Worth Ship Wednesday: A Throne of Grace

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.  Romans 4:8 NIV

Sacrifice

Did you know that our sin is not counted against you and when you stand before the throne?

If you have accepted the work that Jesus did on the cross then He is your Savior and your Advocate.  When you stand before the throne of God you stand in the righteousness of Christ Jesus.

When the Lord set up the sacrificial system that the Israelites used to atone for their sins, the Israelites had to bring a lamb to the priest to be slaughtered.  The priest would examine the lamb for any spot or blemish.  Once the animal was pronounced clean, without spot, and without blemish the sinner would place their hands on the sacrifice and transfer their sins to the  animal in exchange for the cleanliness of the sacrifice. Then the animal would be sacrificed by fire burning up the sin of the man.   In this way God counted them righteous.  It was by faith in what God said about the cleansing of the shed blood.

When you come before God He is not looking at you, but your sacrifice.  The priest never examined the man.  He examined the sacrifice.  When you trust in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross then you are saying that your sin was placed upon Him, and you are taking His righteousness in exchange for your sin.  You are placing your faith in what God said about the shed blood of Jesus.

Beloved, don’t for one moment look at yourself, and what you are doing for God, or your goodness because it will keep you from the throne of grace.

⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
    and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah 64:6 NIV

This doesn’t say that our sins are like filthy rags.  It says that our righteousness is filthy.  Any righteousness we try to obtain ourselves will never amount to the cleanliness of the blood of Jesus.

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Ephesians 2:8 KJV

Come Boldly

When you stand before the throne with your mind on your sin how can you worship?  Worship springs from a grateful heart.  One who knows they can do nothing to save or cleanse themselves.  We don’t worship to get something.  No we worship because we have received already.

God tells us to come before the throne boldly.  How can we do that if we try to come before Him with our filthy rags of self-righteousness?  We can’t.  In fact sin consciousness keeps us from Him altogether.  If you look at Adam and Eve in the garden they hid because they were naked in their sin.

However, we can come before God clothed in the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  We can come not only covered with the robe of righteousness, but cleansed completely of all our sins.  Past, present, and future.

Repentance is necessary before God when we sin, but we can’t count on our own righteousness.  We have to submit to the work of God in the sacrifice of His Son.  So Beloved when we stand before the throne today let’s be found like this:

⁹ And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Philippians 3:9 KJV

We Have an Advocate

One of my favorite hymns is by Charitie Bancroft.  It was written in the 1863.  I believe I have shared it before, but it is fitting because I often sing this hymn when I am feeling the weight of doubt, shame, or guilt. It is called Before the Throne of God Above, but was originally entitled The Advocate.  The original title of the author sums up our standing before a Holy God.  Jesus is our advocate, our lawyer, and our defense attorney.

Who wants to represent themselves when we have Jesus, who is God, as an Advocate?

Here are the lyrics to the song Charitie Bancroft wrote.  Let them sink in.  Oh, and there are scripture references listed below it to meditate on.  Let them build confidence to come boldly to the throne of Grace.

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great High Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One with Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

¹⁶ 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.

Hebrews 4:16 NLT

Singing His praises before the throne! ❤ Melinda

As promised:

Isaiah 49:16

Luke 22:31-32

John 8:36,58

Acts 7:55-56, 20:28

Romans 8:34

1 Corinthians 1:30

Colossians 2:13-14, 3:3

Hebrews 13:8, 4: 14-16

Hebrews 7:25

1 Peter  1:18-19

Titus 2:13

Titus 3:7

Revelation 5:6

Revelation 12:10