Hi friends, it’s been a while – I’m sorry!
I’m studying the Book of Hebrews, which focuses on the
theme, “Christ, Our High Priest.” I indeed must say that Hebrews is a very
detailed book. Although, I have studied Hebrews before, I come to realize each
time I study the Bible that the more of God you know, the more of Him you do
not know. How amazing to know that one can never fully exhaust the knowledge,
revelation and inspiration from the Bible. Get started on it if you haven’t,
folks.
Anyway, I’d like to share something from the Book of Hebrews
with y’all; stay with me, please.
----
One of the first things we learn in Hebrews about High
Priest Jesus is that He’s been there, man! He has walked this earth and been
through it all.
For we have not a
High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
-
Hebrews 4:15 (KJV)
He knows what you are going through. He is not just a
sympathetic High Priest; He also is an empathetic one. He understands pain (He was beaten, scourged, pierced – Isaiah 53:5); and hurts (He was belittled by His own relatives (Mark 6:1-6) and abandoned by His friends at the most difficult,
most trying time of His life – Mark
14:50-52); and disappointments
(the primary people He came to save did not believe in Him – John 1:11); and shame
(He was paraded on foot around town while hauling a cross to His death ground
for a crime He did not commit – John
19:14-18); and loneliness (Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani – Matthew 27:45-46).
He also had some good times just like we do – healing the
sick – Luke 8:43-48, Luke 5:17-26;
raising the dead (most notably, his friend) John 11; wiping away tears – Luke 7:11-17; teaching – Matthew 5:1-2; forgiving sins – John 8:1-11; hanging out with friends
– John 7:36-50, John 21:8-13, Luke
19:1-10; etc. And also like us, in the midst of all these, He encountered
storms – Mark 4:35-41; was often
harassed – Luke 20:20, John 8:6; and
was tempted (not one, not two, not three times – scriptures say Satan went away
for a season; which simply means that old dude must’ve come back to try his
luck some more times) – Matthew 4:1-11.
Our High Priest went through it all.
We can rightly say that sin is the root cause of all the
problems in this perfectly-created world we live in. And I am also correct when
I say some of our personal problems, in fact, many of them [even as
Christians], are as a result of our own sins/shortcomings. But here we have
Jesus, our High Priest, who went through more than what we go through, and
without sin. He did not deserve any of the hurt, pain or shame; yet He went
through them. He could have thrown tantrums at the Father as we often do;
rightly claiming that He did not deserve to go through those, but He didn’t.
Isaiah says He was led as a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7) – gently &
willingly. Unlike us, He did not give up and He never sinned – NOT once.
And this is why He could become our Perfect High Priest. As
High Priest, He is our intercessor. He made atonement for our sin; and this He
did with Himself. He was the very sacrifice that He sacrificed. As our High
Priest, he leads us into the very presence of God (Hebrews 6:19-20). Without
Jesus, we could not approach the Father. But with Him, we not only approach
Him, we have been asked to come boldly (Hebrews 4:16).
I used to think that the Throne of Grace was for those who
has it together. That “come boldly”
threw me off. I couldn’t imagine a sinner coming “boldly”, so I just imagined
that Christians who have it all together are the ones to whom that verse
referred. But some months ago, God opened my eyes to the truth in that verse.
Let’s examine it:
·
“Let us therefore
·
Come boldly
·
Unto the Throne of
grace
·
That we may:
o Obtain mercy, and
o Find grace
·
To help … In the time
of need.”
Yes. I know I just broke that verse in bits. That was how
God showed it to me. Let me explain:
1. First, “Let us
therefore” indicates that something has been said before that we have to
pay attention to (vv14-15). This, I already explained above.
“Seeing then that we have a great High
Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin.”
-
Hebrews 4:14-15
Now, in that light, knowing that our Forerunner (that is,
the One who leads us (Hebrews 6:20) into the presence of God– to the Throne of
grace) has been through it all without
sin, we can therefore…
2.
Come Boldly:
We come boldly [fearlessly, confidently,
freely, cheerfully courageous, assuredly, openly] NOT based on anything we
have done or can ever do (we’ll see for
certain that it’s not us in a bit), but based entirely on Christ’s merit. Now,
you may think that the people who are completely in right standing with God (by their own efforts – if it were possible)
are the ones who can come boldly/confidently – at least, that’s what I thought.
It is, however, not so at all.
We have been invited to come boldly…
3.
Unto the Throne of Grace:
The Throne of Grace is the place Jesus, as our Perfect High Priest leads us to.
