God has promised us the opportunity to enter His rest. But not everyone who hears of His promised rest will enter it. The author of Hebrews tells us we must diligently seek to enter it. In these verses he says there are two necessities to enter God’s rest. Last week we saw that we must cling to the Word of God. It is the living and active Word which God uses to change us. We must cling to it in trust and see it as our final authority. We must seek it above all else if we are to enter His rest. This morning we will see the second necessity to which we must cling if we are to enter God’s rest.
II. We Must Cling to the Son of God
Secondly we see if we are to enter God’s rest we must cling to the Son of God. In verses 14-16 the author describes three aspects of clinging to the Son of God in entering God’s rest.
A. Our possession
First, we must cling to the Son of God as our possession. In verse 14 we read, “Therefore, since we HAVE a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.” Now when we say we must cling to the Son of God as our possession we do not mean in any way that we own Him. We do not own him. But he is our possession in the sense that we have received something we need. The author says we have a great high priest. Jesus has chosen to act as a high priest on our behalf. For this reason we have the possession of a high priest.
1. The necessity for this high priest
In clinging to the Son of God as our possession we see two features of Jesus’ high priesthood. The first feature in clinging to the Son of God as our possession is the necessity for this high priest. Job, in his discourse, mentions this very problem. How could he get to God? How could he appear before the presence of the Almighty? He needed someone to plead with God on His behalf. In Job 9:32 he says, “For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together. There is no (mediator) between us, who may lay his hand upon us both.” God answered this dilemma when He formed the nation of Israel.
In the nation of Israel God had given the high priest as the main representative between Himself and mankind. He represented the people to God and interceded on their behalf in the main offering for sin of the people on the Day of Atonement. Because we are sinful and God is holy we need someone to seek God’s favor on our behalf. We cannot do it ourselves. The Old Testament high priest would enter the most holy place, the place of God’s special presence on earth, and would bring an offering for the sins of the people and for his own sins.
However, the Old Testament High priest merely foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah who would be the perfect representative between God and man. This Old Testament high priest could not effectively atone for sin for the people because he himself had sin and he could not enter heaven for the people.
The tabernacle, or temple, had been set up for the purpose of a physical illustration. The actual ritual the high priest performed did not take away sin. God used it to explain three truths: 1) the awful penalty of sin 2) the need for a substitutionary death in place of the worshipper and 3) the utter failure of the yearly sacrifice to truly remove sin.
The author of Hebrews shows us Jesus did not just pass through a physical veil into the most holy place located in Jerusalem. But Jesus, the Scripture says, passed through the heavens. He entered heaven itself for us. And this brings us to the second feature of Jesus’ high priesthood.
2. The effectiveness of this high priest
The second feature of Jesus’ high priesthood we see is the effectiveness of this high priest. The verse says Jesus passed into heaven for us. There are two statements, in this passage, to show the effectiveness of Jesus’ high priesthood. Verse 15 tells us He could sympathize with our struggles because He went through them. And it says He was completely victorious over sin. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” The effectiveness of our high priest is He understands our struggles because He passed through our struggles Himself. He underwent the temptations we face. And yet He was without sin.
When we see the temptations Jesus faced, His confrontation with the devil, His struggle in the garden of Gethsemane, and all the normal daily temptations He faced we get a glimpse of the truth that we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses.
As He fought with the devil in Matthew 4, Satan brought out his heaviest arsenal against Jesus. He sought to lure Jesus through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. Think about the temptations Jesus experienced. He had been fasting 40 days. Satan tempted Him to use His power as God independently of His Father’s will to feed His hungry body. His body craving food was not wrong. Satisfying that desire in an illegitimate way was wrong. To use His ability as God apart from the Father’s direction was sin. This is what Jesus’ scriptural response to Satan conveyed. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We are not creatures who dwell merely on a physical level. We do not just assume our physical desires are OK to fulfill in whatever way we wish. We must consult God’s Word in the matter. We are beings with a spirit answerable to God. If we seek God’s Word for life then he will fulfill our desires in His way. Psalm 145 says this, “He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him.” If our heart is bent to live by the Word of God out of our reverence for our great King then God will fulfill our desires in a way that honors Him.
Next Satan tried to twist Scripture and tempted Jesus to jump down off the pinnacle of the temple because after all (Satan implied, if you’re going to quote from the Bible) the Scripture says you’re indestructible. The Father is going to keep you from even stubbing your toe, so jump off this building. Jesus had everything to gain from jumping. The Jewish people of the day were expecting the Messiah to float down from the sky into the temple court. His popularity rating would certainly “jump.” Jesus again sees the key issue as that of not testing God. He didn’t need to test out God’s Word to see if it was true. He wasn’t to put Himself in harm’s way to see if God’s Word would work. He was simply to obey. We are not to doubt His Word but believe it. When we doubt the Bible we are rebelling against God’s authority.
