Confidently approaching the throne

 This week's verses are Hebrews 4:14-16:

Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.

 I was reading these verses last week, and was struck by how approachable Jesus is in these verses. We often distance people who have imperfections that cause them to handle things worse than we do. We ignore the poor people who always ask for money. We roll our eyes at people who lose their temper and get fired for acting out. And we laugh at people who get arrested for doing stupid things while drunk.

There isn't a whole lot of natural grace in us as human beings. Even as imperfect as we are, we sort of draw a line just beneath us on the imagined hierarchy of perfection, at least as far as determining who we will genuinely sympathize with. And if we're like that, just imagine the barrier that should exist between us and a truly perfect being! If we can't even be completely open and vulnerable with our boss, or even with someone who is more or less on our same level, how could we possibly approach someone who is perfection itself? We would be destroyed!

We see that in the Old Testament a lot. Even Peter, when he first encounters Jesus, tries to put a safe distance between them by saying "get away from me, I am a sinful man." But here Paul tells us that actually the opposite is true: God is not incapable of understanding our weakness at all. Jesus doesn't draw the line and mock us from the other side of it. He invites us to cross it and join him in a position we don't deserve.

In the same way that we condemn others, unless we're total narcissists, we also fall into a fair amount of self-condemnation. Our natural grace is so limited that we often don't even have enough on hand for private consumption. We assume that because we are unable to accept our failures or weaknesses or stupid actions, that God won't accept us either. 

But Jesus lived out life as we are, and lived through the mechanisms that tempt us to sin, and even if he didn't sin he still knows what the temptation is like and can understand. It would be totally understandable for him to act the way we do, and be like "I've been in that situation a bunch of times and never did the stupid thing you did. You're just a loser." But he doesn't. He's perfect.

Paul would know this more than most people. He's basically the guy who ran the wrong way and scored a touchdown against his own team on national television. He was all-in, but in the opposite direction to what God wanted. And yet God came and invited him to be one of his star players. If ever there was a situation where God's grace could justifiably run short, that would have been it.

So when we find ourselves getting down on ourselves, we should approach God confidently and be open and vulnerable about what has happened. We need help in those cases and his mercy and grace is the help we need. And moreover, not only is that help available, but we have even been invited to come and receive it. What could possibly be better?

So don't let anyone tell you that you've gone too far, or that God will withhold his grace until you get your act together. The most sure sign of you having your act together is to take him up on his invitation and go get some help.