Introduction
Are you holding tightly to Jesus in your current pressures, or are you quietly loosening your grip and looking for another way to get through life? The central truth you need today is this: because Jesus is our Great High Priest, we have real access to God’s presence and real help for endurance, so we must not let go of our confession.
Hebrews 4:14–16 closes a section that has warned us about drifting, hardening our hearts, and turning back when faith gets costly. The message has been consistent: Jesus is better, so don’t leave the better for the lesser. Now the author gives us a massive reason to persevere: we don’t approach God through a merely human mediator. We come to God through Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest.
Main Points
Are you holding tightly to Jesus in your current pressures, or are you quietly loosening your grip and looking for another way to get through life? The central truth you need today is this: because Jesus is our Great High Priest, we have real access to God’s presence and real help for endurance, so we must not let go of our confession.
Hebrews 4:14–16 closes a section that has warned us about drifting, hardening our hearts, and turning back when faith gets costly. The message has been consistent: Jesus is better, so don’t leave the better for the lesser. Now the author gives us a massive reason to persevere: we don’t approach God through a merely human mediator. We come to God through Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest.
Jesus Is Better, Don’t Go Back
Hebrews has been training us to compare, and then to choose. God spoke through prophets (good), but Jesus is better. Angels served God’s purposes (good), but Jesus is better. Moses led God’s people (good), but Jesus is better. Joshua brought Israel into the land (good), but Jesus is better.
Now we come to the most relational, emotionally loaded comparison for a Jewish audience: the high priest. If access to God has always come through a priest, then what happens when pressure rises? The temptation is to retreat to what feels familiar, manageable, and visible.
But I need you to hear this clearly: when you’re in a crisis of faith, going back is never neutral. To leave Jesus is to leave the better for the lesser. That’s why Hebrews keeps urging us: don’t drift, don’t harden, don’t turn aside, don’t quit. Instead, “let us hold fast our confession” (Heb. 4:14).
Jesus Passed Through the Heavens
Hebrews 4:14 says, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…”
That phrase is not throwaway language. It’s high-priest-and-tabernacle language.
In the tabernacle (and later the temple), there were layers of access:
- Outer court: the people could come near.
- Holy Place: only priests could enter, where the lampstand, incense, and showbread were.
- Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies): behind the veil, where God’s manifest presence was symbolized at the ark. Only the high priest could enter, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement, bringing blood for sin.
That structure preached a sermon: God is holy, we are sinful, and access requires mediation and atonement.
Now Hebrews tells us that Jesus did what those priests only pictured. He didn’t merely walk behind an earthly veil. He passed through the heavens, into the true presence of God, bringing not the blood of an animal but offering Himself. Hebrews 6:19–20 echoes the same vision: our hope “enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus.”
So when you feel far from God, don’t interpret that feeling as reality. If you belong to Christ, your access is not based on mood, performance, or religious connection. Your access is based on where your High Priest has gone, and what your High Priest has done.
The Torn Veil Means Open Access
This is why Good Friday is “good.” Mark 15:37–38 says that when Jesus died, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
That detail matters: from top to bottom, God did it. The message is unmistakable: the barrier to God’s presence has been dealt with by God Himself through the sacrifice of His Son.
The high priest used to go in with fear and blood year after year. But Jesus’ work is not temporary or repetitive. He is the Great High Priest whose sacrifice truly satisfies, whose mediation truly reconciles, and whose access is truly opened.
So I want to disciple you into this confidence: you don’t come to God because you “did well this week.” You don’t stay away because you “failed again.” You come because Jesus’ blood speaks a better word, and the Father receives you on the basis of the Son.
Fully God and Fully Man Mediates Perfectly
Hebrews 4:14 calls Him “Jesus the Son of God.” That title holds together what we desperately need in a mediator: He represents God to us and us to God.
- As the Son of God, He is truly divine, “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3).
- As Jesus (the man from Nazareth), He truly took on our humanity. Hebrews 2:17 says He “had to be made like His brethren… that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest… to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
A merely human priest can sympathize somewhat, but cannot conquer sin or stand spotless before God for you. A distant “deity” could demand obedience but not enter your suffering. In Jesus, God gives you both: the Holy One who can save and the Brother who understands.
