Our 2022 motto text could really be a text for any time, any year!
It’s Hebrews 4:16, specifically from the NIV translation: 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.
It’s a fabulous verse, but to reach its depths we need to work our way towards it – first thinking about “grace” and then about how the writer to the Hebrews builds up to his verse.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube. You can find many more sermons in our Sermon Index.
God of grace
God’s grace is a massive theme throughout the Bible. God is gracious by his very nature: Psalm 86:15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth.
The apostle Paul was amazed that God would save him of all people. 1 Timothy 1:12-14: I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.
And that’s true of all of us – none of us can claim we deserve to be saved. Ephesians 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
So we see the primary understanding of grace – a lavish, generous, undeserved kindness and blessing. And that is very much the nature of our gracious, generous, giving God.
Divine assistance
But then there is an important, secondary understanding of grace. Read 1 Corinthians 15:10 (NIV) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
- Paul uses the word “grace” three times in one verse.
- But by the grace of God I am what I am – Paul deserves no good thing from God, but God is gracious, generous
- and his grace to me was not without effect. – It’s not an abstract idea; Paul has been transformed by grace.
- No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. – This is really important.
This third mention of “grace” is active.
Not only do you receive God’s grace (undeserved kindness), his grace also works in you actively. In this sense, God’s grace is the divine assistance of the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit’s active influence in you, in unmerited favour.
When Paul had that thorn in his flesh and he prayed 3 times that the Lord would take it away, what was he told? 2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”
- How is Jesus using the word “grace” there?
- Is he saying, “My undeserved kindness is sufficient for you”?
- Isn’t it rather, “In your distress and pain, the divine assistance of the Holy Spirit is sufficient – his active influence in you, in unmerited favour”?
So God’s grace is, in a sense, passive (to you) and active (in you). It is undeserved kindness. And it is divine assistance. Now, we’re going to work towards our motto text.
Confident of Christ
In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer wants you to grasp the utter supremacy of Christ:
- Jesus is higher than the angels, more foundational than Moses, the mediator of a better covenant, by a better sacrifice than anything that has gone before.
- In particular, the opening verses of Hebrews are dazzling in their description of Jesus:
- Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV)
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory. As sunshine is the radiance of the Sun – inseparable, one with each other. Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being – he is the sole communication of the Father to the church. As fish beget fish, and mammals beget mammals, so Jesus is God of God – eternally so, one with the Father.
In Hebrews 4:14, the writer wants you to realise that your great high priest in heaven is none other than “Jesus the Son of God”
- The radiance of God’s glory
- The exact representation of God’s being
- The one who is heir of all things and sustains all things
The man in heaven
More, he has “ascended into heaven”.
- In Leviticus, the high priest entered the presence of God behind the curtain just once each year – on the Day of Atonement.
- Jesus the Son of God sacrificed himself.
- This radiance of God’s glory became a man, and died in our place, taking our curse and punishment.
- And it’s that Jesus – the Son of God in human flesh – who is raised from the dead and has now gone through the ultimate “curtain”! Into heaven itself, for us!
There is no higher hope, no surer foundation for faith. Let us hold firmly to this because there can be nothing better or higher or stronger:
- The one who is the radiance of the glory of God became human, and died as a sacrifice for your sin
and has now ascended to the presence of the Father where he is your great high priest. - Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Hebrews 4:14
The man who understands your life
You might think that such a mighty person couldn’t really understand what it’s like to be you. But that’s just the point: The one who represents you in heaven knows exactly what you face. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15
He does understand your temptations because he knows what temptation feels like.
- We have a fence panel at the side of our house that pops out if you so much as sneeze on it.
- It doesn’t know what it’s like to stand up against storm Arwen, or storm Barra, or any other – it fell.
- But strength is seen in those things than withstood the full force of those storms.
- And the moral strength of Jesus is seen in his ability to withstand every temptation and testing that came his way – and to do so without falling, without sin.
So he knows your pressures and temptations – he’s already felt them to the uttermost, yet without sin. So you have a great high priest who is the eternal Son of God who has experienced your pain, whose sacrifice for your sin is already accepted.
Knowing all that, if you had a problem in your life, where would you go?
Let us then approach
Our Motto text is Hebrews 4:16 – 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.
Let us then
- Other translations say “therefore”. It’s a strong causal link.
- We don’t approach God on our own merits, nor do we come to a God who will refuse to hear us.
- We come because we have a great high priest who is competent to represent us, a sacrifice that covers every sin, and a God who loves us enough to give his Son.
approach God’s throne of grace
- The word “God” isn’t in the original text but some translations add it just to spell it all out for us.
- He sits exalted above the heavens. He has to stoop down to look at the heavens.
- His throne is over all creation, and it is a throne of grace.
- None deserve to approach him simply because he is our creator, and his existence is immeasurable more wonderful than ours in every dimension.
- As rebels against him, we would have more chance flying into the sun than approaching one so holy.
- And yet, he sits on a throne of grace. He displays undeserved kindness as a benevolent, loving king.
approach… with confidence,
- Some translations have “boldness”. I’ve always been a bit troubled by that word.
- How can I – even a sinner loved and chosen by God – dare to approach him with boldness?
- When the heavenly beings in his presence cover their eyes and cry out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy” – how can I approach with boldness?
- The word used means both boldness and confidence, and ‘confidence’ is a more helpful understanding here.
- You – even you – can approach God’s throne of grace, high above all his creation, because of Jesus.
- You have confidence in Jesus.
- Confident that Jesus is the Son of God; that his humanity ensures he understands why you’ve come; that his ascension means your sins are fully atoned for; and that his position means he is a perfect advocate for you at the throne of God.
- No-one comes boldly in their own abilities; no-one is to come pretending assertiveness or special abilities.
- But you can come, confident in Jesus.
so that
- You are meant to come. God intends for you to come.
- He wants you to reflect on what he has done for you in his Son, Jesus.
- He wants you to reflect on who Jesus is, to know him, to meet with Christ, and then knowing him you will have that utmost confidence to come to God when you need him
we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- Mercy – relief from the pains of life.
- Grace – undeserved kindness and divine assistance. A very definite help; a supernatural intervention.
- When? In our time of need.
- Who doesn’t need that?
I have a friend who works at sea. They do emergency drills over and over, so that they know who does what when something goes wrong. It’s mostly tedious. Then, one day, someone on his boat collapsed. Everyone knew what to do, and a helicopter came and took the man away. It’s was flawless, because it was practised.
Develop your prayerful habits, regularly going to Christ in time of comfort so that you will immediately find help in time of need.
And meditate on him, so that your knowledge, wonder, and confidence in him will grow every stronger.
There will be a day when you need his help. Maybe soon.