Sketched VII Day 15 Nikki: Digging Deeper

1) Why is Jesus referred to as a “great high priest?” (verse 14)
In Hebrews 4:14, Jesus is described as the “great high priest who has passed through the heavens.”  Pastor Stephen J. Cole describes the importance of the office of the high priest to the Jewish people saying, “Moses’ brother Aaron was the first high priest.  He was the mediator between the people and God. He and his fellow priests offered the sacrifices on behalf of the people. They had to follow a detailed procedure spelled out by God.  Any variance or innovation meant instant death.”  Stephen J. Cole goes on to explain “once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest alone would go into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for all the sins of the nation. . . Jesus is not just another high priest in the line of Aaron.  Rather, He is our great high priest according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7)  A high priest was well respected and revered in Jewish culture, so to call Jesus the “great” high priest was to point out He was greater still than any earthly high priest.  He is the sinless God who sacrificed Himself on our behalf, making Him our great high priest, worthy of all praise.

2) How can Jesus sympathize with our weaknesses? (verse 15)
According to author David Guzik, the ancient Greeks thought “the primary attribute of God was apatheia, the essential inability to feel anything at all. Jesus isn’t like that. He knows and He feels what we go through. The ancient Greek word translated sympathize literally means to suffer along with.”  Author R.C. Sproul suggests “Jesus can sympathize with all our weaknesses because He lived as a human being and experienced the things we experience.” Author David Guzik asserts that not only did Jesus experience every temptation we experience, but because He never gave in to temptation “He knew the strength and fury of external temptation in a way and to a degree that we can never know. He knows what we go through and He has faced worse.”  Jesus even experienced 40 days of being tempted by the devil while He was fasting in the wilderness. (Luke 4:2) Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses because He knows first-hand what we go through when we are tempted.

3) What is the throne of grace? (verse 16)
According to author Stephen J. Cole, in the ancient world “a throne was a forbidding place of sovereign authority and judgment.  If you approached a throne and a king did not hold out his scepter, you were history!”  We see this scenario threatened in the book of Esther, when Queen Esther risks her life to appear unbidden before the King as she pleads for the salvation of her people. (Esther 4:16)  Hebrews 4:16 urges Christians to “approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”  In contrast to the naturally fearful approach people would have to a king’s throne, the author of Hebrews describes a throne of grace where we can approach confidently and in expectation of good things. Charles Spurgeon describes His as “a throne set up on purpose for the dispensing of grace; a throne from which every utterance is an utterance of grace; the scepter that is stretched out from it is the silver scepter of grace; the decrees proclaimed from it are purposes of grace; the gifts that are scattered down its golden steps are gifts of grace; and he who sits upon the throne is grace itself.”  We have access to this throne of grace through the work of Christ on the cross. (1 Peter 3:18)  We can do nothing on our own to deserve this grace.  When we accept Christ’s forgiveness and trust in Him, He gives us free access to His unmerited favor.