This post is written by David McLemore as a companion for Unit 26, Session 4 of The Gospel Project for Adults, Volume 9: From Death to Resurrection (Fall 2023).

The 19th-century Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne once wrote: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” ¹ M’Cheyne knew something many Christians today do not. Jesus’s sacrificial work of salvation is finished, but His priestly work of intercession is not. Jesus sits in the heavenly throne room right now praying for His people, interceding on their behalf as their Great High Priest. Jesus is present in your day-to-day life. He sees and knows. He cares and guides. He watches and prays.

That is a weighty truth. Jesus Christ is not a distant God. He draws near to us. He knows our lives on an intimate level. Perhaps that strikes fear in your heart as you consider all the things you wish He couldn’t see, all the thoughts you wish He couldn’t hear. If you trust Jesus with your life, He does not hold those sins against you. His ever-watching eye is not a threat. It is a comfort. Because as Jesus watches, He also prays. As He observes, He also intercedes. When you sin, Jesus is not standing there with an open fist to slap you. He is there with a nail-pierced hand to forgive you.

The priesthood of Jesus is a chronically under-emphasized aspect of the gospel. Without it, how could we ever know the peace that comes from the forgiveness of sins? Jesus offered Himself once and for all, but His intercession is ongoing. When you need the forgiveness of God, you can have it. It does not matter the time or place. It does not matter the measure of the sin. For the Christian, God’s throne is not a throne of judgment but a throne of grace—one that we can approach in our time of need to find grace and mercy for our souls (Hebrews 4:14-15).

That can all sound very theological and abstract, so how does it work out in our lives? Often when we sin, we spend a considerable amount of time working up enough guilt, beating ourselves up enough to feel as if we can approach God with the proper amount of contrition. Now, without sounding flippant, that is just totally unnecessary. Your forgiveness is not based on the severity of your self-flagellation. Your forgiveness is based on the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. It is based on the sufficiency of His sacrifice, and that was a perfect one. The next time you become aware of your sin, you can run straight to God by way of the cleansing blood of Jesus. You can come raw and open, not even put back together yet. He will accept you. He will care for you. He will prove that your sins are forgiven. He will be the priest you need. He lives to do that for you.

1. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, in The Works of Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne: Complete in One Volume (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1874), 138.

David McLemore serves as an elder at Refuge Church in Franklin, Tennessee. He is a regular contributor to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s For the Church website and a staff writer at Gospel-Centered Discipleship.