Access to God

Only the pure have access to God

Ps 24:3–4; 1 Jn 3:21–22

See also Ps 41:12; Ps 66:18–19; Ps 73:28; Mt 5:8; 1 Pe 3:12; Ps 34:15–16

The wicked do not have access to God

Ps 101:7; Is 59:2

See also Ge 4:14; Ge 4:16; Le 22:3; Dt 31:18; Ps 5:5; Is 1:15; Is 64:7; Je 7:15; Je 15:1; Je 23:39; Je 52:3; Eze 39:23; Ho 5:6; Mic 3:4

Access to God through the priests and sacrificial system

Access to God by this means in the OT

Exodus 29:44–45 NKJV

So I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to Me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God.

See also Ex 29:29–30; Ex 29:36; Ex 29:38–39

This OT access to God fulfilled in Jesus Christ

Heb 4:14–16; Heb 7:23–25

See also Heb 2:17; Heb 7:18–19; Heb 10:10–12; Heb 12:18–24

Access to God by the priesthood of all believers

1 Peter 2:5 NKJV

you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

See also 1 Pe 2:9; Re 1:6

Access to God through the Tent of Meeting and the tabernacle

Access to God by this means in the OT

Exodus 33:7–11 NKJV

Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

See also Ex 40:1–2; Ex 40:34–35; Nu 1:51; Nu 3:10; Nu 3:38; Nu 18:7; Nu 18:22; 2 Ch 1:3

This OT access to God fulfilled in Jesus Christ

Hebrews 9:23–24 NKJV

Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

See also Ac 7:44; Heb 8:1–2; Heb 8:5–6; Heb 9:11

Access to God through the Most Holy Place

Access to God by this means in the OT

Hebrews 9:7–8 NKJV

But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

See also Le 16:2; Le 16:12–17; Le 16:32–33; 1 Ki 6:16; 1 Ki 8:6; 1 Ki 8:10–11; 2 Ch 3:8

Access to God by this means fulfilled in Jesus Christ

Hebrews 9:3–5 NKJV

and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

Hebrews 9:12 NKJV

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

See also Mt 27:51; Heb 6:19–20

Believers have access to God by grace

Psalm 21:6 NKJV

For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.

See also Ps 51:10–11; Ps 145:18; Ho 6:1–2; Ac 17:27; 2 Co 4:14; Jas 4:8; Jud 24

Believers have access to God through Jesus Christ

Ro 5:1–2; Eph 2:18; Eph 3:12

See also Jn 10:9; Jn 14:6