Hebrews 10:22

Being thus secure of an acceptable entrance προσερχώμεθα, “let us keep approaching,” that is, to God (Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 11:6); a semi-technical term. μετὰ ἀληθινῆς καρδίας, “with a true heart” (cf. Isaiah 38:3), not with a merely bodily approach as if all were external and symbolic, but with that genuine engagement of the inner man which constitutes true worship. Chrysostom has χωρὶς ὑποκρίσεως. Davidson has “with fundamental genuineness”; but it is the genuineness which is elicited in presence of realities. καρδία is interpreted in 1 Peter 3:4, ὁ κρυπτὸς τῆς καρδίας ἄνθρωπος. It is the inevitable qualification of one who comes ἐν πληροφορίᾳ πίστεως, “in full assurance of faith,” believing not only that God is (Hebrews 11:6) but that a way to His favour and fellowship is opened by the Great Priest. To engender this full assurance has been the aim of the writer throughout the Epistle. ῥεραντισμένοι … λελουσμένοι. These participles express not conditions of approach to God which are yet to be achieved, but conditions already possessed, “our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water”. Both participles must be construed with προσερχώμεθα. The obvious connection of “heart” and “body” forbids the attachment of λελουσμένοι to κατέχωμεν. To connect both participles with κατεχ. is equally impossible. “ προσέρχεσθαι is a technical liturgical word, and sprinkling and washing are liturgical acts of preparation” (Delitzsch). Possibly the mention of sprinkling and washing is an echo of the injunctions of Exodus 29:4; Exodus 29:21; Exodus 30:20; Exodus 40:30, prescribing similar preparation for the priestly functions. Our heart or inner man by the application of the αἷμα ῥαντισμοῦ (cf. 1 Peter 1:2) is delivered from the consciousness of guilt (Hebrews 9:14); out body by the application of the purifying water of baptism becomes the symbol of complete purity. “Sprinkled with that blood which speaketh evermore in the heavenly sanctuary, and washed with baptismal water sacramentally impregnated with the same, we are at all times privileged to approach by a new and living way the heavenly temple, entering by faith its inner sanctuary, and there presenting ourselves in the presence of God” (Delitzsch). Cf. especially Psalms 51:6-7, and Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, c. 80 (p. 383) where ceremonial purifications are explained on the principle that the Pure and Undefiled must be worshipped by the pure in body and soul.