We have in these few words the fullness of the Godhead: believers have access to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. All this fullness is engaged in the work of man's salvation. Now in the ultimate analysis this is salvation - access to God. We know that this is how man, ruined by sin, is presented to us in the Scriptures of Truth. Man sinned and was expelled from the presence of God, and not only was he expelled, but every precaution was taken that he would not return; that he would not, in other words, have a way of access unto life. Lest man should put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life, the Lord set His cherubim, that is the living creature, at the Gate of Eden, guarding the way with a flaming sword.

Access, in other words, is made absolutely impossible. That is, from man's side - and this is his guilt and misery. This is the essence of it - that he is expelled, he is a wanderer, he is cast out from God - man's misery commenced in this, for by the fall man lost communion with God.

But he is not expelled in such a way that there cannot be a return. There certainly cannot be a return on the part of man because he has neither the desire nor the energy to retrace his steps. All the propensities of his nature hasten on the way of getting further and further from God. Man's back is towards God, and his face is towards perdition, and thus he moves, and thus moves gathering momentum. He doesn't merely move at a steady pace, on a stated pace; he gathers momentum all the time in his downward course, in his flight from God. For he is without God in the world, without Christ and without hope - this is man's condition.

But now Paul says "We have access", and this access is based on peace. He has made peace through the blood of his cross. We have almost the identical thought, almost in identical words, in the first verse of Romans 5 - "being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God". Being justified by faith, we have peace, and we have access to peace. The peace of God means not the peace one enjoys in oneself. It is objective, not subjective. It is something that has objective reality, not something that is merely enjoyed in man's soul. Of course it can be enjoyed in man's soul, but that is not its basis. It is something that God has accomplished, something that God has brought about, and that is peace.

Now, if He is our peace, and if we have no peace without Him, there is the implication that what exists without Him is not a state of peace, but a state of war, and a state of enmity. And that is exactly the testimony of Scripture. Man is at enmity with God. From man's side, the angel with the flaming sword is still at the gate. He is not, and cannot be displaced by man. But nevertheless, God has made peace, and to make peace means, or implies at least, coming to close quarters with the flaming sword. There was to be peace on no other condition; there was to be reconciliation on no other basis. We now have access - therefore someone must have come to grips with the flaming sword.

Zechariah the prophet speaks in these terms: "Awake O sword against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts; smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered". This would seem as if in some sense the sword lay dormant. Now we may think of this in the sense that the saints of God in the Old Testament dispensation came in; the sword did not bar Abraham from access to God, although the work of reconciliation was not yet effected. It lay dormant in the sense that there was a way of access based on a coming reconciliation. Christ goes towards the sword. He is to do business with that which turns this way and that, guarding the way to the tree of life.

For Him, there is no turning back. He has set His face like a flint, and His disciples were afraid - they turned and fled. But He went on; for Him there was no turning back. As Lachlan Mackenzie used to say of that sword, "It clave His humanity till it hit His divinity". And then it turned back. It could go no further. He is our peace, and the sword is sheathed forever. It is now not only dormant but out of the way, for all who are in Christ Jesus and in Him ascend the hill of God, having received righteousness from Him who went before. We have access through Him and in Him, access into the very presence of God.

We have access not up to a certain point merely, but into the holiest of all, and it is through Him who made peace, who met the sword, who came back, not without marks of conflict, but who came back triumphant, and as He is seen returning, it is in garments rolled in blood. Who is this that cometh, who has been to enemy country and back again? "Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel?" Who is it? It is He that speaks in righteousness, and who is "mighty to save".