When I was a kid, my Dad was a doctor. So he would often go visiting people in hospitals and, if we were in the car, he’d take us with him.
I remember walking through hospital wards at all sorts of hours, and there were big scary signs up – ‘Strictly no visitors allowed’. “Dad, we can’t go in there!” And Dad would say, “Bah, nonsense, I’m a doctor, don’t take any notice of that“. Scurrying along these forbidden corridors, I would feel so proud of my Dad’s rebelliousness! But every time I saw a big nurse coming down the corridor, I’d make sure I was right by his side. If anyone challenged me, “What are you doing in here?”, I had my answer ready – “I’m with him, I’m with him!”
Friends, if you are a believer in Jesus, you and I have the great privilege of entering God’s presence. And the only reason sinful people like you and me can enter the presence of an infinitely holy God is because we’re ‘with Him’ – with Jesus. Jesus is our priest. He brings us close to God.
Yet a common problem in many churches is that they are full of timid Christians. Christians who are always going on about how sinful they are, how unworthy they are, how incapable of doing anything for God. They’re too spiritually weak, their Bible reading is too slack, their faith is too small, their knowledge is too pitiful. They don’t feel close to God. They’re always feeling guilty because they’re not doing enough for church or for other people, or they’re not disciplined enough in their Christian lives.
These people are living a half-baptised life. They have accepted that God is infinitely holy, and that their sin is very real. But they have not really embraced the forgiveness Jesus offers, which is far more amazing than they ever dreamed. They’re living a half-baptised life because they have gone under the water, showing their repentance of their sin, but they have never come up to embrace the new life which God offers them, to live in confidence, joy and boldness. They’re just blowing bubbles under the water muddied with their sinfulness, going on and on about their failures instead of God’s forgiveness.
The problem is that they are trusting in their own goodness, trusting in their performance. They feel good when they have been good – and not so good when they have been bad. They have learnt to grovel in their sin; perhaps even learned to enjoy it. (Although at least when you’re grovelling you’re trying to repent of your sin, and that’s something you’re doing right.) But really, this isn’t how God wants us to live. Jesus’ forgiveness is more amazing that we ever dreamed. Jesus is your priest. He makes you look good. You don’t make yourself look good: He does.
At Jesus’ baptism, the Father looked upon His Son and said these words: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. If you are in Jesus, then those words apply to you as well, because Jesus is your priest! God is happy with you, because God is happy with Jesus, and you are in Him.
So don’t be afraid – come out of the dirty water of your former sinful life, and step into all the freedom of being a beloved and forgiven child of God.
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