Father God, in the Old Testament, established the priesthood through the line of Levi. Priests collected 10% of all offerings for their livelihood. In the Lord Jesus’ day, they had also become industrious in finding other money-making opportunities. (Remember Jesus in the Temple?) All that to say that the priesthood wasn’t poor. Priests had the time to sit around the discuss “great theological matters” and to continue to expand the Torah, placing more and more restraints on the behavior of the common Jews. Not only that, but the priests (now divided into a number of groups including the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes) were more concerned about imposing these minuscule laws than ministering to the needy among them.
At one point when Jesus was having dinner in Matthew’s home–a dinner attended by “many tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9:10)–the Pharisees criticized Him for hanging around with, in essence, those people. Jesus answered them by quoting from Hosea 6:6 that the Lord desires mercy and not sacrifice. In other words, the whole point of everything was to turn these people to God, something the priests weren’t doing.
The second thing in this passage is to understand that the High Priest was the one who went into the Holiest Place in the Temple (where the Ark of the Covenant was supposed to be) and acted as a representative of the people to God. It was there that the High Priest would present the offering for the forgiveness of sins and accept God’s forgiveness and mercy.
And so, the Lord Jesus is now our High Priest, standing before the Throne, interceding on our behalf. But more than that. He is a High Priest who lived on this earth poor and alone. He was tempted, but resisted and didn’t sin. He lived in a human body and understands first hand how we have to live, our frustrations, our weaknesses, our temptations. Because He understands, scripture tells us that we can come boldly to Him to get mercy and grace. We don’t have to try to come up with reasons or excuses. The Lord Jesus understands how desperately we need mercy, how desperately we need grace.
Mercy is particularly related in scripture to the forgiveness of sins. The psalmist writes:
“For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You” (Psalm 86:5 NKJV).
I love this verse. Father God is ready to forgive! Isn’t that amazing? We don’t have to fix anything or earn anything, we just have to ask and be willing to repent. And not only that, but God has abundant mercy. Mercy great enough to cover every contingency.
The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians:
“what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (v. 18-19 NKJV).
Width and length and depth and height. God’s love is infinite and likewise His mercy which proceeds from His love.
The author of Hebrews also tells us that, because Jesus is our High Priest, we will find grace to help in time of need. Our greatest need for grace is for forgiveness. Johnston and Towner, in their great hymn “Grace Greater than our Sin,” wrote:
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
We also need God’s grace in difficult situations (often in those situations that our own sin has caused). More than unmerited favor, grace is also the divine influence on the heart (Strong’s 5485). We need God’s influence on our hearts, on our choices, on our behavior. And we have it through God’s grace. We have the right to go boldly to the Throne, not timidly or hurriedly, but leisurely and boldly, to stand before the Father and ask for mercy, ask for forgiveness, ask for grace. And when we ask, He promises to give it to us.
© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
1 comment:
The name of your blog caught my eye. (I'm sure they have them--brains, that is. I married one who certainly has!)
I greatly enjoyed your discussion of the subject of grace. And as you intimate, God's grace is more than one thing. When we call it His unmerited favour, we are speaking both of the Lord's inner motivation (it is unmerited by anything in us), and of the gift that is given (His favour).
The latter involves divine empowerment or enablement. I'm not sure that I'd agree that dealing with sin is its major function, but it's certainly the initial one. We are saved by grace, through faith in the finished work of Christ. Then, as Christians, we need daily grace to live for the Lord and serve Him. Both aspects can be seen in Hebrews 4:16. We come to the throne of a gracious God to receive the grace we need to do His will.
Appreciated the quotation from Julia Johnston's great hymn on the subject. Today is the 91st anniversary of her death. If you'd like to learn more about this hymn and hundreds of others, I invite you to check out my daily blog on the subject, Wordwise Hymns.
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