It is the very presence of God. It is the place every believer should long for
daily. I won’t go into any details about
this place today. I’m going somewhere; let’s move on.
4.
That you may:
We have been asked to come boldly to this Throne of grace for two things:
a.
To obtain mercy:
Now, this is it where it may shock us. I personally do not know of any
“put-together” individual who needs mercy. Do you? I mean, if I never cheated
you, why do I need to ask you to forgive me for cheating you? I do not need the
mercy or forgiveness of someone whom I have not offended.
What is mercy?
Mercy is not meting out the punishment that one deserves on him/her. So for
example, you burgled my home, damaged some of my properties and attempted to
steal from me, but unfortunately for you, you got caught. Now, rather than
report you to the police to have you jailed, I chose to just let you go. That
is mercy. That is something God invites us to come boldly to obtain. Note that coming boldly precedes the mercy that
is offered. A person who has offended you, who is in need of your mercy, should
come fearfully to you, not boldly. But here God is asking the sinner, the
prostitute, the murderer, the adulterer, and yes, the Christian who like me
screws up on a regular, regular, annoyingly regular basis to come boldly.
What does this mean? It means we come boldly NOT on our own
merit but solely, completely, totally on the merit of our sinless High Priest.
Now, if God had stopped at mercy, He would have been
perfectly justified. If all God told me was, “Temi, I won’t count your sins against you,” it would have been
perfect by me. But He did not stop there. He went further. He did more than He
should have; way more than we deserved. Not only does He offer mercy at the
Throne; there we also come to...
b.
Find grace:
Back to my owner and thief story. So
after I caught you stealing from me, and I was merciful enough not to report
you the authorities, I went further to provide you a fully furnished apartment
to live in; I gave you a good paying job in my company; and extended to you a
lifetime (but voluntary) weekly offer as a lunch guest in my home every Sunday;
and just kept on treating you like nothing ever happened. That’s beyond mercy.
That is grace.
God’s grace, as I (personally) would like to call it, is an
undeserving extension of God’s mercy (1 Timothy 1:12-14). It is God’s unmerited
favor towards mankind (Romans 5:8; John 3:16). It is available to all men
(Titus 2:11) – to saints and sinners (1 John 2:2). All the benefits we have in
Christ, we receive by His grace. Your hard work [even for the Lord] cannot provide
you any of those benefits. Paul declared, “I am what I am by the grace of God”
(1st Corinthians 15:10).
A put-together person does not need grace. What does he need
it for? He has it all together already. But if you are like me, I am grateful
for grace. I am grateful for mercy. I
need my High Priest every day. I am empty without Him. Left by myself, my name
should be, “Temi Screw-upper Lasisi”. I cannot breathe without His mercy and
His grace.
There is something that His mercy and His grace do for me.
5. To Help… In the time of need: Again, put-together people do not need help and they do not
have times of need. But Screw-Upper Temi Messy Lasisi needs help every step of
the way. Every time, I am in need – desperately in need of Him – every every
time. The moment I feel put-together, I screw up so BIG; even I don’t believe I
did what I did. I am glad He always meets me and helps me. I’d be lost without
Him.
So, hey, fellow left-by-themselves screw-uppers like me, God
is saying to you, “Come boldly.”
You promised you’ll never gossip again, come boldly.
You’ve sworn that never again will you watch pornography and
masturbate, come freely.
And to you who do not know how to handle the storms, the
confusion and the troubles in your life, you know you’re in a desperate time of
need. You need help, just come.
To my preacher, Bible teacher & Christian counselor
friends, we know how we like to look put-together before our congregation/Bible
students/counselees. We must agree, though, that behind the scene, we mess up
too – we exaggerate, react too harshly, get angry, yell … dang … we look
lustfully sometimes (hey, honesty here),
etc. We like to look put-together, and sometimes, we like to deceive ourselves
that we are too; whereas, we’re a broken glass inside, a little more
self-deception, and we’ll shatter. Enough of the sham; come humbly, come
confidently, come as you are.
Satan will want to deceive you that you should remain timid
before God (especially right after you’ve fallen short) because you do not measure
up to God’s holiness. He’ll tell you that should remain ashamed of yourself to
show that you’re remorseful for your wrongs. Brothers and sisters, remorse does
NOT move God. Get that right! Repentance is what matters to God and it’s by His
mercy and grace that you can keep away from sin that soils. So next time Satan
comes with such demoralizing & intimidating debasing thoughts, just shake
it off, put him in his place, and COME to the Throne of grace…
…BOLDLY
