Christ, the incarnate Son of God. The purpose of God to make provision for the redemption of men has been fulfilled in the incarnation and death of his Son.
V.12. Hence, as the consequence of this accom- plished work, we have, in him, τὴν παῤῥησίαν καὶ τὴν προςαγωγὴν ἐν πεποιθήσει, boldness and access with confidence, i. e. free and unrestricted access to God, as children to a father. We come with the assurance of being accepted, because our confidence does not rest on our own merit, but on the infinite merit of an infi- nite Saviour. It is in Him we have this liberty. We have this free access to God; we believers; not any particular class, a priesthood among Christians to whom alone access is permitted, but all believers without any priestly intervention, other than that of one great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Παῤῥησία as used in Scripture, is not merely freespokenness, nor yet simple frankness, but fearlessness, freedom from apprehension of rejec- tion or of evil. It is this Christ has procured for us. Even the vilest may, in Christ, approach the infinitely holy, who is a consuming fire, with fearlessness. No- thing short of an infinite Saviour could effect such a redemption. The accumulation of substantives in this sentence, boldness, access, confidence, shows that there was no word which could express what Paul felt in view of the complete reconciliation of men to God through Jesus Christ.
We have this free access to God with full con- fidence of acceptance through faith of Hum, i. e. by