Immanuel

As I was contemplating the Christmas story last week, the name Immanuel kept coming to mind.  In Matthew 1 an angel is telling Joseph of what's about to happen and says in v.23 "Behold, the virgin shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. which translated means "God with us"".
This name Immanuel has two meanings in the divine plan of the Gospel.  Christ humbled himself, took on humanity, and was thusly "with us" (Jn 1:14,Phil 2:7) while he walked the Earth.  However, Immanuel also describes the end goal of the work Christ came to do.  When Jesus died he cried "It is finished!"(Jn 19:30) and the veil in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Mt 27:51).
   In the Jewish temple the inner room was called the "Holy of Holies".  In this room the Ark of the Covenant was kept.  This ark represented the presence of God.  The only man who could enter into the presence was the High Priest and he could only come once a year.  The Holy of Holies was separated from the rest of the temple and the people by a thick dark veil.  This veil was symbolic of the division between God and man, sin.
When Christ died he bore our sins(Isa 53:5-6), became the sacrifice for our sins(1Jn2:2), and fulfilled our debt of sin toward God(Col2:14).  He condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3) taking it out of the way.  The veil was torn because the sin barrier between God and man has been removed by the work of the cross and now through Christ, Immanuel, God is with us.
The ministry of Jesus and ours who preach the Gospel is one of reconciliation.  "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ , and gave us the ministry of  reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ  reconciling the world to himself, not counting the world's sins against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation" 2 Cor 5:18-19.
This all leads to the question that crossed my mind while contemplating "Immanuel."  If God with us was the goal and Christ accomplished it fully, removing the veil of sin, why are believers more focused on their sin (which has already been dealt with and removed), than we are with the God who we are reconciled to?  We have been reconciled. We have been made perfect(Heb10:14, Heb12:23).  We have peace with God(Rom5:1).  Let us move past sin, guilt, and condemnation, recognizing that it has been defeated and removed, and that God's grace and the fruit of the Spirit will cause us to move to maturity(Rom6:14, Titus2:11-12, Heb6:1-3, Gal5:22).
True life is knowing and being with God(Jn17:3,Ps16:11), and Christ has paved the way for us to enter into this life totally and unhindered.  Lets stop looking at the entry point of salvation and move into the fullness of the inheritance of the saints.