Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.
- KJV Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
- BSB Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- NKJV Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- NLT So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because of such a high priest, we may approach God's throne of grace boldly to receive mercy and timely help. Christ opens confident access to God for needy sinners.
Overview
The fitting response to Jesus' sympathetic, sinless priesthood is bold approach to the 'throne of grace.' There believers find mercy for past failures and grace for present needs. This verse beautifully expresses the gospel privilege of free, confident access to God through Christ, the very access the wilderness generation lacked through unbelief.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Eph 3:12in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.
- Heb 7:25Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
- Heb 10:19–23Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
- Heb 13:6So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
- Phil 4:6–7In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
- Isa 55:6–7Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
- Eph 2:18For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
- 1 Pet 2:10who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
- Matt 7:7–11“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.
- 2 Cor 12:8–10Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
- Rom 8:15–17For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
- Heb 7:19(for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
- Lev 16:2and Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother, not to come at all times into the Most Holy Place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; lest he die: for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.
- Heb 9:5and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail.
- Exod 25:17–22You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width.
- 1 Chr 28:11Then David gave to Solomon his son the plans for the porch of the temple, for its houses, for its treasuries, for its upper rooms, for its inner rooms, for the place of the mercy seat;
- Isa 27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 4:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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