Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Friday after the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Hebrews 4:14—5:14 (NKJV)
 
4:14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 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. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
 
5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. 3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. 4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
 
5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
 
“You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”
 
6 As He also says in another place:
 
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”;
 
7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” 11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
 
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
 
Devotion
 
The humbling of Christ is a profound fact for our trust in His coming, because we know that He came down for our sake. The Lord is not unsympathetic to our struggles, but instead has endured suffering for us that we may know Him.
 
This is why we must hold fast to this confession. Anything that would deter us from boldly coming to the God of grace for our strength must be cast out of our mind. Even our own sins and shortcomings must be dealt with at the Lord’s throne of grace, namely, by receiving His Word and Sacraments. If we neglect this great comfort in Christ, we become spiritually immature and dull. We forget the confession of faith which is given to us graciously by the Lord in our Baptism.
 
Our flesh tells us to flee and trust our own strength when confronted with sin and weakness. The Lord calls us to His throne of grace to repent and daily drown our old Adam by faith that we may stand firm in this confession and grow in maturity with the love of Christ.
 
Prayer: O Lord, we beseech Thee, let Thy continual pity cleanse and defend Thy Church; and because it cannot continue in safety without Thy help, preserve it evermore by Thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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