Coming Boldly to the Throne
Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 11:12PM Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV)
Why is it that we can have confidence when we approach God for help? It’s because of the unique nature of our high priest. Jesus is the only one who has everything required to give us direct access to God. It’s his perfect suitablity to accomplish his priestly mission that warrants our boldness before God.
For one, Jesus our High Priest has “passed through the heavens.” He’s not in a subordinate area of heaven, but up there in the highest heaven next to God the Father himself. As God’s own Son, he is not inferior to God, but equal to him, so he is right where he belongs, in God’s immediate presence, sitting at God’s right hand. He has God’s ear, you might say, in a way that no one else can ever have.
What’s more, Jesus can sympathize with us. Not only does Jesus have unhindered access to God as God’s equal, but he also represents us before God as one of us. He knows from experience what it is to be who we are, because as a human being, he experienced what we experience. Even his temptations were like ours “in every respect,” but he experienced this gamut of temptation, “yet without sin.” He never once gave in. This might lead us to think that things were easier for Jesus, but it’s just the opposite. He experienced temptation in a deeper way than we do because he always stood firm in the face of it. He knows the full force of all types of temptation common to humankind, not just the piddling part that sinners who give way to a temptation go through. No matter what temptation troubles me or what trial taunts me, Jesus knows it, and he knows it better than I do, and so he can sympathize with me.
These two things that make him the one perfect high priest: he represents us as one of us, and he has direct access to God. It is because of who he is and what he’s done that the way to the throne is open for us. It’s because of what he’s done that the throne is a throne of grace—that what is dispensed to us there is mercy and grace.
The unique nature of our high priest compels us to hold fast to our confession of Christ as a complete Saviour. The writer of Hebrews is writing, at least in part, to faithful Jews who had moved forward to embrace Christ as the fulfillment of God’s promises to them, and yet, now, were tempted to go back to the old system with its lesser priests and sacrifices. The writer warns them that to do so would be letting go of their confession of the perfect Priest and Sacrifice. We may not be tempted to to let go of our confession in exactly the same way the first generation of Jewish Christians were; but still, to the extent that we do not confidently rest in him and his work alone, to the extent that we reach backwards for other aids or go-betweens to keep us on good terms with God, we are like them.
So let us, says the text, come with confidence. Let us come without apprehension or hesitancy or timidity, and with a hand grasping nothing but Christ, who accomplished it all, once for all, knowing that it glorifies him when we use freely the access that he has opened for us. Let us draw near to the throne through the one mediator, the one high priest, the one way to God’s ear whenever we need help.