Friday 12th
Hebrews 4:14-16
NIV (v16) – ‘Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.’
ESV (v16) – ‘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.’
I ended yesterday’s devotion with the words of a song which I repeat here,
Now I approach the throne, and I have confidence,
Jesus, my great High Priest offered his blood and died.
Now I approach the throne, and I have confidence,
Jesus, my great High Priest, offered his blood and died.
Offered his blood and died, offered his blood, and died for me.
Because there is a man in heaven, the man Christ Jesus, we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. The KJV says ‘let us therefore come boldly’. How is it that we can come with confidence or boldly to the throne of grace? Paul puts it so well for us in his Ephesian letter and chapter two, where he reminds us that although we were dead in our trespasses and sin, and cut off from God and alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and without hope, God was rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, so rich that he sent his Son, and through the outworking of the Cross, the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ we have been saved, by grace through faith and taken from our position of lostness and hopelessness to a position of being found, saved, and reconciled to God. Whereas before our sins and iniquity had separated us from God, the blood of Christ has cleansed us and brought us near to God, whereas before we were enemies with God, the Cross in its redemptive power has brought peace between us and God and we are now friends of God, even more we have become his sons and daughters, he who was so far away from our thoughts has now become our heavenly Father, and we need not be afraid, but we can come boldly to the throne of grace. I mentioned a few weeks ago of the fact that when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom, thus signifying that access was now available into the presence of God, Christ’s death removed the barriers, Christ’s death makes entrance to the throne of grace possible, Christ’s death brings hope in the midst of hopelessness, and life in place of death. Christ’s death led to his resurrection, his resurrection led to his ascension, his ascension led to his exaltation, he is in the throne room, he is there not only as the exalted Son of God who has been given a name which is above every other name, he is also there as our great high priest, repeating a verse from a couple of days ago, ‘Hebrews 5:5 ‘So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”’ We can come boldly to the throne of grace because Jesus our Saviour is there and he is there as our advocate, our great high priest.
Boldly we approach the throne of Grace. I started today with the verse of the older song, and we are familiar with the words of another older song, ‘Before the throne of God above, I have a strong, a perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is Love, who ever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on his hands, my name is written on his heart, I know that while in heaven he stands no tongue can bid me thence depart.’
Tomorrow we will conclude our look at these verses.