Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we may come boldly before the throne of grace, that God may be merciful with us, listen to our cries, and help us during our time of need. We may be stunned by this invitation’s beauty and loving-kindness.
How is this possible?
Why Does Hebrews Say We Come Boldly Before the Throne of Grace?
Hebrews 4:16 emphasizes that it is in Christ we can come boldly before the throne of grace. Ephesians 2:18 confirms this point: we can access God through Christ’s mediatorial work. Christ created peace between God and man.
Hebrews provides other details about our access to God. In Hebrews 11:6, those who draw near to God must have faith that he is true and will reward true seekers. In Hebrews 7:25, Jesus is the one who makes intercession before God for God’s people, such that anyone with any degree of sin can be saved—praise God! Hebrews 10:22 tells us to draw near with full assurance of our faith because God cleanses us from within and makes us presentable to God.
What Helps Us Come Boldly Before the Throne of Grace?
Given that our sins once kept us from God’s holy presence, and it is now God’s grace that welcomes us near, we might expect this topic of the throne of grace to be in the midst of a discussion on how to live the Christian life. Surely, the New Testament entreats us to forsake our sins and to move forward in a way that clings to holiness and righteousness. But commandments are not the context of this verse about the throne of grace. Rather, we see a God who ministers to our needs. We have a High Priest who sympathizes with us (Hebrews 4:15). And, there is aid for us when we are in troubling times (Hebrews 4:16). When we approach the throne of God, we see not commands about forsaking sin, but merciful promises about living in light of the cross.
Under the Old Testament law, there was a focus on purity and mercy for sin when approaching God’s holy presence. Under the New Testament, God calls us to draw near so we can lay our hearts before him. We can tell him about our difficulties with temptation and gain his loving reassurance in our hearts. We are called into a relationship with the Creator of all and the High Priest of our hearts, who offers us communion with God. We share our concerns with him, and he answers our requests with strength to lead lives that honor him. This relationship is a deepening of the Old Testament one. For we now have the Spirit and the sacrifice of Christ that secure us.
Through the throne of grace, we have a deep and abiding fellowship with the God who enables sinners to come near to his holiness. The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for all of our spiritual needs. We live as those who have the ear of God himself. We may come to Jesus as beggars needing forgiveness, but he raises us to be sons who can confidently approach the Father.
Could We Come Boldly Before the Throne of Grace Before Jesus Came?
After humanity’s fall in the garden, Scripture shows how God’s presence continually comes nearer to God’s people. God’s presence first comes near through the Tabernacle. Then, the presence comes near through the temple. Then, God’s presence comes near in the person of Jesus Christ. After Jesus ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit came to dwell within believers, making believers temples of the living God. Finally, Christ will come again to dwell with his people permanently on a new earth.
God is always coming nearer. As believers, we now have access to God’s holy presence because Christ has come, and the cross has freed us from sin. God’s holy presence is a gift to the people of God. We have unprecedented access to him compared to Old Testament times. We are to appreciate this gift of God’s holy presence coming near as remarkable in human history—it is truly a new manifestation of the kindness and closeness of God to his people.
Does the Bible Talk Anywhere Else about the Throne of Grace?
When the Scriptures say to come boldly before the throne of grace, it refers to God’s holy presence. Grace is dispensed to God’s people, who need it, from God's presence. In the Old Testament, the throne of grace was the place of holy presence—so holy that only the high priest could approach. The mosaic covenant commands that the priest could only approach the holiest place in the Tabernacle annually when the Day of Atonement came. If God approved of the high priest drawing near to the throne, then mercy would emanate from the throne to the people (Leviticus 16:2-34). The holiest place would become a place of mercy.
This Old Testament view of God’s mercy is a precursor to the throne of grace in the New Testament. The place of God’s grace would be a throne room so holy that only God’s perfect presence in Jesus could make his people acceptable. The cross of Christ purchased the holiness we need to approach God. Hebrews 4:15 calls Jesus our ultimate High Priest. He can approach God and be accepted because of his perfect life on earth and being a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Through his presence with God, we are also accepted to enter the holy throne room. Only now, we do not need the work of Old Testament sacrifices. We have the sacrifice of Jesus, who came once and for all (Hebrews 10:10).
Why Are We Supposed to Come Boldly?
We come boldly before God’s holy presence, his holy throne room, because God’s sacrifice was complete and flawless. We demonstrate faith in the sacrifice of God when we know and are assured that God wants to hear the concerns of our hearts. We demonstrate faith in the sacrifice of Christ when our approach to God is confident. We know that Christ’s sacrifice is efficacious for us, and our sin is no longer upon us; to know this requires our faith! When we confidently come before God, in Christ, we honor God’s work on our behalf. We honor Jesus’s work as High Priest, which is sure and eternal.
Jesus remains incarnate as the God-man forever because we will always need him for our approach to the presence of God. We stand before God through Christ’s mediatorial work for us (1 Timothy 2:5) for all eternity. Our neediness is why God came to dwell with his people—and why God will always dwell with his people. We will ever rely on Christ for our standing with God, and he will always supply God with a perfect record on our behalf. Because of the sacrifice of Christ and the eternal incarnation of Christ, we will forever be welcomed into God’s holy abode.
Ultimately, we are to come boldly before God because God wants to help us. He answers our prayers and lifts our spirits when we approach him. He gives us grace in our fight against sin. He encourages our spirits when we feel like failures. He gives us perspective on trials that make them seem less looming and burdensome.
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Lianna Davis is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She is also a contributor to We Evangelicals and Our Mission with Cascade Books. Lianna is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives in Illinois with her husband and daughter. You can learn more about her writing at her website.
This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today.
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