IBS Hebrews 7:25 (11-16-14)

Inductive Bible Study for Hebrews 7:25 (11-16-14)

"Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."

First of all, let's get some context and understand what the "therefore" is there for. This passage is talking about priesthood and covenants, and how Jesus has an unchangeable priesthood. We have a better covenant because of Jesus. The priests under the Levitical law had to offer sacrifices to God for themselves (daily) in addition to the sacrifices they offered for the people (daily). In contrast, Jesus did this once and for all when He offered Himself for our sin. The better covenant is then that instead of continually having to be covered by the blood of sacrifices, we can choose to be cleansed once by the blood of the perfect Sacrifice. 

Sawa sawa (okay in Ki'Swahili), now we know that the "therefore" is there to say "because of Jesus' one-time, all-covering sacrifice". Jesus is able to save to the uttermost. Uttermost. That's kind of a weird word. It means: most remote or outermost; farthest; of the greatest or highest degree or quantity. Wow. Jesus is able to save the most far-gone person, the person farthest from God, the person who has sinned in the highest degree! Not too long ago, I felt like I couldn't come to God because I had been faking a relationship with Him my whole life, I thought I was too far gone to be saved. This verse throws my argument away. 

So the next part says "those who come to God through Him". It takes a realization that I cannot make it on my own and a crushing of my pride to see that I need someone besides myself to help me in order to come to God through Jesus. Anyone can try to go to God, but we often don't see that we can't go directly to God because of our sin. John 14:6 says (Jesus is speaking): "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." I didn't like that I had to go to Jesus - to humble myself and admit my sin - in order to get to God. However, Jesus is the only Way to God!

We see that Jesus is able to save anyone out of their sin if they are willing to surrender to Him. The next part says "He always lives to make intercession for them". What is intercession? To intercede is to plead or act on behalf of someone, to attempt to reconcile differences between two peoples, to mediate. Jesus is our Mediator and He lives to plead our case before God. Our case is that we are sinners and we have no hope of going to heaven unless we surrender to Jesus and allow Him to save us. Once we are saved by Jesus, Satan has no way to bring us to hell. Our debts have been paid by Jesus' sacrifice. He steps in our place and shows God that He has paid our debt and has cleansed our sin with His perfect blood. 

These are the very basics of the Christian faith, yet I didn't truly understand this until this past year. I didn't see that Jesus needed to intercede for me to the Father. I am in awe of Jesus' sacrifice and that He loves to show God that we belong to Him. I'm going to write "Jesus saves to the uttermost" on my hand and in my journal to remind me that there is nothing too hard for Him.