Gentle and Lowly, Chapter 8 - “To the Uttermost”
“I feel really distant from God. I’ve been struggling in my sin and I don’t know how to find my way back to him.”
I’ve heard some version of this statement a thousand times. Sometimes it’s spoken by a friend or someone in our church family. Sometimes I’m the one saying it. In either case, there is often a common hesitation behind the words: “I’ve already been through all of this before. How can I ask God to forgive me yet AGAIN?”
I’ve heard enough sermons to understand that Christ’s death paid for my past sins and brought me into God’s family. But what about when I stumble as a Christian and find myself in distant places? When I’m caught up in sin, have I discarded my hope? Have I lost my chance and exhausted God’s grace?
No.
We find the answer to these fears in Hebrews 7:25-27:
“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”
In this passage, Jesus is presented as a High Priest who, for his people, constantly intercedes with God. The word “intercession” indicates that Jesus is still mediating between God and his sinful people. This means that his work of redemption is being freshly applied all the time.
This continuing application of the gospel is held up in contrast to the system present in the Old Covenant. Unlike the high priests of Israel, who had to offer up endless sacrifices, Jesus offered his sacrifice “once for all.” The potency of Christ’s work of atonement means that as Christians stumble along, new sins are covered just as readily as past sins.
Dane Ortlund comments on the truth of this passage in chapter 8 of Gentle and Lowly:
“Do we realize what this means? Note the blessed realism of the Bible. This is the explicit acknowledgement that we Christians are ongoing sinners. Christ continues to intercede on our behalf in heaven because we continue to fail here on earth.”
Because Jesus is always interceding for us, we do not have to fear that we might exhaust God’s grace. Our stumbling does nothing to reduce the availability of God’s forgiveness. We can ask him to “forgive us yet AGAIN” because his sacrifice was given to cover all sins—past, present, and future. We do not become a burden to him when we repent because he never stopped interceding for us in the first place. He is not surprised by our struggles, and it is his desire to help us with them.
Because Jesus is always interceding for us, we don’t have to wonder, “Will God take me back?” He never left us in the first place. Jesus’ intercession draws us near, removing the distance we feel through the same gospel that first brought us into God’s family.