Redeemed Rebels in the Throne Room of God

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 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.
Hebrews 4:14-16

How would you feel to be face to face with royalty? If the Queen of England invited you over for tea, would you play it cool, or have a panic attack? Seeing as I can get self-conscious and anxious in conversations with my friends, I think that a one-on-one meeting with the Queen would fry my circuits permanently! You may never get to meet the Queen or any royalty for that matter, but every time you pray, you enter into the throne room of God and make petitions before the ultimate King of Kings.

Not only is God the most powerful and holy and pure being in the universe, we have personally affronted Him and rebelled against Him. Some of the key words surrounding sin are ‘defying’, ‘disregarding’, ‘refusing to acknowledge’, ‘hating’, ‘cursing’, and ‘rebelling’. We have opposed God to His face! We have no right to be before the throne of God, much less to “in confidence draw near”! The question we ask today is “why does God hear our prayers”?

If God were to interact with you on the basis of your actions, He would immediately hurl you into hell. We, as Christians, in this day of loose theology and man-centered gospels must be clear about this truth before we can understand the wonder of grace. Our actions have only merited death and distance from God, not a confident life before His throne and in His presence!

Hebrews 4 speaks of three reasons we are able to draw near to the throne with confidence. The first is that “we have a great high priest”. Jesus Christ as the High Priest is a key theme of Hebrews and every chapter serves to clarify that picture. We are reminded that Christ, the superior high priest, offered Himself, the superior sacrifice, to pardon permanently our sins. Let us be clear in this age of cheap grace and love without justice that Christianity is the worship of God by grace!

The gospel of Jesus Christ is that all of mankind has rebelled against their Creator by disobeying Him and refusing to acknowledge His glory. It is the message of that same God who sent His Son to Earth to live perfectly and to die innocently so that any person who by grace accepts His sacrifice through faith would be declared righteous and pardoned of all past, present, and future sin. Not only that, but Paul in Romans 5 speaks of Christ’s death as granting us peace with God, a relationship with the Lord!

It is by this gospel that we are allowed before the throne of God. We can draw near to the throne because Christ’s righteousness is ours by faith! When we pray it is not because we are owed a listening ear, but because by Christ’s sacrifice, we are declared righteous and granted peace with God as our Father.

The second reason for our confident access before God is that Christ sympathizes with us! He suffered and was tempted like we were and yet was sinless. He does not condemn you for all the sins that were unavoidable. He understands the difficulty of refusing temptation and the heart-breaking sorrow of this evil world. He welcomes us to pray because He understands our suffering and our hurts.

Lastly, we can draw near to God because He will give us grace and mercy in our time of need! God does not condone our sin and He is never indifferent about our holiness, but He will offer us forgiveness and mercy and grace when we as sinners approach Him desiring these things! It is by these three things that we draw near to God, before His throne. Christ has won us peace with God, He understands our suffering, and He offers grace and mercy when we need it, which is always. We always need grace and mercy.

How does this affect our lives as believers? Many of us never question why we are able to pray and don’t think about our unworthiness to be before God. So how can a better understanding of access through grace help us in our journey to biblical foundations for prayer?

While we might say that we don’t think about our unworthiness in prayer, it is my experience that a Christian caught in sin does not by instinct run to God but away from Him. The moment after prayer is often a moment of hiding, not of praying. Adam and Eve are a testament to this instinct. In sin they hid from God’s presence among the trees! Achan buried his sin in the ground so that he might not be discovered. David crafted a scheme to cover his sins from before the Lord. This is is the sinful nature of man we fear, we are ashamed, we run, we hide. In sin, we must hold to our confession that by Christ’s works and not our own we have been given access to God as our father without exception!

This is a weighty truth we must consider. In Christ, we have utter confidence that God always hears our prayers and will never cast us out from His presence because of our great sin! My favorite hymn of all time sums up these things beautifully:

Before the throne of God above 
I have a strong and 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 heav’n He stands 
No tongue can bid me thence depart 
No tongue can bid me thence depart 

When Satan tempts me to despair 
And tells me of the guilt within 
Upward I look and see Him there 
Who made an end of all my sin 
Because the sinless Savior died 
My sinful soul is counted free 
For God the Just is satisfied 
To look on Him and pardon me 
To look on Him and pardon me 

Before The Throne of God Above

Last week I challenged you to pray the Lord’s Prayer each day. I hope it was a beneficial to you as it was to me! This week, take some time to meditate on all of the things that make you feel unwelcome before the throne of God and all the things that make you unworthy of God’s presence. Then meditate and pray in thanksgiving for the Christ’s sacrifice, His sympathy, and His grace and mercy. God has given us Himself in Christ’s death and resurrection! Hallelujah, what a Savior!