Hebrews 4 Devotional

Exposed and Still Welcomed

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”Hebrews 4:16 (BSB)

Hebrews 4 holds together two things that might seem to pull apart. First, God's word is alive and cuts deeper than any blade, laying bare the heart's thoughts and motives. No creature is hidden from God, and everything lies bare before the one we must answer to (4:12-13). That is sobering.

Then, in the very next breath, the author points to Jesus, the great high priest who has gone through the heavens (4:14). He is not distant from our weakness. He faced temptation of every kind we face, and he never sinned (4:15). So the one before whom we are fully exposed is also the one who sympathizes. The chapter has been speaking of a Sabbath rest that still remains for God's people, where they rest from their own works as God did from his (4:9-10). Here is how that rest is entered: not by hiding, but by coming near to a throne that is a throne of grace, to receive mercy and find help at the moment it is needed (4:16).

To think about: What have you been keeping from God that you could bring to his throne of grace today?