through faith
enter the holiest. To them, as well as to us, faith is an assurance of
things hoped for and a proving of things not seen; but our assurance
must incite us to draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, to
draw near with a true heart in _full assurance_ of faith. This is the
better faith which is not once ascribed in the eleventh chapter to the
saints of the Old Testament. On the contrary, we are given to
understand[322] that they, through fear of death, were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. But Christ has abolished death. For we
enter into the presence of God, not through death, but through faith.

In accordance with this, the Apostle says that "God provided some better
thing concerning us."[323] These words cannot mean that God provided
some better thing _for_ us than He had provided for the fathers. Such a
notion would not be true. The promise was made to Abraham, and is now
fulfilled to all the heirs alike; that is, to those who are of the faith
of Abraham. The author says "concerning,"[324] not "for." The idea is
that God foresaw we would, and provided (for the word implies both
things) that we should, manifest a better kind of faith than it was
possible for the fathers to show, better in so far as power to enter the
holiest place is better than endurance.

But the author adds another thought. Through the exercise of th