March 3

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:16.

WE are to come to this throne boldly. But what can this boldness be? It is expounded by the objects for which we are to approach him,-namely, “mercy and grace;” for, if we come to the throne of grace sensible of our need of mercy and grace, the boldness can only be the boldness of penitence;-the boldness which is becoming those who know that they have no claim upon the Giver, whose language therefore must be, “God be gracious” -“God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

We may consider this boldness:-First, As opposed to that despair which very naturally arises from the conviction of sin. When a sinner is awakened and enlightened to see and reflect upon his character and condition, he must feel his need of Strong consolation at the thought of entering into the presence of a Being so great and glorious, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, “and who can as righteously as easily destroy him.” Dare I approach? and shall I succeed if I do? This is his experience; and to meet this the Saviour says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” and “him that cometh I will in no wise cast out.” To encourage such an approach, the Scripture places before us a number of persons, none of whom could possibly have any claim upon the Giver. We have a Manasseh, who sinned away all the advantages of a pious education, and became an idolater, a necromancer, a persecutor, and a murderer of the innocent and the righteous, and who made the streets of Jerusalem to run down with blood. We have the Corinthians, of whom the apostles give such an infamous character that Satan could not have made or wished them to have been worse than they were. “But,” says he, “ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified as by the Spirit of our God.” And the Apostle Paul, referring to himself, says, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy;” as much as to say, “None should despair:-you cannot, for I have found mercy.”

Then, Secondly, We may view it in opposition to the bondage of Judaism. God was much less accessible under the former dispensation than under the present economy. While God was upon Sinai, the Israelites were not suffered to approach without imperilling their lives. Into the holy of holies, where God dwelt between cherubims, only one person in the whole nation was allowed to enter, and he as high-priest was to go only once a year, and then stay there but a few minutes. God revealed himself then more as a sovereign than as the “Father of mercies” and “God of all grace;” and the disposition of the worshipper partook of the nature of the dispensation itself in a measure. “Therefore,” says the apostle, “the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from the servant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.”

Such is the difference, says he, between the Jew and the real Christian. “Even so we when we were children in bondage under the elements of the world; but, when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons; and, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father; therefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and then an heir of God through Christ.” Let us approach our Father’s throne at all times.

Nothing is too little to bring before him, for we are encouraged “in every thing, by prayer and supplication, to make our requests known unto God.”