Ephesians 3:12
” in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.”
Access to God is something that we desire. The religions of the world seek that. In the Old Testament, the holiness of God was described. Exodus 19:12 says, "But you shall set boundaries for the people all around, saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall certainly be put to death.'" It was quite frightful.
Then Jesus came and died for our sins. If we accept His sacrifice, then we are made clean and can have access to God without fear. Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The fear and dread present in the Old Testament can be removed by the sacrifice of Christ.
Jesus describes the Father's attitude in the Prodigal Son parable. The son approaches the father with a selfish request. He wants his inheritance while the father is still alive. He gives it and the son squanders it with immoral living. The father stands on the porch and looks out in anticipation that the son will return. We get the sense he did this often. His heart aches as he misses him. The son shows up and the father runs to greet him.
God desires all to come to Him. Revelation 22:17 says, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." I love this, "whosoever will". That's everyone. Unfortunately not all respond. However all are welcome.
One of our problems is that we still sin. Does that jeopardize our access to the father? That depends. Is it a mistake that we regret or is it a new path we are committed to. For the first one, I John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If we are in Christ, we no longer want to sin. In fact we hate it. However, we still have our fleshly nature that will tempt us in weak moments.
The second situation is when someone sins as a way of life. My understanding of the scriptures is that that individual was never born again. As I don't think it's scriptural that we can lose our salvation. There is an in between stage where one experiences the life of God, but not completely born again. Look at the parable of the sower. The seed (the Word of God) can be in one's heart and alive, but die. One can experience personally the life of God that is evident to others, yet have it die. Having tasted it doesn't mean it's a permanent reality. Another example is that of a woman who is pregnant. That is truly a child. However, she can have a miscarriage.
Another complication of this in between stage is that it can happen over a long period of time. Maybe years. So, one may appear to be a believer, but not be. This one may abandon their faith. In reality, they were never a born again believer.
This access to God gives us such confidence. We may have been a person that has felt little self worth. Our parents didn't give us the love needed and so we don't feel loved. That grieves God. He loves us very much. As we grow in Christ, we start to feel loved. He works that in us through believers in the church as well as through our own relationship with Him. It's been said that Abraham Lincoln's children would barge into white house meetings. He loved his children so that they knew they wouldn't get into trouble. That's a nice comparison to us and God. He's quite important, yet He loves us so and we have confidence that we can't do anything to change that love. The shame of our lives before Christ and some present sins we may commit doesn't change that confidence we feel. Love wins out.
I've already brought up the fact that this access was achieved by Jesus' death and resurrection. I need to expound on that more. This was the greatest act of love demonstrated throughout history. Jesus was sinless and had it all. However, He loved us and wanted to rescue us. We were in a bad situation. We were headed towards hell for an eternity. He stepped down from His throne, humbly came to earth, lived a sinless life, demonstrated how to live, trained apostles, then died and rose again. All of human history is centered on this. Thank You, God. We have complete access to God.
Lord, thank You for the access You have given us. You've rescued and changed us. Such a great price. Thank You for that sacrifice. Thank You.