Hebrews 7:19

(For the law made nothing perfect), and the bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.

Not once in this whole epistle is there the slightest suggestion of a meaning for the expression "the law" that would distinguish it from the law of Moses in general. The great failure of that law was that it could not motivate and inspire people to righteous living, nor reassure and forgive them when they failed, nor provide the Holy Spirit as a comforter within them, nor spell out the nature of the inheritance above, in any manner comparable to the availability of such blessings in the new covenant. Above everything else, it failed to enable people to draw near to God; and, as Bruce accurately observed, "The whole apparatus of worship associated with that ritual and priesthood was calculated rather to keep people at a distance from God than to bring them near."[23] Bruce, of course, as many others, limits the failure of the law to that portion of it associated with that "ritual and priesthood"; but the moral code was just as helpless as the ritual to bring people near to God. Again reference is made to those magnificent portions of the Sermon on the Mount in which the Saviour dealt with this very thing (Matthew 5:21,27,33).

DRAWING NEAR TO GOD

Not only is it a fact that people may draw near to God, they are commanded to do so (James 4:8). (1) The initiative for such action rests with people; and the importance of this is seen in almost anything from a tennis match to a naval battle, where the initiative determines victory or defeat. It is man's move, not God's. See Matthew 11:29,30; John 7:37; Mark 16:15,16, etc. There is nothing else that God could be expected to do, other than what he has already done to save people. The propitiation has been provided (Romans 3:24,25); and all people are invited to participate in the salvation thus made possible; "Whosoever will may come!" (Revelation 22:17). (2) There are great advantages that come from drawing near to god; for, when people draw near to God, he draws near to them, a phenomenon that is true even in the natural world, where the reciprocal pull of gravity is conversely the square of the intervening distances between heavenly bodies in space. (3) The procedure necessary to be followed by them that would draw near to God is more fully outlined under Hebrews 10:19-22.