The Great High Priest on His Throne¹

2. The Duties Prescribed

A S Patterson

Hebrews 4:14-16. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

1. Certain corresponding duties are here prescribed to the Hebrew Christians.

2. They are required to “hold fast their profession”. They professed Christianity. They were to adhere to that noble and precious system in life and death. What had blessed them in the past, they were to use as the means of blessing for the future. With tenacious grasp, they were to hold it fast. They were to do this by a decided faith and a bold profession, vigorous resistance to the influences that were fitted to seduce them from either, and energetic application of the proper means of attaching them to both.

3. They were to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that they might obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”. The word “throne” represents God as a King; and the supplementary words, “of grace”, represent Him as, in that character, exercising kindness and dispensing benefits. The whole phrase, “the throne of grace”, is admirably fitted to enforce the procedure here described – that of coming, and of coming boldly, into the presence of God.

The most direct and obvious method of coming to the throne is to engage, really and in right earnest, in prayer and supplication to that gracious King. The boldness required is, of course, quite distinct from presumption, and must be associated with pious reverence. Even God’s own children must approach Him with sacred awe. He “is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him” (Ps 89:7). He says, “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me” (Lev 10:3). The very goodness of God, and the very privileges enjoyed by believers, are suggested as reasons for serving Him with reverence. It is foretold: “The children of Israel . . . shall fear the Lord, and His goodness in the latter days” (Hos 3:5); and in this very Epistle it is said: “Wherefore, we receiving a

¹Taken with editing from Patterson’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. He was a post-Disruption Free Church minister in Glasgow. Last month’s article dealt with the doctrines taught in these verses.

kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28,29). Even the reference in the present passage to men’s “need” of “grace” and “mercy” intimates that they must exercise humility and awe when they approach the infinitely perfect One.

But still, “boldness” is permitted and required in doing so. The petitioner must be free from distrust and jealousy of God. God is both able and willing to grant the needed help; and He has pledged Himself to lend a favourable ear to a genuine prayer. Of these things the petitioner must be assured; and his feelings must correspond to his faith on the subject. As with gratitude, so with boldness, he must ask from heaven. It is for the glory of God, and for his own comfort and encouragement, that he should thus approach “the throne”.

At that throne, “mercy” and “grace” are to be sought. It certainly is not necessary to restrict the word “mercy” to the pardon of sin. But still, this gift is introductory to others; and while we need, at the commencement of personal salvation, to be justified by faith and reconciled to God, we also need, after justification, to approach the mercy seat with the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses”. The expression rendered, “to help in time of need”, might be more strictly translated for seasonable succour. “Grace to help” is what we “need” at every “time”, although there are some seasons when the urgency is particularly great, such as the time of strong temptation, the time of severe affliction and the time of death. That needful grace is to be sought, and can be found, at the throne whose very name is “the throne of grace”. How suitable to ask that grace, how important to obtain it – grace to think aright, grace to feel aright, grace to speak aright, grace to act aright, grace to suffer aright, grace to die aright!

1. The duties here prescribed are enforced by the doctrines here propounded. The connection is obvious. If Christ is what He is said to be in this passage, surely the sinner should embrace, and the believer should “hold fast”, that religion of which Christ is the Author, the Foundation, the Centre and the Crown – and surely also men may go, with the “boldness” and confidence of faith, and ask for “mercy” and “grace” from God! The same duties are enforced by similar arguments in Hebrews 10:19-25. These too are parallel passages: Romans 5:1,2, Ephesians 2:18.

Whoever obtains a spiritual view of the law will possess by the law a right knowledge of sin. There is no better evidence of an enlightened mind and renewed heart than just views and feelings in regard to our own sins and, especially, the sins of the heart.

Archibald Alexander