How much we need Him!
I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee.
Hymns, #371
Surely every hour we need Him. From hour to hour we do not know what situations will confront us. We may say hallelujah or amen in the meeting, but when we get home, our joy may vanish, and instead of hallelujah and amen there will be silence and a long face. A problem has arisen. Or we may get chilled and catch cold. Whatever the problem, Christ is there taking care of our case. He bears us when we have a long face or are ill. His interceding never ceases. His ability to take care of us is unlimited because He is the almighty God. His priesthood is an interceding ministry in the heavens, in the Holy of Holies, before God for us.
You are often unaware of His interceding, but sometimes you do realize that He is thus caring for you. You may be in the midst of an argument with your wife, when suddenly your words fail. Why do the angry words no longer come tumbling out? Before you were saved, did you ever have such an experience? In my own case, I used to go into a rage that could last the whole day, even overnight. Since I have been saved, however, I have never been able to get fully angry. The most my anger has lasted, as far as I can recall, is a few minutes. How about your case? How long can you stay angry? Not very long, because Christ is there interceding for you at the throne of God, and His interceding is heard.
Sometimes troubles come to us, and we get anxious. Before we were saved, these worries were endless. Now, when anxious thoughts arise, we soon sense a soothing comfort, saying to us, “Why don’t you pray? You don’t need to worry.” Christ has begun to intercede for us, and this is the effect it produces. Then we respond to Him, “Thank You, Lord. You bear my worries. All my cares are in Your hand.” Just a few short words and the anxiety is lifted! We can enjoy Him. This is Christ’s priestly intercession for us. It is unending.
In Romans 8:34 Paul asks, “Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus Who died, but rather Who was raised, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also intercedes for us.” There is no one who can condemn us. Christ surely does not; He died for us, was resurrected, and is now in the heavens interceding for us. His heavenly ministry is to take care of us.
We have all had many experiences of our faithful High Priest’s care for us. Many times we have been reminded, comforted, strengthened, and even carried by Him. If we had time, we could hear testimony after testimony of how the help has come, not so much from the outside as from within. The help comes also from the heavens. There is something within and something from above that strengthens, sustains, comforts, and enlightens us. Without this support from our High Priest’s intercession, we would long since have been gone. We have been preserved not by ourselves, but by our High Priest.
Our High Priest is well qualified for His office. The book of Hebrews gives us His qualifications. He is the Son of God (1:5), the Son of Man (2:6-9), the Captain of our salvation (2:10), the Apostle sent from God to us (3:1), and the real Joshua bringing us into rest (4:8). This well-qualified One is now caring for us in every detail. His intercession is precious to the Father. God on the throne treasures the priesthood of His Son. So must we.
He is praying for you day and night. You may have been away from the Lord and the church life. You turned a deaf ear to everyone who tried to help you. But one day, perhaps while you were far away on a mountaintop, the thought came to you, Why not go back to the church? You were all by yourself, away from the influence of others, but still you heard this word within. How do you explain that? Surely it was the effect of Christ’s priesthood. His intercession touched you while you were far off and brought you back.
We really do not need much help from the outside. We have a Helper in the heavenlies! Our help comes from the heavens to our spirit. Eventually the help comes from within. We have such a High Priest!
“Having therefore a great High Priest...let us come forward with boldness to the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:14-16). After picturing for us our High Priest caring for us in our weaknesses, the writer of Hebrews then exhorts us to come to the throne of grace. It is by thus coming forward that we correspond to His heavenly intercession.
Where is the throne of grace? We must answer that it is both in the heavens and in our spirit. If it were only in the heavens, how could we come to it? As our experience bears witness, the throne is also in our spirit. To illustrate, let us say that we have some anxiety. To be anxious is a characteristic of an intelligent person. Only those who are foolish are happy-go-lucky no matter what happens to them. If we are alert, thinking people, many things will cause us anxiety. When we are single, our thoughts are occupied with our own concerns. Once we are married, we have two people to worry about. Instead of thinking only of ourself, we shall be wondering about our spouse. What about that conversation we had last night? What about our future? What if one of us gets sick? We need a way to cope with all the troublesome thoughts and situations that come to us. Thank God that our spirit is connected to the Holy of Holies! When we turn from our mind to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. Once there, it is hard to figure out whether we are in heaven or on earth! The Holy of Holies has two ends, one in the heavens and the other in our spirit. Here in the Holy of Holies is the throne of grace.
What do we do at the throne of grace? We pray, worship, and look to the One on the throne. We praise and thank Him. From this throne flows the river of life. If we stay here a while, we shall have the sense that something from the throne of grace flows into us, through us, and out of us. We are experiencing the eternal life as the supplying grace. We receive mercy and “find grace for timely help” (Heb. 4:16). By coming to the throne of grace we are corresponding to Christ’s heavenly priesthood. Whenever we turn to the spirit and come to the throne of grace, we correspond to His heavenly interceding. His interceding and our praying constitute a traffic between heaven and earth.
When the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, he bore on his shoulders the names of the twelve tribes (Exo. 28:6-10). These names were also inscribed on the breastplate (Exo. 28:21). Today our High Priest bears all of us before God in the heavenly Holy of Holies. He goes to God to bring us there and to bring our need to Him. In this Holy Place all our problems are solved. He is serving us at the throne of grace. Let us therefore come forward with boldness, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for timely help!
The throne of grace is the only place where our problems can be solved. As we come, we are corresponding from our side to the intercession on His side. This communication goes on all day long. Though none of this can be seen with our physical eyes, our spirit senses that something is going on in the Holy of Holies for us. Come to the throne of grace!
This office of High Priest is the greatest part of Christ’s heavenly ministry. We are meeting Him there at the throne of grace, hour after hour enjoying, experiencing, and touching Him. As He intercedes for us, we are coming boldly to the throne to receive mercy and to find grace. These are always available to us. However, we need to receive and find them by exercising our spirit to come to the throne and to touch our High Priest, who sympathizes with us in all our weaknesses.
How great is our High Priest! “He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, seeing He is always living to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25). The high priests who served under the law had weakness, so that they had to offer up sacrifices first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people (v. 27). Our High Priest, in contrast, is “holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens” (v. 26). He has no need to offer up sacrifices, “for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (v. 27). Rather than the weak men who served as high priests under the law, our High Priest is a “Son, Who is perfected forever” (v. 28). “We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (8:1). He is the great Priest over the house of God (10:21).