Finally, Satan tempted Jesus with the idea He could circumvent His necessary suffering and death and receive His kingdom for which He came to earth anyway. All He would have to do would be to fall down and worship Satan. But Jesus understood that our worship should only be directed toward God. This was seeking to do God’s will in man’s way. And seeking to do God’s will in man’s way isn’t doing God’s will at all because something is inevitably left out. Haven’t you been tempted in this way? Haven’t you heard that voice at some time, “The end justifies the means.” It’s OK to lie to her because you really don’t want to hurt her feelings. You can use whatever means you need to get people into the church. After all it’s about the number of people you bring in isn’t it? It’s OK to hold that money back from your taxes because you’re going to give some of it to the church. Satan’s compromise is always subtle but the truth is it is never right to do wrong to be able to get a chance to do right.
Now we are never to seek out temptation. In fact, we are told to ask to be delivered from it but encountering temptation is not sin. When we are tempted we are not sinning or else Jesus in his desert trials would have been sinning. Let us remember this. Temptation is not sin. But do not call your yearning to sin, your self-indulgent desire to sin only a temptation. For when you begin to think upon sin and seek ways to accomplish it you have gone past temptation.
What does it mean Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin? Jesus is able to bring us to overcome sin when we are tempted. We CAN overcome sin when we are tempted. We have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses because He was tempted. And because He was completely victorious over sin we too can have victory. We need to cry out to Him when we are facing overwhelming temptation. We need to pour out our need to Him when we seek to overcome sin. He will not chastise nor make fun of us when we seek His favor to overcome sin. He was sorely tempted and cried out for His Father’s help. He looks with favor upon all those who will come to Him in simple faith and look to Him for help to overcome sin. We have a high priest. Let us find our help in Him.
B. Our profession
Second, we must cling to the Son of God as our profession. The end of verse 14 says since we have this high priest, “Let us hold fast our confession.” This confession refers to our belief in the Messiah. It is our trust in Him as our personal Savior. We can’t have any progress or growth in our Christian life if we are not sure of our faith in Christ. Satan loves to throw his fiery darts into our heart to cause us to doubt the truthfulness of the Gospel. If he can cause us to doubt the truth of the Gospel and Christ’s power to save us from our sin then he will effectively stop our witness for Christ. For if we are not firmly entrenched in the truth of the Gospel why would we speak about it?
And so the author tells us to hold fast to our profession. In a society that trusts no one but self we desperately need this admonition to hold fast to our trust in Christ. And our trust in Christ is to relinquish our trust in self. You cannot have both. Do not tell me you are trusting Christ when you are trusting in yourself.
When we want to hide and run away from the faith that brings us difficulty and trouble in this world instead of holding fast in it we need to be reminded of Jesus’ words, “In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The One who has overcome the world is the only One we can trust. He is the One to which our faith must hold. Any other anchor point will fail. Even the adage, “be true to yourself” is simply a trap Satan baits with incredible skill. After all how can we be true to ourselves or trust in ourselves when we can’t even say no to that extra piece of dessert? Do you think you can say no to sin yourself?
When life gets tough because of our faith in Christ are we willing to go the distance? Are we able to cling to our profession of the Son of God when people describe us as weak minded for believing the Gospel? Are you willing to allow yourself to be ridiculed for your faith in Christ because you are not broad minded, because you believe in absolutes, in right and wrong? Are you willing to go even further? Are you willing to lose your job or your inheritance for your faith in Christ? Are you willing to stand in the threat of being jailed?
Think about what some in the past have suffered for their stubborn refusal to reject faith in Christ alone. Think of Martin Luther who risked all when told to recant concerning his writings about the Scripture and against Rome. He said, “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.” What about Peter and John who, after having been beaten severely for their faith in Christ, went on their way REJOICING because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name, or all the other apostles who lost their lives for Christ? Will you hold fast your profession?
Friends, if we were required to do this in our own strength we would most certainly fail. If we had to rely on our ability to overcome in the battle against Satan we would definitely be the loser. We need to be reminded of our high priest who is our only mediator between the Father and us. We need to hold fast to Jesus Christ who alone has won the victory for us. He has won the victory over hell and He has won the victory over sin. Will you hold fast your profession for Jesus’ sake?
