Because Jesus went before us

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart. (Psalm 24:3-4)

If you think about it, those are weighty words.

Who, after all, has completely clean hands before the Lord? Who has never done a sinful thing?

And who has a perfectly pure heart before the Lord? Who has never struggled with wrong thoughts and wrong motives?

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?

By those standards: no one.

Only one person ever perfectly fulfilled those requirements: Jesus.

He then went to the cross to pay the price for our sins. Upon doing so, he ascended to heaven, entered the holy temple there with his own blood. And because he went before us, the author of Hebrews writes,

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus—he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)—and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19-23)

No, none of us are worthy to ascend the mountain of the Lord. None of us are worthy to stand in his holy place.

But because of Jesus, we receive blessing from the Lord. And the greatest blessing, is that the God our salvation clothes us with Christ’s righteousness. (Psalm 24:5)

So with full confidence, let us draw near to him!