ACCESS!

That’s the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin built in the late 1700s. A monumental landmark of twelve Doric columns about 60 feet high, the structure is modeled after the gateway to the Acropolis. Atop sits the Quadriga (four-horse chariot) with the goddess of peace driving it.

When the Nazis were in power, Brandenburg Gate symbolized their power. After the building of the Berlin Wall in the early 60s, the gate remained closed, a token of the Iron Curtain’s blockade of access between the East and West. President Reagan stood by it in 1987 and challenged the East to “Tear down this wall.” Upon the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Brandenburg Gate came to stand for freedom. On Dec 22, 1989, it was opened when West German Chancellor Kohl walked through it to the East German side. Access!

Another One went through a barrier Himself, procuring for believers a grand and magnificent access. To God Himself.

… in [Christ] we have
boldness and confident access
through faith in Him.
Ephesians 3:12

When Christ paid the price of sin once for all by His finished work on the cross, the accounts of His death state that the temple veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the sanctuary was rent top down.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry,
and breathed His last.
And the veil of the temple
was torn in two
from top to bottom.
Mark 15:37–38

No more would the most holy place in the temple be verboten for mankind. No more would sin be an issue for salvation between holy God and sin-stained humans; for those who place their trust in Christ, the Mediator, access was available.

For there is one God,
and one mediator also
between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5

No more barrier. No more separation. No more estrangement. Evermore access. Evermore united with the Father. Evermore His child.

Therefore, having been
justified by faith,
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom also
we have obtained
our introduction by faith
into this grace
in which we stand;
and we exult
in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1–2

And exult we will!

Sing, O sing of my Redeemer!
With his blood he purchased me;
On the cross he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In his boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

Philip P. Bliss wrote this hymn in 1876 before dying in a train disaster. Apparently he survived the initial wreck, but was killed trying—unsuccessfully—to rescue his wife. This hymn was found later among his effects.

I will sing of my Redeemer
And his heav'nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.

Indeed, Christ had brought Bliss from death to life, “Son of God, with Him to be.” And so will we be with Him. Evermore. Because the price of sin was paid.

For Christ also died for sins
once for all,
the just for the unjust,
so that He might
bring us to God.
1 Peter 3:18

By His work. Into God’s presence. Access.

… 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 10:19–20

Sing, O sing!