C. Our acquisition
Finally in this passage we see we must cling to the Son of God as our acquisition. This is the most amazing part of these verses. The author tells us now our acquisition, what we have, is the very throne room of heaven itself and it is ours for the taking. Look at verse 16. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence (open boldness) to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Because of our great high priest, Jesus Christ, we have bold and clear access into God’s throne room itself. We cannot come into God’s presence because of our effort or because of our merit with God. We can only come into God’s presence because of the access afforded us by Jesus Christ our high priest. He has given us access based on His righteousness. We have no access on our own but if we have been reconciled to God the Father by Jesus the Son not only do we have access before God but we have confident access. We can come before God in time of spiritual need because of our High Priest. We can be assured God hears us because of His Son. When we come to God pleading, not through our own righteousness but, the righteousness of Christ on our behalf we know God will hear us.
Satan lies to us. He tells us we have not been good enough to pray to God. God will not hear us because we sinned too much today. Though this is partly true, we have sinned too much, the full truth is we can always come to God and pray to Him IF we come through our high priest Jesus who has made the way for us. There is no one else through whom we must go, to enter into the presence of God. If we are waiting on our performance to be good enough to pray to God we will never pray.
There is a legalism that grants us access to God based on our feelings and effort. We think if we have read our Bible and have not lost our temper and been kind to others today we can pray to God. But on that day we have gossiped about our co-worker or have been embittered against our brother or sister in Christ then Satan raises his accusation against us and says, “You are not living up to God’s standard. How dare you try to pray to God. Do think God will hear you?” But if we understand these verses today we will see we can come to God not on our record but in Christ’s and He will hear us. Listen, when we are failing and falling it is at this time more than any other that we need to call out to God. We need to approach the throne of God. And Satan knows if he can keep us from approaching the throne when we need it most he will keep us down longer than we would have been had we come boldly as we were slipping into sin. It is too bad too many Christians think they are approaching God upon their own merit. Oh perhaps they wouldn’t say it this way but they are practically living this way because they do not take to heart these verses that tell us to boldly approach the throne.
We need mercy and grace from God. The last part of verse 16 says, “we may find mercy and grace to help in time of need.” I love that. I am always praying to God to help me because I have realized I am helpless. And this is the great truth of the verse. If we have realized we are in dire need of spiritual help because we are helpless and we have understood Jesus has brought us to the throne room of the Father because of what He has done for us then we can have confident access to God. We can come to God boldly. We can be daring in our prayers for spiritual victory. We can be unashamed in asking God to overcome the sin that so easily besets us. We can blatantly ask God, for the honor of His name, to cause us to love Him and know Him because of what He has already done for us in Christ. He wants what is best for us spiritually more than we do.
If you can only get a grasp on this truth that you have an open audience with God to give you victory over your sin because of the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf it will change your life. You will come boldly before God’s throne pleading passionately on behalf of yourself and others. People say they wish they were more passionate about the things of God. Well people who say this do not say this because they are not passionate people. They are very passionate. They are passionate about their sports. They are passionate about their vehicles. They are passionate about their jobs. They are passionate about their hobbies. They are passionate about their investments. They are passionate about their relaxation. They are passionate about guarding their schedule. It is not because they are not passionate it is because they have allowed their passion to be redirected so they don’t have a passion for God and His Word. They don’t have a passion to overcome their sin. They don’t have a passion to pray. Now if we could get a grasp on the fact we have an open audience with God we would be passionate about praying. You are not passionate about praying because you don’t really believe you are right there in heaven with God. If you did your prayer wouldn’t be something you tacked onto your breakfast. You would come to Him often and beg for help. You are not passionate about praying because you don’t see how helpless you are and how much help you need. You are not passionate about praying because you don’t see how much of an affront your sin is to God. If you did you would be crying out to God as Jesus did in the garden weeping, sweating, as it were, drops of blood. You would be calling out to the One into whose throne room you are standing and asking Him not to allow you to remain in that same state of spiritual lethargy in which you have been for so long. If you understood this verse you would fly to your room to be alone with Him and intercede for your family members who need Christ or who are in a spiritual lethargy. You would boldly cry to God to grant you victory because in yourself you are completely helpless. You would cry out to Him and you would see Him answer you and show you great and mighty things you do not know.
If you can see the sin that so easily besets you and keeps you in defeat but you are armed with this truth, the truth that you can at any time boldly come to God for help in time of need then you can have victory. Jesus came boldly to His Father’s throne and He was heard. And now because of His victory He has promised us victory through entrance to the throne of God. Will you also come boldly to the throne of grace to receive your victory? Jesus came with loud crying and tears and was heard. Will you dare to come so boldly to the throne of grace?
It is the Word of God and the Son of God by which we must enter into God’s rest. If we will wield these two weapons God has given us as a gift of His grace then we can have victory over the sin that so easily besets us. Will you languish in the spiritual lethargy of those failing to believe God or will you believe His promises, trust His Son and be victorious?