In him and through faith in him we approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:12)
We approach God? It makes sense to speak of God’s coming to us, but it doesn’t make much sense to speak of our going to God. Can we really go to God? I mean, how do you know when you’ve actually gone to God? Have you gone to God simply because you have prayed? All of us have had the experience of praying without feeling like we’ve gone anywhere. Surely going to God is a heck of lot more powerful an experience than the average “prayer time” of the average believer, right?
Approaching God takes courage; he could kill you. And what assurance do you have that he won’t? You can’t just burst in your boss’s office whenever you feel like it. You might get fired! You couldn’t just burst into your parent’s room when their door was closed when you were a kid. You might get beat! You can’t just burst into the bathroom without knocking on the door to see if someone is in there. You might get . . . disoriented, to say the least! So why do we think we can just barge into God’s presence whenever we feel like it and chat it up with the Almighty?
In the ancient world, if you came before a king without an invitation, you could get beheaded. This was Esther’s big ordeal. Yet, we think we can just barge into the throne room of the King of kings and Lord of lords? There has never been a mightier king than he! And none more awesome or more terrible!
So then, what gives us the freedom and confidence to approach him? How is it that we can come boldly before his throne of grace? The short answer is in him and through him. We are able to approach the throne of God with freedom and confidence because we are covered by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When we enter, God sees the worthiness of his Son, and not our unworthiness.
Apart from faith in Christ we have no right to approach the throne of grace. In such a condition we may only cry out, Lord, have mercy upon me, or Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. Anyone can pray to God at any time, and he hears out of his mercy. But approaching God only begins when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, and to the extent that we linger in unbelief even after we have believed, we find that we linger in the court of the Gentiles, refusing to come into the Most Holy Place.
God is longing for us to come into his presence. He hasn’t shut the door; he has flung it wide open through the torn flesh of his Son, Jesus Christ. But it is up to us to respond to that invitation, and to come with the freedom and confidence that would cause us to possess our inheritance as sons.