So when you’re tempted to believe you need a “more righteous person” to approach God for you, remember: the gospel is not that we found a better religious system. The gospel is that God gave us His Son.
Sympathetic, Yet Sinless, Help in Temptation
Hebrews 4:15 is incredibly personal: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Jesus wasn’t tempted in every modern scenario (He wasn’t battling internet temptation), but He was tempted in every category that matters: weariness, loneliness, betrayal, injustice, misunderstood calling, suffering, and the pull to choose an easier path than obedience. He knows what it is to feel the pressure to quit, and He also knows the path of faithfulness.
This means you never bring a “new” kind of pain to Him. You never reach a kind of weakness He can’t recognize. And you never face a temptation where He cannot give you wise, holy help.
And notice the stunning balance: He sympathizes with you without excusing sin, because He is “without sin.” He doesn’t merely relate; He rescues. He doesn’t merely feel; He leads you into victory.
So when you’re weak, don’t hide. Don’t self-medicate. Don’t harden. Don’t isolate. Bring your weakness to the One who understands weakness perfectly and conquers sin perfectly.
Two Responses: Hold Fast and Draw Near
Hebrews gives you two direct, life-shaping commands in light of Jesus’ priesthood:
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Hold fast your confession (Heb. 4:14). This is endurance language. Stay anchored to what you have confessed about Jesus, who He is, what He has done, and what He is worthy of. When faith feels costly, don’t trade Christ for comfort. Don’t abandon your confession because the road is hard.
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Draw near with confidence (implied in Heb. 4:16 as the passage continues). Jesus doesn’t merely tell you to “try harder.” He gives you access: the “throne of grace,” where you “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” This is the opposite of spiritual paralysis. The Christian response to need is not withdrawal, it’s approach.
So I want you to practice this: when you feel tempted, when you feel accused, when you feel exhausted, say, “Because Jesus is my Great High Priest, I will hold fast and I will draw near.”
Conclusion
Your endurance as a disciple is not powered by willpower alone. Hebrews anchors endurance in a Person: Jesus, the Great High Priest, the One who passed through the heavens, opened the way by His blood, is fully God and fully man, and sympathizes with your weakness while remaining sinless.
So don’t go looking for “access” somewhere else. Don’t leave the better for the lesser. Hold fast your confession. Draw near to God. You are not abandoned in your struggle, you are invited into the presence of God with real mercy and real grace because of who you know: Jesus Christ.
Father, You are holy and we are not. Thank You that You did not leave us separated and hopeless, but sent Your Son to be our Great High Priest. Lord Jesus, thank You for passing through the heavens for us, for offering Yourself once for all, and for opening the way into God’s presence. Teach me to hold fast my confession when faith feels costly. When I am weak and tempted, help me not to hide, but to draw near to Your throne of grace for mercy and timely help. Strengthen my endurance, deepen my trust, and keep my eyes fixed on You as better than everything else. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
Your endurance as a disciple is not powered by willpower alone. Hebrews anchors endurance in a Person: Jesus, the Great High Priest, the One who passed through the heavens, opened the way by His blood, is fully God and fully man, and sympathizes with your weakness while remaining sinless.
So don’t go looking for “access” somewhere else. Don’t leave the better for the lesser. Hold fast your confession. Draw near to God. You are not abandoned in your struggle, you are invited into the presence of God with real mercy and real grace because of who you know: Jesus Christ.
Closing Prayer
Father, You are holy and we are not. Thank You that You did not leave us separated and hopeless, but sent Your Son to be our Great High Priest. Lord Jesus, thank You for passing through the heavens for us, for offering Yourself once for all, and for opening the way into God’s presence. Teach me to hold fast my confession when faith feels costly. When I am weak and tempted, help me not to hide, but to draw near to Your throne of grace for mercy and timely help. Strengthen my endurance, deepen my trust, and keep my eyes fixed on You as better than everything else. In Jesus’ name, amen.