Confident Christians
a sermon based on Hebrews 10: 11-25
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Today’s Scripture reading is all about how we ought to relate to God as Christians. When we pray, the author of Hebrews wants us to approach God in a very specific way--with boldness and confidence.

How do you pray? Do you picture God in some way when you pray?  Sometimes I do picture a royal court in my mind with God sitting on a throne. To most of us in the West this is a foreign scene. Even if we do have a king or queen, their power is mostly limited to social causes and diplomatic relations.

But to the original audience, this scene would have been very different: in their age kings and emperors were very real and very powerful people. If you were a commoner to be invited to an audience with your king or queen, you would enter the throne room in fear and trepidation. You would bow or courtesy; you would address them with utmost respect, only talk if you were asked a question or if you were permitted to speak.

To the original audience it must have been totally shocking to hear the author of Hebrews say that we as believers ought NOT to approach the King of the Universe in that way, but rather to enter confidently and boldly.

Only the king’s children would have felt comfortable approaching the king that way, perhaps. And that’s just the point Hebrews is making in this passage: as Christians we are family. We are bought by the blood of God’s only begotten Son: “since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus” (V 19).

What this means is that if we confess our sins, if we follow Christ, we stand in the light of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, we are considered without sin, we have become reconciled children of God. We are no longer prodigal sons and daughters; we have become reconciled children of God.

In theological terms, Hebrews 10 reminds us that Christ has stepped into the role of the Jewish high priest. I have explained this before, so let me just briefly state it again:

The Jewish high priest had to perform an annual sacrifice; every year the people would travel to the temple in Jerusalem for the Day of Atonement. They would bring or purchase animals to be sacrificed. And every year the high priest would enter the holy of holies in the inner-most part of the temple sanctuary to make atonement for all the people of Israel on account of their sins and mistakes. And at that moment God would forgive all the sins committed and wipe clean the slate of all his children for another year.

But since Jesus, the son of God himself, is not only our high priest, but also the lamb that was slain and sacrificed for our sins, we do not have to make sacrifices any longer. All we have to do according to New Testament theology is confess our sins, and repent, and we will be forgiven based on the sacrifice of Jesus and his high-priestly plea on our behalf.

This is perhaps best summarized in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Can you imagine how radical this new theology was at a time in history when people were conditioned to 1. a rigid Mosaic system of punishment and sacrificial atonement
and 2. an empire that was brutal in punishing any dissenters of the Roman Empire; just consider the torturous public floggings, or worse: the brutal executions by crucifixion.

The author of Hebrews says, look this is a new time, this is a new Covenant God has made with us; this new Covenant is marked by a close relationship to God and not an impersonal “divine legal system” God has put a Spirit within us that connects us to God, it is a new awareness of God and God’s perspective. We have a conscience within us that tells right from wrong and that draws us to God. And this new Covenant, the author of Hebrews claims, was even predicted in the Old Testament (Jer. 31:33) “"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

In this spirit, Hebrews encourages us to pray to God like God is our Father. This teaching, of course, is totally in line with Jesus’ teaching on God as “Abba-Father.” But often times we feel more comfortable praying as though we were commoners in God’s court. Figuratively speaking, we feel more comfortable entering the throne room of God on our knees, groveling, asking forgiveness and praying with a residual fear in our hearts that God is still holding some of our sins over us.

I think the biggest problem we have is that we cannot truly fathom the biblical fact that God has indeed not only forgiven us, but even forgotten our sin. The message that we can take from our Reading this morning is that when God forgives (unlike when we forgive) it is as though it never happened, even though we continue to sin. This is exactly what it says in Hebrews 10:17: “"I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

A Catholic priest in Philippines carried a terrible burden. While in seminary he committed a heinous sin. Nobody knew it and the priest had sincerely repented and worked to change his life. But in spite of effective and fruitful service in the priesthood, guilt and remorse for his sin haunted him day and night. He was not sure he had God’s forgiveness.

There was a woman in his parish who claimed to see visions and that in some of these visions Christ himself came and talked with her. A little skeptical the priest devised a test. He asked the woman if, the next time Christ came to talk to her in her visions, she would ask him to tell her what sin the priest had committed in seminary.

The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked if she had any news.

“Oh yes,” she replied. “Christ appeared to me just last night.”

“Did you ask him about my sin in seminary?”

“I did,” the woman said.

“Well, what did he say?”

“He said, ‘I don’t remember.” “I don’t remember”! What glorious good news! What liberation! What joy! But can it really be that God not only forgives but also forgets our sins? Oh, yes! Oh, yes indeed. Listen to the book of Hebrews. Speaking of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins the author jubilantly declares: “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds," he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:16-18)

God has made a new Covenant for his children; God has taken away the sins of the world so that all who accept God as Lord and Savior, all who live in God’s calling, are Kings kids!

Through the author of Hebrews, God is saying to us: “You don't need to work frantically in order to prove that you deserve to exist on the planet. You don't need to own "beautiful" things or be a "beautiful" person according to what the world says is beautiful. You just need to be yourself, the way I created you. I know you’re doing the best you can. And I wouldn't ask more of you than you can do. Come to me the way you are and spend some time with me in prayer; I love to hang out with you. For you are my child, and I am your Father!”  Amen.