Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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Psalm 11 portrays a very high view of God. In it we see God ruling from His throne in Heaven. He is powerful and righteous. He rains down judgment on the wicked. And this is an accurate view of God.

But if that were our only concept of God, it would be severely lacking. God is also a God of love. Everything that God does is loving. He desires that we know Him and walk with Him.

But these views of God are not as different as we often think. God’s throne is one of justice and grace. In fact, Psalm 11 makes this clear as well. The first line says, “In the Lord I take refuge.” And the last line says, “the upright shall behold his face.” This isn’t something any one of us deserves. In God’s grace, He allows us to know Him and behold Him. God’s grace is powerful.

Read Hebrews 4:14-16

From the text last week we saw that the Word of God leaves us naked and exposed before God (v. 12-13). The Bible reveals all our sin to us. The Bible is living and active. When we read it, we hear God speaking to us today. It convicts us of sin, compels us to know Christ, and equips us to live our lives to the glory of God. And Jesus Himself, being the Word of God, is powerful and living and active, and His life and death pierces our hearts. On the one hand, the life of Jesus condemns us because He proved that a life of faithful obedience to God is possible. On the other hand, the death of Jesus frees us, because He offered a sacrifice for our sin.

This Jesus is our High Priest (v. 14). This is a theme that the book of Hebrews keeps coming back to, with good reason. God established the Levitical priesthood to foreshadow the coming Christ. It reminded the Jews that they their sins needed to be atoned for. And that never changed. Our sins must also be atoned for. Every last one of us is guilty before God.

But our High Priest offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sin. This was the sacrifice that all the prior sacrifices pointed to. That’s why we no longer need to continue the sacrifices established under the Old Covenant.

He “passed through the heavens.” The high priest of the Old Covenant would enter the Holy of Holies once per year to make atonement. But our High Priest has passed through the heavens. He is from Heaven, and He passed through the heaven, that is, the sky as He ascended, and has returned to Heaven. He is now in Heaven making intercession for us. His work is complete, yet He still pleads on our behalf. He claims those who hold fast to their confession that He is the Son of God. We confess that He is our High Priest, and we accept His sacrifice. Upon our confession of faith in Him, He then intercedes for us as our High Priest.

Having Jesus as our High Priest comforts us (v. 15). He knows the weight of temptation. God knew what it would be like before Jesus experienced it firsthand. But now we know that He knows what it’s like to be us. And He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He doesn’t excuse our weaknesses. He doesn’t excuse our sin. He resisted all sin and so ought we. But He does sympathize with us in terms of the weight of sin. He knows how weak we are, how we give in so easily and so often. And Jesus will always be there to pick us back up. And throughout it all, Jesus encourages us to stand strong in our confession.

God’s throne is a throne of grace (v. 16). Thrones are places for kings with power. And we know that God is powerful, and rightly sits on the throne over all. Yet the Bible here describes the throne as the throne of grace.

Movies don’t often show grace. Think about it. The good guys almost always kill the bad guys in the end. And even when the good guy doesn’t kill the bad guy, the bad guy usually ends up in jail where he will suffer for the rest of his life. And that’s seen as the powerful, triumphant, good wins over evil happy ending. Just once I’d like to see a movie where in the end the bad guy is trapped in a corner and the good guy approaches him with his weapon and says, “I forgive you.” And out of the joy of being forgiven, the bad guy turns his life around and becomes best friends with the good guy and they fight crime together. It doesn’t happen in the movies!

But when God shows grace, it’s out of His power. He doesn’t destroy us all out of His wrath. We all deserve that. And that would be easy for God to do, rather than putting up with our constant whining and sinning. But God chooses to show us grace. He chose to send Christ to die for our sin. And when we repent and turn to Christ in faith, He shows us His grace and forgives us, because He has the power to do so. And that same grace is there to help us whenever we need it. We approach the throne of grace with confidence! We’re able to pray, talking with the King of Kings! When temptation comes our way, that powerful grace compels us to pursue what’s better for us.

We ought to show that grace to others as well. Get grace. Give grace. We’re to get grace from God, and we’re to give grace to others. But it’s not a weak grace. It’s a powerful grace. It’s not a grace that tolerates sin, but one that points people to the one who forgives sin. It’s not a grace that loves people because of their sin, but despite their sin, and loves them so much that we want them to repent of their sin and trust in Christ.

Christ died to show us that kind of grace. An unconditional, yet powerfully transforming grace. And it’s our great privilege to extend that powerful, life-transforming grace to others.