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Scripture references:  Rev. 20:11-15, Heb. 4:15-16



I once made a mistake that got me in a lot of trouble. I had arrested a juvenile for robbery and was due in court several weeks later. The day came for the court case and I overslept! I woke up when I was called by the Robbery Detective. He told me to get to court right away or the judge was going to hold me in contempt of court. That feeling of walking into court with an angry judge will never leave me. He didn’t end up putting me in jail for contempt but he really screamed and yelled at me so much that I didn’t ever want to cross an angry judge again. 

Bringing our failures before the Lord is not like this story. The Lord encourages us to come before Him with our failures. Even though everything around us tells us that our failures are embarrassing and something to hide, it’s not that way with God. He doesn’t see our failures and say, “I don’t want anything to do with you!” He tells us to bring them with us when we approach His throne. 

Hebrew 4:15-16 says, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin. Therefore let us [with privilege] approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need [an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment]” (AMP). 

So, based on this passage in Hebrews, how do Christians go to the throne of God?

With Privilege 

We don’t have to wait for an appointment with the Lord. We don’t have to get in line and wait for our turn to talk to Him. We can approach Him anytime! What a privilege that we get to go straight to the front of the line whenever we need Him.

With Confidence 

This is a huge deal considering what the Bible tells us about being judged before God’s throne. Going before a human judge is nerve-wracking enough – but look at what the Bible says about the final judgment scene for all humanity: 

Revelation 20:11-15, “And I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them [for this heaven and earth are passing away]. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life; and the dead were judged according to what they had done as written in the books [that is, everything done while on earth]. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades (the realm of the dead) surrendered the dead who were in them; and they were judged and sentenced, every one according to their deeds. Then death and Hades [the realm of the dead] were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire [the eternal separation from God]. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was hurled into the lake of fire” (AMP). 

After reading Revelation 20, you’ve got to appreciate how amazing it is that believers can approach the Lord’s throne with confidence – because who would ever think that it was possible to go before that throne with confidence?

Without Fear 

The Lord knows how to handle our sins and failures, so we can go to Him without fear about how He’ll react. Hebrews 4 tells us that Jesus can sympathize with and understand our weaknesses and temptations because He has been through the same things (yet did not sin). 

John MacArthur explains that Jesus’ experience of temptation must have been ten times worse than ours because He never gave in to sin. Have you ever wondered how bad temptation would get if we didn’t give in to it? Man wouldn’t know because we always give in before we find out how bad it would get – but Jesus’ experienced it more intensely and still never gave in. 

MacArthur also explains how Jesus can fully know our sin while never having sinned himself. He uses the analogy of how a surgeon can know all about a disease and know how to perform an operation to remove the disease without ever having had the disease himself. A person could be riddled with an illness or infection and not know how to remove it themself – but the surgeon is an expert on the illness because he has dealt with it a million times! Likewise, God knows about sin because he’s dealt with it a million times. We can go to Him for help without fear because He fully understands the human condition and knows what to do about it.

What Will We Get? 

Back up for a minute and remember the contrast we see between Hebrews 4 and Revelation 20. What we get depends on the throne we go to. Going before the throne of God is a different experience for those who are recipients of God’s grace than it is for those who don’t know Him. One who brings his failures to God now gets grace, but the one who won’t acknowledge his failures and won’t go to God now will get judgment later. 

So, clearly, it is better to bring our failures to God now! He wants us to – and the most dangerous thing a person can do is to try and believe they are strong enough to handle temptation and sin on their own. But if we come to Him, we get amazing grace, mercy, help, and appropriate blessing. And by appropriate blessing, I mean that His mercy and help come right in our time of need. It may not come at the time we want it, but He knows our time of need and He chooses just the right moment to provide all that we need!