so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Because of Jesus, our spiritual reality has changed.
We are no longer outsiders; we are insiders.
We are no longer locked out; we are now fellow citizens with the saints (Ephesians 2:19).
We have no sense of drawing back (Hebrews 10:38–39), but have full assurance that
We belong to God, and He belongs to us,
We are in His family, permanently in His family,
We are not on probation, ready to be plucked out at the first infraction.
That is an empowering spiritual truth.
In Christ, we have a level playing field, where we are not pushed back, pushed aside, or told to get back in line.
This focus verse introduces us to the Spirit who creates a whole new spiritual reality in us, for us. And we experience the renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
We do not have access to the Father on our own, but in one Spirit.
Also, in this one verse, we have the unveiling of the Trinity.
It's like the car and the fuel. The Holy Spirit powers our spiritual response/life (fuel), but Jesus made it possible through the shedding of his blood (car). The Father provided the Car and the Fuel. (This is a limited analogy.)
The car must be ready before the fuel. And we are encouraged to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), but we cannot do anything about the car. It is a done deal.
And we are on a journey to the Father over the river of sin. The Father sent the car to get us and provided the Spirit (in the automated car) with a spiritual GPS to get us to where He is, His kingdom.
The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.
It’s all about access to the Father.
When God chased Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), it was about cutting them off from access to the Father.
When the children of God were told to build a tabernacle for God to dwell among them in the wilderness, it was still about access to the Father. That is why the Jews were described as those who are near. The whole of Israel's ceremonial system was about access to the father.
But since God is Spirit, access to the Father, as Jesus told the Samaritan woman, had to be by the Spirit.
The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.
So clearly it does not matter what they did or where they went; they could be under His shadow but not be where He is; they could gain some benefits but not know Him as He is.
Jesus was clear that God is Spirit (John 4:24), telling you the realm in which He exists.
But the children of Israel were fixated on seeing signs (Matthew 12:39); they were locked in the realm of the seen.
The book of Hebrews says that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith concerns what is not seen.
So worship is in the Spirit, not in Jerusalem or a mountain. That may have been a radical thought at that time. But Jesus taught faith, knowing, and acting based on the reality of the unseen. While the natural man is bound up in his natural senses (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Christ, who created a new man who is a spiritual being (Ephesians 2:15), emphasizes faith.
What we want is access to the father. That is what completes us; that is the rest that Jesus comes to bring to us (Matthew 11:28–29); that is our homecoming; this is where we belong.
We belong with the:
Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9)
God of the spirits of all flesh (Numbers 16:22; 27:16).
Father of Lights (James 1:17).
With him, we are not in the wilderness, not lacking.
We are the younger brother who left him and squandered everything in riotous living that has now come back and given a new robe and a signet ring, and the fatted calf was killed to celebrate (Luke 15:22–24).
Received back with joy, with music, and a celebration. Not pitied but elevated, not told to sit at the back, pay for what we have lost, but immediately given irrevocable access to the Father.
Why one Spirit? Because there are different Spirits. There is only one Father who is our destination. And there is only one Jesus, our means to God, but there are many spirits, offering different experiences apart from the one Holy Spirit; the others are deceiving spirits, and through those spirits we cannot come to the Father.
That is the truth.