Hebrews 4:14-16

OUR HIGH PRIEST IN HEAVEN

‘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 an 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. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’

Hebrews 4:14

In His Ascension our Lord entered heaven, not only as a King of Glory, but He entered the highest heaven on our behalf as our great High Priest. Almost the whole of the Epistle to the Hebrews deals with this matter—the entrance of our Blessed Saviour into the highest heaven. And in the Epistle you will note that we find there a sketch of the perfect priest, and how our Lord represents to us the Perfect Priest. The word ‘intercession’ means to go between; our Lord’s intercession is a going between man and God, between man who has sinned and God against Whom man has sinned.

I. That intercession is of two kinds:—

(a) There is the intercession of His simple presence, the fact that in heaven He bears our own nature, the nature of those who have sinned against the Eternal Father, that in His own hands, and feet, and side He bears the mark of that which He has endured for our salvation. The simple presence of His wounded human nature is a perpetual intercession on our behalf.

(b) Beyond that there is the actual pleading for us. He speaks for you and for me, One Who knows what we need, Who knows our own helplessness, and has made Himself our champion. That help is going on ceaselessly.

II. What are the fruits of His Priesthood?—What does He obtain for us?

(a) Well, first of all, He obtains on our behalf mercy for our sins. It is an endless intercession, claiming on our behalf the Divine mercy of our Father and His forgiveness. So in the hymn we plead:—

Look, Father, look on His anointed face,

And only look on us as found in Him.

(b) Then His intercession takes up into itself the imperfection of our own prayers and of our own works. The best that we can do is poor and worthless; but, caught up in the intercession of our great High Priest, the feeblest prayers have their value, and they prevail with our Father.

(c) Yet again, His intercession upon the throne of heaven pleads endlessly for us just the graces that we need for our daily life—grace which will help us to outgrow our weakness and our faults, and grow in likeness to the perfect life of Jesus. Then there descends upon that intercession the rain of His grace, which shall help us to escape above ourselves, and to come nearer Jesus.

III. What is the consequence and fruit of all this?—We have in the text, ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.’ If the intercession of our Lord is to avail for us, if its fruit is to abound in us, then we must come to Him. There it all is—the immeasurable good of what Jesus has done and is doing on our behalf; but it awaits our claiming. ‘Come,’ the Apostle says, ‘and claim your share in the intercession of Jesus, in the merit of His life and His death. Come boldly to the throne of grace.’

—Rev. E. F. Russell.

Illustration

‘Some time ago a famous modern Jewish preacher, standing up in his pulpit and addressing a large crowd of his co-religionists, began his sermon in such words as these: “I am the child of sorrow. We Israelites are all of us the children of sorrow. For we have no one to represent us now before the throne of God.” The language is indescribably mournful; not less true than mournful. But we who believe in the Lord Jesus are not so unhappily situated. We have a great High Priest Who bears our names on His heart in the presence of God; Who carries on His shoulders the weight of our temporal and eternal interests. He is one Who has passed through the whole range of human experiences, and cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And therefore we may approach Him boldly: the poor in their bitter poverty, the suffering in their agony, the bereaved in their loneliness, the young man in his temptations (for was not Jesus Himself a young man?), the business man in his sometimes terrible struggle to keep his footing and to preserve his honour intact; and the spiritual worker in his sad hour of failure—all the sorrowful, and disappointed, and neglected, and despised, and anxious, and weary, and heavy-laden—and God knows how many such there are in the world—all, all may come and find room for themselves in that gentle and loving human heart of Jesus, ay, and find more than room—find an unfailing supply of consolation and strength.’