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Ken Jenkins's avatar

I was reminded in this chapter of a truth I am always very grateful to be reminded of.

The writer of Hebrews describes Jesus as the High Priest who “truly meets our need”.

Hebrews 7:26 “Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.”

But although holy and blameless Himself, “set apart from sinners”, when he took our sins upon Himself on the cross, He experienced the horror, desolation and separation from God our sin, and the guilt and shame which result from it, produce in us.

Matthew 27:46 “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice,

“Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

That moment of separation, that agony, that cry, embraced the anguish of billions of souls separated from their Creator since the time of Adam, hiding in the bushes desperately, and futilely, clutching their fig leaves.

He knows. Jesus knows what it feels like to be separated from God and to be tempted to think God wants no part of us.

Hebrews 4:15,16 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Very often our most profound “need” is to understand, as Keller puts it in this chapter, “how costly” our forgiveness was and therefore how complete and wonderful it must be.

How else can we be confident before such as awesome throne?

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