With Confidence Draw Near

Have you had the following experience recently? You are reminded of a truth, one that you know and firmly believe in, yet you are suddenly impacted by it in a fresh way.

As noted on my sidebar, I am currently reading Jerry Bridges' The Discipline of Grace. It is a good book, a very good book. Not wanting to speed through it too quickly, I've been doing some extra re-reading and reviewing of earlier chapters as I move forward. While doing this recently, I came across the following quote, which I had marked while reading from chapter one.

"God never intended that we relate to Him directly. Our own performance is never good enough to be acceptable to Him. The only way we can relate to God is through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is only the blood of Jesus that will cleanse us from a guilty conscience and give us the confidence to enter into the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-21)."

These words convey theological truths that I know very well in my head. My performance cannot make me acceptable to God, Whom I can only relate to by the blood and righteousness of Christ. Bridges speaks the truth so faithfully with these words. That's why I marked it the first time I read the chapter.

This particular sentence esecially caught my attention as I re-read it: "The only way we can relate to God is through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ." As I thought about how we relate to God in prayer, and, in doing so, pray in Jesus' name, another passage from Hebrews came to mind.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)

I realized that there are two ways to confidently approach the throne of grace. One is to be confident in approaching simply because we know we can--even knowing that it is ultimately Christ who makes it possible. The second is to be confident in approaching because I have complete confidence in efficacy of the blood and righteousness of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name not only because His once-for-all-time propitiation washed away the sin that would prevent us from coming to God, but also because His righteousness continues to make us worthy to approach the throne of grace.

All of this flashed through my mind in a second (possibly not in so many words, but you get the idea), and a question struck me: [Not just in theological acquiescence, but also in the reality of my attitude] Do I know the difference between boldly approaching the throne of grace and casually approaching the throne of grace?