Home>
Ministries>
The Pastor Nathaniel's Blog>
Pastor Nathaniel's Blog Archive>
Pastor Nathaniel's Blog Archive 2024>
Pastor Nathaniel's Blog June 19, 2024
"How Do You Draw Near to God?"
How do you draw near to God? You've probably heard this question before. And if you've thought about it, you might have come up with several answers: regularly reading your Bible; prayer; doing acts of service; witnessing to people; fasting; helping out in your community; regularly worshiping with a body of believers; discovering and cultivating your spiritual gifts.
These are not bad things. In fact, they're very good things to do, and I want to encourage you to do them! But have you ever considered that, according to the Bible, the primary way we draw near to God is by means of Jesus' humanity? Hebrews 7:19 says, "(For the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God" (NIV). This may seem like an odd verse. After all, it begins with a parenthetical comment. The reason this verse mentions the law in parentheses is that verse 19 is trying to clarify verse 18. In Hebrews 7:18, the law of God is "weak and useless," but that only means that the law can't do what we would like it to do: to make us whole, complete, and perfect. Ironically, this is also the viewpoint of Leviticus: the law of God was never meant to save us or make us holy. It was only designed to point out what God's holiness is, that we need God's holiness, and that only God can make us holy by drawing us to himself. But Hebrews 7:19 gives us an amazing promise: we have a better hope by which we draw near to God!
While this passage doesn't explicitly identify the means by which we draw close to God, this verse does continue the thought of Hebrews 7:16-17 about Jesus being our high priest because of his humanity. Consequently, the better hope we have in Hebrews 7:19 is made possible by the humanity of Jesus. According to Hebrews 7:19, we are able to draw near to God through the humanity of Jesus; any other means to God's presence is sustained only by Jesus' humanity.
Friends, celebrate the fact that Jesus uses his humanity to establish your constant access to God and draw you into his presence.
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
