A Priest In Need

Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

Therefore – Why do we need a high priest?   So we can feel better?  So we can be forgiven when we fall?  Yes, of course, but there is more.  “Therefore” (in Greek gar) tells us that the reason we can approach the throne is because we have a high priest who suffers with us in our weaknesses.  We will not understand the full role of the high priest unless we see the connection between the one who suffers with us and the one who is called to represent us.

What would it be like to have a high priest who merely represented the holy God?  In His holiness, God is infinitely removed from us.  We are not worthy, righteous or holy.  We have no right to stand before Him to plead our case.  We have no case.  But a high priest is chosen by God to represent the people before the Holy One of Israel.  Having been chosen by God, the high priest is invested with a worthiness that allows him to plead on our behalf.  The author of Hebrews points out that Yeshua is not just any high priest.  He is the chosen high priest.  But more than this, He is the one who suffers with us.  When He stands before the throne, He stands in our place for He knows us.  As a result of His suffering with our weaknesses, therefore we can draw near.  The fact that He represents us in our most fragile state allows us to come before God to ask for mercy and grace.

Notice we do not come before Him in our strengths.  That would be inconsistent with the role of the high priest.  The high priest does not represent the worthiness of the people.  He represents the failure of the people.  He is an advocate for mercy on behalf of a people who have sinned.  It is sin that requires a high priest, not righteousness.  The reason we can draw near to God is because we are sinners, not because we are righteous.  Only sinners need a priest.

This is great news!  Who among us can stand before God’s throne on his own merit?  No one.  Who can ask for mercy simply because he needs it?  No one.  It is the intercession of the high priest, chosen by God, that makes our appeal efficacious.  On the basis of the high priest’s capacity to suffer with us, we are healed.  When we desperately need the compassionate hand of God in our lives, we are able to experience the Father’s grace.  God gives us audience on the basis of the high priest’s sympathy with us.  Therefore, we can speak who we are in all our weaknesses, failures and sins.  We can receive mercy.  We may find grace.  When our lives are shattered by failures and weakness, we have access.  Those are the moments when the high priest opens the door for us.

Too often we hesitate to come before Him when we are weak and damaged.  We see our insignificance and feel the weight of our sins.  We hold back.  But it is precisely at those moments that the high priest urges us to enter.  Our moments of greatest weakness and failure are the moments when the high priest exercises His calling.  We must set aside our unwarranted fears and come with confidence.  He will not reject those whom the high priest brings to Him.

Topical Index: high priest, therefore, gar, mercy, grace, Hebrews 4:16